Unfortunately, if you send email to your entire mailing list in the form of irregularly scheduled, non-related, email blasts about an event or a press release, you are wasting your time and theirs. To make the most effective use of your list, you need a communications strategy. Develop a plan on what you want to say, to whom you want to say it, and what is in it for them. Understand what you are trying to achieve and develop an integrated, multi-month campaign that provides information that is useful to your varying audiences – prospects, partners or current customers.

Why a Strategy?

The primary benefits of a well-crafted email campaign is that it serves to capture information from people who may not be ready to buy today, but who may be potential customers in the future. These people may not even perceive a need as yet, but nonetheless they face the challenges or issues that your product or service can help solve. By providing useful information to them on a regular basis, without the hard sell, you will attract people who have a need, and are most likely to convert into a customer.

A strategy also helps you lay out a series of correspondence that is well integrated and progressive. Each message builds on the previous in some way. It may be more on a particular topic, or it may be a new topic that is tangential to the last one that was sent. Regular, consistent interaction with your prospects and partners keeps you in the forefront of their minds.

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Advertising executives will tell you it takes at least seven impressions to get people to notice your ad, and many more impressions to convince people to act. Everyday, your prospects are sent hundreds of email messages, and although you’ve received permission to send them your information, you still need to cut through the noise. Your immediate goal is to deepen the level of trust they have in your products and services. The most effective way to do this is to communicate with them on a regular basis, each time providing them with valuable information.

A good way to enhance their trust is to educate them. Most software products live in a complex world created by a combination of technology, process, and industry specific issues. Create and distribute a multi-part email “info-mercial” to teach prospects about the benefits of your product or service in a neutral manner. Resist the temptation to prematurely attempt to close the sale. Instead, educate prospects about the landscape within which the product exists. The goal is to gradually increase trust in your company to a point where prospects will eagerly await future emails from your company.

Refining the Target

With every email, plan to acquire a better understanding of your prospects. This is best accomplished with simple and straightforward surveys delivered with each email. Depending on your product or service, surveys may include questions about the current state of your prospects’ buying habits, their decision-making ability within the company, past purchase decisions, planned purchases, issues they are facing, and other useful information. Potential partners can also provide valuable information about themselves and their customers’ needs. As the trust level increases, your prospects will answer more detailed and more personal questions.

Track and record all information about your prospects in your CRM system so that everyone in your company knows as much about a prospect as possible. Segment your opt-in list based on the information you have gathered. The more you know, the better you can service them through various communications.

Initially, all prospects in your list will receive the same email. But by tracking the responses to the surveys, after about 6 months, you will have collected enough information to start segmenting your list, and more precisely satisfying your subscriber’s requirements for information. The more targeted your emails, the more useful they will be to their recipients. The more useful they are, the greater the likelihood that prospects will become customers, partners will become more loyal, and customers will become customers for life.

Secrets of Success

To ensure success, build a six to twelve month plan that appeals to prospects, customers, and partners. In addition, keep the following in mind:

• Provide relevant, timely information. Not coincidentally, this is where most email campaigns fail. A monthly news capsule of your company’s press releases, product updates, and trade show schedule alone won’t attract many subscribers.
• Have a content strategy. Naturally, original content takes work. If you don’t have the resources in-house, think about sourcing third parties like trade publications, consultants and other business partners, freelance writers, or content providers that can provide expert opinions and interesting commentary on your product and service area. Getting the information out consistently on-time and with quality is crucial.
• Promote your campaign prominently. Promote on your Website and elsewhere. On the registration page, prepare for the possibility that people may want more information before they sign up. Include a link to past communications or a “Tell Me More” page that sells the campaign in strong, benefit-oriented language.
• Encourage sharing. An email marketing campaign done well is the perfect viral marketing tool, so be sure to incorporate “Forward to a Friend” functionality that reminds the recipient to share the information with a colleague.

By continually pulling prospects back to your Website for useful information, and placing your company at the forefront of their minds as experts and thought-leaders, email marketing can work to create a long-term, lasting relationship with your prospects, partners and customers.

Many golf courses haven’t grown accustomed to developing their own in-house email list like businesses in other industries have. Golf courses rely on traditional advertising or word of mouth to get people to come to their course. But the market has changed and the competitiveness of the industry now requires golf courses to be proactive and creative in attracting golfers. An effective strategy is to build an in-house email list that you can use to develop a better relationship with your customers.

