Relationship Marketing (or Human-to-Human Marketing) in 2020 and Beyond

Marketing TipsBusiness Tips and Tools

Aug 20

Written By brandmerry

Relationship Marketing (or Human-to-Human Marketing) in 2020 and Beyond

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

Relationships.

Not only are they essential to our everyday life, but also our marketing.

When is the last time you thought about the relationship you were building with your online audience?

Is relationship building a part of your everyday strategy as an online brand and business owner?

If not, it needs to be!

Relationship marketing is the goal as an online brand, it’s not about the instant purchases although those are amazing, it’s about the recurring customers, the loyal fans and the audience members that need a little bit more before buying.

If we’re only worried about the instant and single sale, we miss out on a lot of money!

Bain & Company found that increasing customer retention by just five percent can increase company profits by a whopping 25 percent.

And that acquiring new customers is estimated to be 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining current ones.

Relationship marketing plays a role in new client onboarding, client retention and the overall success of your business.

Let’s explore it a little more!

WHAT IS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING?

Relationship Marketing, also referred to as H2H (Human-to-Human marketing) is focused on one thing, building a relationship between the brand and the consumer.

It is the new age of marketing if you can call it new. It’s no longer acceptable to rely on traditional marketing setups like B2C (Business-to-Consumer) or B2B (Business-to-Business) and has moved to a Human-to-Human marketing approach.

Relationship marketing builds on the idea that every transaction comes down to a human buying something from another human, when you think of marketing and specifically selling in this way it shifts the way you go about sharing your products and services to a more emotional and empathetic approach focused on connection.

Added bonus not only does this increase conversion rates, but it also increases client retention!

In relationship marketing your strategy becomes 100% about building trust.

It’s about the emotional connection your audience has to your brand, it puts an emphasis on Brand Affinity and as the brand and marketer, it puts more emphasis on storytelling.

This switch is much more effective than the “traditional” way of advertising and marketing your products and services, which can sometimes feel disconnected and inauthentic to your audience.

86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support (Stackla, 2019)

WHY RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IS IMPORTANT AS AN ONLINE BRAND

As we’ve already covered a million times, relationship marketing is about relationships, so with that in mind, there is a two-fold approach.

Can you guess what it is? You probably guessed it...relationship marketing comes down to you and the consumer or potential client.

Let’s first talk about you (aka the brand). No matter if you work for a company, or more likely have an entrepreneurial business (possibly a personal brand) there is a human(s) running the show.

The idea is that the human(s) become the face, voice and connection between the audience and the products. It’s important to focus on creating content that showcases the values of the brand, connects emotionally to the consumer, and shares great stories.

It becomes more about quality over quantity, tieing every single piece of content back to the question, “How does this build a relationship and trust with my audience?”

The other side of the equation is your audience. Remember, you’re talking to a real human on the other end of your emails, social media posts and videos. This can be so easy to forget as we’re living in an age of automation.

However, you can’t automate human connection!

Think about how you as a consumer hope to engage with a brand, actually take it a step further, how do you like to interact with a friend? My guess is if the only communication you had with them was an automated/ canned response you’d peace out!

We often overlook the fact that our potential customers are real people, with real lives, looking for real connections.

At the end of the day, humans want to be seen, heard, and understood, and as a brand, you have the ability to do just that through your marketing efforts.

From a marketing standpoint when you can focus on building a solid relationship through your marketing efforts you’ll build trust with your audience much quicker than if you're ignoring the struggles and desires of your audience.

Relationships build trust and trust is what leads to sales.

81 percent of consumers said that they need to be able to trust the brand in order to buy from them (Edelman, 2019)

3 WAYS TO IMPROVE RELATIONSHIP MARKETING BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR AUDIENCE

1. BE CONVERSATIONAL

We already talked about the friend element above, but let’s dive into it a bit further. When you’re speaking to a friend, you’re typically casual, you’re more conversational and my guess you sound like a real human.

