Before we dig deep into how one of the best ways to build your business is with relationship marketing using email, let’s examine the data so we know why this works.
- Email marketing is one of the fastest ways to leverage the Internet.
Because all you do is compose an email, customize it to suit the reader (toss in some personalization), and click the broadcast button to reach thousands of people instantly.
- Email marketing is highly scalable.
Unlike an ‘offline’ business where the more customers you have, the busier you are, in email marketing, it is much easier because regardless of the size of your mailing list, whether it is 100 or 10,000, all you need to do is click broadcast and everyone on the list gets notified – all for the same effort!
- Email marketing is extremely targeted.
One of the reasons why email marketing is highly effective at getting sales is because the recipient of the Email gets a kind of ‘in your face’ promotion. You are marketing directly to the customer through their PERSONAL mailbox. Not only will you grab their attention firmly, they will tend to respond with the right buyer’s mindset because they are marketed to directly (unlike other advertising where the buyer might not be in the frame of mind to buy things).
- Email marketing is very personal.
Autoresponders allow you to customize the email in such a way that you can connect with the subscriber individually, or at least, appear to do so. The more personalized the email, the better the result (treat it as though you are writing to your best friend).
- You can automate many tasks with your autoresponder.
Automation is critical to success these days. Each time someone signs up, you’ll want to send them a welcome email series to build up that relationship. This also helps them get to know you and why they should listen to you – build your authority!
- Email marketing acts as a good pre-sell. You might not be able to cram a sales letter into your email, but at least you can pre-sell your subscriber and lead them to your blog, sales letter or website to check out what you have to offer. This puts them in the right frame of mind to make that purchase from you.
In the next few chapters, you will learn the techniques on how to build stronger bonds with your subscribers, instill unbreakable credibility and increase your opt-in list response with relative ease… all with email marketing as your relationship management process.
Building Relationships
Developing The Competitive Edge
One of the most important things you must do to achieve success online is to build a solid relationship with your subscriber.
Building a relationship is important because it can make the difference between making a sale and losing it to your competitor.
You see, just like in real life, if I had to choose between a friend who provides a service like car repair and a stranger who offered the same price, I choose my friend in less than a heartbeat.
Why? Because I’d rather give HIM my business compared to a stranger.
Email marketing can be quite competitive at times. Therefore, when two marketers are promoting the same product, having a strong rapport with your subscribers will give you a competitive edge.
Take for example:
During a massive launch online where high ticket items are being sold and tons of marketers everywhere are sending emails to their subscribers, most marketers would be offering bonuses to ‘bribe’ their customers to buy through their affiliate link.
Sometimes, 3 or more would be pitching the same offer with similar value. So the question you should be asking yourself is if you were in the shoes of your subscriber, why should your subscriber buy from YOU instead of other marketers?
Once again, if you have built a strong relationship with your subscriber, they will be on your side – especially if you are trying to win an affiliate contest.
5 Tips On Building Rapport With Your Subscriber
One of the best ways to build relationships with your subscriber is to strengthen the rapport between you and your customer.
Here are a few ways to achieve that:
- Keep in touch with your mailing list often. Don’t mail them only when you need to promote a product.
- Ask about their needs and concerns. Use questionnaires and get them involved. Ask them what they want you to provide for them to help them with their Internet marketing business.
- Send them valuable gifts sometimes. It could be in the form of free reports, blog templates, graphics or even free membership access!
- Get personal. Let them see your human side or your personal life. It sure beats dry, stale Emails that talk about product launches all day.
- Be educational. When you share something of value to your subscribers, they will see you as a teacher and listen to what you say. This will come in handy when you want them to ‘listen’ to you and buy whatever you’re selling.
Instill Stronger Credibility
Establish Yourself As An Authority
When you take a look at the average Joe on the street, you may think that there is nothing special about them – until they step up to a podium and start talking about a subject with an air of authority surrounding them.
If you want to succeed at Internet marketing, you must be able to instill stronger credibility to your subscribers by establishing yourself as an authority on your niche market.
For example: when you are talking about making money through product launches, you must let your subscribers know about your credibility either before or after they opt-in to your mailing list.
Here are a few tips on establishing your credibility:
- Talk about your experiences online and offline. If you’ve run an offline business before, use it to establish your credibility as a business builder. If you’ve been in sales and marketing before, use it to establish your credibility as a copywriter.
- Show them screenshots of how much money you’ve made online (or checks you’ve earned). If you don’t have any of these, use photos of well-known marketers you’ve taken pictures with (e.g. look, here is my picture taken with Neil Patel).
- Let others tell the story. It would be better to let others sing your praises – especially in the form of testimonials.
Use E-courses To Build Credibility Over Time
People may not be impressed at the first glance. Sometimes, it takes a few Emails for people to recognize your capabilities.
