Who We Are
Relationships matter. Good or bad. Strong or weak. Relationships drive customers' engagement and continued interest in your company and its products and services.
Relationships can determine whether—and how—customers will respond to a company's business strategy, its products, its customer service, its innovations—and most important, how customers will respond should they have a problem.
Relationships are critical. They affect whether customers bring more business to a company or take business to its competitors.
Building Customer Relationships
Relationships have been SMC Marketing's focal point for over 25 years. Since our founding as a woman-owned company in 1996, SMC Marketing has developed relationship-building programs for our clients.
Because SMC Marketing is a woman-owned company, we have a unique understanding of the needs and aspirations of other woman-owned companies.
Our expertise is in developing programs that increase customer engagement, and generate ongoing customer loyalty and satisfaction, resulting in our client's competitive advantage, profitability and growth. We have a passion for results.
Our solutions are designed to grow the relationship holistically throughout the entire customer lifecycle—from acquisition and onboarding, engagement and enhanced benefits, to recognition, referral and loyalty. For over 20 years, our client solutions have featured relationship-building programs addressing the needs of consumer and small business customers.
We specialize in developing go-to-market programs to attract, serve and retain women-owned and diverse-owned small businesses. Because our staff are experienced prior bankers, we understand the internal processes and compliance issues involved in program design and implementation.
What We Can Do For You
SMC Marketing delivers a range of innovative, strategic marketing solutions for our clients, designed to cultivate and grow their relationship with their customers. Our goal is to design the best-in-class solution through a collaboration process with our clients.
We then implement the program, adhering to best practices, and refined for our clients' specific requirements and operational capabilities.
Our clients benefit by reducing operating costs and creating a staff that is lean and efficient. As a result, your staff time can be devoted to support critical initiatives while SMC Marketing designs, implements and manages the customer relationship-building program.
Scaled to Meet Your Needs
Our relationship-building solutions feature national and international programs. Our clients are banks and brokerage firms; credit card and insurance companies; real estate and mortgage businesses—in programs ranging from customer acquisition to customer loyalty and retention, to growth and recognition.
Whether you require a fully developed plan including implementation and management, or simply a promotional solution to accomplish short-term objectives, SMC Marketing is prepared to meet your needs.
Our clients have realized improved campaign results using uniquely-designed promotional offers. Because we are not a promotional company, we partner with national providers. Our promotional offers have increased customer responses in programs for our retail bank, brokerage, credit card, real estate and insurance clients.
How We Work With Our Clients
SMC Marketing's involvement starts when our client shares the specific problem or issue that is challenging their continued relationship with their customer.
Banks have contacted us when they plan to close branches, and are concerned about losing customers in the process. An insurance company has asked us to prepare a national program to reward their customers for referring new customers to them. A mortgage client needed SMC Marketing's recommendations to design a compliance-approved, national communications program for representatives to engage with their clients. An ongoing client, a top-tier credit card company, required our expertise in designing a program to reactivate their dormant cardmembers, and cultivate these relationships.
Solutions to Specific Issues
We work with our clients to improve relationships with their customers in conjunction with their budget and staff resources. We develop the plan for our client, recommend the execution of the plan, and manage our team's implementation of the program. We provide quantitative and qualitative data analysis and reporting utilizing customer surveys and feedback. We even have managed the involvement of our client's staff and their agencies to ensure the program is integrated to meet their objectives.
Perhaps you have a conceptual roadmap of what a customer loyalty program can do for you, but do not have the time or staff to make it happen. SMC Marketing will collaborate with you to design a program that meets your budget, timeframe and staffing requirements. We have the team and expertise to put your plan into action.
Our Team
Regardless of the size of your organization and the requirements of your solution, we direct our team to efficiently meet your specific business objectives. Our accomplished team of marketing professionals is assembled specifically for you.
Should you require a particular solution—perhaps the design of a targeted marketing campaign—we can assemble a team for that specific objective.
We understand our clients serve the needs and interests of a diverse customer base. We know our clients want to develop relationships with every customer. We understand our clients want to have relevant and meaningful relationships with all their customers.
As a woman-owned company, we understand the unique needs of women business owners, Because our team includes women of color, we have a unique ability to design programs that reflect their heritage. With their combined expertise, we develop relationship-building programs for our clients to authentically meet the needs of their customers.
Why All of This Matters
SMC Marketing's client work has always focused on growing the relationship.
It may be the beginning of a relationship with your customer—a checking, investment, small business, credit card or mortgage account. You may have seen other institutions featuring programs for woman and diverse customers, and you require SMC Marketing's expertise to determine how to develop a program that meets the needs of your institution.
Perhaps you want to design a rewards program for existing customers. SMC Marketing can execute a program that is big or small; national or local. Whatever it is, we understand how important it is for your program to meet your financial objectives.
Deepen the Relationship
Our goal is to design programs that improve and deepen the relationships our clients have with their customers. The scope of the programs we deliver depends on your specific requirements and your operational capabilities. The size of the companies we assist does not determine our capacity to provide a meaningful solution. We scale our programs to meet our client's individual requirements.
We design relationship-building loyalty programs that match our clients' objectives and resources. The scope of the program may vary, but the components are never diminished by size. The program we design can be a fully integrated program using our entire creative team to implement and manage a national program. Or, it can be scaled to execute a regional promotional program that deepens the customer relationship with increased customer engagement.
We Invite You to Learn
More About us
You are invited to tour the SMC Marketing website, learn more about us, review a selection of programs we have designed and managed during our 25+ year history, and read what our clients say about working with SMC Marketing.
A selection of SMC Marketing's experience:
Build customer loyalty.
Through our relationship programs, we have expanded our clients' customer loyalty and retention quotas amid branch closings and staff changes, while also adding new accounts and increasing assets and deposits.
Increase new account openings.
Using unique promotional incentives, our programs have increased the rate of our clients' credit card account acquisitions and dormant account reactivation.
Boost staff efficiency.
With SMC Marketing's staff, we have provided marketing support to actualize our client's customer loyalty plans, and have supplied creative resources for customized surveys and communications. This reallocation of personnel and responsibilities has resulted in increased productivity and efficiencies for our clients.
Navigate the financial journey.
Many small business owners do not sufficiently understand how to budget. Their relationship will continue to grow when they have the necessary information to manage their credit card and deposit accounts. SMC Marketing has improved our client's engagement with women-owned and diverse-owned small businesses, and established ongoing relationships with them.
Understand what women and diverse business owners need.
SMC Marketing is an SBA Certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB). We understand the pandemic has created new challenges for everyone, especially for women and diverse small business owners. About 2.3 million women have exited the U.S. labor force since the pandemic began according to government data. Because SMC Marketing's team includes women of color, their combined expertise gives us the unique ability to design programs that reflect their many backgrounds and cultures.
In Review
No company sets out to design a program that will not successfully achieve its goals. We all want to know that our investment of time and resources will pay off.
There is a plethora of products and technology available that can provide the ‘ultimate’ program for customer loyalty. Not all of these are appropriate to every organization. Each company is at a different stage technologically. Each has a different risk position. Not all want to make a seven-figure investment—even if the investment is amortized over time.
That is why it is important that your Customer Relationship Program suits your priorities, supports your immediate goals and can grow with you as more resources are available and when corporate initiatives change.
Bottom line: Think of this program as a process, not an end unto itself.
Thank you for your interest in SMC Marketing, and for visiting our site.