Relationship Marketing

Relationship Marketing is targeted at building stronger and long lasting relationships with clients and other companies. The business is done with a strategic orientation, where the relationship is improved with existing customers rather than finding new customers. It is meant to cater to the needs of individual customers. Its major part involves studying the need of the customer and how it changes in different circumstances.

Relationship marketing applies techniques like marketing, sales, customer care and communication. The relationship is not only enhanced but its life period is increased by these strategies. And as the customer realizes the value of relationship, they are drawn closer. This marketing not only focuses on building relationship and attracting customers to their products and services but also how to retain them.

A raw form of Marketing came into existence in the 1960s. But, organizations were still facing difficulty in selling products, so a system was developed to sell low cost goods to larger group of customer. Leonard Berry and Jag Sheth originated this marketing, in 1982. It was started in B2B markets and industries, which involved long term contracts for many years.  Over the period of time, various marketing strategies were improved and relationship marketing was one of them.

Relationship marketing is applicable where the customers have many options in the market for the same product or service and the customer is entitled to make a selection decision. In such a kind of market, businesses try to maintain their clients by providing comparatively better products and good service and hence, achieving customer loyalty. And once it is achieved it becomes difficult for competitors to do well in the market. The customer turnover wasn't paid attention on as the main attention was on customer satisfaction. This kind of marketing was initially named as defensive marketing. Offensive marketing is the marketing strategy where not only new customers are attracted, but also the sales are stepped up by increasing the purchase frequency. This kind of marketing concentrates on freeing dissatisfied customers and acquiring new customers.

According to a research, the cost of retaining an old customer is only ten percent of the cost of getting a new customer, which makes sense to not to run around to get new customers in relationship marketing. And according to another research done by cross-sectional analysis, says that, a five percent improvement in customer retention is responsible for twenty-five to eighty-five percent of the profit. Usually high cost is incurred when getting new customers, so if sufficient number of existing customers is retained, there will be no need of acquiring new customers.

Once the customer trust is gained his chances of switching to other company becomes relatively less, he buys goods in bulk, he buys other supplementary goods and he starts neglecting average price variation. This maintains the unit sales volume and there is an increase in dollar-sales volume. The existing customers will be like a living advertisement. If he is satisfied with the company he will recommend it to his friends and acquaintances.

Since the existing customers are familiar with the process, it will take less time and money to educate them about the procedures putting fewer burdens on employees also and making them feel more satisfied with their jobs. The customers are divided into groups based on their loyalty. This procedure is known as relationship ladder of customer loyalty. The groups in ascending order are prospects, customer, client, supporter, advocate and partner.

Due to the advancement in computers and Internet, software has been developed to facilitate customer relationship management. With the help of this software the tastes, activities, preferences, and complaints of customers are tracked. Almost all the companies have this software in their marketing strategy, which benefits the customer as well as the company.

Thus the main aim of relationship marketing is to construct and maintain relationship with committed clients who are meant to bring profit to the company. The other benefits achieved are confidence building and social benefits. 

Recognizing Target Market

Achieving good sales is the ultimate target of any firm. Many criteria, such as competitive pricing, near perfect product, reaching out to correct audience and motivational advertising, are responsible for this and should be dealt with in marketing.

First things first, all the efforts will go futile if the correct audience is not recognized. It is the major factor in getting abundant sales, because the right customers aren't targeted, they won't buy the product. The right customers are known as targeted customers or niche market, those who will be happy to buy products that fulfill their needs and is also less pricey.

Small businesses shouldn't fear competition with large companies as they produce products considering a bigger spectrum, which sometimes won't be customer specific as the products are more generalized and they don't much care about the competition they might get from others. This gives an opportunity to the smaller firms to produce products, which can cater to the need of a section of people whose needs aren't met specifically by the large companies.

Although it seems like a silly question, but firstly, a firm should understand who are the people they want to target. The success lies behind understanding this, which requires thorough research and analysis. Various factors must be considered. The age group is the first factor, whether the product will be useful to babies or children or teenagers or youngsters or middle aged or old. Sometimes there is a possibility that the product will cater to the needs of all age groups. Next thing to consider is gender. Marital status, occupation, ethnic background, health status, income status, education, hobbies, etc., are some of the factors that should also be pondered upon.

After decided upon the customer group to be targeted, the benefits that can be provided by the product to this group should be jotted down. A thorough examination of the service or product should be done for this purpose. If there is sufficient time, a survey can be conducted on the current customers and pose them with questions like what they liked in the products they are using, anything discomfort they are facing, do they want anything to be changed to make the product better, etc.

After making a list of all the benefits, thought should be applied to which of these benefits will actually help the targeted audience. Make a short list of the benefits that will be advantageous and send it to the marketing department. It can surely help in their marketing plan and can boost up sales.

Internet has made reaching out to the targeted customers can be very easy. Search engines can be utilized to the maximum extent for this purpose. The thing to be exactly searched can be typed as a keyword or search phrase in the search engines and the results brought on the first three pages will be of great value. But lots of time and investment is involved in this process, as different keywords will fetch different search results. So efforts should be made to finally get what is desired.

