Creating a Relationship Marketing Program for a Startup

Starting as an independent is a leap in the dark. Legal, administrative and social obligations that you must meet and regulations that are inherent in this all present a complicated tangle for start-ups.

The support and help that they can get from an HR company, via its website, the business office, the sales staff, etc. – when starting up an independent activity, form a basis for a long-lasting relationship.

This basis is often not enough in itself: the first three years in the life of an independent are precarious (limited income – looking for clients – operational costs) and they do not focus sufficiently on client relationships so that client contacts remain rather minimal.

This means that no real relationship is built up with the client and this can lead to a lot of errors.

4P square has been asked to create a Relationship Marketing Program whose goal is to build up a steadfast relationship with the startup during this crucial three-year period.

Creating a professional and long-lasting relationship is the way to a long-term partnership with future cross selling and upselling opportunities.

Solution

In a first instance, we have mapped out which channels – internal or external – can be taken to reach startups.

These channels have been evaluated according to different criteria including impact and powers of persuasion on the one hand and costs and required impact on the other and they have then been ranked in order of importance.

We then mapped out the different ‘touch-points’ = the moments when the start-up comes into or could meet the client. Within these contact points we have identified the moments of truth’ (MOT’s) = moments at which the startup – either consciously or sub-consciously – makes a choice between a client or a competitor (for additional products and services), including expectations, wishes, frustrations of the starters at these key moments.

In a following step we described the actions required per MOT and the following elements were indicated: the event or the trigger that is the catalyst for a MOT and the information source (e.g. CRM, business office,) that can be used to trace the event and react proactively, the recommended medium and the target group as well as the appropriate message or call-to-action.

And finally, we worked out an annual timetable with monthly, two-monthly, quarterly and annual activities with priorities for all the actions according to ‘impact on business’ and required results.

Results

After delivering the Relationship Marketing Program, the client successfully implemented a number of different communication campaigns:

• An e-zine for start-ups and independents for instance broken down according to the different target groups.
• A welcome e-mail to all start-ups who had not registered, which focused on the buying experience.
• An online questionnaire after six months to assess client satisfaction.
• A birthday e-mail after one year focusing on the development and planning of the startup
• Different targeted sales campaigns to ‘high potentials’ (well-defined sectors and professions).