Why You Need To Shift To Relationship Marketing In 2022 To Grow Your Sales

 

Why You Need To Shift To Relationship Marketing In 2022 To Grow Your Sales

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Why You Need To Shift To Relationship Marketing In 2022 To Grow Your Sales

After sweeping social media privacy changes were enacted in 2021, businesses scrambled to effectively reach new customers while keeping their advertising and marketing costs down. While these shifts were beneficial to the end consumer, they created new customer acquisition challenges for online businesses.

Reese Spykerman, ecommerce marketing consultant at Design by Reese, offers her guidance and advice around specific ways to pivot your marketing in 2022. With over 15 years of expertise in the marketing space and serving hundreds of clients of her own, Reese's advice and guidance are appreciated by many.

Reese Spykerman

Design by Reese

Data collection changes that affected the user's privacy negatively impacted businesses who’d previously used personal tracking data to hyper target relevant ads to consumers. With personalized tracking data gone, the effectiveness of digital ads waned while acquisition costs spiked, leading to increased advertising budgets.

Email campaigns were impacted, too, with privacy changes enacted by Apple in late 2021 that skewed open rate metrics, affecting a business’ ability to easily track and segment which email recipients were most engaged. Add to this a pandemic-fueled influx of new online and e-commerce businesses entering the market in 2020 and 2021, creating even more noise and competition.          

Consumers are tired of being talked to and sold to, and are tuning out, leading to a shift in how and where they spend their money. Increasingly, people are craving more meaningful relationships with whom they choose to invest their money.                

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But there is good news. Consumer fatigue and their desire for more authentic relationships can give you a competitive edge. Instead of investing money on ads that are no longer working, you can focus your 2022 marketing efforts on relationship-building initiatives, which have an inherent trust built right into them because people are more likely to trust another person than an ad.               

1.        Leverage B2B relationships

Building relationships with other business owners can naturally lead to doing business together. When a business owner needs your service, you will be the first to come to mind as you have an established connection.    

2.        Customer Referral programs

Your existing customers are some of your best salespeople. Referral programs that reward customers for referring their friends and family to you creates a triple-win situation: your customer wins because they can earn credits, discounts or other incentives to use in your store, the new customer wins because they’ve found a business they can easily trust, and you win because you’ve acquired a new customer in a much warmer way than any ad could achieve and your original customer is likely to invest more with you over time, too.          

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Leveraging relationships that endorse your product and sell it for a percentage of sales is another great way to increase your reach and client base.  You are getting visibility from another’s audience, and the customers you attract are coming in with less friction and doubt. Essentially you capitalize on borrowed trust with an affiliate endorsing you and your business.

4.        Rewards programs

Remember the days of getting stamps on a card at the coffee shop that earned you a free drink after 10 purchases? Online rewards programs use this same psychology, rewarding customers for their purchases. Reese points to the example of fashion brand Roolee, with its loyalty program that rewards customers for purchases, social media interactions, and leaving reviews. She suggests you can even use loyalty and rewards programs as a way to grow your email list.

The bottom line is that as markets and technology evolve, businesses need to change with them to survive. Customer acquisition can be very costly, but creativity with relationship-based marketing efforts will help you stay ahead in the game and potentially even increase the lifetime value of your customers. Gone are the days of relying on ads alone to acquire new customers, and re-aligning your marketing efforts to maximize trust and increase loyalty will give your business a financial edge.

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Top 2022 Marketing Trend Predictions from an 11-Year Pro

This time of year small business owners are doing one of two things: trying to keep up with holiday orders or checking out to focus on family time through the holidays. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with either of those options - but I recommend a different approach, planning your 2022 marketing (if you haven’t already).

A new year is a great time to reset both personally and professionally - to reflect on what’s working and what can be optimized for the future. In that spirit, I spent time reviewing  some of the biggest marketing takeaways for 2021 to springboard into 2022 with these Top 2022 Marketing Trends.

Short form video - it’s here to stay! I really really mean it. While long-form content has a place and purpose, short-form video content saw a significant jump in 2021 with the prominence of things like Instagram Reels and TikTok. I don’t see short-form video content slowing down for 2022….in fact, I predict it will become even more prevalent to help brands, influencers and the everyday social media user share their content.

Email & text message marketing will be keys for leads. Yes, omnichannel marketing is still a strong way to run your small business marketing, but SMS (text) messaging is on the rise and contrary to some haters, email marketing isn’t going anywhere… A 2020 report projected global spending at $83 billion by 2024 (for context, it was at just $57 billion in 2015). We’re seeing the rise of SMS marketing tools like Community and entrepreneurs and influencers leveraging text messaging to compliment their email lists to provide exclusive value and offers to communicate direct with their community. Big name brand leaders including GaryVee, to influencers and even small businesses are starting to embrace the text trend with incredible results (over 90% engagement rates in many cases!) The personal connection that channels like email and text messaging create are a big bonus for brands trying to survive past vanity social media followers. P.S. Friendly reminder you don’t own your social media...you DO own your list and should nurture it.

Voice-only (audio) content will become more prominent. 2021 saw the flock of users back to audio with platforms like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and of course more podcasts coming to life to build authority and establish individuals as thought leaders on specific topics. I anticipate in 2022 we’ll continue to see users continue to adopt audio-only methods of connection in anticipation of the continued burnout from Zooming all over the world. 

Scalable content creation strategies. We're already seeing brands do more with less, leveraging one video, one blog post or one podcast interview to create 10, 13, 44 or more pieces of content across social media and other platforms. This kind of method will help businesses of all sizes show up more effortlessly, making the most of their content and creating personalized content that aligns with their ideal target customer and how they want to interact. With content that scales we can turn one blog post into 5 social media posts, 5 text messages, 3 videos and 3+ email marketing campaigns. Repetition is a powerful tool to help your business stay top of mind and creative content producers will leverage this even more in 2022.

