The following article is a comprehensive list of relationship marketing tactics which you can apply. These strategies apply to online marketing, but can be useful for a brick-and-mortar business also (if the business has a web presence).

1. The first stage of relationship marketing begins when the visitor lands on your page. He/She doesn’t know anything about you or your product. To gain trust you should invite the visitor to sign up to your mailing list. A typical e-mail collecting page can expect a 10-15% conversion rate. That means that out of a 100 visitors you can expect 10-15 prospects on your list. You can use aweber or mailchimp to help you automate email distribution.
2. Incentives work well to that end. You can offer: “7 Essential Things You Need To Know About…” or a “Free 7 series email course”.
3. If possible offer a 1$ trial of your product. This will qualify the visitors. A person that spends 1$ is more likely to buy a higher priced item. This will determine the nature of your relationship marketing. For example you can have 2 groups: “curious tire kickers” and “buying prospects”. Market more aggressively to the buying prospects and offer more initial information to the tire kickers.
4. Once the visitor is converted into a customer (or email subscriber) you begin the relationship marketing. People on your list can fulfill 4 functions: buying from you, advertising for you, becoming social proof and improving your product.
5. Buying from you: self explanatory.
6. Advertising for you: Prospects can advertise your business by becoming followers of your twitter account or members of your Facebook group or fan page. Use an incentive to get followers onto your twitter list. Offer a discount or free bonus information in exchange for following you. For example an application like tweetlater automatically sends specific messages to new followers. When people follow you on twitter and Facebook their friends and twitter followers take notice which automatically show cases your product. Tell visitors to promote your site using the “tell a friend” function.
7. Twitter account management is a separate topic, but remember the following: Have some tweets created before gathering followers. Every 7th tweet should be something casual, wish them a happy Monday or talk about the weather.
8. Social proof: Amount of twitter and Facebook followers builds social proof. Swap your twitter and Facebook followers. For example tell your Facebook fans to follow you on twitter and vice-versa.
9. Improving your product: Invite your customers to fill out a form in exchange for an incentive (ex.: chance to win something). Existing customers are your best source of new product ideas and improvements.
10. Blog : A blog can build up trust. It serves as a one way communication device. Use it to answer your prospects questions. Blog about how you overcame challenges to create new and exciting products for customers and also use it for announcements.

Existing customers are often overlooked during the marketing process. Hopefully this article will enable you to boost your marketing efforts through the use of effective relationship marketing tactics.