4 Tactics To Create Brand Loyalty Through Relationship Marketing

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “no one will care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” This statement is true in many facets of life -- the business world being no exception.

In fact, when it comes to personal branding, creating relationships and building trust is vital and imperative for success. Once you have created relationships with your customers and you have earned their trust, you will also gain their loyalty. This is a huge advantage. Once you gain loyalty, you could have a customer for life.

Below are a few specific ideas for how you can build relationships and create brand loyalty:

1. Offering returning customers a discount on services.

Everyone loves a good deal. Therefore, when a customer returns to you, it is a good idea to reward them for coming back. This doesn't have to be a huge discount; it can just be a percentage off of their bill. However, simply acknowledging that you appreciate their business and are thankful they are coming back to you is a great way to encourage loyalty.

2. Giving rewards for references.

Giving your current customers rewards for referring other customers to you is yet another way to show your current customers you appreciate their business. It also helps build up your customer database quickly. 

3. Offering updates. 

On your Facebook or Twitter page, you can post updates about your business and even your personal life -- if you are comfortable with that. This will make your customers feel like they know you. They will have the inside scoop, a behind-the-scenes look at what you are dealing with on any given day. As a result, you suddenly become more human to them. This is important because appearing as a human in their eyes instead of a big, cold, heartless company is key to relationship building. Consequently, it’s crucial to personal branding as well. Updating your social-media accounts or website is a great way to humanize yourself.

4. Really caring about your customers.

Your customers will see through any fake expressions on your part. Therefore, when you aim to build relationships with your customers, be sure that you actually do care about their well-being. By treating your customers well, you will be amazed at how willing they become to support your business.

Building relationships and personal branding are intertwined. You simply can’t have one without the other. Your work to build lasting relationships with your customers will pay dividends in regards to the growth of your personal brand. 

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21 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than Average People

World’s richest woman Gina Rinehart is enduring a media firestorm over an article in which she takes the “jealous” middle class to task for “drinking, or smoking and socializing” rather than working to earn their own fortune.

What if she has a point? Steve Siebold, author of “How Rich People Think,” spent nearly three decades interviewing millionaires around the world to find out what separates them from everyone else. It had little to do with money itself, he told Business Insider. It was about their mentality. “[The middle class] tells people to be happy with what they have,” he said. “And on the whole, most people are steeped in fear when it comes to money.”

Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil. Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.

“The average person has been brainwashed to believe rich people are lucky or dishonest,” Siebold writes. That’s why there’s a certain shame that comes along with “getting rich” in lower-income communities. “The world class knows that while having money doesn’t guarantee happiness, it does make your life easier and more enjoyable.”

Average people think selfishness is a vice. Rich people think selfishness is a virtue.

“The rich go out there and try to make themselves happy. They don’t try to pretend to save the world,” Siebold told Business Insider. The problem is that middle class people see that as a negative––and it’s keeping them poor, he writes. “If you’re not taking care of you, you’re not in a position to help anyone else. You can’t give what you don’t have.”

Average people have a lottery mentality. Rich people have an action mentality.

“While the masses are waiting to pick the right numbers and praying for prosperity, the great ones are solving problems,” Siebold writes. “The hero [middle class people] are waiting for may be God, government, their boss or their spouse. It’s the average person’s level of thinking that breeds this approach to life and living while the clock keeps ticking away.”

Average people think the road to riches is paved with formal education. Rich people believe in acquiring specific knowledge.

“Many world-class performers have little formal education, and have amassed their wealth through the acquisition and subsequent sale of specific knowledge,” he writes. “Meanwhile, the masses are convinced that master’s degrees and doctorates are the way to wealth, mostly because they are trapped in the linear line of thought that holds them back from higher levels of consciousness…The wealthy aren’t interested in the means, only the end.”

Average people long for the good old days. Rich people dream of the future.

“Self-made millionaires get rich because they’re willing to bet on themselves and project their dreams, goals and ideas into an unknown future,” Siebold writes. “People who believe their best days are behind them rarely get rich, and often struggle with unhappiness and depression.”

Average people see money through the eyes of emotion. Rich people think about money logically.

“An ordinarily smart, well-educated and otherwise successful person can be instantly transformed into a fear-based, scarcity driven thinker whose greatest financial aspiration is to retire comfortably,” he writes. “The world class sees money for what it is and what it’s not, through the eyes of logic. The great ones know money is a critical tool that presents options and opportunities.”

Average people earn money doing things they don’t love. Rich people follow their passion.

“To the average person, it looks like the rich are working all the time,” Siebold says. “But one of the smartest strategies of the world class is doing what they love and finding a way to get paid for it.”On the other hand, middle class take jobs they don’t enjoy “because they need the money and they’ve been trained in school and conditioned by society to live in a linear thinking world that equates earning money with physical or mental effort.”

