Valentine’s Day was a big event at our office this year. The door bell rang with deliveries of flowers at seemingly every other hour. The lunch room was filled with boxes of heart-shaped cookies. A few of the employees even wore bright red clothing to commemorate the occasion.

And yet, seeing all of these things caused me to think about marketing!

Specifically, I started to think about all of the things that people do improve their relationships, especially when they are married. And while that certainly is very important (if my wife is reading this, let me say “Honey, I love you!”), I also think that there are lessons marketers can take from those marriage tips to help them grow their business.

Making the Connection: Marriage and Marketing

Just because you are married, it doesn’t mean that you shut down and think that you set the dial at “coast.” You still need to stay on top of your relationship, work on it, build on it. Because you want your relationship to be the best it possibly can.

Building a relationship with a prospect should be looked at the same way. We should never just rest on our laurels or set the dial to “coast.” We need to keep things fresh and interesting. We need to let our prospects know we are here for the long haul.

Here are some ways you can translate suggestions made to better your marriage and use them to enrich your marketing:

• Honesty is the best policy. Be 100% honest with your prospects.
• Just as you should be honest, you should also respect your prospects. Respect their time. Respect their interests. Respect their feedback.
• Be supportive. Let your prospects know that you are there for them. You don’t want to appear to be all about the deal and then you’re gone. And you don’t want to appear like you don’t care.
• Share the good times and the bad times with your prospects. Every marketing message doesn’t have to be a happy-go-lucky story or catchy tagline. If you present yourself as “human” and less of a faceless corporate entity, you will find your prospects feel more emotionally attached.
• Determine any issues or problems your prospects face and then try to solve them. Just like burying your head in the sand at home, if you ignore problems with your prospects, they won’t go away. In fact, they will get bigger. So tackle issues head on and communicate!
• Listen to your prospects. Really listen. And then let them know you are listening by responding in a personal fashion.
• Remember that prospects have bad days too. Don’t let that bad day set back your relationship. Be willing to forgive and move on.
• Have a regular “date” when you contact your prospects to check up on them and see how things are going. Of course, don’t hesitate to make that “date” in person when you can. A cup of coffee or a lunch goes a long way in making a relationship grow stronger.
• Have a good memory. Remember the anniversaries and the birthdays and acknowledge them. Make your prospects feel special.
• Surprise your prospects with little things here and there. Discounts, specials, resource materials, etc. Think up ways you can give your prospects a little “pick me up” that will make them fall in love with your business.

I hope that you find these tips helpful!

Of course, there are certainly many other common marriage tips that could be applied to a marketing lesson. If you have one on your mind, I’d love to hear it! Please feel free to share it in the Comments section.

When people talk about how they are using social media in the marketing efforts, Facebook and Twitter are often the first answers given.

Sure, they might be on LinkedIn. But they may currently only view it as a way for them to “collect people” – i.e. to amass connections.

If that sounds similar to how LinkedIn is utilized in your business, here is one idea for converting that connection data into a way to build relationships and generate sales.

Connections and Job Status

When someone experiences a change in their employment status, LinkedIn is often the very first social network that they update. Depending on our relationship with that person, taking action on that information can be valuable to them… and us.

I recently talked to a service provider that told me how he acts on that type of data. Here’s his story:

His company helps clients reach their marketing goals with design, print, direct mail, email, mobile, landing pages, and more.

While they have had success launching campaigns for a number of companies, they sometimes run into trouble because of high-turnover among the marketing departments that they work with. Lately, this has often occurred because of budget constraints, rather than performance.  But either way, the path to creating long-term, recurring business with those companies is not always easy when the employees change frequently.

In order to capitalize on the successes that they have helped marketers achieve, this company actively seeks to connect with those folks on social networks. Primarily, they try to do this on LinkedIn.

How LinkedIn Helps Deepen the Relationship

If a once-happy customer experiences a job change, the company still has a connection with them. For example, the company may:

• Use LinkedIn to send a personal note when the job change does occur.
• Offer up a recommendation for the person.
• Refer the person’s profile to companies where there may be a fit.

Along with those one-time actions, they will make an effort to stay in touch with them in the weeks and/or months that follow.

By staying connected and engaged to these folks, they create opportunities to receive future sales and jobs once that person is in place at a new business.

How so? Well, they were already a fan of the services provided by that company. And their appreciation of them will no doubt be deeper because of the conversations and actions that took place during the process of changing jobs. Thus, they may be apt to highly recommend that company’s services to their new employer.

Can it Help You?

Certainly, this effort takes a bit of time and determination on behalf of that service provider! But in their words, “it’s helping me grow my business!”

If you are looking for ways to use social media to create and deepen relationships, paying attention to your LinkedIn connections might be a perfect place to start.

P.S. If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, here I am!