Just like every friendship, romantic relationship and even parent-child relationship takes love and nurturing to ensure success, developing and maintaining a relationship with your customers is the foundation on which you can successfully build and grow your business.
Additionally, the rate at which you are able to establish a relationship between yourself and a stranger is the rate at which you can scale.
Let me restate that once more because this statement is the critical foundation to this entire training.
The better you are at establishing a relationship with a stranger​ has a direct correlation to how quickly you can monetize that relationship.
​
Humans crave social interaction. They want to be part of a tribe and feel like they belong and that the people they associate with are like them (or better than them).
Knowing this fundamental principle of human needs tells us the number one thing we should be doing is focusing on our relationship with our leads, our prospects, our current customers and our past customers.
Here are 5 key relationship principles you must remember when you're communicating with your customers and prospects:
- Customers want to know who they are buying from.
- They want to have a connection to this person or brand.
- They want to be part of something that makes them feel important and that they matter.
- The level of the relationship determines the level of importance.
- No one likes a fair weather friend, a braggart or a selfish person.
​Now, maybe you're thinking this is simply common knowledge -- and I'd agree with you. However, I bet the way you communicate with your customers and prospects is anything but the 5 key relationship principles I outlined above.
I see some basic mistakes that happen on a regular basis from clients who have lists in the hundreds of thousands to those in the tens of thousands. I even see this type of behavior from "marketing gurus" and internet celebrities.
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Disclaimer: There are unlimited ways to reach success. Some are well earned, others maybe less so. How you do business and how you engage people will ultimately determine what comes back to you in this world.
I say this because you certainly can throw $50,000 a month on Facebook ads, grow a massive list quickly, and then convert a small number of those people.
Due to the volume of ads you run, you will achieve a certain level of success (and spend a huge sum of money doing so).
This is possible, but it is not sustainable.
You will run out of options eventually, and you won't have a company with loyal customers.
I focus on growing a list of raving fans, of loyal customers and of people that feel like they know you personally. This is how I work and consult with my clients, and this is what I am going to teach you today.
Just like any meaningful relationship, there is no overnight success.
Developing a relationship takes time.
It means you have to follow my 5 key principles and you have to stay at this.
In the spirit of the 5 key principles, I am going to provide you with specific details on how to develop a list of loyal customers.
Hint: It does not involve hammering them with sales emails and newsletters every single month.
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Key Relationship Principle #1
Customers and prospects want to know who they are buying from.
- Customers want to know who they are buying from.
- They want to have a connection to this person or brand.
- They want to be part of something that makes them feel important and that they matter.
- The level of the relationship determines the level of importance.
- No one likes a fair weather friend, a braggart or a selfish person.
People want to know who they are buying from, and they want to know this early on. If you read my blog last month, then you know there is a severe shortage of readership in the United States who read above an 8th grade level.
Add in the additional factors such as the reader's attention span and ability to hit their inbox, and your chances to make yourself known drop significantly.
So how do we fix this?
​Create an Indoctrination Campaign.
The Indoctrination Campaign should consist of 2 emails. The first email should welcome them into your "family" and explain who you are and why you are running your business.
When it comes to​ Email #1, there are several things you should NOT do, if you want to begin to establish customer relationships and loyalty.
Do Not:
- Try to sell them anything.
- Tell them how great you are or how great your products are.
- Offer them a sale or discount.
- Send the emails from an address such as "noreply@" or "newsletter@" - it's impersonal.
- Sign your email with something generic like "the team at" or only have your company name.
Now that you know what not to write into your first email using the Indoctrination Campaign, let's cover the things you should put in there.
Do:
- Act like the email recipient is a person you are having a discussion with at a cocktail party who asks, "What made you decide to get into this line of work?"
- Explain what inspires you and why you get up everyday and do what you do.
- Explain how happy you are that what you do helps so many people in this world.
- Tell readers you are going to email them the very next day and that you have a gift for them.
- Email them the next day with that gift (it should be a .pdf or a mini course that actually adds value). Also, provide some testimonials on how what you have done has helped others.​
Key Relationship Principle #2
Customers and prospects want to have a connection to the person or the brand.
​There's another great feature about creating an Indoctrination Campaign like I mention above -- by doing it, we also knock out the second Key Relationship Principle with this one campaign.
Bonus: If you can add in pictures of yourself and/or videos during the Indoctrination Campaign, it makes it all the more better and authentic.​
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Key Relationship Principle #3
Customers and prospects want to be part of something that makes them feel important and that they matter.
We now move on to the third key relationship principle which states that humans desire to be part of a movement that is bigger than them.
Photo courtesy: Tom's Shoes
We see this with religion, we see this with associations, clubs, organizations, with countries, teams and with brands.
Look at some of the most successful, recent campaigns that were founded on a bigger picture of hope, change and helping others.
