Impact of Advertising on Customer Loyality

*BEST PRACTICE guest * obedience _The limited number of calling contacts, the difficulty of recruiting sweet business customers and the cost of some business products or services all slopped that brinytaining customer loyalty is pigment to B2B marketing success. Sara Goodwins looks at some universal approaches to this problem_ Is it easier and less expensive to sell to existing customers than to go steady new ones? Of go it is. In the B2B argonna, however, sales round of golfs are longer.If customers are non to be tempted external by competitors, marketing brings to encourage them to develop a kindred with the brand. Anthony Green, sales & marketing unionizeor of Concep, comments If businesses keep in touch, customers become beaten(prenominal) with products and services on offer and the confederacy will be taken into consideration when a purchase is made. When keeping in touch with customers, chat should achieve a number of objectives.Firstly, it should reassure the customer that they made a good choice of partner/supplier. It should also add assess to the relationship, to a higher place what has been contracted, seek additional opportunities for set ahead business, and inform business and node close new developments. Existing customers, lapsed customers and prospects should be approached distinctly. Marketers sack up assume that customers are familiar with the business and currently prefer your products/services or d take in done so in the recent past.Ideally no customer should ever go elsewhere, provided there will be events such as changes in personnel, expiry of contracts, upheavals in the market, that change the relationship. Julie Cooper, co- music director of events management guild Fab, points out, If a key contact within the client company is replaced, you strike to establish confidence and trust with a new person and the new contact may well bring with them pre-existing relationships with competing suppliers. Keep in touch Lapsed customers, because of the past business relationship, should not be contacted in the same way as prospects.Alan Curnow, communication theory theater director of Grass root, explains The banknote between clients and prospects is (more one of) tone than substance we may motivating to think prospects memories of who we are, whereas clients even if they hurtnt bought from us for some time know us. Jan-Pieter Lips, head of business-to-business at Loyalty Management UK, which operates Nectar for Business, adds Experience shows that there is a direct correlation between winning back a lapsed customer and the time that has passed since the last transaction. Simon Ward, director of reinforces shunning Seed, considers that the frequency of customer orders is same(p) a pulse. Businesses should monitor customertransactions and identify when they change. They can and because contact thecustomer and find out why. David Lebond, executive director of P&MM, agrees Doing something wrong is the best chance for getting a customer for life if you handle a unsoundness well, put things right and demonstrate that you contract the customers interests at heart then not only will customers be retained, theyll also talk about(predicate) you in glowing terms. Newsletters Newsletters and customers magazines are one of the most obvious communications methods, which can be apply to maintain customerrelationships and loyalty. Richard Bush, managing director of Base One, says, The cut back for customermagazines which we saw in the mid 90s has diminished as many businesses effectuate they were expensive and their success difficult to measure, although the need for what they provided still expects. Electronic newsletters have taken over as less expensive, more measurable and synergetic replacements.To include relevant material, you need to consider things like life cycle of products/services and how they relate to customers and learning held about custom ers which helps target mailings. Allow readers to need for example offer the flexibility to pick areas of interest, frequency of mailing, etc. still make sure that they can change their selections with each mailing. Denise Cox, newsletter specializer at Newsweaver, says, Stay away from complicated password-protected access to subscription profiles this is a rattling turn-off and readers may just start deleting your emails instead of trying to change their preferences. Newsletters need a simple lay-out, open(a) navigation and no fancy graphics such as Flash that could cause them to be filtered. They require a table of contents on each page to provide clear choice and encourage further reading around five main articles per newsletter of 300-700 words and a 100-word synopsis of each article on the front page with a link. It is also extremely important that you have a strong call-to-action in your articles, says Cox of Newsweaver. Its astonishing how many companies dont. til now its your key opportunity to incite sales, feedback and make requests for more information. Readers typically adjudicate within eight seconds whether to read on, set the information aside which in all likelihood means theyll never read it or delete it. The from and subject of the email need to tempt recipients to open it. From should be your brand, helping to build recognition subject should be interesting and relevant. Content could include articles stimulating thought and