Rise of alternate paid advertising methods. With 2021 brought the introduction of iOS14 and the departure of a truly personalized ads experience (in some cases). Rising costs on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even Google for ads space are making these “traditional” digital marketing methods less and less competitive for small to midsize businesses. Meaning alternative paid advertising methods have started to rise. Enter Pinterest, and audio-forward platforms like AudioGo, TikTok and other diverse digital advertising methods to help small businesses stay top of mind.

Nurture flows and automation will go mainstream. We’re seeing automation begin to be adopted by small businesses with all the chatter on funnels and lead magnets, but I anticipate 2022 will be a year where nurture flows and automation go even more mainstream. Tools like Zapier, Dubsado* and Automate.io make it quite easy and cost effective for small businesses to access automation tools, and with the rising costs of labor, supplies and shipping, I anticipate more and more small businesses will turn to automation to keep their businesses running as smoothly (and efficiently) as possible in 2022.

The evolution of the personal brand. Gone are the days where having a solid business brand is enough. We’re seeing the rise of personal branding for entrepreneurs with the prominence of social media and that personal look at the human can have a big business impact. I don’t anticipate the importance of personal branding to stop, instead I expect this to rise to the next level in 2022. With entrepreneurs leveraging their personal brands to connect with their audience even more whether it is a new NFT project, an audio-interview or more

Note: Items noted with an * contain an affiliate link and we may receive a small commission for any purchases made through those links.

DID YOUR 2022 MARKETING PREDICTION MAKE THE LIST? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION.

A version of this article originally appeared on the RielDeal Marketing Blog

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Affiliate Marketing Is Still Strong in 2021

Affiliate marketing has been around for quite a while, and businesses are starting to appreciate its benefits more and more. 

This type of marketing helps companies market a product using a low budget, investing little time and effort, and getting a high return on investment, while also increasing brand awareness.

Spending on affiliate marketing has been growing by about 10% every year in the last decade, and it is projected to reach $8.2 billion in 2022. 

Different Types of Affiliate Marketing Channels

First and foremost – what is affiliate marketing? In short, affiliate marketing is a strategy that can come to life in many different ways. Let’s go over some of the most common channels you can use to make money as a third-party advertiser:

Influencer Marketing

Influencers are individuals who have the power to impact the buying habits of a significant number of people, and that makes them ideal candidates for successful campaigns. They already have a large follower base, and all they need to do is direct the consumers to the seller’s products using their blog or one or more social media platforms.

Blogging

Since successful bloggers have the ability to rank organically on search engines, they can also excel when it comes to increasing the sellers’ conversions. The blogger will try out the product or service, write a review that promotes it, and send the traffic to the seller’s website. Whenever the campaign results in sales,  the blogger is rewarded for the effort.

Email Lists

Email marketing is another viable source of income. Many advertisers rely on email lists that they use for the sake of promoting the sellers’ products, while others rely on email newsletters that contain hyperlinks to different products that enable them to earn commission after the consumers click on it and buy the item or service.

Examples of Industries that Benefit from Affiliate Marketing

Although this advertising strategy can be embraced by almost all types of businesses, there are some industries that stand out when it comes to its benefits:

Online Casinos

Promoting casinos is tricky in most countries, but affiliate marketing has proven to be the most effective strategy, and while casinos benefit greatly from this practice, active advertisers also get a solid percentage of stable income each month in return. 

This form of marketing has been so valuable that many companies found some great solutions to track and monitor the success of their marketing campaigns. For example, GiG Comply compliance software is one of the tools that can help you, as a casino provider, manage and monitor the marketing efforts of your affiliates in a simple way. With services like this, affiliate to casino cooperation works more smoothly, and benefits are seen much more clearly for both sides.

E-Commerce Brands

A total of 81% of brands include affiliate marketing in their advertising strategies. Ecommerce companies rely on this form of advertising because it helps them increase their reach faster and with more consistency. It also enables them to distribute their message to a much wider audience online than they normally would. Another attractive component of the system is the fact that brands only pay their partners after the sale has been made. 

Coupon Sites

Coupon sites typically promote voucher codes and other special offers on their websites, as well as in targeted newsletters that they send out to consumers. Although such websites have been successful advertisers on their own, recently they started expanding their strategies to include influencer collaborations and in-app targeting campaigns.

The Benefits of Being an Affiliate Marketer

Now that you know what niches support affiliate strategies, you can learn more about why being an affiliate marketer pays off:

Passive Income

It gives you a chance to make money while you sleep, instead of having to be at work in order to get paid. If you invest some time and effort in a campaign, you will see repeated returns as consumers continue to buy the product or service. You will enjoy the amazing perk of receiving money for your work long after you’ve completed it.

It is Cost-Effective

Most ways to make money online involve startup fees and a certain amount of cash flow that will keep the business going in the initial stages. On the other hand, affiliate marketing can be set up quickly and be operated at a very low cost. Starting it is pretty straightforward – there are no program fees, and no need to create and manage products.

The Rewards Are Performance-Based

While traditional jobs can even get you to work extra hours and still get the same amount of money at the end of the month, here the earnings are based on your performance and effort. You will be rewarded for the work you put in. If you perfect your reviewing skills and take time to create engaging campaigns, it will result in improvements in your revenue.

Affiliate marketing is quickly working its way to becoming one of the main aspects of many advertising strategies, mostly because of the high return that comes with it. 

As the market continues to develop, the benefits of this form of advertising are becoming more apparent to businesses of all sizes, and we can expect to see a rise in companies and marketers involved in it.