Everyone talks about how important a list is in online business and I agree with that. Having a list allows you to keep in contact with people, and more importantly to build a relationship with them.
Life is all about relationships folks, and the more and better quality relationships you build the more successful you'll be. By the way this doesn't apply to strictly business. Relationship building is essential for success in all areas of life. But that's a subject for another day. Today we're going to talk about building relationships using your list.
So think about this...how do you build a relationship? In real life? You communicate, hang out together, talk about common interests, are available and accessible, and show care and concern. It's no different with your list. In order to build a relationship you have to do the things you'd do when building a real life friendship.
Of course it's different on the internet where you can't pop over for a cup of coffee or round of golf. Additionally, as you grow your business you'll be developing relationships with hundreds or even thousands of people and that would be way too much coffee for one person! So you have to find a different and more efficient way of building relationships.
Enter the auto-responder.
An auto-responder is a cool little piece of software, provided by your e-mail service, that allows you to communicate INDIVIDUALLY with EACH person on your list The word "individually" is key here, as it allows you to have a personal conversation with each person separately, based on how long you've known them. This allows you to build a relationship little by little over time, which is how it's supposed to be done :)
So for instance you meet Joe today, when he signs up for your list. Well it certainly isn't appropriate to say "Hi Joe, buy my product for only three easy payments of $59.99." That would be a major turn off to Joe! But you can send him a quick note saying how happy you are to have made his acquaintance and here's how to get in touch if he needs you. Then you can keep the conversation going, building trust and yes - a relationship - until such time as it is entirely appropriate to bring up the subject of your product. Because by that time Joe is no longer an acquaintance but a friend, and he'll be much more open to what you have to say.
Got it?
Now, I'm not about manipulating anyone or trying to convince them they need what you have to offer. I've seen really bad and pushy auto-responders and they always earn a click on the "unsubscribe" link. But done tastefully and with genuine concern for your audience, an auto-responder is an excellent tool for building relationships which eventually lead to sales.
So how do they work?
I already mentioned that an auto-responder is a snazzy part of your e-mail service that allows you to send out automatic messages to individual subscribers based on how long they've been on your list.
The awesome part is that once you set it up the whole thing is automatic! So for instance if you sign up for the newsletter on the main page of this site, you'll start getting e-mails from me every few days or weeks that look like they're personally from me (and they are) but that are scheduled to happen automatically. See how cool that is?
Auto-responders are an amazing tool for building relationships with your list. I'll write soon about elements of a good auto-responder and how to write your own but for now just start thinking about it and playing with how you might incorporate auto-responders in your own marketing program.
By the way, the mailing service I use (complete with auto-responders) is I-Contact. There are others out there and I reviewed many of them in the article Choosing the Right E-mail Service Provider for Your Business but for me I-Contact has worked well for over 4 years and I'll probably continue using it for a long time.
