Relationship Marketing Builds Emotional Branding
Denise Shiffman, in her book “The Age of Engage” spoke to reinventing marketing for today’s connected, collaborative, and hyper-interactive culture. Between her book and Seth Godin’s “Tribes”, many features were honed and planned for the Fitness Pro Travel Site.
The culture of the fitness professional and our clients has changed. Building
transparent, trustworthy, relationships is how the new game is played. If you are not developing social relationships as part of your business strategy, you may soon not be playing at all.
So the question is this: “Are you out there building relationships?“
Fitness Marketing Specialist, Pat Rigsby points out that we “should not fall prey to the lure of staying home and thinking marketing is just sending e-mails, occasional press releases and trying a direct mail piece once in a while.”
The results of these outward “push” marketing attempts are at best a superficial connection that is unlikely to develop a long standing client to fitness pro bond. You can develop greater “emotional branding” of yourself and your fitness business through “relationship marketing”.
“Networking and Masterminding are two of the most prominent things you can do to grow your business”, according to Pat. I agree.
Being there is not necessarily enough. You must be a contributing active participant in the social setting in order to develop relationships. Imagine going to a party with the expectation that everyone will come to you and continue to communicate with you if you do not provide value back to the conversation.
Not likely to happen.
Shippmen points out “If your only goal is to get a prospect to purchase, you’ve missed the opportunity for long-term engagement and a loyal relationship. …Web 2.0 technology… gives every company the opportunity to engage.”
This same principle is important as you network with like professionals. There is so much to be learned from each other as well as many opportunities to joint venture and support each others offerings.
So with that in mind:
Who is the most successful person you have been associating with lately?
When is the last time you actively networked with other fit pros in your local?
What have you done to surround yourself with people more successful than yourself?
There is NOTHING more powerful than relationship marketing.
Take a few minutes each day to make at least one more professional contact and one more prospect connection. That simple pace will provide nearly 400 new relationships in each category in just one year.
Get started now at Fitness Pro Travel and use the search form Looking For: Fitness Professionals to make professional connections now…..
For the rest of the social media world, check out this report provided by the Gravitational Marketing Guys.
You make very good points here. Reaching out is time consuming and it’s difficult to measure the results. But after time, it becomes part of your daily rituals and feels natural. That’s when you grow a following, can impact others positively and they will return the favor. Thanks for the shout out on my book!