Relational or Transactional Advertising Strategy?

By Wizard Partner Chuck McKay

I had a fun meeting with the owner of a coffee house. We were talking about advertising. He asked an excellent question: “What message could we possibly use that would make people drive across town to buy coffee? There’s a coffee shop on every corner.”

I looked up and said “You don’t need people to drive clear across town. You have thousands of them walking by your store every day. Thousands. What we need to do is convince those people to walk in through your door.”

That’s the difference between a transactional strategy and a relational strategy.

That whole “We need a message strong enough to get people to jump in their cars and drive here the minute they see it (or hear it)” philosophy only works for businesses trying to force a specific sale RIGHT NOW. And what do they do to drag those people clear across town? Right. They drop the price dramatically.

When successful, these advertisements generate a lot of traffic, sell a bunch of merchandise, make no significant profit, and give the shoppers no reason to ever come back. Many times they aren’t successful. Perhaps even most times they aren’t successful.

And yet, most businesses have hundreds of customers driving past their businesses every day. Maybe thousands. What does it take to make those people turn in to your parking lot?

It takes three things.

First, it takes the willingness to wait patiently until those people need what you’re selling.

Second, it takes the willingness to build a relationship with those people before they need you.

Finally, it takes the commitment to keep putting out your relational message. Day in, day out. Week after week. Season after season you need to keep reminding people who you are, and why getting to know you is in their best interest.

And then, as those thousands of people walk by your business, a fair percentage of them will say “Hey… this is the place I’ve been hearing about. Let’s go in.”