Average people set low expectations so they’re never disappointed. Rich people are up for the challenge.

“Psychologists and other mental health experts often advise people to set low expectations for their life to ensure they are not disappointed,” Siebold writes. “No one would ever strike it rich and live their dreams without huge expectations.”

Average people believe you have to DO something to get rich. Rich people believe you have to BE something to get rich.

“That’s why people like Donald Trump go from millionaire to nine billion dollars in debt and come back richer than ever,” he writes. “While the masses are fixated on the doing and the immediate results of their actions, the great ones are learning and growing from every experience, whether it’s a success or a failure, knowing their true reward is becoming a human success machine that eventually produces outstanding results.”

Average people believe you need money to make money. Rich people use other people’s money.

Linear thought might tell people to make money in order to earn more, but Siebold says the rich aren’t afraid to fund their future from other people’s pockets.

“Rich people know not being solvent enough to personally afford something is not relevant. The real question is, ‘Is this worth buying, investing in, or pursuing?’” he writes.

Average people believe the markets are driven by logic and strategy. Rich people know they’re driven by emotion and greed.

Investing successfully in the stock market isn’t just about a fancy math formula. “The rich know that the primary emotions that drive financial markets are fear and greed, and they factor this into all trades and trends they observe,” Siebold writes. “This knowledge of human nature and its overlapping impact on trading give them strategic advantage in building greater wealth through leverage.”

Average people live beyond their means. Rich people live below theirs.

“Here’s how to live below your means and tap into the secret wealthy people have used for centuries: Get rich so you can afford to,” he writes. “The rich live below their means, not because they’re so savvy, but because they make so much money that they can afford to live like royalty while still having a king’s ransom socked away for the future.”

Average people teach their children how to survive. Rich people teach their kids to get rich.

Rich parents teach their kids from an early age about the world of “haves” and “have-nots,” Siebold says. Even he admits many people have argued that he’s supporting the idea of elitism. He disagrees. “[People] say parents are teaching their kids to look down on the masses because they’re poor. This isn’t true,” he writes. “What they’re teaching their kids is to see the world through the eyes of objective reality––the way society really is.” If children understand wealth early on, they’ll be more likely to strive for it later in life.

Average people let money stress them out. Rich people find peace of mind in wealth.

The reason wealthy people earn more wealth is that they’re not afraid to admit that money can solve most problems, Siebold says. “[The middle class] sees money as a never-ending necessary evil that must be endured as part of life. The world class sees money as the great liberator, and with enough of it, they are able to purchase financial peace of mind.”

Average people would rather be entertained than educated. Rich people would rather be educated than entertained.

While the rich don’t put much stock in furthering wealth through formal education, they appreciate the power of learning long after college is over, Siebold says. “Walk into a wealthy person’s home and one of the first things you’ll see is an extensive library of books they’ve used to educate themselves on how to become more successful,” he writes. “The middle class reads novels, tabloids and entertainment magazines.”

Average people think rich people are snobs. Rich people just want to surround themselves with like-minded people.

The negative money mentality poisoning the middle class is what keeps the rich hanging out with the rich, he says. “[Rich people] can’t afford the messages of doom and gloom,” he writes. “This is often misinterpreted by the masses as snobbery. Labeling the world class as snobs is another way the middle class finds to feel better bout themselves and their chosen path of mediocrity.”

Average people focus on saving. Rich people focus on earning.

Siebold theorizes that the wealthy focus on what they’ll gain by taking risks, rather than how to save what they have. “The masses are so focused on clipping coupons and living frugally they miss major opportunities,” he writes. “Even in the midst of a cash flow crisis, the rich reject the nickle and dime thinking of the masses. They are the masters of focusing their mental energy where it belongs: on the big money.”

Average people play it safe with money. Rich people know when to take risks.

“Leverage is the watchword of the rich,” Siebold writes. “Every investor loses money on occasion, but the world class knows no matter what happens, they will aways be able to earn more.”

Average people love to be comfortable. Rich people find comfort in uncertainty.

For the most part, it takes guts to take the risks necessary to make it as a millionaire––a challenge most middle class thinkers aren’t comfortable living with. “Physical, psychological, and emotional comfort is the primary goal of the middle class mindset,” Siebold writes. World class thinkers learn early on that becoming a millionaire isn’t easy and the need for comfort can be devastating. They learn to be comfortable while operating in a state of ongoing uncertainty.”

Average people never make the connection between money and health. Rich people know money can save your life.

