With most products and services competing in largely parity landscapes, the relationship a brand, product or service has with its customers is often its only competitive differentiation. Said another way, businesses with strong customer relationships usually lead their categories. That’s because the economics of relationship marketing are compelling; there are five sources of revenue from loyal customers, so the positive impact of customer loyalty compounds and puts you ahead of your competition.

So, if a relationship marketing strategy is key, the question becomes, “How do I do it?”(...)
Read the rest of 5 Steps to an Online Relationship Marketing Strategy (537 words)

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Post tags: Business Strategy, Customer Relationship Marketing, Online Marketing, Relationship Marketing Principles

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I have a number of what I call bottom drawer clients. These are usually small projects, projects you can fit in a bottom drawer, for very small businesses without a lot of resources. I don’t make much from these clients but I learn a lot working with them, so it’s not completely gratuitous, and they are nice people who appreciate my help.

My bias, and therefore my approach to their marketing, is that a customer marketing strategy, and especially marketing to best customers, is more important than prospect marketing.

Delight your customers and they will:

• Stay longer,
• Buy more from you,
• Buy without being bribed,
• Cost you less to service, and
• Bring in prospects just like them.

Don’t delight them and you have to focus on prospects to keep refilling the leaky bucket.

The implication for small or micro businesses, and frankly for medium and large businesses as well, is that marketing effort should be focused on sustaining and building the business you already have, that customer marketing should be your primary marketing strategy.(...)
Read the rest of Hub and Spoke: A Customer Marketing Strategy for the Rest of Us (663 words)

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© James for Hipkin's Hip Shots, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Best Customers, Business Strategy, Customer Relationship Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Tactics, Online Advertising, Social Media, SOHO Marketing

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Email marketing is often overlooked by businesses looking for effective marketing tactics, especially with all the noise in the business press about Social Media. It shouldn’t be. Email marketing can be an important sales channel and has the added benefit, when done well, of being a branding tool. That’s right, email marketing can be a branding tool.

It’s easy. Just think about teeter totters.(...)
Read the rest of Email Marketing – An Effective Strategy is a Teeter Totter (539 words)

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© James for Hipkin's Hip Shots, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Marketing Strategy, Marketing Tactics, Online Advertising

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