All business is about exchanging products or services for money. This is rather an obvious statement to make to open this article, but no sales = no money = no business. When running a business online we are working with our customers at a distance which creates particular problems that most off-line business doesn’t have. The internet gives us a very impersonal connection with our customers and potential customers. This remoteness makes it difficult to gain their trust and build a relationship.
Happily there are ways and means by which we can establish the sort of relationship we want; the sort of relationship our business needs in order to succeed. Let me talk you through some of the tried and tested methods by which marketers build a rapport with their customer database, – their List (as it is usually known).
First of all, and this will be at the top of most people’s list, there is the issue of quality. From your very first contact with a potential customer you must offer the best quality possible. If that first engagement leaves a customer feeling let down you will never see them again. Even if that first contact is through a free offer, the quality of that free item or free service must be of the highest quality. In internet marketing, the greatest income comes through the sale of backend products. If you spend all your time and effort producing a magnificent backend product and give little thought to the frontend which leads to it, very few customers will ever get through to the backend. Always give value and always give quality, even from the earliest dealings with your customers, or you won’t have a business.
Hand in hand with the above is the internet marketer’s axiom: “Always under-promise and over-deliver”. Follow up a purchase with an extra bonus not mentioned in the initial sales letter. Give your customers a pleasant surprise with something which further enhances the purchase they have just made. Such a bonus will create a very positive image in the eyes of the customer making them far more likely to buy from you again in the future. This will be particularly valuable when it comes to offering backend products. If your customers trust you they will look favourably on more expensive offers that you make to them further down the line.
One word about bonuses; they must be relevant to the product or service being purchased. They must be from within the same niche and should enhance the item being purchased in some way. By these means you will begin to build a relationship with your customers. You can continue to keep your customers, your list, happy by regular emails and newsletters to provide information from within the niche which might be of interest to them. If this is done well you will create a situation where your subscribers and customers look forward to receiving emails from you as they know that they will be worth reading. It will also make it much easier to present them with new offers from time to time.
To build and retain your customer database is not just luck it requires strategy and forward planning. Treat your customers like friends and they will reciprocate. If you look after your customers they will look after you.