While the middle class squabbles over the virtues of Obamacare and their company’s health plan, the super wealthy are enrolled in a super elite “boutique medical care” association, Siebold says. “They pay a substantial yearly membership fee that guarantees them 24-hour access to a private physician who only serves a small group of members,” he writes. “Some wealthy neighborhoods have implemented this strategy and even require the physician to live in the neighborhood.”

Average people believe they must choose between a great family and being rich. Rich people know you can have it all.

The idea the wealth must come at the expense of family time is nothing but a “cop-out”, Siebold says. “The masses have been brainwashed to believe it’s an either/or equation,” he writes. “The rich know you can have anything you want if you approach the challenge with a mindset rooted in love and abundance.”

AUTHOR: Mandi Woodruff

 

Mandi edited the personal finance vertical for Business Insider until October 2013. Before joining BI, she covered breaking legal news for Law360.com, was a research editor at Reader’s Digest, and reported on education in her home state of Georgia.

Her work has appeared in Yahoo! Finance, Daily Finance, The Wall Street Journal, The Fiscal Times, The Christian Science Monitor and the Financial Times, among others. 

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How To Create Effective Content on Websites

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How To Sustain Business Growth

Learn how to test and measure everything you do in your marketing to get the sustained growth you are looking for.

Get More Leads & Sales

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Enjoy the video.

5 Social Media Marketing Metrics You Should Be Tracking

Social media can be an extraordinarily effective marketing medium, but it can also be a tremendous time sink for brands that focus on the wrong priorities.

Many marketers religiously monitor their Facebook followers, retweets and other popular social media data, but there are other metrics that are even more important that many people ignore altogether.

Miss these, and your ability to drive major performance results from your social media marketing efforts declines significantly!

There are several reasons social shares provide very little information about the overall effectiveness of your campaign. Some of these include:

• Many social shares come from bots.
• Social shares may not come from your target customers.
• Social shares can be from people that are speaking negatively about your brand.

While Facebook likes and retweets can provide some interesting information, you’ll also want to track the metrics that provide a more nuanced understanding of the impact of your social media efforts.

The primary goals of your social media campaign should be boosting customer engagement and brand awareness. Social shares and follower counts can tell part of the story, but you’ll want to monitor the following metrics as well for more valuable insights.

1. Brand search volume

A 2009 study from GroupM found that customers that are exposed to a brand on social media are 180 percent more likely to search for that brand on search engines.

Clearly, this demonstrates that search volume for brand terms is an important metric, yet many brands somehow fail to monitor it.

There are a variety of tools to measure brand search volume, but Google Insights and Google Trends are probably the most effective. Use these tools to compare changes in search volume for your brand against changes to your competitors’ volume. Doing so can provide insight into your ability to engage customers on social media, relative to your competition.

2. Lead growth

While this aggregate data -- such as number of social followers or social mentions -- can be a good indicator of overall brand awareness, it provides little information about your ability to draw targeted leads to your site.

Instead, use an attribution program to tell you whether your social media campaigns are resulting in positive leads or conversion growth.

For example, a program such as Marketo or Convertro will measure how many social interactions, web page visits or email opens it takes before one of your prospects becomes a customer.

Depending on the program, they may even assign a relative weight to each action so that you can see what kind of role every interaction played in the eventual conversion. Not only will this data tell you if your social campaigns are performing effectively, it’ll show you how to better allocate your activities and marketing resources in the future.

3. Brand sentiment

Contrary to popular wisdom, all publicity is not good publicity!

This is even more important when it comes to social media, as negative consumer sentiments can destroy your brand in very little time.

Tools such as SocialMention and Meltwater can help you measure the sentiment of the conversations surrounding your brand online, but what’s just as important is having a plan for how you’ll respond if you find that your brand’s image isn’t as pristine as you like.

To prepare for this frustrating possibility, create internal documents dictating who is responsible for responding to negative brand mentions, what your official company response will be and what types of recompense you’re willing to offer unhappy customers.

4. Inbound links

Inbound links are both essential ranking factors for Google and a good measure of your content’s overall popularity.

But rather than merely measuring any changes to your search engine result page rankings, it’s also a good idea to actively track changes in your link velocity in relation to your social media campaigns.

You may notice that the volume of inbound links to your site increases after running a contest, producing a specific piece of content or implementing some other social media marketing strategy.

If you can identify these surges and tie them to your social activities, you’ll gain insight into which of your campaigns have made the biggest difference in terms of link building and brand exposure.

5. Klout score

Klout has become a popular tool for measuring social media engagement, and it’s one you’ll want to start using right away to determine whether your marketing efforts are resulting in better brand recognition or higher perceived authority.

In 2011, Klout claimed that 100 million people used its platform, though anecdotal research suggests that few of these people actively monitor their Klout score.

