Sometimes, a relationship may lead to a more direct sense of trust than a brand, so companies need to think about how to build a relationship with users that can lead to faster transactions. In this article, 10 strategies and suggestions are summarized around strong and weak relationships, let's take a look.
Relationships can sometimes lead to a more direct and strong sense of trust than a brand. In other words, trust is the key to trading.
I've been in such a situation before. I wanted to see a TCM practitioner, but I didn't know which hospital or doctor was the best because I didn't have an in-depth understanding of the field, and I was worried about being scammed.
Then I remembered two friends – one of my former mentees who was working in the healthcare field. The other is an old friend who once recommended a Chinese medicine practitioner to me.
The trainees recommended an old Chinese medicine doctor, who was a famous doctor in Fang Huichun Hall. Under the dual influence of the student and the brand, I did not hesitate to make an appointment with him.
In addition, I also searched for the Chinese medicine recommended by an old friend, which is a completely unknown Chinese medicine hall, and I have never heard of it before. But out of trust in the recommendation of an old friend, I also made an appointment to place an order quickly.
This is how I, as a consumer, go from identifying the demand to making a decision to closing the transaction in two TCM clinics.
One of the most important factors that drove my decision was my networking, which is my classmates and friends. They helped me establish a connection with these two TCM clinics and create a relationship, and this relationship is trust.
Today, when we choose between brand A and brand B, we often mistakenly think that we are influenced by the brand.
In fact, we are invisibly influenced by more "relationships", who are closer to me. The "near" here is actually a comprehensive assessment of them by "me", which is mostly emotional.
So instead of building a brand with users, it is more important to build a relationship with users. If you want to close deals faster, then "relationships" become even more important.
Therefore, excellent enterprises should pay attention to the relationship with users, for example, the user's friend recommendation, relatives happen to work here, their own customers are cooperating with them, etc., which are all relationships that affect user decision-making, and establish a three-degree relationship.
"In rational consumption, there is actually an emotional component."
Under this concept, relationship is trust, and with relationship, there is trust, and the brand is less important.
In life, we often encounter such a situation, invisibly through the relationship of intimacy and proximity to make consumption decisions.
For example, if you have opened a new restaurant nearby that you haven't heard of, although you can't find their information on Dianping, if your colleague tells you. He's been there twice in the last week and thinks the food and service are good, so you'll probably try it after work.
For another example, there is a bakery downstairs in the company, and suddenly one day, my girlfriend tells you that it was opened by a good friend of hers, and the taste is very good, and I recommend you to try it. Most likely, next time, you won't go to the chain brand you frequented to buy bread.
Today, most businesses face the challenge of building a brand that is difficult, time-consuming, and costly. In contrast, it is easier to build a relationship with users, with quick results and low costs.
So, how can a company build relationships with its users? Here I have summarized 10 strategies and suggestions for you, focusing on strong and weak relationships.
Strong relationships can trigger behavior and drive transactions, while weak relationships can help spread information and increase exposure.
Strategies for easy "weak relationships" are as follows:
- Enterprises attract and maintain potential customers by "seeding" information on various public domain platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Zhihu, Douyin, etc.
- Through self-media bloggers or influencers to "seed" information on the public domain platform, the influence of products or services can be further expanded.
- Increase exposure for your business by "seeding" information on public and private domain platforms through key opinion leaders (KOLs).
- Publish information on third-party word-of-mouth platforms such as Dianping, Meituan, and Ele.me, and actively manage reviews to improve public awareness and trust in the company.
Although consumers need to cross a greater distance from weak relationships to transactions, whether it is a strong relationship or a weak relationship, companies should work hard to build it, because a relationship is better than no relationship.
As for the establishment of "strong relationships", I propose that enterprises consider the following aspects:
- Establish a private domain traffic pool: Introduce users to the private domain traffic pool and carry out planned and regular operations.
- Build a membership system: Bring users a sense of belonging and identity through "membership status", so as to strengthen the connection between users and enterprises.
- Hold offline activities: Let users experience the company's products and services by allowing users to participate in the way, such as holding pop-up events and cross-industry alliance activities.
- Use employee word-of-mouth: Make employees loyal fans of the company, so that they like and identify with the company, so that the people around them can build strong relationships with the company through employees.
- Leverage partner word-of-mouth: Earn recognition and likes from your partners, and let users build strong relationships with businesses through their referrals.
- Use user word-of-mouth: truly make users satisfied, identify with and like the company, improve user satisfaction, and influence more users through some methods to expand word-of-mouth promotion.
"A brand can make people remember you, but only a relationship can make people trust you. ”
At present, in the face of fierce competition, growth is difficult. We should rethink our relationship with consumers and elevate our listeners to participants, giving them greater engagement.
We will improve our business performance by discovering the "relationships" that have a direct impact and improving consumer satisfaction and trust through the quality of our products and services.
Columnist
Yan Tao Sanshou, WeChat public account: Yan Tao Sanshou, everyone is a product manager columnist, digital marketing expert, and the pioneer of private domain traffic and super user growth methodology. He is the author of "Super User Growth", "Weibo and WeChat Marketing Practical Tactics", etc.
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