Online customer relationship marketing (jargon for engaging with customers online) is a bit like hosting a dinner party. As every dinner party hostess will know, it’s all about your guests. You are not there to promote yourself, but to engineer the evening to make it as pleasant as possible for all present. You take pains to make sure everybody gets on famously, there is suitable entertainment, and the food is unanimously enjoyed.
It is during the Entrée where connections are made and people are introduced to each other. The hostess will have provisionally done some research into each of her guests to enable these introductions, and will flit effortlessly from guest to guest, initiating conversations, repeating anecdotes to influential persons or broadcasting suitable topics the party as a whole, tirelessly updating her threads of communication so that everybody gets a chance to hear. She will also be listening for responses, and will adapt her hosting technique accordingly.
(In business terms, undertake initial research on your target market, set up a blog and social media profiles and start interacting regularly and consistently to engage interest on the web. Engage in a conversational style on social media and your blog.)
Progressing onto the Fish course, the hostess will have concentrated on the presentation of her dishes, providing tempting flavours that are difficult to resist, combined with unusual yet appealing food combinations to arouse compliments, comments and opinions. Certainly this course has got her noticed as an excellent cook as well as hostess, and she is willing to share her recipes with anybody to be tried at home. She hopes that her guests will remember this particular course enough to tell their friends and acquaintances about it.
(Business: provide something of added value, such as top tips, white papers and e-books, and offer the contents to anybody in accessible formats. This freely available quality information will be passed virally throughout the web, increasing its exposure and enhancing the reputation of the author.)
The Meat course is the highlight of the evening. Here the best topics of conversation are discussed, combined with the most sumptuous of roasts and game. Everybody eats heartily, enjoying the flavours and variety of dishes, and the wine flows freely. Appetites are satisfactorily satiated and the hostess is claimed to provide the best dinner parties in the town. They all look forward to the next event and decide to leave their calling cards along with their compliments at the end of the evening. Particular dishes are attributed to the hostess later in the tea parties and wine bars as guests remember the evening.
(Business: highlight the benefits of your business rather than the features; provide incentives to encourage a subscription to a mailing list for future communications; provide memorable responses that trigger a recollection of your business even when not present.)
Even the fullest of guests will have left some room for Pudding, as nobody could resist the delicate dishes full of fruit and scented ingredients, light enough to tempt a nibble, leading onto devouring the entire bowlful. The art is not to offer heavy steam puddings with rich sauces, but fluffy and delicious sweets perfectly complimenting the courses that have gone before.
(Business: put the contacts gathered earlier into a database and send consistent communications as e-newsletters to your new customers. Here you can drip-feed them with more added value and information about your company. The idea is not to use hard-sell tactics, but to highlight the benefits your company has to offer by educating them into how you can make their lives better.)
Coffee and liqueurs is a time to relax and reflect on the evening. As the port is passed amongst the gentlemen, and the ladies retire to the sitting room, the dinner party is discussed into its merits and what could be done to improve it – as many will have their view as to what could be done differently to make it even better. The hostess will not be offended, and will gratefully gather these suggestions, with a determination to make her next dinner party surpass any that have gone before.
(Business: Set up a method of gaining feedback and comments to provide a better service for your customers. This will enable improvements both to the customer relationship marketing practices, and the company and its products or services, with provision for better incentives, added value and customer retention processes.)
Alice Elliott is a digital marketer with an emphasis on providing beginner blogging help through her alter ego the Fairy Blog Mother. Here’s that code you’re looking for: CONVERSATION. Oh – and if you’re reading this post and wondering what the heck the code is for, click here to join the party.
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Your dinner parties sound deeevine. Don’t forget the thank you notes and gifts that the guests will send later (or have brought with them to the party) for the hostess. Our customers and prospects often give us lovely testimonials, referrals and yes, (we hope) even PAY us. Those are the best kind.
Thank you Tea. Sometimes it’s necessary to give many dinner parties before you get invited to others, or even receive gifts for doing so. Persistence, patience and perseverance will eventually pay off.
Sheesh, I want an invite too! But to be honest, my first thought on reading this was “This is why I never entertain.” (I am, truthfully, lazy by nature. It’s even in my Twitter bio. I have accepted this fact, after years of trying to change, and it works for me. So. There’s that.) But I love that analogy of giving MANY parties before getting invited to one – persistence DOES pay off in content marketing. In fact, it’s de rigeur. (That’s fancy cocktail party talk for “you gotta do it.”)
Of course Annie, you have to give before you can receive, otherwise how can anybody get to know you and learn what you’re really like.
What fabulous imagery, and an easily see-sawing analogy, Alice! Something i’m getting strongly from you is the PROGRESSION of things. That i’ve not been doing…it’s a much more carefully and skillfully managed endeavor than just setting the table and hoping the party takes on a life of its own.
Thank you Evan. All objectives need to have strategies put into place which need to be followed up and monitored to make sure they are working properly. Having the idea and creating a single blast will achieve nothing, except some happy customers for a short while. There needs to be a ROI or your efforts will be futile.
Makes me hungry for more. Wht I especially loved about your post was the direct link between the dinner party and the business advice. Far too often we get wrapped up in our story and forget to unpack it for the reader. You got it perfectly. Clare
“Business: provide something of added value, such as top tips, white papers and e-books, and offer the contents to anybody in accessible formats. This freely available quality information will be passed virally throughout the web, increasing its exposure and enhancing the reputation of the author.”
The caveat here is that the material has to be -worth- sharing
I’ve seen a lot of people simply rip a series of articles from Wikipedia and turn it into an “ebook”! What a bunch of hooey.
If people would listen to your approach, they’d get it right more often! Finding useful data to offer isn’t as simple as creating useful data, it all starts with listening and engagement (and then adaptation to feedback!)
Thank you Nick for your observation. An incentive should be something of added value, preferably containing a portion of your expertise you are willing to share with the recipient. Many do fall short of being worth-while, but by that time it is too late – there is, of course, always the unsubscribe or delete button. But many still hang on, hoping for a better result later…
Thank you Claire, I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Thank you Alice, I found that your comparisons to dinner and the client relationship to be entertaining and also thought provoking. Thank you!