Next best thing is reaching out by newsletters and ezines. Many ezines are related to marketing, finance, shopping, Internet, etc. A number of ezines websites can be found in an ezines directory, which even contains the contact information, advertising price, etc. The list of ezines website sites should be cut down to which are relating to the target market and ad should be placed in the ones selected which should include all the product advantages if the ad allows that many words.

Recognizing the target market is crucial to any successful advertising and sales campaign. Once it is recognized, they can be reached through different channels like websites, newspapers, magazines, etc. This makes the customer think that he is being directly addressed to. And since the whole approach will interest them, the amount of traffic received in return will be simply overwhelming and the whole effort will be worth it.    

 

Marketing through E-mail and Issues Surrounding it

Email marketing is one of the forms of direct marketing, which is done via Internet. Emails are sent to potential customers to boost the business, and gain the trust of the customer by disclosing relevant information and help them to make good shopping decisions. It also enhances the relationship with a current customer, by repeating business with them. In simple words the procedure of sending emails to customers is known as email marketing.

The major advantage of email marketing is that it doesn't consume a lot of time, is minimal resource consuming and is also cost-efficient. Within a short period, a large audience can be targeted. Features such as Subscriptions, bounced messages, web bugs, and click through help enables businesses to track potential customers. Since the customers can be directly reached, feedbacks can be collected with ease. In terms of cost also it is not as expensive as newsletters. Reports have proven that this is the next best marketing technique after search marketing. It is effective in tracking the returns on investments.

Email marketing is a modernized version of mail marketing. The advantage over direct mail marketing is that it takes less time to reach a customer than mailing. Like people check their mailboxes daily, inbox is also checked by majority of the Internet users on a daily basis. Over the period of time, lots of helpful tools and web services have been developed. List host is web service that provides lots of options to the marketers like managing huge emails and email address database. If the budget is more, list managers can be hired who can be given charge of opt-in-email newsletters and managing databases. Software is also available in the market that does this job too.

When the customer fills the form for the first time, there are check boxes to be ticked which reflects their interests. Depending on these choices, an advertiser sends information to them, this is known as opt-in-email advertising, because the customer has opted to receive emails and marketing like this isn't illegal. The content of the email can be elaborate, but it shouldn't be too long as people are really busy for that. The call to action, also known as effective words, in the email should be chosen with care. It's not necessary that the content should revolve around only one item; related product's information can also be included. This is known as cross selling. By using email blasting or sending an email to multiple customers at a time can save a lots of time and will also increase the efficiency.

The dark side of email marketing is spamming or also known as bulking. Some companies collect email addresses of people illegally and send irrelevant mails to them, which can be very annoying. Some hackers design an email like an advertisement, but when clicked on downloads adware and viruses that can destroy a computer, which makes it even more dangerous. To make matters worse, the Direct Marketing Association of America has petitioned to make spamming legal. Some prohibitions are also placed on providers who help out business organizations to manage their email marketing by giving them already prepared email templates.

Most of the mailing websites have added the facility of separating spam from genuine email by creating separate folders for both and this is known as spam filtering. But in case of large number of spam mails, a useful mail can go into that folder and can go unnoticed and gets deleted with the rest of the spam mails. This kind of mail is known as false positives. But the chances of this happening are rare. There are many laws against spamming like United States' Can-Spam act, Europe's privacy and electronic communications regulations. According to these laws, the companies should get their return address authenticated, false physical addresses should not be included and a one click unsubscribe link should be place in the email. The lesser penalty involves companies sending spam to be blacklisted and on a larger scale, they can be heavily fined.      
 

Selling to a Woman Vs Selling to a Man

Different approaches should be taken when selling products or services to a man when compared to a woman. As they say that men are from mars and women from Venus both of them think very differently and hence, their thinking should be influenced by different methods.

For example, when a man decides to buy a car he looks out for the latest model, speed, mileage, etc. But when a woman goes out to buy a car she will choose a car depending on the color. She would like it match it either with her work dress or accessories like watch and will be concerned whether there is enough space to store her necessities. Because their psychologies differ so much, they should be convinced to buy a product using different methods.

Presentation is also very important. The salesperson talking to a male client doesn't have to concentrate much on looks and cleanliness. It is okay if he doesn't have the required documents on hand and his sleeves are folded up. But when the same salesperson is referring to a female client, he should be spotless from head to toe. He should comb his hair properly, have manicured nails and even his shoes should be well-polished. The salesperson should be prepared with all the necessary documents before hand and shouldn't go rushing in front of the customer. Women seek perfectionism.    

Words should be spoken with extra care in front of a woman customer. Women are better listeners and they will analyze each spoken word. A lot of emotion should be involved in the talking because women are drawn to emotions immediately. Like when selling clothes to a lady, tell her how you will feel bad for her if she has to sweat badly in the summer due to her nature of job. Pick a nice cotton dress for her and ask her to try it. The customer will be highly touched and will take less time to buy the product. Seventy five percent of the job is done if she is won emotionally.

