The Roadmap to Relationship Marketing
How technology can help you build stronger relationships, win more marketshare, and get more bang for your buck in a fast-changing marketing environment
Whether you are running relationship marketing programs today, or have a real need to start, we've designed a workbook to take out the guesswork and save you time. We'll walk you step-by-step on how to make relationship marketing really impact your business. And feel free to use the workbook even if you just need to polish up a couple of areas.
The territory is changing and no one's putting up street signs
If you're reading this, you already know that the healthcare industry is in what you might politely call "a period of extreme business transformation". This new environment probably looks familiar to you: There are so many great ways to reach customers, thanks to the explosion of new media, channel and device options. But how do you know which ones, and what combination, will best reach different customer types? Customers are more informed, more empowered and therefore more discerning and elusive than ever. Good for them! But this means your marketing must work that much harder to satisfy them and keep them in your franchise. Social media has revved up word-of-mouth dynamics. These days, every single customer interaction with a brand not only affects that one customer's lifetime of purchases, but also those of that customer's ever-widening sphere of influence. And of course, there are always budget issues. Virtually every marketer is running up against far more stringent financial pressures, no matter the size of the brand or market.
What is Relationship Marketing all about?
It's about knowledge. Relationships start when you get to know your customers on a personal, in-depth level and let them get to know you, so that you build trust in each other and are wiling to do things for each other. It's about reciprocity. All good relationships are built on reciprocity. When you provide products, services and offers that customers value, they are motivated to engage more with your brand and behave how you want. And it's about growth. Relationships that grow and get stronger over time lead to greater revenue and higher profits often in completely predictable and controllable ways."
Why do you need Relationship Marketing?
Relationship Marketing advocates knowing your customers. Who they are and how they act, in different channels at different points in time, and using this knowledge to make marketing, sales or customer support decisions. When leveraged strategically and consistently over time, Relationship Marketing efforts will create strong bonds between your brand and your customers. Bonds so strong that customers are willing to stay with your brand, no matter what.
Are you an Informed Marketer?
An Informed Marketer™ is someone who knows and relies on the strategic importance of information for their Relationship Marketing efforts. They manage information as a critical business asset. They have access to information about customers and customer interactions right on their desktops. They develop marketing insights in real time. And they use this understanding to determine what to do next to strengthen their communications, solidify customer relationships, and drive real business results. To the Informed Marketer, learning and marketing is an ongoing process. They continually test, learn and fine-tune their marketing mix to yield a profitably sustainable marketing ecosystem.
Every relationship takes work
We'll be honest. Relationship Marketing is not easy. It's multi-discipline, cross-channel, and long-term. It relies on standout creative, excellent data and analytics, and a sturdy technology platform. Your organization may not be equipped for it, or you may not know how to do it. That's why we created The Roadmap to Relationship Marketing. It will show you the way to building solid, sustainable relationships with your most valuable customers, resulting in growth of top-line sales and competitive market share.
TEN STEPS TOWARD BUILDING HIGH-VALUE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
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Create Organizational Support You don't have to do this alone! |
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Understand the Business Situation Before you start out, get the lay of the land. |
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Integrate your Data to Improve Customer Awareness Decide who your customers are and really get to know them. |
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Set Relationship Marketing Vision What do you want to get out of the relationship? |
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Design Relationship Marketing Communications Time to get the creative juices flowing. |
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Plan Channel Mix Looking for customers in all the right places. |
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Create Operational Support for Relationship Marketing Technology and process: Two things that sound intimidating but don't have to be. |
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Launch the Program Lights, camera, action! |
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Measure Performance in Real Time You can't manage what you don't measure. |
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Implement Learning Turn measures into insight, insight into action and action into outcomes. |