Relationship Marketing: Focus On People Before Your Pitch

Are you feeling anxious to jump into social media and tell the world about your business? I have some bad news for you.

The hard truth? No one cares.

Many people believe that showing up is enough. They believe that crafting a great headline or selling a great product is enough to compel other people to care about it (or you) and buy. But it’s not.
If you expect the money to come rolling in the minute you tweet out your sales pitch, you’re going to be disappointed.
No one cares about your product unless you give them a reason to care. Your sales pitch won’t work without first building an audience who cares about it and/or your brand.
Taking the time to build relationships with your customers is a necessity. It’s also better for you and your business in the long-term.

The value of your network

Relationship marketing is not new, but, with the ongoing evolution of social media and inbound marketing, the way you attract and retain customers is.
By nature, the online world parallels real life. While the same principles of offline lead generation, sales, and customer service hold true online, your message and your brand are amplified, reaching a greater number of people in less time.
You might have a reach of 200 people in real life. At any given time, you are physically near only 2-4 of them. If you complain about the service at the coffee shop downstairs from your office, only those 2-4 people hear it.
On social media, however, you might have 2000-4000 followers. When you complain about the same coffee shop, you’re amplifying that message x 1000. Plus, if any of those followers share your message, it amplifies it to their network too.
Positive or negative, people will talk about you in their network. Create an exceptional customer experience, and people will tell their friends how great you are. Disappoint them, and they won’t hesitate to complain about you.
That’s why the relationship with your network and your customers is so important.

What do relationships have to do with sales?

The most powerful thing you can do in the online space is not making a sale. It’s building meaningful, lasting relationships with your customers. The amplification of your messaging and transparency of your brand online makes it that much more important to conduct business with honesty and integrity.
Beyond the benefits to your reputation, a network of prospects who know, like and trust you are also more likely to buy from you. And if you provide them with enough value, they will likely bring in referrals and repeat business after the initial sale.
How much of a difference does this really make? Just look at the age-old practice of cold calling.
Cold calling for leads can bring in some business, but it’s a high effort/ low reward activity. In our office, we break it down like this:
30 – thirty dials on cold leads
10 – to reach ten people
3 – three of those will meet with you
1 – one of those three will result in a sale
By comparison, here are the numbers for referrals and prospects you already know:
5 – five people referred to your product or service
2 – two of those five agree to meet with you
1 – one of those two will likely result in a sale
Using these numbers, the cold calling success ratio is 30:1. Sales from people who already know and like you averages 5:1. Less effort, more reward. Which would you rather do?
Online, the same logic holds true. According to Hubspot, 71% of people are more likely to purchase when referred by social media. The relationships you have with your prospects and customers make all the difference.

How to get Started

1. Change your perspective: People don’t like advertisements telling them what they should think, but they do like to feel understood. Stop treating your prospects like someone you need to sell. Instead, look at your business from their perspective. A little empathy goes a long way.
2. Start having conversations: Instead of broadcasting your message or sharing self-serving content, try having a conversation with your customers. Listen to what they say, and respond to their comments, questions and concerns. Find opportunities to reach out and engage with your customers and they will be more inclined to engage with you.
3. Bring value: Find ways to bring a tremendous amount of value to your customers. Providing them with an exceptional value in product (and the service behind it) is one of the key ways you can forge a strong relationship.
What additional steps have you taken to foster meaningful relationships with your customers?

How To Create Content Built For Social Selling

The explosive growth and acceptance of social media has entrepreneurs working hard to get their message into news feeds everywhere. We all want you to “Like us on Facebook” or “Follow us on Twitter,” but it’s what happens after we receive this marketing permission that determines our social selling success.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are popular places for small business marketers to acquire new customers and keep current customers informed, but these platforms should not be used for pushing your offerings repeatedly onto your audience. You didn’t wake up this morning and say, “I can’t wait to log into Facebook and check out all the new advertisements!” Guess what? Your audience didn’t either.

Social selling isn’t about pumping out tweet after tweet promoting your wares, or flooding your G+ stream with product plugging posts. In my opinion, social selling isn’t really about selling at all. It’s about helping your audience discover the right reasons to buy. Effective social selling begins with identifying your customer’s problem, and using your content to help them understand how your company can help them solve that problem. If you would like to see an actionable example, click the image below to check out the article Jenn Herman shared with her Google+ audience. That’s social selling done right!

Know Who You Are Creating Content For

Before you can begin creating compelling social content, you need to have a solid understanding of what your audience wants. You won’t be able to deliver relevant information if you don’t have a clue what topics get your audience passionate!

Knowing your audience goes beyond basic demographic information like age, gender, and income. To really know your customers, you must know what drives them:

• What are their goals?
• What challenges do they face?
• What excites them?
• What do they worry about?
• What do they want?
• What are their needs?

Executing a content strategy with these things in mind will allow you to focus your message on subjects that potential customers can relate to.

Creating Content That Gets Results

Now that you have a better idea of what inspires your audience, you can begin to create content that truly resonates with them. Instead of trying to force upon your readers what you want them to hear, concentrate on their challenges, fears, or desires and present your message that way. Let’s take a closer look at a Facebook post from B Squared Media to illustrate this technique.

The post image speaks directly to concerns that many entrepreneurs have when considering outsourcing their social media. Should they pony up the dough for a pro? What could happen if they cheap out on their social media marketing? Naturally, you want to create content that addresses these fears.

Once you click through to the article, Ballard paints a vivid picture of the various obstacles entrepreneurs face when managing their own social media. Presenting a daunting list of challenges to your audience’s goals will get them interested in finding a better way.

She then presents a comprehensive list of benefits and advantages in favor of outsourcing your social media marketing. The end goal of your social selling content should be introducing your solution as the happy ending your customer was looking for.

The article concludes with a non-intrusive call-to-action prompting the reader to take the next step in the sales process. The reader’s buying motivation is at the peak, so this is the ideal time to convince them to take action!

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better social selling blueprint than this.

The Takeaway

The key to great social selling is producing content that attracts customers to your products and services without sounding overly promotional. You don’t want your content to read like a sales page. Today’s customers are overloaded with marketing messages. They are tired of being “sold.” Social media marketers who are savvy enough to recognize this and adapt their message will have a huge advantage over those who continue to peddle their products traditionally.