Why Develop Your Own List?

Developing your own list of warm prospects, that is golfers who have already shown some interest in what you have to offer, gives you the opportunity to communicate with them regularly and develop an ongoing relationship. In today’s marketplace, extending out to these warm prospects and providing them reasons to come golf at your course can easily increase your revenue. Marketing activities are always much more successful when you’re dealing with people who already know and trust you. Even private courses can benefit from building a list of interested parties when it comes time for membership drives.

Getting golfers to provide you their email address is not a difficult task, especially if you make collecting this information a regular marketing activity. If your course is a winter vacation destination, a public course, or hosts outings or functions regularly, you have many opportunities to collect information and build a distribution list of people interested in what you have to offer.

The primary method used to collect information is through your contact form on your website. Use your other marketing activities to drive visitors to your site and sign up for your mailing list. Keep the form simple and ask only for their name and email address. Don’t get carried away and ask them for too much information as people are hesitant to give out more than their name and email. And make sure you use an email service that requires confirmation before being added to the list and manages opt-out requests effectively. You don’t want someone reporting you as a spammer.

Another way to get people to opt-in to your list is to ask them when they are at your facility. Every month a golf course caters to thousands of golfers. Take advantage of this opportunity while they are enjoying the experience to provide you their email address. Keep a guest book handy for them to sign or have your website form easily accessible in the pro shop and direct folks to add themselves to the mailing list. If you take their information through a guest book, make sure you send a request for them to confirm their subscription before adding them to the list.

Nurture the Relationship

Now that you have started building the mailing list, create a plan on how you will now nurture that relationship. Be sure to manage expectations with your list by being clear about what kind of email you’ll be sending and how often. Then be consistent. Too many or too few emails will result in the same outcome – people will unsubscribe. If you decide to send a monthly eNewsletter, it has to come at the same time each month. Develop an outline of what will go into the eNewsletter and assign the sections to different people so that the burden is not all on one person.

With every email, you should try to acquire a better understanding of your customers. Try different things to get them to provide you with more detailed information so you can begin to segment the list for more personalized mailings. To keep them interested, make sure your email has something they look forward to each month. There are many things you can offer, but a few ideas include:

• Incentives to bring someone new to the course
• Two for one, senior discounts or other specials to fill tee times outside of prime time
• Monthly survey or poll item that they can answer easily on your site
• Calendar of events that highlight something new
• Special sale items in the pro shop
• Special clinics or golf lessons

Be creative and make offers that get people to come back. Remember the golf course is sitting there and when it’s idle, it’s not making you any money. Greens fees are an extremely lucrative part of the golf operation so filling your tee times should be your primary objective. With a little planning, some creative ideas and a person to organize the effort, you can successfully develop your list and use it to better market the value of your golf course.

The purpose of all businesses, regardless of what it offers, is to create and retain customers. Using marketing strategies that build loyalty to your product and brand can help you win customers for the long term. Relationship marketing is more than just sending a list of prospects the same email newsletter in the hope that they may become a customer. This article discusses relationship marketing – what it is and how you create those long-lasting relationships with your customers.

Relationship Marketing – What is it?

Relationship marketing is not about having a personal relationship with your customers – it is about using a well-planned process of communication over time that makes customers feel comfortable and connected to you. It is different from a set of database marketing programs that target everyone, regardless of what stage of business they are in with your company, with the same set of promotions. If a customer has already bought services from you, sending them a communications piece that tries to sell them as if they are a prospect does not work.

For example, one company wasting their marketing dollars in direct marketing is American Express Small Business Services. I just recently received their platinum card for my business. They had a great offer, online services, and no annual fee. Unfortunately, I have since received direct mail offers for several other AMEX cards with virtually the same benefits. Why are they wasting money on mailing me these offers when I already have one of their cards?

This is a case where they need to consolidate their database, segment it based on what the business has or has not purchased, and define a different set of programs with relevant messages that will appeal to these segments. Marketing that is relevant to each specific customer dramatically increases its return on investment because the content and offer in each message is personalized and targeted to each individual. By molding the marketing message and tactics to the customer, relationship marketing achieves very high customer satisfaction, which in turn helps you to rapidly achieve your revenue goals.