Photo courtesy: ALS Association
Photo courtesy: Warby Parker
You've seen some examples, so I now turn the tables to you and your brand.
- What is it that your brand does that is creating positive change?
- What does it mean to be a member of your tribe?
- What does your tribe stand for?
- What do they believe in?
- What is it that makes this tribe more valuable than the other tribes?
Figure out what your tribe is.
- What it stands for and speak to that every time you send an email.
- Make it mean something to the reader.
- Make them feel like you are speaking to them about something they care about.
- Make them feel like they are part of the change by shopping with you.
Photo courtesy of Shepard Fairey
Customers who feel happy, confident and, important from their purchase, are the customers that are going to buy from you.
Key Relationship Principle #4
The level of your relationship you have with your customers and prospects determines the level of importance they place upon you in their own lives.
The old saying goes, what you put into something is what you get out of it. I couldn't agree more.
You know that to keep your list warm you need to email customers on a regular basis. You also know that a list tends to grow cold over time -- which is why you need to have a regular influx of new subscribers.
In this key principle I am going to share something with you that is going to transform your list health, increase list engagement and lower your list churn.
Before I show you how, you might be expecting something big and fancy. But actually, it's quite the opposite.
The key to improving your list health, increasing engagement, lowering churn (and ultimately increasing sales) is directly related to the quality and level of relationship you have with your list.
This means, concisely, that if you have a deep connection to your list then you will see plentiful sales.
I'm a visual person, so here is the perfect picture to explain this principle:
Photo courtesy of the United Nations.
Your relationship with your list is like an ocean. The deeper the level of relationship you have with them, the more plentiful the opportunities that exist within its depths. The value you provide is the health of the ocean. Dump trash and you'll see the population (of sales and opportunities) ​diminish.
On the opposite side of the scenario..
If you are emailing your list sporadically, rarely adding value to their day, making it a one-way conversation and...even worse...bragging about how great you are... then you have a shallow ocean filled with trash.
This is something that, unfortunately, many online marketers do, thanks in part to "gurus" claiming to help them get rich quickly by doing "x, y, and z."​
There's no sustenance within the shallow depths and this forces the opportunities and sales to dry up and seek a richer, deeper, friendlier ocean to reside in.
The key to avoiding this scenario is making sure you are communicating on a regular basis and that you are adding value and ensuring you provide a two-way conversation with your customers.
Treat them as humans, because they aren't just email addresses. In line with all your emails asking them to buy your product and to attend your next event, ask yourself,
"When is the last time I emailed this person just to tell them I appreciate them being interested in my content?"
Crazy idea?
Quite the opposite.
You see, we are humans, we crave connections and we want to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
Our social structure is based on relationships, and if you are just firing out one-way communications that only ask customers to buy and tell them how great you are (and how bad their life sucks) well... let's just say this: I wouldn't be your friend if that was our conversation every time. You sound like a selfish Debbie Downer, and those kinds of people don't have close friendships.
Remember: The level of relationship you have is a direct correlation to the level of sales you can generate.
You can have a 10 million person list, but if no one knows you, likes you or trusts you, no one is going to buy from you. (Think spam)
- Customers want to know who they are buying from.
- They want to have a connection to this person or brand.
- They want to be part of something that makes them feel important and that they matter.
- The level of the relationship determines the level of importance.
- No one likes a fair weather friend, a braggart or a selfish person.
Key Relationship Principle #5
No one likes a fair weather friend, a braggart or a selfish person. This includes your customers and prospects!
I covered a lot of this in key principle 4, but I'm going to mention it again in case you missed it.
I want you to take a few moments to review all your communications to your list -- take the time to really read what you wrote to your customers and prospects.
Review these questions below and compare them to the last 6 emails you sent. Keep track of your answers.
- Did you use every email to try to sell something?
- Did your emails boast about how great or awesome you, your company and/or your product is?
- Did you tell people how bad their life is and how much they suck because they don't have your product/service?
- Did you ask them anything that had nothing to do with trying to sell them something?​
How did you do?
If you answered, "Yes" to the first 3 questions and said, "No" to question #4, you need some help! You might be that person nobody wants to be friends with -- and I guarantee you that is hurting your sales.
But there's good news!
I can help you fix that. It's a turn-key campaign that has over 20 touch points of value to engage and nurture your list. All the copy is written; the campaign is completely turn-key. You do nothing at all as long as you have Infusionsoft.
I call this masterpiece "The Ever-Lasting Love Campaign" because the way I built this, it runs forever and runs custom to every person in your list. It's the answer for nearly every business owner's question of, "How do I create an engaged, responsive list without writing a ton of emails and blogs?"
It's yours today for only $247. Click here to claim your copy and never worry about having to "love on your list" again!
