Relationship,Marketing,Key,For business, insurance Relationship Marketing -- Key For Small Local Business

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Someone wrote me recently and said "I don't think everysmall business has the need nor inclination to sendregular follow up emails." The "no inclination" part I can believe, but no need? Notunless you have all the business you can handle. Otherwiseyou need to collect (opt-in) email addresses at everyopportunity, and use them to establish and buildrelationships with your prospects and customers. The key word in that sentence? Relationships. If you want topromote your local business effectively online, relationshipmarketing is key. WHAT IS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING?Relationship marketing is the act of building closerelationships with existing customers and prospects. It'sabout having an ongoing dialogue with them over a period oftime. It can also include gathering customer informationand analyzing their behavior, but don't let that scare you.You can practice relationship marketing on a small scaleand get plenty of benefits without implementing a full-blown system. You may not have the financial resources of Office Depotor WalMart, but as a small business owner, you can dosomething they can't -- have real person-to-personrelationships with your customers. There are 2 critical components to making this strategywork: a relationship-oriented website and the consistentuse of email to stay in touch. RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED WEBSITE The relationship marketing process starts when a visitorarrives on your website. If you want the relationship toprogress beyond "hello", make sure it's a wonderfulexperience. Invite her in, introduce yourself, and offerrefreshments in the form of free information or somethingequally enticing. At this point you should ask for her email address so youcan send more valuble information in the future. This iscrucial to your success - you must obtain the emailaddress on the first visit. You may not get a secondchance. Once you have the email address, point your visitor towardhelpful resources. A restaurant could offer recipes ordiscount coupons. A plumbing business might offer tips foravoiding costly repairs. A small business site could offera collection of articles. Whatever the business, there'ssome sort of information or gift customers would find useful. Give valuable information freely and don't worry about giving too much away. Give before you get, that's the way of the web.Ideally you'd have the ability to collect informationabout individual customers, but not all small businessescan afford the technology needed to track individualpreferences and provide different experiences based uponthem. If you can't, don't worry about it. But do try tocollect first name at a minimum so you can personalizeemails. What else characterizes a relationship-oriented website? - FAQs: Make it easy for people to find the information they need by providing online help files. Make a note of questions you're asked repeatedly and compile them into a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).- TWO-WAY DIALOGUE: Make it easy for customers to contact you and encourage them to do so; what you want is a two- way dialogue between you and your customer. When in doubt, ask them what they want. They'll tell you. If you find out what your customer wants and become a friend, you will beat most of the competition hands down. And be human - life is in the details.- TIMELY RESPONSE: When your customer does "raise her hand", reward her with a quick response! There's nothing more de-motivating than an unanswered email to someone who claims to want my business. More than once I've purchased a product and written a followup email, only to have it go unanswered. Guess who won't get another dime of my money? - FREQUENT UPDATES: If you want people to visit frequently, you must give them a reason -- new content, a fresh look every how and then, information updates. A website is never finished. - MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE: If you're selling something, you should offer an ironclad "no questions asked" money-back guarantee! Then honor it. Sure, there are jerks out there who will try to rip you off. Consider it a cost of doing business online. - FREE OFFER: And of course the most important thing on the first page and every page is your subscription box with offer of a FREE report or other incentive your customers would value.Above all, show your customers that you're in it for thelong haul, not the quick score. No flashing bannersscreaming "Buy Me!". No pressure to hurry up and buy beforemidnight. Set yourself apart from your competition. Slowand steady wins the race...and builds relationships. CONSISTENT USE OF EMAILIf you are emailing your local customers, sending themoffers, coupons, and useful information about yourbusiness, you are more likely to get their business thansome stranger out in cyberspace. And if you're sending outa newsletter, you'll be light years ahead of all of yourcompetition, local or not! Maybe the idea of having to write a newsletter is thestumbling block. If so, don't call it an ezine and don'tlock yourself into a schedule. But just as you use snailmail, newspaper ads, radio or tv ads to keep your name infront of your customers, you should use email to do thesame thing. And it's a lot cheaper than any other form of advertising, so why on earth wouldn't you? Here are a few ways to use email to create "brand"awareness within your local community.- KEEP IN TOUCH: Email your customers and prospects on a regular basis, at least twice a month. Any less than that and they may forget you. Don't contact them just to sell them something. Send them useful information, related articles, notice of new content on your website, product announcements, etc. Your goal is to keep in touch so that if they or someone they know needs your product or service, you'll be the one they call.- SUPPORT: When customers purchase a product or service, use email to help them get the most out of it. For a book or publication, it could be an email "walkthru" series highlighting important topics, or telling them what they would learn if they'd only read it! - JOINT VENTURES: If at all possible, you should do joint ventures with neighboring businesses. Band together with several other (non-competing) businesses and form a coupon exchange. Every week or two, each of you send the same email to your customer list, with email coupons for each business, or a link to a web page with the coupons.- TIMELY RESPONSE: When your customer does "raise her hand", reward her with a quick response! There's nothing more de-motivating than an unanswered email to someone who claims to want my business. More than once I've purchased a product and written a followup email, only to have it go unanswered. Guess who won't get another dime of my money? I know all of this sounds like an awful lot of work, and Iwon't lie to you...relationship marketing is timeconsumingand can be hard work. If it were easy, everybody would bedoing it. Building a website that focuses on the customer takes morethought than slapping up an ego site (all about you).Maintaining a mailing list can be a real pain.Unsubscribing people who can't seem to read. Potential spamcomplaints. Answering subscriber questions. Responding tofeedback or inquuiries. It's so much easier to forget the whole thing, which iswhat most people do. On the internet, if you want to riseabove the clutter, you must do something to distinguishyourself from the masses. You must be willing to do whatothers are not willing to do. For a small business, thatmeans relationship marketing.=========================================Sharon Fling is the author of "How To Promote Your Local Business On the Internet", and publisher of "Local Business Today", an ezine that gives business owners tips, tools and resources for targeting local customers. Subscribe today and get a free ebook information, visit http://www.geolocal.com or send any email to: mailto:[email protected]?subject=TRAART Article Tags: Relationship Marketing, Local Business, Small Business, Relationship-oriented Website