The Relational Systematic Marketing Process
Traditional marketing is a three-step process.
Attract. Convert. Retain.
It's all about doing something TO the customer.
In the world of the Transactional Reactive business, it goes like this:
Attract: Have a sale. Drop prices. Run ads on radio or television or on Facebook.
Convert: Sell discounted products or services to transactional customers.
Retain: Hope these same customers dazzled by your customer service will come back later and pay full price for more products and services.
Good in theory but fails in practice.
All you have done is train customers to wait for your SALE.
The process is like a Venus Flytrap.
"Once the prey has ventured into the Venus flytrap’s jaws – often lured in by the sweet scent of the plant’s nectar – the flytrap gets ready to snap shut." - The University of Tasmania
It's the marketing process that keeps small businesses, small.
Businesses that grow BIG and profitable use the five-step Relational Systematic Marketing process.
Bond. Guide. Satisfy. Nurture. Delight.
BOND
Share your story. Create an emotional attachment with customers.
My business partner Roy H. Williams says it best.
"The purpose of customer bonding is to become the business that people think of immediately and feel the best about when they – or any of their friends – need what you sell. You have to begin reaching them before they need you, and then wait until they do.”
“Customer bonding creates community – surrogate family – connectedness – relationship – belonging. Long-term customer bonding is the way big brands, and big businesses, are built."
Here is an example of a Bonding ad.
"Growing up in Sydney’s Western Suburbs,
I was a skinny ethnic kid with crooked teeth and no confidence.
Not a good mix.
Luckily, I had a caring family dentist.
He explained how he could fix my smile.
And he did.
Being able to smile with confidence changed my life.
He inspired me to become a dentist.
I’m Dinesh Singham from Absolutely Dental
and I'd love to help you smile again."
In 70 words Dinesh shares his WHY.
Now you feel like you know him a little better.
You feel more connected.
Dinesh can share his story on television, radio, newspaper, in magazines or on social media.
It's Dinesh's message that resonates with us, not the media he chooses to use.
GUIDE
Lead the way. Make it easy for customers to buy.
Help customers get from where they are to where they want to be, on the phone, inside your store and on your website. Remove the obstacles and the limiting factors. Reduce the steps. Make it visible what to do next. Help not sell.
Example
Townsville Stone sells natural and engineered stone bench tops. As a customer you have a vast range of types of stone, brands, colours and price points to choose from. With so many options it can be overwhelming and hard to decide.
Mark Sanker, the owner makes it easy.
Do you prefer natural stone or engineered stone?
Light colours or dark colours?
Patterns or plain?
Then Mark shows the customer three price ranges, high, medium and low.
This process quickly guides the customer to the perfect stone for their budget and taste.
SATISFY
Meet customer expectations. Deliver the experience you promise.
The stories you tell, build an expectation. Don’t set the bar so high you can’t jump it.
All business owners think they deliver excellent customer service. And most local advertising promises that. However…
"According to a recent CEI Survey, 86% of buyers will pay more for better customer experience. But only 1% of customers feel that vendors meet their expectations. In another study by Bain & Co., they asked 362 executives if they were customer-centric. 96% said there were and 80% believed they were superior at delivering great customer experiences, but tragically only 8% of those companies’ customers agreed."
*Big thanks to my business partner and good mate Bryan Eisenberg for sourcing those surveys. Bryan is an internationally recognized authority & pioneer in online marketing, improving conversion rates, and helping organizations improve their customer experiences.
So, if there is a deficiency in the quality of your product, service, customer experience, FIX IT!
NURTURE
Strengthen the bond. Build the customer relationship pre & post exchange.
Customer support. Keep in touch but focus on the customer, not you. Remind customers to revisit. Share stories. Reward loyal customers. Get involved in the community. Don’t always be selling!
Example
Roy H. Williams writes the Monday Morning Memo. The Memo is FREE marketing, advertising and life advice. Every Monday for the last 25-years the memo has gone out. Roy has NEVER missed a week in those 25-years. Many readers become clients OR attend classes at Wizard Academy, OR become partners in the International marketing firm Wizard of Ads. Roy gives away valuable advice but never sells his services to the reader. The Memo is Roy's way of building and nurturing relationships.
STORY & EXPERIENCE
Story: is what you say.
Experience: is what you deliver.
Trust and Credibility happen when Story and Experience align.
Customers give you money in exchange for your product or service. You’re even-steven.
You’ll have SATISFIED customers.
But, when these don’t align, you lose customers and get bad reviews.
But SATISFIED will not create glowing word of mouth.
SATISFIED will not make your business a Lovable Money-Making Machine. You need something more.
DELIGHT
Surprise customers with pleasurable experiences.
Your product or service performs better than expected. You have planned word of mouth strategies. You give customers a little bit extra.
Example
When we travel, Buddy our Toy Poodle goes to Yapper Valley Pet Resort. Yapper Valley has a pet taxi pick up and return service. Individual cabins with air-conditioning, music, television and a great play area. All for only $28 a day.
But it is the planned word of mouth strategy that creates Delight.
Every day we get an email from the resort with photos of Buddy enjoying himself plus what he did that day!
"First up this morning, we turned on the sprinkler for those water babies to play in 💦 while the others enjoyed sunbathing on the verandah. ☀️
Afterwards, we played hide and seek with kongs filled with delicious treats. 😍
This afternoon we’ve decided to have a chill one and nap. 😴
Tonight after dinner we are watching The Incredibles 🦸♀️🦸♂️"
The daily updates allow us to relax on holidays or while away on business know Buddy is being looked after. One email creates Delight.
You can add Delight at the Attract, Guide, Satisfy or Nurture stages.
Magic happens when Delight touches all four.
There you have it. The five-step Relational Systematic Marketing process.
It’s the process to create Happy Repeat Customers & Glowing Word of Mouth.
It’s the process that will make your business a Lovable Money-Making Machine.
Don’t think Relational Systematic Marketing is a do once and set and forget.
Relational Systematic Marketing is a process of continual optimisation.
It’s SIMPLE. Not easy. As the saying goes, “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”
But if you want to grow a big profitable business, it’s the process you need to follow.
Over the coming months I’ll go deeper into the process and share more examples.
Until next week,
Work hard. Have fun.
Craig Arthur
Don't have the time to do your own marketing; prefer to concentrate on running your business? Hire Wizard of Ads Marketing to guide your marketing and grow your business faster. Schedule an alignment meeting, call 0417 780 882 or send an email.