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How To Succeed On Relationship Marketing

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How To Succeed On Relationship Marketing

 

Relationship Marketing is targeted at building stronger and long lasting relationships with clients and other companies. The business is done with a strategic orientation, where the relationship is improved with existing customers rather than finding new customers. It is meant to cater to the needs of individual customers. Its major part involves studying the need of the customer and how it changes in different circumstances.

Relationship marketing applies techniques like marketing, sales, customer care and communication. The relationship is not only enhanced but its life period is increased by these strategies. And as the customer realizes the value of relationship, they are drawn closer. This marketing not only focuses on building relationship and attracting customers to their products and services but also how to retain them.

A raw form of Marketing came into existence in the 1960s. But, organizations were still facing difficulty in selling products, so a system was developed to sell low cost goods to larger group of customer. Leonard Berry and Jag Sheth originated this marketing, in 1982. It was started in B2B markets and industries, which involved long term contracts for many years. Over the period of time, various marketing strategies were improved and relationship marketing was one of them.

Relationship marketing is applicable where the customers have many options in the market for the same product or service and the customer is entitled to make a selection decision. In such a kind of market, businesses try to maintain their clients by providing comparatively better products and good service and hence, achieving customer loyalty. And once it is achieved it becomes difficult for competitors to do well in the market. The customer turnover wasn’t paid attention on as the main attention was on customer satisfaction. This kind of marketing was initially named as defensive marketing. Offensive marketing is the marketing strategy where not only new customers are attracted, but also the sales are stepped up by increasing the purchase frequency. This kind of marketing concentrates on freeing dissatisfied customers and acquiring new customers.

According to a research, the cost of retaining an old customer is only ten percent of the cost of getting a new customer, which makes sense to not to run around to get new customers in relationship marketing. And according to another research done by cross-sectional analysis, says that, a five percent improvement in customer retention is responsible for twenty-five to eighty-five percent of the profit. Usually high cost is incurred when getting new customers, so if sufficient number of existing customers is retained, there will be no need of acquiring new customers.

Once the customer trust is gained his chances of switching to other company becomes relatively less, he buys goods in bulk, he buys other supplementary goods and he starts neglecting average price variation. This maintains the unit sales volume and there is an increase in dollar-sales volume. The existing customers will be like a living advertisement. If he is satisfied with the company he will recommend it to his friends and acquaintances.

Since the existing customers are familiar with the process, it will take less time and money to educate them about the procedures putting fewer burdens on employees also and making them feel more satisfied with their jobs. The customers are divided into groups based on their loyalty. This procedure is known as relationship ladder of customer loyalty. The groups in ascending order are prospects, customer, client, supporter, advocate and partner.

Due to the advancement in computers and Internet, software has been developed to facilitate customer relationship management. With the help of this software the tastes, activities, preferences, and complaints of customers are tracked. Almost all the companies have this software in their marketing strategy, which benefits the customer as well as the company.

Thus the main aim of relationship marketing is to construct and maintain relationship with committed clients who are meant to bring profit to the company. The other benefits achieved are confidence building and social benefits.

Why Email Marketing Is Not Enough For Your Business

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Why Email Marketing Is Not Enough For Your Business

 

If you have already entered the world of email marketing you likely already realize the potential this type of marketing has to offer. However, you also likely realize it is not reasonable to expect your business to thrive if email marketing is the only marketing strategy you choose to utilize. This is not unusual as most businesses do not typically have a great deal of success unless they make the decision to incorporate more than one type of marketing into their overall marketing strategy. This article will examine a few other types of Internet marketing which may be used in conjunction with email marketing.

Email marketing in itself can be very effective. It may include sending out mass emails, distributing e-newsletters and even offering correspondence courses via email. Implementing only one of these email marketing strategies may resulting a small increase in either website traffic or sales but implementing more than one strategy at a time can create a more pronounced effect.

Similarly it is definitely worthwhile to incorporate other types of Internet marketing into promoting your business online if you are not already doing so. This can help you to enjoy a greater degree of success if you apply the strategies correctly. Some of the other types of marketing strategies you may wish to employ include placing banner ads, participating in industry related message boards and starting an affiliate program.

