Building Relationships Using Email - Part 1

This is the first article in this series. It is probably the most important aspect of Email marketing–or any form of marketing for that matter.

If you’ve had the chance to read Seth Godin’s book: Permission Marketing, you will have a head start on understanding this series. What I want to talk about today, is not the pages within Seth’s book, but rather his subtitle:

Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers.

The power of this statement is un-rivaled. Are your subscribers nothing more to you than a first name and email address? If so, it’s time to start looking at things differently!

It’s easy to get caught up in the marketing game and forget that this contact information represents a real person, sitting behind a real monitor, that has real needs. On the other hand, the average person today has so many advertisements shoved down their throats on a daily bases, that they are sick of being marketed too.

OK, so there are two opposing variables here that you need to marry together:

Number one - You are running a newsletter with high hopes of making a living from it.

Number two - Your readers subscribe to your e-publication in hopes that you will help them solve a specific problem without blasting ads down their throat.

Once again, we look at Seth’s byline which will give you a huge clue as to how you should tackle this problem…

Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers!

You can make friends on the Internet. I make new friends almost daily. It’s simply a matter of how you communicate. Your words should speak to your subscribers as if you were on the phone talking to your very best friend. Help them solve specific problems, show them that you are geniune, let them begin to respect your opinion. Once they respect you, and trust you, they are very likely to buy from you.

The bottom line is you can get what you want–and at the same time give your subscribers what they want, and so much more. Keep in mind that selling is not just about dynamic sales letters, it’s also about trust. Trust can only be gained by building a relationship first.

The rest of this series will explain how to build relationships with your subscribers.

Stay Tuned!