Yet, so many online brands forget this simple strategy when they are posting or creating content for the internet. Much of this comes from a preconceived idea of what success means or how we should be showing up online, but this facade can be impacting your ability to build relationships with your audience.

“People can smell inauthenticity!” - my girl Michelle Obama

And it’s true, we’ve seen this time and time with large online brands.

Your goal.
Show up.
Be real.
Focus on the conversations.

A great way to do this is by inviting your audience to have a conversation with you. Encourage people to comment, message you, or send an email and then respond - I know what a concept!

And we’re sitting here rolling our eyes thinking, “Of course we respond!” but think about bots for 5 seconds and then tell me that every online marketer gets this concept...they don’t.

Again, so many entrepreneurs are striving for automation over the connection and it’s hurting.

Say no to BOTS!

2. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS IN YOUR EMAIL FUNNEL

Ok, I know I said you can’t automate connection and I still stand by that, but of course, as a growing online brand, we need a little automation.

One of my favorite places for automation is in the new subscriber email sequence. While many entrepreneurs go into building their email funnel/ email sequence/ lead magnet sequence, call it what you want, with an emphasis on selling we should really be focusing on relationships.

Use this opportunity to introduce yourself, your mission, your values and be of service to your audience. This is a great place to provide high-value content to once again build trust.

79 percent of people say that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing decisions. (Stlacka, 2019)

3. SHARE STORIES IN YOUR MARKETING

Storytelling my love language, but seriously I talk about storytelling a lot over here on the Brandmerry Blog because it’s so powerful as a marketing strategy. It’s one of the fastest ways to build relationships and trust with your audience and is so freaking fun.

If you’re not familiar with storytelling in business, check out this post here.

Storytelling can…

+Introduce the human side of your brand by sharing your founder story
+Give your audience a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of your brand and business
+Introduce multiple dimensions to your brand, so it becomes less about just the products you offer and more about the brand as a whole
+Help your audience remember your content
+Create an emotional connection between the consumer and your brand

And most importantly storytelling is an excellent way to show empathy for your audience and the problem you solve. Empathy is so crucial when it comes to build relationships and therefore is a must for online brands who are excited and eager to become pros at relationship marketing - hey that’s you, right?!

If you’re wondering where to start with storytelling you can check out 5 Examples of Brand Storytelling to Incorporate into Your Marketing here.

CONCLUSION

A note about authenticity.

It’s time we take back authenticity! It’s become such a freaking buzz word and we’re finding so many brands are living outside of authenticity.

Over here at Brandmerry HQ, we believe that authenticity is the alignment of personality, ideals, and appearance in all aspects of your life. If I meet you in person and you’re way different than how you “appear” online there’s a misalignment with your authenticity.

Authenticity might be a buzzword, but it’s important and crucial to marketing!

Remember that statistic from above?

86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support (Stackla, 2019)

As you’ve seen in this post all of it comes back to authentically showing up online and connecting with your audience on a human to human level.

So check yourself, how authentic are you being with your brand and marketing?

Is there a misalignment?

Are you acting like someone you feel you should be to make money online?

If so, take the steps to get back into alignment with your authenticity and focus on building relationships with your growing audience.

BONUS

So much of this authenticity comes back to the foundations of your brand. How your brand voice was established at the very beginning!

Inside my free Build a Better Brand Method class, I share the top three mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to building their personal brand and the 3-part framework to build moving forward.

If you haven’t attended this class, it’s a must listen to. Sign up for the next available time at brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

P.S. If you made it this far, good for you! Let’s take it a step further and dive into your branding as a way to build relationships. If you haven’t already make sure to watch my free class on The Build a Better Brand Method.

It’s a free 60-minute class for female entrepreneurs looking to build a strong personal brand that supports them in standing out online, creating a stream of high-value content, and build a community of fans that leads to a revenue-generating business.