Of the other types of Internet marketing available, placing banner ads may be the most expensive option. In many cases your business will have to pay another website for the privilege of placing your banner ad on their website. Choosing a website which sells products which complement, without competing, for your business is worthwhile. However, there are some free options for banner ads including exchanges. However, you may be required to place more than one banner ad on your website for each time your banner ad appears on another lineup. Additionally, with this type of agreement you may not be able to control the type of website which displays your banner ad. For this reason it is worthwhile to pay for ad space so you can have more control over where your banner ads are displayed.

Participating in industry related forums can be another way to promote your business online. Message boards are online meeting places where individuals who share an interest can get together to discuss their interests as well as pertinent issues. They can also ask and answer questions. Most message boards allow users to place a link to their website in their signature line. If you regularly participate on an industry related message board and include a signature line with a link to your website you can reach a high concentration of members of your target audience. When using message boards to promote your business it is important to follow all message board guidelines and to avoid techniques which may be deemed as spam such as posting your link when it is not appropriate.

Affiliate marketing programs are another type of online marketing which can be used in conjunction with email marketing. Affiliate marketing involves allowing website owners to place advertisements for your business on their website. These website owners are known as affiliates. Each time one of their advertisements causes an Internet user to click through the advertisement or purchase an item the affiliate is compensated. This compensation schedule makes affiliate marketing incredibly cost effective. Essentially you do not pay your affiliates unless the advertising generates a specific reaction form Internet users such as making a purchase or generating website traffic. The amount of compensation should be determined beforehand and may be based on a flat fee or a percentage of the sale. Business owners have to embed code into the affiliate ads to determine which ads are generating profit or traffic so they know which affiliates to compensate but this information is also useful for determining which advertisements are most effective. This information can be used to fine tune the marketing effort.

The Impact of Colors in Advertisements

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The Impact of Colors in Advertisements
Photo by mripp

Human brain receives signals faster through eyes rather than ears. Visual appearance is supposed to be more appealing when compared to any other senses, no matter what the medium of presentation is. So, there are methods by which one can increase the visual appeal. Other senses facilitate visual appeal, and are also important to concentrate on.

Typical example is color when accompanied with audio, and writing. According to a study, big budget companies spend billions in the color market research, which helps in product and packaging development. Color, along with content, helps to pertain the interest of the visitor and makes him surf the website longer. A colorful article will make the reader read it till the end. Color makes things look more amiable.

Colors are known to influence the behavior of a person. Like blue color is said to have a relaxing effect. Red represents passion and love. A dating website can have red as the background color. Fast food restaurants have bright picture of food beautifully decorated pasted on the walls. This tempts the taste buds of the customer and the customer pounces on the food, eats and leaves quickly. And this is exactly the reaction expected.

Light effects can also be used to play with the mind of the on-looker. Advertisements, especially for food products, have strategically placed lights. The light effects trigger the hormones in the brain, which increases the hunger. If the same is placed in a slightly dim light, it won’t be equally tempting.

Countries around the world have different cultures that relate a color to an occasion or emotion. Climatic conditions also attribute to this. Like in America, people relate black to death and where as in Asia, white is related to death. People living near the equator like warm colors and people living nearer to the poles like cold colors.

It’s a must for an advertiser to have the knowledge about the colors and what they refer too. Black stands for elegance, sophistication, seduction and mystery. White stands for peace, pure, clean, mild and youthful. Gold stands for prestige, luxury and elite. Silver stands for prestige, scientific and cold. Yellow stands for warmth, happiness and cheer. Orange stands for warmth, playfulness, and vibrant. Red stands for love, excitement, strength, passion, and danger. Pink stands for nurture, sweet, soft, and security. Green stands for nature, fresh, fertility and abundance. Blue stands for cool, trust, belonging and reliability. And lastly Purple stands for spiritual, royalty, and dignity.

From the advertiser’s point of view, we can conclude that colors can determine the shopping habits of customers. Black, blue, red and orange attract impulsive buyers. Smart shoppers are attracted to pink, light blue and navy blue colors. Companies use colors in logo, advertisement, etc., to pass the right message to the customer. Wal-Mart advertise has a navy blue background and its catch line is “We sell for less”, which means smart customers are their goal. Mercedes has a silver logo, true to its class.

Before designing an advertisement, the targeted customers should be recognized and the advertisers shouldn’t use the colors that are their personal favorites but according to the ad campaign. Advertisement for children should have bright and vibrant colors. Yellow, red, blue and green, which are the primary colors, are the colors, which attract the children, which is why parents buy those colors for their kids. These colors represent warmth, sweetness, trust, reliability, playfulness and security.