How to build a strong relationship with your subscribers

[Kenny Kolijn]

What tips do you have for internet marketers who want to build a strong relationship with their email subscribers? To start the discussion, here are a few things that cross my mind:

 

Deliver what you promise

To have long-term success, you need to deliver what you promised. Sounds simple? Yes, but from experience I know that there are plenty of list builders out there who promise X and deliver Y. Or they lure you into subscribing with false promises or bold claims, only to bombard you with offer after offer later on. Don't make this mistake, you only have one chance to make that good first impression and build that initial trust. If you promised to send subscribers a report and provide a 10 week email course, make sure you deliver. It's important to gain that initial trust. If you start by breaking your word, what will happen to your credibility? Remember, people have expectations when they opt-in to your list. Try to deliver more than what you promised.

 

Know your subscribers

You have to know what your subscribers are looking for. Make a profile of your "average" subscriber and take time to make a list of what you think they need. Provide what they're looking for. Once you have a good amount of subscribers who received your messages, you could even ask them directly what content they appreciated the most and what they would like to learn more about. This can help you to fine-tune your email campaign.

 

Promote High Quality Products

You're building a list to make money while helping others? Cool! Promoting products is an essential part, but pick them with care. Selecting high quality, relevant products will help you big time. I personally don't promote low-quality products or products that I haven't tried myself. Your subscribers might hold you responsible if "recommended" products don't deliver.

 

Dare to be different

Okay, you can provide information and offers in many different ways, but why not show your creative side and be a little different? Give your messages a personal touch, show your subscribers your personality and tell them something more about yourself. Chances are you have quite a few things in common with your subscribers.

 

I'm convinced that building strong relationships is an important first step in building a decent income online. You can work on it through your email campaigns, but also by presenting yourself online and in the interactions you have daily with other internet marketers.

 

What tips do you have to build a relationship with people once they are subscribed to your list? Did you learn from mistakes you made? What problems do you experience?

[William Brower]

Hey Kenny,

 

Thanks for this group. I have changed the way that

I build a list, and maintain my list because of some

topics that were talked about by Frank Salinas.

 

I enjoy the way that he describes building a responsive

list, and how to maintain it. One factor, is getting

people to enjoy reading your mails, and getting them

excited to read your next mail. This is one of the

goals, which can be attained by many of the methods

that you have described earlier.

 

I also think that people follow others who provide three

specific things. Entertainment, Information and Worth.

If your articles or emails can provide these three, people

will notice, and will start paying attention.

 

Great one to think about.

[Kay Franklin]

Be available and a real person! The internet is so virtual - but at the end of your email is a real person so be a real person to them!

[Maria McCarthy]

I agree, Kay! It's so easy to forget we are dealing with real humans and to humanize ourselves. We just assume that they know... but it's a feeling we've got to work to impart to them. But how? What are some good ways to do that?

[Kenny Kolijn]

Yes that's very important. We're all human beings of flesh and blood, no robots

If we provide value and stay real, we can get a long way. Reaching out to others, sharing our experiences, it all builds relationships.

 

 

[Guest]

Agree with Kay and Mary. Given that most of us are very busy every day, we forgot to be easily "reachable". We have to leave open the channels of communication: green light on our primary e-mail address, Skype, Facebook Chat is the turning point, if someone wants to talk to us. There are several tools that we can use, but often we forgot to turn them on. Although in reality we are there, the impression is that we did not .... so it will become difficult for our prospects to trust us. We can set specific hours, if we are more comfortable in that way.

 

Then, quickly respond to any questions makes the difference. Sometimes we tend to do our main daily tasks and respond when we're done. Do the opposite makes the difference.

 

Be honest, admit our mistakes, work hard to improve and learn. Be positive and look for solutions until we find them .... and use social networking sites like this to spread the word ....

[DigitalDon]

If you stay in business long enough, sooner or later you're going to screw something up. (The most common slip-up by far is giving the wrong link to your subscribers.)

 

When you make that inevitable mistake, here are several things I recommend you do:

 

1. Make it YOURS! - Own up to your mistake! Tell your subscribers that it's YOUR fault that they didn't get the right link. Don't try to pass it off on your "server crashing" or an autoresponder problem (unless that's what actually happened - but even then you should still take personal responsibility for the screw-up. After all, it's YOUR server, YOUR autoresponder...) Then...
    
2. Make it RIGHT! - Give them the correct link. Reveal the correct information.  If you sent them somewhere that ends up not being exactly what you thought it was, tell your subscribers that YOU were wrong about it, and...
    
3. Make it UP! - If you're unable to deliver on your original promise, apologize! Then give them something - of real value to them, of course - as a way of further apologizing to them.

Mistakes are an inevitable part of the human condition. The mark of a true professional is how they handle their mistakes. It's a natural tendency to try to blame someone or something else when things don't go right, but when you take responsibility and "go that extra mile" to show your subscribers/followers that you're really "on their side," and that you're a real person, you'll go a long way towards "getting inside their heads" (in a GOOD way), and becoming more to them than just a faceless stream of text in their inbox.

 

Perhaps the best way to establish relationships with the people on your list is to try to make things as interactive as possible - beyond just asking them to click on a link. Recorded video has been shown to work extremely well, especially when there's a comment stream for viewers to provide feedback/opinions about it (moderated, of course, to prevent "comment spam"). Live webinars can work wonders too. While they take a little effort to put together and to run smoothly, they can really pay off by giving people a chance to communicate "in public" with you, further building your brand as well as trust and confidence that you know what you're talking about.