What is Relationship Marketing?
When most people see the term Relationship Marketing they tend to focus more on the second word than the first. They want to know how they can market to get more business.
But increasingly, professionals are beginning to realize the keys to building business are creating genuine relationships, appreciating your clients and networking to give.
Keeping in touch with your leads helps you build connections with them, which in turn increases the rate that they become clients.
You see, it’s not just about selling them your services; you’re selling them yourself.
You’re not in it for the one-time transaction – you want to establish genuine friendships with your clients so whenever they would think of real estate, they would think of you.
In an interview made with Gayle Zientek in Relationship Marketing Weekly, she described how establishing deep and lasting friendships with her clients helped make her the successful Real Estate Agent, Broker and Owner that she is today.
In this interview, Gayle summed up her whole real estate business philosophy in three words: Friendship, celebration and service.
Gayle says: “You create the friendships. You celebrate people on a regular basis and you offer exceptional customer service and when you pair those things, you can’t help but to have a good, strong cycle of relationship business coming your way.”
This is what makes any kind of business sustainable. When you build strong relationships with your clients, they bring you business because they trust you.
They refer their friends and family to you because they know they’re not making a mistake doing business with you.
So how do you use relationship marketing as an effective business strategy?
There are several channels that you can use for relationship marketing: you can give them a phone call, send them a text message, post something on social media, send them a greeting card, or just plain old meeting them face to face.
Let’s say one of your clients is having a baby. Why not congratulate them using one of the mediums above?
This may seem little to you, but that simple act of greeting your client lets him/her know that you’re not just there for the business transaction; you genuinely want to be involved in other areas of his/her life because you’re a friend.
Or how about saying hello every once in a while to check in on how they’re doing?
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
This is the mentality that you want them to have about you. You’ld want them to know that you’re going beyond the business – you’re there to help.
As Gayle puts it, “this is about being human. It’s about finding out where people are hurting and how we can inspire and encourage them.”
It’s about creating an atmosphere of friendship.
When you send that text message or card, or when they hear your voice on the phone or see you in person, you are creating a relational foundation that will help propel your business to heights.