Don’t be that guy!

Monitoring your Klout score will give you a good indication of how effectively you’re engaging with your social media followers, so it’s a good metric to start tracking today.

Start measuring your social media campaigns differently.

Measuring follower engagement and brand awareness is a crucial part of social media optimization.

But unfortunately, gauging the effectiveness of your social media strategy is often difficult, as this type of interpretation is highly subjective.

To measure the impact your social media campaigns are having on your brand’s performance, start by making sure you’re tracking the right metrics.

Lead growth, brand searches, brand sentiment, inbound links and Klout score are just a few of the variables that any brand concerned with its social impact should be tracking.

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The Importance of Positioning in Marketing

In this video I speak about how to position yourself or your business as an expert/authority. I hope you enjoy it!

What Google's New Mobile-Friendly Changes Mean for You

On February 26, Google dropped a major bomb in a seemingly-casual blog post on mobile-friendly search results. While the engine has always made mobile-readiness and the easy access of information a priority, it has now spelled out that it will use mobile-friendliness as a stronger ranking signal than ever before. It will also increase the presence of relevant app content in the search results.

So what does that mean for you? Basically, if you’ve been holding out on implementing a mobile strategy for your business website, it’s time to make this a top priority. Here’s how to do it.

Check your site’s mobile-friendliness

Google has made it easy to take the first step toward determining whether your site is set to take advantage of these new changes with its Mobile-Friendly Test. Simply open the page, enter your URL and click “Analyze.”

Google will then check your site and report whether or not it’s mobile-friendly. If your site qualifies, the tool will also return a screenshot of how your site currently appears on mobile devices.

If your site ranks as mobile-friendly, you’re in good shape, though you’ll still want to read through the following recommendations. Just because your current design passes Google’s test doesn’t mean that there aren’t still ways for you to improve or things you’ll want to watch out for if you go through a website redesign in the future.

Fixing mobile-friendliness issues

If your site fails Google’s mobile-friendliness test, the program will report the specific issues that led to this determination.

These recommendations will give you a starting place for the changes you’ll want to make to bring your site into compliance. Google also offers a helpful guide to getting started with mobile-friendly websites you can reference to help resolve these issues.

However, be aware that the issues Google reports may not be the only factors influencing your website’s mobile usability. For that reason, it’s a good idea to explore all of the following steps to ensure your mobile visitors are as comfortable on your site as your desktop users.

1. Is my site responsive?

In the past, website developers had several options to create a mobile site version, including custom coding a separate mobile site, deploying device-specific HTML sites based on the vary HTTP header tag, or using a responsive design that automatically adjusted to account for various device sizes.

Today, though, there are simply too many different device shapes and sizes for a single static mobile site to fit comfortably on all potential screens. Google’s official recommendation is now to use a responsive website design. Your developer or designer can tell you if your site uses this protocol. Or, if your mobile-friendliness test reports that your mobile viewport is not set (as above) or uses a fixed-width, there’s a good chance your site is not responsive and should be fixed ASAP.

2. Are scripts or other services interfering with my site’s usability?

If your desktop site makes use of pop-up lightbox scripts, exit intent banners or other similar types of technology, it’s critical that you ensure these programs are able to accommodate mobile users. There’s simply nothing more frustrating than having a banner pop up across your mobile web browser and being unable to close it.

At the same time, be sure that your site avoids the use of file types like Flash that either don’t display at all or display incorrectly on some mobile sites. Google’s priority is to get people the information they want, as quickly as possible -- and they can’t do that if your files are too difficult to load.

3. How easy is it to navigate my mobile site?

In addition, remember that what looks good on your desktop website may not work as well on a mobile device. Keep all of the following considerations in mind as you evaluate your site’s mobile-friendliness.

• Make sure any tap targets are at least 48 CSS pixels tall/wide, and that you have at least 32 CSS pixels of both vertical and horizontal spacing between each tap target. Doing so will prevent inadvertent wrong-page clicks that can frustrate users.
• Use a base font with a size of at least 16 CSS pixels. Keep the number of fonts used to a minimum and maintain appropriate vertical spacing between rows of text.
• Adjust any graphic elements on your site that are currently using a fixed width formatting, as this will prevent your content -- even when part of a responsive site design -- from sizing appropriately for the viewport.

Finally, even if you think you’ve set up everything perfectly, test, test and test some more. Use mobile site emulators to view your website in different sizes and layouts. Ask friends and family members to navigate from their digital devices, or invest in paid user testing that’ll record the actions and reactions of anonymous visitors to your mobile site.

It may sound like a lot of work to guarantee mobile-friendliness, but it’s a vital part of keeping your visitors happy and maintaining your site’s search visibility.

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