Relationship strategy: a winning bet for both company and customer
Relationship strategy... the new paradigm for effectively addressing your offer to prospects and customers?
Today, customer relationship management and user-centric marketing strategies are more relevant than ever. The reason: digital transformation, which has profoundly altered the balance of power. Consumers are becoming increasingly autonomous in their search for the product or service best suited to their needs.
In this context, it's no longer enough to offer quality at the right price. You have to go further! That's where relational strategy comes in.
What exactly is it? What are the advantages and challenges associated with this new way of thinking about sales and marketing? And above all, what best practices and tools can you deploy to achieve your sales objectives?
Definition of relationship strategy
What is a relationship strategy?
Relationship strategy, closely linked to relationship marketing, is defined as a customer-oriented approach. The aim? To support the customer throughout the purchasing process, by targeting and personalizing actions as far as possible.
This new way of selling has emerged with the economic changes inherent in the digitalization of society. Thanks to the development of the web, Internet users :
- access an incredible amount of information in just a few clicks, compare opinions and prices, etc. ;
- express their opinions on the brands and products they consume.
This means building and maintaining a privileged , personalized relationship with customers... the opposite of the old transactional marketing and mass communication.
What are the benefits for the company?
Stand out from the competition
A relationship strategy is first and foremost about setting yourself apart from the competition through a memorable customer experience and brand image. Markets are increasingly saturated, and in some sectors there is a real price war.... in this context, enriching the relationship established with the consumer helps to anchor your brand in his or her mind.
Long-term customer relationships
Unlike transactional marketing, which is more short-termist, relational strategy helps to build a lasting relationship. What are the benefits for your company?
- Profitability: retaining a customer costs five times less than acquiring a new one. What's more, customer retention ensures more recurrent purchases.
- Brand awareness: a loyal customer is a satisfied customer, and therefore a potential ambassador for your brand, willing to promote you to their network.
Increase sales
Ultimately, the main benefit of a relational strategy lies in increasing your sales. We've already mentioned the good ROI associated with retaining new customers.
What's more, targeted actions via appropriate communication channels are less expensive than mass advertising campaigns... and often more profitable!
The challenges of relational strategy
Earning your prospects' trust...
A relationship marketing strategy focuses not only on the customer, but also on the prospect. That's why it aims first and foremost to establish a link with your contacts before sending them a sales proposal. If they know you, trust you, adhere to your values... then they'll be more inclined to buy.
... and nurturing customer relations...
To establish a good relationship with your customers, you need to get to know them and understand their needs. In short, they need to feel unique in your eyes, and benefit from exclusive experiences.
... to build long-term loyalty
Developing a special relationship between you and your prospects and customers is one of the keys to loyalty, and therefore to the success of your relationship strategy. This must be done :
- through all the interactions and contact points that link them to your brand,
- and in a perfectly structured way,
Which relationship marketing method should you use? Focus on 6 best practices
1. Adopt a lead nurturing strategy
Since relationship marketing also means focusing on your prospects, consider lead nurturing.
Once a visitor has made contact with you (via a Facebook ad, for example), you need to "nurture" them with targeted content (white papers, newsletters, webinars, etc.) based on their position in the buying journey. In this way, you match their progress by sending them communication tailored to their degree of maturity in relation to their purchasing decision.
💡 Lead scoring is a good way of gauging a prospect 's interest in your brand and qualifying them to determine what actions to deploy towards them.
2. Optimize your database
Getting to know your prospects and customers is essential to sending them the right message at the right time. That's why you need to enrich and optimize your database:
- 💡 Collect as much information as possible. A newsletter subscription, a contact form, a white paper to download... are all opportunities to obtain valuable information about your prospects and customers, their profile, their needs, etc.
- 💡 S egment your database. You can segment your database in a number of ways:
- on socio-demographic criteria: for example, one part of your offer may be aimed primarily at a young population, while another is more senior-oriented.
- customer typologies: depending on their background and aspirations, some customers may be more interested in a particular segment of your catalog (organic products, for example).
- RFM segmentation, for recency, frequency and value of purchases.
Once you've established these groups, you'll be able to target your actions as precisely as possible.
3. Work on your communication
When you're getting down to the nitty-gritty of operations, you need to put your customer knowledge into practice, so that you can deliver messages that hit the bull's-eye. You're talking to people, not numbers in a database!
A few tips:
- Emphasize the quality of your content.
- Provide information tailored to your contact's situation in the customer journey. For example, if a prospect is not sufficiently mature in his purchasing decision, "educate" him further before sending more transactional messages.
- Convey memorable emotions. Why not play the humor card, for example, if your market and targets allow it?
- Stay human and don't talk like a robot. In other words, add soul to your content by positioning yourself as a person, not a company.
- Personalize your messages. Why not address customers by their first name, for example?
4. Take care of every interaction between your brand and the customer
A relationship strategy doesn't stop with marketing campaigns. Every customer must feel at the heart of your priorities, at every interaction with your company (after-sales service, point of sale, etc.).
In short, all your brand's representatives must remain aligned with the same objective of customer satisfaction. After all, a single bad experience can jeopardize your relationship with a consumer, and therefore their act of purchase or repurchase.
5. Measure your successes and failures
Evaluate what works and what doesn't in your relationship strategy, using KPIs. In this way, you'll gain a better understanding of your customers' or potential customers ' behaviors to ensure your chances of success, as well as the best ROI.
💡 There are many possible KPIs. The churn rate, for example, which measures the loss of customers or subscribers, is a good indicator of customer satisfaction.
6. Maintain the relationship
Customer care and loyalty are an integral part of any relationship strategy. So don't stop after the first purchase. Remain attentive :
- by rewarding your customers ;
- by thanking them for a new purchase, for example;
- by proposing exclusive offers;
- by sending them relevant information about your brand according to their profile and expectations, etc.
Relationship strategy: an example of a winning strategy
The Veepee site, formerly known as Ventes-Privées, has focused on relationship strategy. In fact, it has been voted "best customer service of the year" for the past eight years.
The key? Ensuring that the virtual world is not a barrier to proximity. While many new advisors have been recruited, the brand has above all succeeded in humanizing its communications thanks to its muse Cécile de Rostand, a virtual character created to become the preferred contact for customers. Emails, official communications, exchanges on social networks... are all established in her name.
Relationship marketing tools
To apply the best practices mentioned above, you need to use specific tools, most of which are available in SaaS mode.
CRM tools
From pre-sales through to customer loyalty, CRM software enables you to track customer progress at every stage of their lifecycle, while placing relationship management at the heart of your strategy.
In particular, this tool makes it possible to personalize communication with each contact, by collecting information about them (contact details, preferences, history, etc.). CRM thus contributes to improving customer knowledge, so as to adopt a specific commercial relationship with them, with the aim of building loyalty.
Marketing automation software
Marketing automation software is used to automate your marketing operations as far as possible. Each time a customer initiates an action (purchase, newsletter subscription, etc.), an appropriate, personalized message (emailing, SMS, etc.) is sent according to pre-defined scenarios.
Article translated from French