Marketing Strategies for Building Customer Relations
Marketing Strategies for Building Customer Relations
This article gives four important strategies for understanding your customers and building their trust and confidence.
Strategy #1: Your Customer’s Goals Come Before Yours
The only successful way to approach a potential customer is with the honest desire to understand their problems and needs. The days of the “hard sell” are over. Customers have the ability, via the Web, to control the information that comes to them.
To ensure your customer’s goals are met, you simply need to repurpose your main marketing message, also known as your Value Proposition. Instead of placing the focus on selling, explain how your product or service will make your customer’s lives better. Prove it through 3rd party testimonials, free downloadable product guides, tip sheets, and content-based newsletters.
What’s wrong with placing the focus on selling? Absolutely nothing! As a business owner, your ultimate goal is to sell. But you can’t sell unless you first warm up the prospect by showing them directly how they will benefit from your offering.
Strategy #2: Define Your Buyer Personas
The best way to truly understand the wants and needs of your customers is to create your Buyer Personas. A Buyer Persona is a segment of customers or prospects that share similar demographics and interests.
Maybe you have heard of the Soccer Mom or the NASCAR Dad. While these well-known buyer personas may seem almost cartoonish, keep in mind that they were specifically marketed to by both the Republicans and the Democrats in past elections.
The key to defining your buyer personas is to look at your customer data and find ways to group common characteristics. Break your customers down into well defined buying categories as best you can. You don't have to be perfect here, just do the best job with the current data you have. Buyer persona profiles can contain age, gender, income level, occupation, education level, hobbies, and anything else that is meaningful to your business.
Strategy #3: Define Your Unique Value Proposition
Defining your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is the first step in clearly identifying how your products and services are different from the competition. If you can't define some unique feature or benefit that makes you stand out, your customers may default to the only other option - price.
You might already have something that makes you stand apart, but if not, then it's time to discover, define, and create a value proposition from scratch. Be prepared to alter some of your products or services in order to support your vision for standing out.
The first step in creating a unique value proposition is to find out what your competitors do well and then find a way to either do it better, or offer a guarantee that puts you on a completely different level.
Here are a few ways to better understand your competition.
1. Buy from them. This is one of the best ways to determine how well your competition performs from start to finish.
2. Sign up for their newsletter. What types of information are they providing to their customers? Are they offering real value in their newsletter or are they simply pushing their products?
3. Request your competitor’s brochures and catalogs. Does your competitor offer a full year warranty? See if it makes sense for you to offer a 2-year warranty. Your competitor offers a 90-day money-back guarantee? Offer a double money-back guarantee.
Defining your Unique Value Proposition helps set you apart from the competition and communicates your compelling value to prospects and customers.
Strategy #4: Create a Marketing Communications Folder
When a prospect shows interest in your business, what do you give them in order to further develop trust and confidence?
You should be sending them a complete marketing communications folder. I recommend a basic two-pocket folder that has notches on one of the inside pockets for your business card.
Here’s what I recommend you include in your folder.
1. The Compelling Story – Every small business owner should be able to tell a compelling story about their passions and why they started their business. A great story about why you started your business can create instant trust. Try and craft your story so that it appeals to the emotions, is fun to read, and provides a sense of passion.
2. The Business Advantage - On this page, you will want to summarize all the advantages of doing business with your company. Communicate your unique approach, the value customers get when they do business with you, and why your products and services are the best in your field.
3. The Problem Solver - This page should summarize several specific problems and demonstrate how these problems are alleviated with your products and services.
4. The Product/Services Summary Page - Nothing difficult here – simply summarize the various products, services, and package options you offer and list the benefits of each. Use bullet points to quickly summarize benefits.
5. The Testimonial Page - This is the page that summarizes your best customer testimonials. A testimonial is proof that you have a track record of delivering what you promise. Make sure each testimonial focuses on the specific result that was achieved to help the customer with their problem.
Feel free to add other things into your marketing communications folder, but the above items are mandatory.
Taken together, these four basic marketing strategies will help you create the trust and desire necessary to convert your prospects into paying customers!
Marketing Strategies for Building Customer Relations - To learn more about this author, visit Corte Swearingen's Website.