discussion, pertinent information relating to technological innovations, legislation affecting the industry, links to relevant news, client wins and caseful studies, industry reports and website links.Email newsletters are extremely cost- good, popular, and immediate, and offer measurable variation rates. Their main single out is one of commitment. Companies must be prepared to unblock a regular, well thought-out newsletter for it to be of marketing use and to answer to the interest it arouses. Reward/loy alty programmes Reward programmes and loyalty programmes are not the same. The former is tactical, the latter strategic, says Lebond of P&MM, he adds, Reward programmes are a form of payment for repeat business loyalty programmes represent a state of mind created in the customer. Reward programmes are most effective when there is rivalry in a sector (the programme then makes the point of difference) or there are frequent purchases to lock wrap upors into the scheme or its easy to change suppliers so customers need to be induce to stay. Reward programmes are effective anywhere where customer retention is key. Geraldine Tosh, managing director of IPoints, says, A client running a website which relies heavily on advertisers, for example, can tempt people to the site using a reward programme. duplication points could be offered to clients making it their homepage for example, or using it frequently, etc. Branded reward programmes are often more cost-effective and less labour-intensiv e as well as enabling pry to accumulate quickly. The main disadvantage is that companies usually have to commit for a period of time. Steve Cooper, marketing manager at Argos Business Solutions says, In some cases a tailored scheme is more appropriate for a company where aligning with a different brand may conflict with or dilute the impact of their own brand and communications. White label reward programmes aim to build value into a companys brand and offer companies more control of how uch value theyre braggy away. Tosh of IPoints says, Reward catalogues can be tailored to include a businesss own product or service at a decrease price. Companies could even tailor the earning and redemption around their customers business needs. Customers who know that your company is helping to build their business have a powerful bonus to buy from you. Rewards are short-term encouragements loyalty is long-term commitment. As Lebond of P says, If you get the right people with the constant at titude of how can I make my customers even happier then you dont need a reward programme. corporal cordial reception Customer events are undervalued largely because the value of them is difficult to assess. personal communications and shared experiences are very personal and the positive associations remain for a long time. Sarah Webster, director of communications at Eventia, explains, Corporate hospitality enables suppliers to deepen their relationship with clients and to understand the motivations and constraints that influence buying decisions. Corporate hospitality also adds value, as Rob Allen, chief executive at TRO, explains. devour the example of an accountancy degenerate which organises a breakfast briefing for its clients on the morning following the budget. By explaining the full implications of the Chancellors new financial provisions, the firm is enabling its client companies to make significant savings or profits. The client relationship is enhanced. Bush of Ba se One has no doubt, Thirty transactions in a room with your top 10 customers is worth thousands of DM pieces. Dedicated client website Webpages are particularly powerful marketing tools when used in conjunction with other marketing communication.Businesses can track the customers move through the site. Marketers can then use the information to tailor communications which recognise each clients interests. The main problem with websites is that the information they contain needs to be frequently refreshed to ensure that customers revisit. Many of the suggestions for newsletters apply as to websites. Anthony Green, sales & marketing director of Concep, comments Additional information tied into a newsletter article can be put on the webpage. Those who brattle on the webpage have decided consciously that they want to access further information.Companies can then analyse the click-throughs and understand the specific areas of interest on both a macro and per-recipient level. Tosh o f IPoints is succinct, Use microsites and reward schemes to collect information and then use the information in communications. Communication is the key Relevant, valuable and timely communications are seminal to maintainingcustomer loyalty. Lebond of P says, all piece of communication could potentially be the lowest common denominator in a businesss contact with its clients, so each one must be as good as possible.More business is lost by poor communications then by anything else. Newsletters draw customers to websites where their interests can be analysed and responded to, reward programmes encourage frequent transactions, and hospitality enables personal contact. Curnow of Grass Roots explains, Loyalty is not so much a pattern of conduct as a state-of-mind. The single most conclusive evidence of loyalty is advocacy, not usage. The acid test is not how much the customer spends but how hard it would be to prise him away. And of course you cannot put a value on that