Relationships in Business
It’s been said that life is all about relationships and when it comes to business- both B2B and B2C building relationships is everything! For this piece we share some invaluable insights on relationships in buisness from a marketing perspective.
Why Is Building Relationships in Business Important?
It should be a no brainer that building relationships in business is an absolute essential in your overall growth and journey. This applies to any type of business. The truth is that relationships are the glue of your business holding it together. Without good relationships you won't succeed in business. It is as simple as that!
Remember relationship building both in business and in life is never static, it is ongoing and evolves as your business evolves. One you’ve built relationships you then must work hard at maintaining them. This does involve some degree of emotional intelligence (EQ) and a genuine willingness to help others.
Humanise Your Marketing
Carlos Gill social media marketer, founder of Gill Media and author of bestselling book The End of Marketing a few years back said that you must humanise your brand and marketing. Fast-forward now to this age of A.I and his words are even more relevant.
You humanise your brand and overall marketing through geninuely listening to your customers, building good relationships, engaging with them, and then selling to them. It’s a sequential process.
Carlos compared the buyer’s cycle to dating. In dating, you get to know someone, then fall in love and get married if you are traditional. It is a sequential process. It’s the same with sales and marketing. Listen, build relationships, engage, then sell.
Know How To Sell
Selling is an art form and should only be done after you’ve done the listening, building, and engaging with your customers and even business partners and colloborators. When you reach that stage, you’re ready to sell. Ultimately, you’re selling yourself not just your product or service.
By doing all the steps mentioned above the right people will naturally want to buy what you have to offer. They will like and trust you and so selling will come easy. It won't have to be uncomfortable. In addition, by learning how to sell, you'll also find the right partnerships and colloborators.
Social Media with Purpose
Social media is a giant noisy digital abyss that makes it hard to stand out. That’s why you must have a solid plan and create highly valuable human content. Know what you are trying to achieve on the platforms. It has to be more than just being Instagram famous!
By having a solid plan and purpose for social media you'll do so much better with relationships in business. Social media as a business tool is all about building great relationships in business . Be sure to hang out where your audience hangs out on social media and deliver value through high-quality content marketing.
Make Your Content More Empathetic
Corrina Owens, an American marketer with over 10 years of marketing experience with premium brands is a big advocate of empathy in content. She encourages us to not forget that business is marketing to fellow human beings, real people with real feelings and emotions.
COVID forced us to be more empathetic but a lot of marketing is still selfish says popular entrepreneur Gary Vee. By providing audiences with human-centric content and resources that's helpful to them you are being empathetic, and this naturally fosters good relationships.
All About Customer Experience
Owens said that you need to constantly think about what your customer’s experience and impression of your brand is throughout all your touchpoints. Ask the key question: Are we solving the problem that we’ve promised we would solve for you? If not go back to the drawing board and keep asking more questions till you get at the root pain point. Great customer experiences led to great relationships in business!
Build Authenticity Through Inbound Marketing
Derek Hovinga founder of the Inbound Lab believes that inbound marketing is all about authenticity which is vital for building relationships. Whilst content marketing, is more about attracting customers to your business, inbound marketing follows the entire marketing funnel and is empathetic to customer’s needs at every stage of the journey.
It’s about nurturing leads, turning visitors into subscribers or followers through an offering like a lead magnet. Its messaging is more tailored to a specific audience who actually want your solution.
Advocates for your Brand
Eventually the audience who like and consume your content will come to you and ask for your help. Naturally they will also advocate for your brand (eg: tell others about you) so you can get new inbound customers. This of course results in more great relationships in business and leads to more opportunities for growth. It is a win-win!
The Flywheel
Brian Halligan, Co-Founder of HubSpot created the flywheel which according to Derek Hovinga is better than the traditional marketing funnel. The funnel takes a prospect from point A to point B. Once you're at the end of point B, you're done with them. Essentially, you've attracted & engaged with them. They've made a purchase. They're pretty much at the end of their sales lifecycle according to Hovinga.
But with the flywheel in inbound marketing, it doesn’t end. The flywheel works as the attract stage, the engaged stage, the convert stage, and then the delight stage which makes it ideal for relationship building.
Followers Aligned with Your Brand
You don’t just want any followers for your brand, you need followers that are aligned with what you stand for. This helps with building and maintaining the right relationships in business. For instance, imagine a wellness brand working with a tobacco company. It wouldnt make a good fit!. In fact, it would more than likely taint their reputation as it is a bad look for their brand.
How to Build a Customer Centric Business
Jeff Adamson, co- founder of Skip The Dishes (Canadian app) focuses his attention on building a customer centric business. This is all about putting your customer first not you. The big brands do this all the time: Nike, Amazon, Emirates, etc. That's why they have a legion of fans all over the world.
Remove friction and barriers for yours customers and clients to make their lives easier. Skip the Dishes is food delivery on tap for Canadians and Neo Financial is all about simplifying finances for Canadians. Hence friction and barries have been removed. With the big brands the following applies:
- Nike= high-quality products matched with great customer service
- Amazon= find pretty much any product and have it delivered to you in a timely manner
- Emirate= seamless flying experience paired with superior customer service
Build Strong Lifelong Relationships
The link between relationships and happiness has long been established by science.This applies to both personal and professional relationships . As you look back on your life it pays to ask: Who did I spend my time with? How did they make me feel? In business these are important questions to ask which are probably not asked enough. So, get in the habit of asking them to foster great relationships in business and in life.
Add Value in your Marketing
“Australians don't want better ads, they want real value” says Sandra Difrancesco, Founder of WORD EMPIRE. This of course applies to consumers all over the world. Marketing in this post-COVID world has been moving towards a more empathetic approach where its messaging is about improving the life of your end user.
As a business you must keep this at the top of mind when engaging in any marketing activity whether big or small. In addition, test & measure your marketing. This is all about understanding what worked and what didn’t. For instance:
- Which social media channel is more effective?
- When did my sales go up?
- Is my website performing well?
- How engaged are my customers/clients?
Ready to take your Relationships In Business to the Next Level?
These key insights when applied will do wonders for building excellent relationships in business. For more expert help on relationship building through world-class content Book a Time with WORD EMPIRE, the leading content marketing agency.