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As business owners, we all want to sell more of our products and services to new and existing customers. But before we can achieve this goal, it is imperative to understand a few basic marketing strategies for creating interest, trust and desire.
This article gives four important strategies for understanding your customers and building their trust and confidence.
Strategy #1: Your Customer’s Goals Come Before Yours
The only successful way to approach a potential customer is with the honest desire to understand their problems and needs. The days of the “hard sell” are over. Customers have the ability, via the Web, to control the information that comes to them.
To ensure your customer’s goals are met, you simply need to repurpose your main marketing message, also known as your Value Proposition. Instead of placing the focus on selling, explain how your product or service will make your customer’s lives better. Prove it through 3rd party testimonials, free downloadable product guides, tip sheets, and content-based newsletters.
What’s wrong with placing the focus on selling? Absolutely nothing! As a business owner, your ultimate goal is to sell. But you can’t sell unless you first warm up the prospect by showing them directly how they will benefit from your offering.
Strategy #2: Define Your Buyer Personas
The best way to truly understand the wants and needs of your customers is to create your Buyer Personas. A Buyer Persona is a segment of customers or prospects that share similar demographics and interests.
Maybe you have heard of the Soccer Mom or the NASCAR Dad. While these well-known buyer personas may seem almost cartoonish, keep in mind that they were specifically marketed to by both the Republicans and the Democrats in past elections.
The key to defining your buyer personas is to look at your customer data and find ways to group common characteristics. Break your customers down into well defined buying categories as best you can. You don't have to be perfect here, just do the best job with the current data you have. Buyer persona profiles can contain age, gender, income level, occupation, education level, hobbies, and anything else that is meaningful to your business.
Strategy #3: Define Your Unique Value Proposition
Defining your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is the first step in clearly identifying how your products and services are different from the competition. If you can't define some unique feature or benefit that makes you stand out, your customers may default to the only other option - price.
You might already have something that makes you stand apart, but if not, then it's time to discover, define, and create a value proposition from scratch. Be prepared to alter some of your products or services in order to support your vision for standing out.
The first step in creating a unique value proposition is to find out what your competitors do well and then find a way to either do it better, or offer a guarantee that puts you on a completely different level.
Here are a few ways to better understand your competition.
1. Buy from them. This is one of the best ways to determine how well your competition performs from start to finish.
2. Sign up for their newsletter. What types of information are they providing to their customers? Are they offering real value in their newsletter or are they simply pushing their products?
3. Request your competitor’s brochures and catalogs. Does your competitor offer a full year warranty? See if it makes sense for you to offer a 2-year warranty. Your competitor offers a 90-day money-back guarantee? Offer a double money-back guarantee.
Defining your Unique Value Proposition helps set you apart from the competition and communicates your compelling value to prospects and customers.
Strategy #4: Create a Marketing Communications Folder
When a prospect shows interest in your business, what do you give them in order to further develop trust and confidence?
You should be sending them a complete marketing communications folder. I recommend a basic two-pocket folder that has notches on one of the inside pockets for your business card.
Here’s what I recommend you include in your folder.
1. The Compelling Story – Every small business owner should be able to tell a compelling story about their passions and why they started their business. A great story about why you started your business can create instant trust. Try and craft your story so that it appeals to the emotions, is fun to read, and provides a sense of passion.
2. The Business Advantage - On this page, you will want to summarize all the advantages of doing business with your company. Communicate your unique approach, the value customers get when they do business with you, and why your products and services are the best in your field.
3. The Problem Solver - This page should summarize several specific problems and demonstrate how these problems are alleviated with your products and services.
4. The Product/Services Summary Page - Nothing difficult here – simply summarize the various products, services, and package options you offer and list the benefits of each. Use bullet points to quickly summarize benefits.
5. The Testimonial Page - This is the page that summarizes your best customer testimonials. A testimonial is proof that you have a track record of delivering what you promise. Make sure each testimonial focuses on the specific result that was achieved to help the customer with their problem.
Feel free to add other things into your marketing communications folder, but the above items are mandatory.
Taken together, these four basic marketing strategies will help you create the trust and desire necessary to convert your prospects into paying customers!
Marketing Strategies for Building Customer Relations - To learn more about this author, visit Corte Swearingen's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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