Tips on How to Build a Relationship with Your List

As an Internet marketer building your business, you know you need to build a list of subscribers. Beyond that you need to learn how to build a relationship with your list if you want your business to thrive.

But you don’t want just any ol’ list with just anybody on it. You want a targeted list of people ready, willing and able to buy from you. With a targeted list, building that relationship should be fairly easy, no?

Well, maybe. To be honest, many marketers just see their list as a means to an end. Okay, that’s fair enough. After all, you’re in business to make money. However, if you only see dollar signs when considering your subscribers, you might have a problem.

Start Building that Relationship

You see, you need to build and nurture a relationship with your subscribers while, at the same time, offering your products or services. The following tips on how to build a relationship with your list will get you started. Whether you’re setting up an auto responder series or preparing broadcast messages, the same rules apply.

 Make your emails content rich and interesting

You want your subscribers to look forward to each and every email. When that email hits their inbox you want them to stop what they’re doing and open your email. You do this by offering value with each email.

Share information in your niche, offer up interesting facts, tell stories, anything that will engage your readers and make them eager to open each and every email you send. You can still pitch your product, but do so within your content rich emails.

You not only want to make your emails interesting, you want to let your personality shine through. Let them know you’re a “real” person, and by all means, link to your social media accounts.

If your readers feel like they know you they will trust you. When they trust you, they will buy from you. When you make your subscribers feel like you are only emailing them to make a sale, you will lose them.

 Email your list offers they are interested in and will benefit them

The best, in fact, the only way to profit from your list building is with a well thought out email marking plan. Before you send out a broadcast or set up an auto responder series, really think about each offer. Ask yourself, “Will this benefit my list? Is it something they really want or need?”

If the answer is no, then trash that email. While you may think you are missing an opportunity for profit, the fact remains if no one is interested in the offer it’s actually costing you time and money.

If the answer is yes, go for it!

Again, the key is to build trust with your list. Sending irrelevant offers to your list, or even worse, offers that don’t actually benefit them, will result in loss of credibility and trust, and you may even lose subscribers along the way.

You worked too hard to build your list. Don’t blow it by being lazy and careless. Start each email campaign with a plan!

 Give away freebies

While almost everyone agrees that giving freebies to your list of subscribers is a great way to keep them happy, there seems to be some debate about how often you should do so. Some marketers send gifts daily, some send freebies weekly. While their intentions may be good, there is no way all these freebies are useful or relevant. More often than not they’re dismissed out of hand.

As a recipient of all these giveaways, I say STOP!

Sending a good quality report or instructional video or even useful software to your list from time to time is a great idea and a great way to build trust. Sending mediocre stuff just for the sake of giving something for free defeats the purpose. Give your subscribers something they will love.

Also consider that when you send quality gifts to your subscribers they are likely to download and open that report or instructional video or software. What you, as a smart marketer have done before you zipped it up, is put your affiliate link in the product or branded the software with an appropriate affiliate link.

News flash, folks… there is no law that says you can’t profit from something you give away freely. So again, do this strategically and make a plan for products you giveaway.

These 3 simple tips are pretty basic but you’d be surprised how many marketers just ignore them in their pursuit of the sale. Then they scratch their head and wonder why they fall short.

How Often Should I Email My List?

One of the most common questions people have when building a list is how often they should send out emails. After all, you don’t want your subscribers to feel like you are spamming them but you also don’t want them to forget about you.

The answer is there is no right or wrong answer. There is no magic number of emails you should send each week. It depends on you and your subscribers. It also depends on the kind of emails you send… what is the purpose of your emails?

Auto Responder Series

When you create an auto responder series you have a specific goal in mind. For example, if your purpose is to educate your subscribers on whatever the topic and prepare ecourses, then you want to schedule each lesson 2 to 3 days apart. This would give your readers enough time to read and digest the information before they receive the next installment.

Or perhaps you want to set up a campaign for a product you know they will be interested in. You would prepare a series of emails, some of which are information only and some with links to the product you are promoting with a call to action. These would be sent 1 to 2 days apart.

If you publish a weekly or monthly newsletter… well that’s your answer. Why would you send a weekly newsletter every day? Or worse, once a month? You wouldn’t.

Broadcast Messages

If we are talking about sending out broadcasts, or one time emails, the more important question isn’t so much how often, but when. When should you send a broadcast message? The answer is simple.

Send a broadcast whenever you have something your list will benefit from or find interesting and appreciate. Is it something they should see right away rather than down the road in your auto responder series? Is there a special time-limited sale going on they should know about? Did you find a great blog entry they would enjoy? Those are great reasons to send a broadcast email.

Does your list respond well to how often you send emails? Check your open rate stats. That will tell you how responsive your subscribers are to your emails. If you have a high open rate, then chances are good that you’re on the right track.

But again, it all boils down to how well you’ve established your relationship with them. If you’ve done your job, your subscribers will actually want to receive your emails!

Conclusion

To wrap this up, you need to remember these things: start by building a strong relationship with your subscribers from day one; provide interesting and useful content; always provide value with respect to the products you promote and the products you give away.

If you get this right, how often you email your list won’t be an issue. If you put their needs before yours, your subscribers will respond and that is the edge you need to grow a successful business.