When it comes to modern business best practices, the concept of face-to-face communication might seem like an antiquated practice.

Thanks to new technology, alternative communication methods have rapidly replaced face-to-face communication and become a preferred method for many young business professionals. For many, it’s more comfortable and more efficient. Yet, even with the immediate availability and options of business communications in our digital world, many business experts warn not to overlook the value of face-to-face communication.

Here are five benefits of the effectiveness of utilizing face-to-face communication:

Make it personal. Personal communication goes beyond what is said--it can offer insight into your influence and how you make people feel. Engaging and collaborating with your clients, customers and partners allows them a chance to get to know you as a person, making the relationship personal.

Build a trusted network. Many agree that only face-to-face communication can build stronger, more meaningful and longer-lasting relationships. Those face-to-face meetings and conversations are more candid and can lead to long-term relationships that are nurtured online and elsewhere.

The non-verbal factor. Only face-time allows people to read body language, analyze facial expressions and interpret nonverbal communication signals. Those signals allow key opportunities for negotiation, persuasion, engagement, inspiration and quick decision-making.

The “human” connection. When it comes to factors like teamwork and productivity, face-time can offer more context and insight into the bigger goals and objectives of teams, departments and companies.  The impact of solid relationships and cohesiveness can also be seen in engaging processes like brainstorming and idea generation.

Making better decisions. The best decisions can only be made with the best information available. The quality of the decision-making process is often based on complex information, negotiated agreements and the exchange of critical and confidential information, all of which are more effective in face-to-face communication.

Marketing automation has become a trendy buzzword after an explosive rise in popularity. You may have heard of it, or know at least enough to know that marketers and sales folks alike have spent considerable time hyping it as a technology tool.

Still, you might still be left with some questions and asking what exactly marketing automation is really all about.

In layman’s terms, marketing automation refers to platforms and technologies which allow businesses to create, deploy, and automate online marketing campaigns and activities in an effort to increase revenue and maximize efficiency.

Conceptually, marketing automation allows marketers to more efficiently market on multiple online channels while automating repetitive tasks. In its most simple form it is the technology that simplifies the most time consuming tasks and processes of modern marketing and sales programs. It’s all about simplifying and automating a business tool that quickly grew very complex.

Marketing automation is looked at as a segment of customer relationship management (CRM). It focuses on the definition, segmentation, scheduling and tracking of marketing campaigns and customer segmentation of consumer data, often putting marketing and sales efforts on the same page. The technology allows for efficient collaboration between marketing and sales campaigns at the hub of the lead qualification process and buying cycle.

Marketing automation is used to create a target population and measure the efficiency of allocated resources, as well as to inform potential customers of business products and services. By displaying data both graphically and statistically, it provides marketers with information and key performance metrics to measure which campaigns are most effective. It allows for key consumer data such as customer behavior, retention, transactions history, product views, email open rates, ROI reporting, and much more.

By collecting and utilizing such consumer data, marketing automation platforms allow for a more complete and comprehensive profile and segmentation of valuable data on a large scale, and thus the ability to make smarter and strategic marketing and sales decisions.

In an ideal scenario, marketing automation provides data and solutions to convert prospects to customers and turn customers into long-term satisfied customers, generating significant sources of revenue and return on investment. 

No business will get very far without meeting the needs of its customers and clients. A business is only as good as how it serves its customers, and if you do it right, it will become a long-term relationship.

The truth is that there are many keys and tactics to successfully building relationships with your customers and clients. The end goal is to go beyond one business deal or transaction to provide consistent and continuous levels of service. Without it, you will certainly drive customers away.

So how do you create enduring and long-lasting relationships with clients and customers? Here are six quick tips:

Offer real value. Customers and clients depend on you for knowledge, expertise and information. Find out what they value, inform them, and don’t be afraid to share your expertise about your business or industry. The value will keep them coming back.

Define and deliver communication. Clients depend on you to continually keep them informed without being overwhelming. Find out how they prefer to communicate, and then deliver.

Always be straightforward and honest. You will never cultivate long-term relationships with your clients by hiding the truth in any circumstance. Meet their needs with your products and service, and keep them by being open and honest.

Learn how to engage with your customers. The experience of working with you or your company can matter as much as your product. According to a study, 81 percent of customers are willing to pay for a high-quality experience. Make it a great experience.

Monitor the behavior of customers. If you want customers and clients to become loyal and stick with you for the long term, monitor how they experience your product and then continually improve and adapt.  Prioritize which customers need immediate attention, and react quickly.

Reward their loyalty. Think of your clients as more than just “clients,” and find out about them as people. Give long-term clients preferential treatment and rewards and continually appreciate them. You will lose much more by focusing on new business than taking care of current clients.

As you already know, LinkedIn is a powerful professional networking tool. And now that you are already managing a LinkedIn Group, you should know the unique and powerful advantages to starting a group discussion.

Starting a LinkedIn group discussion is straightforward and entails only a few steps. Here’s how to get started:

1. From your group’s discussion page, move your cursor over Interests at the top of the page and select “Groups.”
2. Click on the group’s name.
3. Enter a title or topic. Keep it short, because when you go longer than 140 characters it will appear with an ellipsis at the end.
4. Enter details in the “Add more details” box. Provide users with more context, and keep it short enough to grab attention while providing detailed information.
5. Add a link back to your LinkedIn company page or your website by typing in the URL.
6. Click share.

There are many benefits associated with participating and managing group discussions. By taking the opportunity to interact through discussions, you will become a valuable member or leader of the group. Along with marketing your products or services within a specific network, group discussions can build you as an industry expert and thought leader, connect you to communities, drive traffic to your site and as a byproduct build your network.

Establish yourself as an expert or thought leader. You can earn the reputation as a trusted resource through group discussions. According to LinkedIn, participants in group discussions gain four times the number of profile views.

Connect to communities. Build relationships with others in the group as well as their networks and communities. Discussions can be shared, allowing for maximum exposure, even on other social networks.

Drive traffic. Even within your own group, discussions are a great way to drive traffic to your LinkedIn company page, website or blog and expose your brand to targeted potential customers in an organic way.

Build your network. Through group discussions, other member will want to connect with an established community leader.