Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

I’ve been an avid country music fan since my early teens and alternatively annoyed many of my peers or converted others to appreciate country music. I’m now a huge fan of Classic Country although I still enjoy some of the modern country songs.  This morning I heard a song by Toby Keith, Country Music Superstar, that inspired my post. It’s entitled, “Somewhere Else.”   The line in the song that struck me was: If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up somewhere else.

I couldn’t help thinking how true that could be about our online businesses.  Most offline business owners are very clear about what type of business they’ll engage in.  The lines are not always as clear for online businesses.

Many of us start our online businesses without a Business Plan; therefore, we have no clear path to follow.  We also do not have a (more…)

In a recent post my colleague, Lynn Brown of LearnIt2EarnitWithLynn.com made some excellent points on building a list, including offering your subscribers something of value; follow-up with them on a regular basis; and build a relationship with the persons on your list.

From the foregoing it's clear that as entrepreneurs and small business owners it's important that you include building your list as part of your marketing strategies.

You are encouraged to have a Marketing Plan which includes blogging, audio blogging, article marketing, video marketing, teleseminars, etc. You implement these strategies so that more people will know what your marketing message is and get to know you. They will then want to join your list and become one of your subscribers.

Once you start building your list around a particular topic, it will be made up of people who have, as it were, raised their hand to say that they are interested in what you have to offer. They also are saying that they want to get to know you and perhaps get to like and trust you.

In building a relationship with your subscribers you have the opportunity to create your community around a given topic.

Customer satisfaction has always been an important part of by own businesses, because my customers' response to any customer service that I engage in is how I measure my success in customer service.

Is customer service, customer care, and customer satisfaction important to you? Then I invite you to become a part of my Customer Service/Customer Satisfaction community over at http://qualitycustomersatisfaction.com. I would love to hear and share you stories and experiences in this area. We will be pro-active and also highlight things that we should avoid . I will be inviting Guest Bloggers to share their thoughts on Customer Service/Customer Satisfaction. Please join me at http://qualitycustomersatisfaction.com and start receiving your 7-Day eCourse today.

As I did further research on putting together a Marketing Plan for my business I found a great deal of information on the topic.  A point that was immediately evident is that whether you are marketing a service or product one of your biggest challenges is to determine how you will reach your customers.

One publication recommended doing a study of what your competition is doing since they would already have done the research to find out what works best.

This reminds me of a study I did several years ago for a business project, which showed that two of the largest national hardware stores in the United States are often built in close proximity to each other.  The major chain built a store in an area only after careful study of the demographics, etc.  The other chain took advantage of that research and built a store in the area as well.

The following are some offline and online marketing methods that can create growth in your business:

• Blogging
• Article Marketing
• Social Media
• Affiliate Marketing
• Teleseminars
• Press Releases
• Printed Materials  – business cards, brochures, and flyers (more…)