Stages of Building Customer Relationships

Relationship marketing is a strategy that builds customer commitment and loyalty through many types of marketing programs. The process is usually defined in stages, working from the relationship beginning to the end. Each marketing effort needs to move the prospect through these stages, helping them build a rapport with you. Even if they become a former customer because of the nature of your business, they should retain their loyalty and trust such that they provide referrals to your business.

Suspect > Prospect > Customer > Partner > Advocate > Former Customer

In the initial stages, you need to supply information so that a suspect gets to know you. You might want to make an offer that encourages them to take some action. If they do, most likely they become a prospect. At this stage, you need to continue to develop the relationship by supplying them useful and practical information for their business as it relates to yours. Eventually you will turn some of them into customers, at which time you need to build trust and loyalty.

Once you have turned the prospect into a customer, you need to continue to build the relationship. Understanding their needs, providing them superior customer service, and working with them to help them succeed turns a customer into a partner. You become more than another vendor to them, and in fact, you become an extension of their company. Once you have reached this type of a relationship with your customer, you have nurtured an advocate – a resource that speaks highly about your company to prospects, media, and analysts, and works with you to promote your products and services through testimonials and success stories.

Relationship marketing has to be:

• Personalized. Personalization can be a highly targeted direct mail piece, a phone call or email. The messages must be meaningful and connect emotionally in order to establish a lasting relationship.
• Targeted and relevant. If you are targeting prospects, your marketing has to instill confidence, trust, and success. If you are targeting current customers, your marketing has to establish and reward loyalty.
• Interactive. By making your interactions with customers interactive, you hear feedback, determine what is working and what is not. If your customers or prospects respond to a request, offer them something that makes them feel valued.

How to Build Loyalty

The best way to build loyalty with your customers and prospects is to listen to what they need from you and make them feel comfortable working with you. If you focus on solving their problems or meeting a particular need rather than selling them a product, you gain their trust. Always act in your customer or prospect’s best interest and never try to sell them something they do not need. Several times when we’ve been in an initial meeting with a prospect, we have suggested that what they needed was not our services. We then point them to someone who can deliver what they need more cost-effectively. This helpfulness will be long remembered and those customers and prospects are more likely to come back to you when they need your type of product or service. Building goodwill with people goes a long way to getting referrals and additional business.

Brand and the Customer Relationship

Why do companies spend money on brand? Remember that a brand is more than an image; it is the essence of your business, a promise waiting to be fulfilled. The success of a brand lies in its ability to create and cultivate a strong and lasting relationship with its customers, a relationship that is loyal and profitable.

Each customer-brand relationship contains perceived values and real benefits that are unique to each customer, in both tangible and intangible forms. People choose a brand for their own reasons. They may be influenced by external means, such as advertising, success stories, research studies or even personal acquaintances, but the decision to use a particular brand is the sole decision of that customer. The brand creates a direct relationship with the customer.

Direct Marketing Programs and Building Relationships

Since relationships are personal and direct, what better way to reach and influence your prospects and customers in a one to one fashion but through a direct marketing program? Direct marketing is an information-driven, relational marketing process that connects with your customers on a regular basis.

Direct marketing programs that “touch” your customers and prospects builds loyalty and repeat business. They can encompass many forms such as mail, online, or email correspondence of some type. Get in front of your customers and prospects with some of these tactics to garner trust and build a meaningful relationship.

• Plan events that mix knowledge with fun. Educate while offering entertainment and social interaction.
• Send out a monthly eNewsletter with useful content relevant to your clients and prospects’ needs. Show them that you care about their business and value their time by providing them useful information. Do not sell. Instead, provide industry and product news with some entertainment value.
• Send customers thank you cards or gifts after making a purchase or sending you a referral. You can also send a thank you gift to show appreciation for their business on the account anniversary date.
• Look for ways to help your clients and prospects beyond your own capabilities. Refer them to other quality vendors, share an article related to their business or about their competition, or put them in touch with someone who can help. This will go a long way in building a relationship.
• Make phone calls. Email is easy but picking up the phone and thanking someone for using your company can go a long way. Don’t forget the value of real conversations and face-to-face meetings.

Summary

Once you have turned a prospect into a customer, your relationship with that customer should continue to grow. It is far less expensive to cultivate your existing customer base and sell more services to them than it is to seek new customers. To build loyalty in your customer base, focus on their needs through relationship marketing.