3 Ways to Deepen Your Business Relationships

I’m a good marketer.  I am good because I know my stuff, I want to help people be their best, and I’m excited about life.  I attempt to share this in all my marketing and through my story.  I do that consistently online through my blogs, and these #Lyricmarketingtips, through my Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates and my Tweets, and through print and visual media. All of the elements I employ into a great content marketing program includes these things and work in tandem to introduce the Sandy and Lyric Marketing you have come to know.  So what takes this to the next level in relationship building?   It is when I reach out to share something personally with you or when I contact you directly by phone?  Maybe I send something to you in the mail, or drop by your office just to let you know I was thinking about you.  When I do one of these things, there is something uniquely special that happens.  Our relationship deepens and our connection grows stronger.  This does not usually happen in an online marketing model alone.  Although we can gain influence online, we don’t necessarily build a personal relationship.  Let me give you an example:  I receive information from marketing thought leaders like Ali Brown, Guy Kawasaki, or Seth Godin.  I receive their email or read their blog and I am inspired by them. I respect what they say and follow their ideas – in a way they are my marketing mentors, but I have never met them face to face, I have never received a personal note from them or had coffee with them.  Our relationship is strictly on an online, informational, and educational level.  They have not become a friend to me, they have not become a known influencer to me.  What if one day Guy Kawasaki called me and said “hey Sandy, I just read your latest blog post on Lyric’s Marketing Tips, I wanted to see if we could met for coffee and see how we could work together”.  That call, if I took him up on his offer, would most definitely make the difference in how our relationship develops.  This is what I want to talk to you about in this week’s tip.  How to further develop your online relationships BEYOND social media and Facebook.

Lyric’s Marketing Tip #28:  3 Ways to Deepen Your Business Relationships

Today in our online connected marketing environment, we have learned how to and are practicing building relationships online.  Building business relationships that can turn into leads that turn into raving fans is our goal in all our marketing efforts, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, our blogs, and/or any other social or online medium – and it should be!  However, getting this to happen just through social can be daunting and challenging to say the least.  As we have talked about many times in Lyric’s Marketing Tips, great marketing must be encapsulated in the body of a compelling story and told consistently.  If you are not doing this in your marketing efforts to build relationships, you are probably wasting your time.  Let me reiterate again that building relationships online so that YOU become the KNOWN peer influencer must be supported by CONSISTENTLY telling an authentic and compelling story that makes a connection. There are proven ways that you can take your story to market beyond social media that will underscore your online efforts and provide you with an opportunity to groom your contacts into those raving fans that I talk about.

Relationship marketing – let’s look at a couple of key facts:

1 – The definition of relationship is to be related, connected, associated with, having a particular type of connection between people related to or having dealings with each other.  To take that a step further, a KNOWN peer influencer is the closest link to the purchasing decision and the consumer. These are family members, friends, or part of your circle of trust, someone you have a relationship with that you know and have met personally.   2 – A recent study reports that 93% of communication is body and the other 7% is verbal.  Now, keeping the goal in mind of building a deeper relationship, and, understanding that most successful communication involves your body language, it would be wise to pay attention to your nonverbal skills and how they can impact your audience.   Attitude, expressions, mirroring, and actions, all come into play when communicating with and getting to know your prospects or clients.

3 ways to deepen your business relationships:

The old is new and the new is old.  Adding these three tried and proven non-technical, non-rocket science methods into your marketing, will, in my opinion, bring you faster results than sticking to a purely online model.  Let me share three things  you can do in relationship marketing that when mixed with your social media and online marketing, will expose opportunities to build loyalty and preference with the individuals**  you are marketing to.  [**And let me throw this in regarding “marketing to individuals“:  Make sure that you are not just marketing to a general public or a general company or industry.  You want your marketing to be niched and focused, NOT GENERIC, so it reaches out and touches the key individuals you are wanting to get in from of. ]

1 – Personal Communications

Personal handwritten notes and letters are an effective way to utilize your nonverbal communications and they have great impact.  Never use labels. Handwritten envelopes drive an urgency to see what’s inside. In fact, they are so impactful that entire marketing programs have been build around the idea and recommend that you write three personal notes a day!

2 – Pop-Bys

Pop-by: a showing of appreciation towards someone (for whatever reason) with a small gift and by sharing your time.  Pop-by = Time = Money.  You can even do a “reverse pop-by” which is sharing your time and a small gift upon scheduling an appointment with your prospect or client.  A reverse pop-by gives the client an opportunity to schedule a time that best suites him/her, while allowing you to utilize your time more effectively.  And since your clients and friends know how precious your time is, going out of the way to arrange a pop-by with them tells them they are important to you.  This action is a know method for bringing in new business.

3 – Phone Calls

Everyone in your database should get at least two personal phone calls a year.  Think about it, when you get a call from someone that you have met, or have not seen in a while, it brings them front and center to your mind.  It reminds you of their services and opens up possibilities that were not open before.  Don’t be afraid of using the phone, it is still one of the best marketing methods and ways to “touch” your prospect out there!

Don’t get in a hurry – real relationships take time.

Developing deeper relationships in business works the same as building personal ones.  Like dating, you need to spend time with and get to know someone before a true relationship develops.  The more you can reach out to your prospects, and/or communicate with your clients, the better.  After you have built a solid foundation of information on your business and services, have shared your story and your mission, you are ready to go to the next level.  Adding the personal touch in addition to your online efforts will be the element that will push your relationship building over the top.  It is only a matter of time before YOU become top of mind as a KNOWN peer influencer.

Now for the fun – once you have mastered the above relationship techniques, it may be time to host a client appreciation party!  Get  with your vendors and ask them to help you foot the bill.