Relationship marketing values client loyalty and lasting engagement instead of short-term objectives such as consumer acquisition and direct sales. The most important goal of the community college should be getting prospective clients for the athletics program and converting them to loyal customers. This will be a good indicator as to whether the business niche, marketing approach, services, or products are performing well (Zameer, Wang, Yasmeen, & Ahmed, 2019). Relationship marketing will enable the athletics program to convert consumers into fans who purchase services and products from the community college and recommend it to others. Effective relationship marketing minimizes the cost of continually seeking new clients and making only a single day’s sale to them.
The community college should undertake regular campaigns on social media platforms, ads, or generated list (especially containing emails of prospective clients) to increase profitability. Other practices could entail the use of a blog that makes regular posts, eBooks, or a website having numerous valuable videos and articles. Another method that the community college could embark on is retargeting, following up with interested individuals and prospective clients across different channels on the Internet (Lu, Wu, & Hsiao, 2019). For example, if an individual click on or responds to a link shared in a platform and fail to make a purchase, it would be beneficial to share a follow-up ad with them on a different site. Finally, it would be significant to reward every loyal client by providing them with some services or products for free. Providing such complimentary offers generates a sense of goodwill and friendliness. The psychological component of reciprocity makes customers feel indebted and that they should do something in return. In such instances, they choose to either purchase services or products another time or recommend them to their family members and friends, which translates to increased profitability for the athletics program.
References
Lu, C. C., Wu, L., & Hsiao, W. H. (2019). Developing customer product loyalty through mobile advertising: Affective and cognitive perspectives. International Journal of Information Management, 47, 101-111.
Zameer, H., Wang, Y., Yasmeen, H., & Ahmed, W. (2019). Modeling the role of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in building service brand equity. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management (IJABIM), 10(2), 55-72.