Customer Relationship Marketing

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Why is customer relationship marketing important?

Customer relationship marketing is a technique that is centred around building client relationships and customer loyalty through marketing strategies and activities. By using customer data and feedback, organisations can develop strong bonds with their customers to gain their trust.

Instead of focusing on quick-win sales, customer relationship marketing focuses on developing an emotional relationship between a customer and the organisation If a customer is invested in a company emotionally and feels that they or their company can’t function without it, they’re more likely to purchase from you and keep coming back for more.

Many organisations can use this marketing strategy to their advantage and market their efforts through storytelling. This means organisations provide a compelling narrative that the customers then put themselves into. This helps play on that all-important emotional connection that the business is trying to achieve with the customer.

What is customer relationship marketing strategies?

You can provide a personalised, Customer-Centric Approach

When employing this marketing strategy, your organisation and your product or service should never be the primary focus. The focus should be on the customer and how you can help them and their business move past an issue.

In addition, it is important to add support channels for your customers, this strategy of marketing is all about providing that full experience. It is important to make sure that they always have help on hand when they need it. Whether it be on social media channels or a chatbot on your site, meeting your customers where they want to be contacted is a good way of showing willingness.

Incentives and Rewards for Brand Loyalty

To ensure that your customer becomes a brand advocate and loyal customer you need to carry on the connection long after the purchase. Whether it’s discount offers or personalised product recommendations, you should consider what you can offer them once they’ve made the original purchase.

Always Look to Collect Feedback

To build the best relationship with your customers, you need to know how they truly feel. No matter how good your marketing team is, you’re not mind readers. Gaining feedback from the customer is crucial to constantly improve your service to fit the specific needs of the customer.

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The advantages and disadvantages of customer relationship marketing

Advantages

The customer relationship marketing benefits are that it helps you save crucial time and money for your organisation compared to traditional methods. This is because organisations then focus on the potential customer that show promise of maintaining a relationship, rather than wasting their money trying to pursue the wrong type of customer.

Other advantages also include

  • It will help your organisation to deliver a consistent customer service.
  • Can improve profitability for your business.
  • Creating loyal customers to spread brand awareness.

Disadvantages

While there are some advantages there are some disadvantages that can appear for your organisation to deal with. These include:

  • Firstly, you can’t always rely on retaining customers for everything, sometimes you need new customers to meet budget goals. However, due to the onus placed on retention, they sometimes get overlooked.
  • Secondly, returning customers can expect benefits straight away and some customers may feel like their dedicated support deserves a discounted product or service. This means that you can either honor the discount and make less profit or decline it and risk losing the customer.
  • Lastly, it may require a business culture change and you need to work hard at getting all of your staff on board to back the decision, otherwise, the culture change won’t work effectively.

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