One of the ways you can build your credibility over time is to write an E-course or a newsletter that will be sent to your subscriber’s Email over a period of days or weeks. It must be something educational – something that will establish you as an expert on the subject.
You can configure your autoresponder to send an E-course once every day, every two days or a weekly newsletter. So long as the subscriber reads your educational material over a period of time, you can slowly work your way into the heart of your subscriber and stamp a firm impression in their minds.
Increase Your Opt-in Rates Every Day
Crafting An Excellent Squeeze Page
If you want to increase your opt-in rates, here are a few principles you must apply to your squeeze page:
- Use compelling arrows to inspire visitors to take action. Believe me, graphics and aesthetics make all the difference!
- Craft a compelling E-cover for the special report or E-book you are giving away. If you are giving away an audio Interview, you can show a picture that displays an audio or video icon to increase the perceived value of the product people are downloading in exchange for their Email address.
- Use a powerful headline to grab people’s attention.
- Use checkboxes to inspire people to get involved with the benefits of your free product.
- Remember to add a disclaimer below the opt-in box to assure people that they are not getting spammed or that their Email address will not be used for unscrupulous purposes.
Use A Social Share Feature On Your Website
If you have a website with any content at all, you should be letting your subscribers and readers market for you! These days, everyone wants (and often, need) to share content on their social media accounts. Why not let your subscribers generate more subscribers for you on autopilot.
5 Easy Ways To Create A Social Share Feature
Since you’re likely using WordPress, you can easily use a social share plugin. Some options let you start out for free, and you only need to pay, if you want to use their advanced features. Here are a few of the best ones that won’t slow down your WordPress site:
Empower, and entice, your readers and subscribers to engage with your content on over 30 social media platforms. You can start for free and only upgrade to the paid version ($39 or $99) when you want to expand with advanced features.
Here’s a premium social sharing plugin for WordPress, developed from the ground up with a performance-focused approach. Please understand, there’s no free version of Novashare, but they do offer a solid money-back guarantee and pricing for one site is only $25 a year.
This plugin is simple, scalable, and extremely powerful while remaining very lightweight meaning, it won’t slow down your site.
This is the grandfather of the social sharing plugin for WordPress, and it’s completely free.
This lightweight plugin gives you instant access to over 100 sharing options in a compact interface. These icons can be displayed before or after your content, in vertical or horizontal bars. It’s fast, free, and efficient.
Social Warfare is a popular WordPress social media plugin that comes in both a free and a pro version ($29). While the free version works for lightweight social share buttons, most of the powerful features are in the pro version. If you’re just getting started and need to build out some engagement, the free version is sufficient. You can upgrade as time goes on.
Elementor Pro Share Buttons Widget
If you already have Elementor Pro or are using Elementor as the visual builder of your WordPress site, you might consider upgrading to Elementor Pro to unlock some serious advanced features, including the Social Share Button Widget.
Using a widget that is already tied to your page builder means one less plugin slowing down your site!
Here’s a quick video from the folks at Elementor showing you how easy it is to add social share buttons to your WordPress install.
The Most Common Mistakes People Make
If you want to build a solid relationship with your subscribers through emails, you must avoid these common email marketing sins:
Never, ever, spam!
I’ll write it again… never, ever ‘spam’ your mailing list. Even though they have given you permission to email them, that doesn’t mean that you can send them emails and sales pitches on a daily basis. Learn to send emails at strategic intervals.
Don’t mail your list only when you have something to sell!
No one wants to be on your list if all you ever do is sell, sell, sell! The reason people join your mailing list is that they want something of value for being on your list. If they fail to see your value, they will unsubscribe even faster than you can say, “opt-out”!
Don’t rush your emails!
When you are doing a promotion, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is that you rush your Emails to the point that the mistakes are spotted by most of your subscribers. Having too many mistakes in your Email will make you look unprofessional. It is quite embarrassing when you spell a person’s name wrong (the word {first_name} appears instead of the subscriber’s real name) or worse… screwing up your affiliate links!
Don’t wait too long to mail your list!
While you don’t want to spam your list by mailing constantly, you also can’t afford to wait too long in between emails. If you don’t keep in touch with your subscribers for a long time, they will tend to forget who you are. And that will severely damage the relationship between you and your subscriber.
Don’t forget to relate to your subscribers as a person.
When every new product launches, there is a tendency to mail your subscribers all the time while forgetting that the product doesn’t relate to the subscribers at all. You don’t want to sell cat food to people who don’t own a pet!
The Speed Of Trust
In a nutshell, building relationships through email marketing is all about trust. The more a person trusts you, the easier it is to get them to do what you want them to do it.
It may take a long time to build trust, but remember that trust can be shattered overnight.
Always put yourself in the shoes of your subscriber and give them as much value as possible, and you can be sure to email your way to victory!