Next important point is to never stop talking in front of the female customer. The moment the salesperson stops talking, she will start thinking deeply about the product and will start examining every detail of the product and will give a second thought to the product. Women have the capability of multi-tasking. They will be able to listen as well as read the manual at the same time. So keep her involved into many things at a time. A man lacks the talent of multi-tasking. If a male client gets involved with something else, stop speaking immediately because he will be unable to concentrate on both the things and it will lead him into a confusion state.

Another point to be taken care of is, it's not a good idea to have a woman salesperson when a male client is to be handled. Women talk a lot and men are bad listeners. The woman salesperson will go on and on about the product and the man will just nod his head without getting any meaning out of it. They will not able to express properly whether they are getting the point or not. But on the other hand, a woman client can easily express how much she has followed. Even if they don't speak it out, her facial expressions will tell it all. So when a salesperson is dealing with a female customer, he or she should watch out for the client's expressions. If she shows any state of confusion or dislike, try taking a different approach.

Men clients can be made to understand about the product by simply drawing the outlook of the product using a simple pen and paper. Men have a good capability of visualizing the three dimensional images of the product which is being referred to. But women are not so good that. To present a clear picture, the sample or the actual product should be shown to her.

Complimenting a male customer is a very good idea. He will be over whelmed and will take it in a good sense. But a woman is a careful listener, so any compliment should be given with extra care. Any fake compliment will be immediately detected. 

  

They are savvy financial decisions?

Most of us have received little or no education or training in financial decisions. Smart financial decisions require analysis and attention to detail. We need the knowledge and skills to evaluate the options and identify those that meet our needs and circumstances. Where do you get the skills and knowledge to understand the money?

Most people receive their knowledge of money through their family and the extended family. A much smaller portion receives the knowledge through school or on their own. Most people who need this knowledge and skill are on low incomes. Yet where you get the knowledge or skills? The common definition of the word is well-known or appear frequently. If most people don’t have the skills and knowledge to make good financial decisions, make bad decisions.

Recent financial reform bill is an attempt to solve some of the problems that contributed to the financial crisis of 2008. Individuals and families need to understand money and financial responsibility. They need to get the knowledge and ability to understand money. Finally, they need to take the necessary steps to create financial security. Good financial decisions are complicated! If you buy a car, rent an apartment, get a credit card, buying a House, buying health insurance or investing no stock market. All these operations involve contracts and a lot of information that one needs to understand. Signing of these documents recognize that read and understand what you are doing. Money as the food is hard to avoid, because we need to live and enjoy life. Take the time to learn more about money, it’s probably one of the most important lessons.

Other ways to send money abroad

Program to send funds to Europe but too confused about what type of wire should I use? Well not because we will be showing you different transfer options that allows you to send money to your loved ones.

There are actually several points to consider when sending money via cables. Firstly, the recipient Bank has access to your bank account? Secondly, the recipient country provides transfer services? And thirdly, how significant is the transfer mode for the recipient?

Below are the most common type of sending money to Europe.

Bank transfer

Regarded as one of the most ancient method of sending funds, such a transfer requires both sides have bank accounts. The fee runs about $ 40. This is usually recommended if you are sending funds to about 3-4 digits.

Offline services

The most popular method of sending money to Europe, this type of transfer limits sending money to a certain amount. Also spending a considerable amount of percentage of 7% of your total money to be transferred. On the contrary, although quite high and costs, this method of transfer is seen be sure sending money. However, this payment method is not available in all countries. Although a second channel will be available to facilitate transfers, but the cost is even higher.

Debit/ATM that can be loaded remotely

A credit/debit card allows you to transfer money rechargeable in pre-loaded card of the recipient through FedEx. The good thing about this wire is that you can send a thousand dollars only 5 dollars lower. With over 1 million ATMs worldwide, this mode is considered to be the fastest, most accessible and cheapest mode of sending cash.

Using the IBAN for transfers

IBAN, or international bank account number, is an international standard among banks to help make cross-border transactions easier. Enables banks to identify accounts in other countries with less complications. The IBAN is composed of 27 characters for Europe and up to 34 other countries. Is recognized internationally, but this system has been designed and used primarily in Europe.

The United States does not participate in this system, so if you have an account in the United States, you will not have an IBAN. To obtain this number from an International Bank, all you have to do is ask them. Sometimes it is easy to find online.

The characters that make up the IBAN follows some very strict rules. In fact, if the format below, you can find out what all of those numbers really mean. XE is a decoder that allows you to do just that. It’s no secret, but it is a useful tool to know what does it really mean the IBAN number.

Is ISO standard 13616 explaining the correct IBAN structure. This document is available online through ISO.org. To get a national IBAN format registration for a particular country, must be submitted by a national standards body or by a Central Bank. There are preserved documents that detail the specifics of IBAN formats of countries that follow the ISO 13616 standard, and is available online as well.

IBAN usually follows a format like this: IBAN GB20 LOYD 3292 1722 1267 22. This format can vary from country to country. At times the length it will be different and depending on which country is.