Regular value packed interactions with client keep your company top of mind. Newsletters, seminars, workshops, and articles are great ways to educate while improving your relationship with prospects in between rendering solutions. However, value created through interactive marketing may lead clients to take your company for granted.
Inside Strategic Relations, the Center's twice-monthly newsletter, provides practical advice for both clients and prospects. ?While the newsletter builds rapport, it steps readers through methods that improve business relationships that create and keep customers. Nevertheless, a large percentage of readers think the newsletter is all they really need, even while real business relationship problems are eating their bottom-line.
Are your educational marketing interactions preventing people from getting the solutions they really need now?
If all a prospect sees are educational marketing and retention materials, then I've done them a great disservice. To solve this problem I've hired Jessica Albon, a newsletter expert, to help me better serve readers by moving them past the newsletter into tailored solutions that solve the real problems they face.? My goals are to:
Jessica Albon says,
"Don't give away your crown, a great newsletter sometimes leaves readers in a position where they take you for granted. They are learning enough to see some results, but don't know enough about what is possible to ask for more information. Make it clear where they should go next to produce the results they desire, but don't give away answers they should get through you."
"Remember, you're not serving readers effectively by giving them general advice--each reader is unique and the solutions they need are also unique. And YOU'RE the only one who's qualified to decide how to make that solution match up perfectly with each reader."
Are you making the same mistakes by giving free advice that only solves part of the problem?? If you have a complex solution that requires an educated buyer, be careful about how you educate them. ?Make it clear there is a next step and encourage prospects to take it.
I highly recommend Jessica's The Newsletter Spa, a subscription program providing tools, which help produce better results business newsletters. She has experience with corporate clients and would certainly have ideas for improving your education based marketing or retention programs.
Your interactive marketing efforts can be too good if they give your clients a false sense of security. Your newsletters and education based interactive marketing could be so good it keeps prospects from solving real problems. Reevaluate what you are giving away; it could be hurting more than you think.
/ interaction-points | b2b-websites /
By Justin Hitt at October 10, 2004 10:16 PM
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