December 4, 2022 | Posted in Branding, Business, Design, Digital, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Loyalty, Marketing | By

Businesses of all types have a greater need to connect with their customers than ever before. When a company’s primary business is digital, it can leverage the power of social media to engage directly with consumers and build trust at an almost instant pace. However, this isn’t the case for businesses that aren’t yet established digital brands.

This means that in order to grow a business and achieve success, companies will need to start implementing marketing strategies that target specific groups of potential customers. This can be done as engagement marketing or relationship marketing.

Engagement marketing is useful for businesses looking to validate hypotheses about whether a product or service has demand and getting in touch with customers who are interested in your niche but not ready to buy from you yet.

It can also be useful for businesses looking to expand the audience for advertising messages and increasing conversions through calls-to-action on display ads.

What is relationship marketing?

Relationship marketing is the process of engaging with customers through various touch points such as email, social media posts, in-store signage and other channels. Customers are often referred to as leads or leads, while businesses are referred to as marketing partners. The goal of this type of marketing is to foster a relationship with your customers and build trust with them so they’re more likely to buy from you in the future.
Why is it necessary for businesses to engage in relationship marketing?
Businesses have an increased need to connect with customers with a greater reliance on digital channels for growth. With a more fragmented consumer marketplace, consumers now expect to be able to connect with brands through a variety of touch points. This has created a challenge for many businesses, who may need to develop new strategies to reach prospective customers.

How engagement marketing works

Engagement marketing is all about building trust between businesses and their customers. Engagement marketing relies on many forms of inbound marketing like email, social media posts, and in-store signage. Businesses will typically create a lead magnet which is an email series that helps customers get to know the business as well as their buying process. Next, they’ll engage with customers with social media posts like Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and Pinterest ads. They’ll also use their in-store signage to communicate with consumers.

B2C relationship marketing: how to reach decision makers

Businesses that want to build lasting relationships with their customers need to focus on reaching decision makers. This is the core of B2C relationship marketing. The decision maker is the person who ultimately decides whether they’ll buy your product or service. This person has a high level of interest in your products, has a high level of need, and is ready and willing to buy from you. Ideally, you want to build a relationship with the person before they make a purchase. That’s why B2C relationship marketing is so effective. B2C relationship marketing focuses on two key areas: building and nurturing relationships with key decision makers, and leveraging the power of referrals.

What are the benefits of B2C relationship marketing?

  • Higher quality leads: B2C relationship marketing is more likely to lead to quality leads than other forms of inbound marketing, like SEM, since it leverages all of a business’s channels to connect with potential customers.
  • Higher conversion rates: B2C relationship marketing is effective at driving conversions through calls-to-action on display ads, which is the most common form of advertising. B2C relationship marketing is also effective at getting leads to take action, like signing up for a lead nurturing course, by leveraging the power of referrals.
  • Higher ROI: B2C relationship marketing is more effective at generating ROI than other forms of digital marketing, like paid advertising. B2C relationship marketing is also more likely to result in brand-new customers.

Conclusion

Businesses are always looking for new ways to connect with their customers. Engagement and relationship marketing are two of the most effective ways to reach out to your target market. Engagement marketing is useful for validating hypotheses about whether a product or service has demand, while relationship marketing is useful for building trust with your customers and converting them into paying customers.

More about Bernie…

Senior Director, Consumer Media Group at Confluent Health – Growth marketing focus on brand awareness, interest and new patient acquisition to our 44+ partner brands and 530+ locations across the US. Accountable for driving yearly business results supported by our consumer strategy and direct-to-consumer roadmaps. The Media team is responsible for owned and paid media as it relates to performance marketing, campaign management, partnerships, website development & support, search engine optimization, relationship marketing, Yext (Google My Business) support, recruiting, email marketing and supporting our partners at the local level.

Chief Cheese – Strategy & Engagement at B2The7 – Helping brands Reach, Retain & Regain customers with Omni-Channel data-driven strategies and tactics that focus on increasing sales, transactions, comps and customer engagement.

B2The7 Photography – Sharing experiences with photography: nature, landscapes, sunsets, flowers, animals and more.

Helping job seekers & recruiters daily…Founder of Careerbarn.com – Bringing jobseekers and employers together since 2000.