Welcome to a New Age of Relationship Marketing
As the landscape of marketing changes, how brands build relationships with audiences is evolving to keep up.
Digital advertising is everywhere. In fact, there’s so much digital advertising that more than 50% of it is never even seen, according to the IAB.
The question becomes, “Why is this advertising going unseen?”
It all starts with the fact that simply targeting actual people doesn’t generate enough impressions. Nor does it guarantee that people will see the ad, considering that they are being targeted by multiple advertisers at once.
So is it the end of advertising as we know it?
As the sheer volume of advertising across all media increases, consumers are growing tired of the constant advertising — and aware of how and where it exists.
As ads increasingly go digital, consumers are growing weary of the constant interruptions. Around 25.8% of internet users in 2019 had some form of ad blocker software operating on their devices, which blocked roughly a quarter of paid advertising efforts from reaching targeted audiences (Statista, 2019).
But it’s more than just blocking ads — consumers are also actively ignoring ads. Forrester reported that 50% of U.S. adults online avoid ads on websites and 47% actively avoid mobile in-app ads.
To avoid falling into this digital abyss, businesses must rethink their communications approaches. They need to develop ways to not only grow and expand their digital footprint but to also acknowledge existing customers.
The result: A shift from traditional marketing to relationship marketing.
Relationship marketing works to establish “deeper, more meaningful relationships with customers” to establish (and ensure!) long-term customer satisfaction and hopefully, brand loyalty (Hubspot, 2019). With relationship marketing, the focus is on keeping your customers happy and yes, building a strong relationship with them — reminding them why they keep choosing your brand, what they love about it.
There are four things to keep in mind when conducting relationship marketing:
1. First-party data is the most important kind of data.
Today, brand loyalty is weaker than ever. In fact, we discovered that people wouldn’t care if 77% of brands just disappeared. (Havas Meaningful Brands Study, 2019).
So how do we make people care about what we’re advertising? By using first-party data to build comprehensive, detailed “customer profiles” that help us better understand who it is we want to reach with our marketing efforts and how they feel about advertising.
First-party data is a modern marketer’s first choice for customer insight. With first-party data, marketers can create stronger media mixes that can better reach audiences where they are, with ads that are more personalized to each customer profile.
2. Relationship marketing is now conducted on social channels.
There’s a perception that email is a “dying” channel of communication. I say, really? If so, then why are Starbucks’ free drink offers always sent out via email? And why do so many stores, from Old Navy to Ulta, send out emails alerting customers to big sales?
However, email marketing is still a primarily one-way form of marketing. Relationship marketing is strongest when it’s done on social platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
These newer social channels have realized that using known customer data for targeting is most effective. By providing companies the ability to create marketing and advertising campaigns based on the first-party customer data users of the platform are providing, brands and companies can more effectively reach potential audiences based on interests, career paths, and more.
3. Privacy is the next tsunami.
It’s not enough to just upload a custom audience list to Facebook without any prep work. That won’t help you reach the potential customers you actually want to reach.
Brands should practice audience segmentation or breaking down target audiences into subgroups based on certain identifying factors-ranging from basics such as demographics and level of education to personality type, values, beliefs, and attitudes-before hitting “upload” (Mailchimp). This requires tons of data. But along with data use increasing, data breaches have increased as well. To maintain trust, you have to put privacy first — protecting your customers and your data.
4. Tech orchestration is more critical now than ever.
It’s hard to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of marketing technology alone. Brands must utilize integrated solutions for managing data, especially first-party data, to become truly customer-focused marketers. After all, effectively managing first-party data is one of the most important aspects of relationship marketing. Integrated marketing technology, such as CDPs or DMPs, are the best way to manage data and build (and evolve) customer profiles.
Let’s recap:
Modern marketers are realizing the importance of harnessing and nurturing relationships with their customers, and so we enter a new age of relationship marketing. As the rebirth of relationship marketing continues, brands have to find ways to truly bring their first-party data to life and build meaningful long-standing relationships with their customers.
If you’re ready to get into relationship marketing, get in touch with us at hello@havashelia.com.
Read the original article by Havas Helia President and Chief Data Officer Michael Kaushansky on MarTech here.
