Winning new customers and brand fans can be a challenging feat. The mass-marketing methodologies of yesterday are slowly fading into the history books of best approaches to top-converting marketing. In their place is a digital communications revolution founded in Web 3.0, focused on positioning a brand's comms strategy with "relational marketing."
The goal of relational marketing? To move a brand's target buyer persona from a stranger to a customer.
Target Buyer Persona
This ideal customer profile is defined as the one person that your brand is looking to engage through content and offers. MarCom teams are responsible for finding the market fit for their product or service, defining the buyer persona with such criteria as:
- Personal attributes: Name, Gender, Income, Education, Location
- Social attributes: Places of Socializing, Places of Networking (ie. LinkedIn)
- Professional attributes: Goals, Influencers, Top 3 Objectives, Top Challenge
- Opportunity attributes: Main Pain Point, Value Prop of Your Brand
Gaining Leads & Opportunities with Relational Marketing
Following your MarCom's definition of the target buyer persona, marketing and sales join forces to define the relational funnel stages at play. The key difference in the proposed relational approach, compared to a mass-marketing methodology, is the content-to-stage planning that pairs educational and serving-based content with the appropriate relational stage.
Let's look deeper into this. Similar to a first date we're not looking to move our new contact to marriage, or a sale, right off the bat. We first need to share our values, identity, offer, and intentions. Then, with a response of common intent from our buyer persona, we can guide the individual towards the fitting solution for his or her current pain point. All the while, earning their trust and building a sense of brand-to-consumer commonality.
Relational Steps Leading to a New Customer
Stranger to Visitor: Here a brand may offer value-first content that addresses our target buyer's current pain point. This could be in a video, article, or downloadable format. Focus on educating and empowering, not selling.
Lead to Opportunity: Following the capture of our target buyer's data (ie. email), we move up the relational ladder to nurture our lead into an opportunity. Focus on educating further around the mentioned pain point, while offering your brand's values and solution.
Opportunity to Customer: Following the lead's indication of interest in your solutions (via a tracked engagement), become more direct with the individual. With an in-person meeting or video call, show your strong intent to win their business. ...and go for the win!