As I was reading a white paper by Peppers & Rogers titled Relationship Marketing 3.0 Thriving in Marketing’s New Ecosystem I couldn’t help but notice the opportunities for printing companies to incorporate these tools in marketing ourselves and possibly offering it as a service to our customers.

I don’t think you will disagree that in today’s marketing environment, power has shifted from companies to customers. Most customers trust each other far more than they trust a company’s brand. The only way for a company to earn loyalty with customers is to develop an authentic and relevant relationship.

The article mentioned that most companies have acknowledged that mass communication techniques may not be as effective as they used to be. It further explained, “while many companies have begun to embrace 1to1 communications by tailoring messages and offers to different customer segments, this is no longer sufficient.” The addition of social networks presents valuable new reservoirs of customer intelligence for companies that can access and harvest the data. Peppers believes that even in these tough economic times, the business case for innovative relationship marketing programs is more compelling than ever.

An authentic relationship goes beyond knowing your customer’s name and address. Peppers & Rogers are encouraging companies to deploy “relationship marketing 3.0” in order to build trust and get “to understand all the spheres of influence” that affect customers.

Below is one of the survey results from the study that illustrates the various relationship marketing tools companies are using. As printers, are we leveraging these tools to different ourselves and establish authentic relationships with our most valuable customers? Do we see opportunities to expand our services offering beyond variable print, emails and purls?

[caption id="attachment_2595" align="alignnone" width="443" caption="Source: Peppers & Rogers white paper Relationship Marketing 3.0 (click for full size)"][/caption]