Relationship marketing is all about building “strong connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests” but more specifically, as Steve Olenski on Forbes.com observed, it’s about emotional connections.
When you create marketing content—an ad, brochure, website, video, packaging, etc—you want to touch your target audience’s emotions. You connect with a real person.
Yes, this might be seen as manipulative, getting what you want at the expense of someone else’s needs or desires. But if your marketing intent is manipulative, it won’t build relationships.
We all have stories about relationship marketing. Some have happy endings and some are tragedies. In the interest of creating more happy ending stories in your business, here are 18 relationship marketing quotes to inspire you to create more positive emotional connections with your customers and clients in 2018.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
“Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.”
Ann Handley, head of content at MarketingProfs
“Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.”
Brian Chesky, cofounder of Airbnb
“Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers.”
Jonah Berger, author & marketing professor
“Conversation with customers will increase sales, even if the product or service is never mentioned.”
George Farris, founder of Farris Marketing
“Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay.”
Seth Godin, author & marketing expert
“Content marketing is like a first date. If you only talk about yourself, there won’t be a second one.”
David Beebe, branded content producer
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
Peter Drucker, founder of Drucker Institute
“It’s hard to target a message to a generic 35-year-old middle-class working mother of two. It’s much easier to target a message to Jennifer, who has two children under four, works as a paralegal, and is always looking for quick but healthy dinners and ways to spend more time with her kids and less time on housework.”
Elizabeth Gardner, founder of garnish media
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.”
Seth Godin
“We elect and buy from people we like. Likability is number one. We also need to believe they are honest, and have our best interests at heart.”
George Farris
“Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.”
Tony Zambito, lead authority in buyer personas
“What helps people, helps business.”
Leo Burnett
“To build a long-term, successful enterprise, when you don’t close a sale, open a relationship.”
Patricia Fripp
“Listening is not about skills or techniques or calculated movements or gestures. Listening is not about what you do. Listening is about what you intend, what you feel, who you are.”
Gavin Ingham
“If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.”
Fast Company
“Social media is about the people. Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.”
Matt Goulart
“Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.”
Seth Godin
