Relationship Marketing 101:

How To Put an Iron Fence Around Your Clients and Watch Your Profits Soar!

Most business owners know in their heads that the very best customers are the ones that already KNOW – LIKE and TRUST you – i.e. your current and past clients.  If they have already crossed the barrier of fear, taken the plunge and bought from you AND like the experience then you would think that they are far more likely to use your services again.  Right?

Well MAYBE?!?!?

But there are two very real problems that most businesses don’t often consider with this line of thinking that is causing you to LOSE a staggering amount of EASY money to your competitors IF you think that way as well.

They are:

1. Do you know – FOR SURE – how many past customers actually even remember your company’s name or how well they actually liked the service experience they received from you?  Heck do they even know or remember what other products or services they could purchase from you?
2. When it is time for them to purchase again, have you built a strong enough connection and relationship with your past customers that you can be sure they are going to purchase from you without asking around their friend and family or calling your competitors first?

The fact is, if you surveyed your past customers I think you would be shocked to learn how many have forgotten about you or worse, have become indifferent on the experience they had when they did purchase from you.

In either case a large majority of your hard earned customers are ripe for the picking by your competitors – RIGHT NOW – if you aren’t focusing on relationship marketing and taking steps to properly nurture your client relationships.  You see, what you actually want is the relationship you have with your customers to grow over time so that you become their only go to source for their repeat business and referrals in your category.

AND don’t fool yourself into believing that your fridge magnet (which is one of dozens that are holding little Susie’s art masterpieces on the fridge) or the overly promotional, discount offering, postcard you send a few times a year is even loosely considered relationship marketing or actually has you “top of mind”.  When that last minute need arises or the coworker casually mentions she’s got a concern that one of your products or services can solve, you’re not like the first or only solution that pops into mind of your past customers.

Sorry if the truth is harsh but you’re just not that important to take up that kind of mental real-estate in your customers’ cerebral grey matter. Sure there will always be a small percentage of raving fan clients that will purchase from you and refer you no matter what BUT a large majority of your past customers simply won’t automatically think of you when the need or subject comes up.

Nope, to be “let in” to that area of the memory know as friend and trusted adviser you need to be favorably in their conscious awareness far more often in a way that is adding value – and not just as someone who is simply pitching their wares. This is something that ONLY effective relationship marketing can help you to achieve.

Being in regular and frequent contact with your customers in a meaningful way is known as “Building Your Fence.”

And just like on a farm, your fence is designed to keep your clients and customers in and the hungry wolves out.  And in today’s economic reality, the wolves are not just your competitors who are trying to steal your customers, it is also any other company that is targeting the same DOLLARS that your customer uses to buy your product or service.

To remain strong and effective, a fence must be well cared for. When you’re not in regular and frequent contact with your customers and clients, your fence starts to deteriorate, it starts to sag and becomes weaker and you WILL lose customers – along with all the future PROFITS and REFERRALS associated with those lost customers.

Can you REALLY afford to avoid utilizing proven relationship marketing practices and expect to remain in business for the long haul?

My mentors, marketing genius Dan Kennedy, actually coined the phrase “fence building.” One of the best pieces of marketing advice comes from Kennedy’s book, No B.S. Direct Marketing.

“My single biggest recommendation is the use of a monthly customer newsletter. Nothing, and I mean nothing, maintains your fence better.”

You own it to yourself to commit right now to starting (or restarting) your monthly print newsletter. Yes, I said print newsletter! In this digital age of email overload and junk mail filters a print newsletter has the appeal, traction and “pass-around-ability” (that’s my new word) that an enewsletter just can’t. And dollar for dollar, newsletters are the most effective relationship marketing tool available for ANY small business – and they are the backbone that many thriving and successful local businesses have built their ongoing successes upon.

Every time you mail your monthly newsletter you make your fence stronger. As your fence gets stronger your profits go up, it’s that simple!

And that is what good, solid relationship marketing is all about.

To learn exactly how to use newsletter in your relationship marketing – or remind yourself how you can do it better, cheaper and easier – download our free gift called “Insider Secrets to Effective Newsletter Marketing” right away.

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