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Relationship Marketing | by Dave Cottrell |
I don't really care who disagrees with me. They're just plain wrong.
You can spend hours and days and months and even years perfecting your ad copy, your headlines and your subjects. But if you don't have anyone to send them to, they won't do diddly.
Some people try to get around this problem by using email harvesting robots and mailbots, or worse, by buying "targetted" lists. Their idea is that if they fire enough bytes out blindly into cyber space, some of them are bound to hit their target.
If you are thinking about doing this, DON'T! It is not only a waste of time and money; it is a great way to lose your ISP, annoy thousands of potential clients, and get blacklisted. In other words, it's the perfect way to destroy your business.
Even if you make some sales this way, they are one-time sales and then you have to go through the same risky process all over again.
No, marketing is about developing relationships. Get to know people.
Allow me to digress a little.
When you sell something online, you make a little money. It gives you a small amount of satisfaction, but it doesn't last very long. The joy of the sale is soon overwhelmed by the fact that making the next sale is darn hard work.
On the other hand, when you set out to develop relationships, you make friends. Friends are there whether you are making sales or not.
Friends WILL buy from you if you have something that is valuable to them.
Friends will also share tips and ideas they have discovered with you, making your efforts much more effective.
Friends will recommend you to their friends.
Are you getting the picture? Relationship Marketing is the most effective form of viral marketing that there is. People YOU have developed a good relationship with will tell THEIR friends about you. They, in turn, will become your friends and tell their friends about you.
"Ah...." you say, "But this takes time! I wanna get rich right now!!"
If you want to jump to the head of the wealth line, you're going to stay at the tail. You can't jump the queue to wealth. Anybody who promises that you can is a liar and probably a crook who is trying to jump the same queue by draining sucker's wallets.
Relationship Marketing first of all rewards you by expanding your circle of friends with similar interests to yours. You can't put a price on friendship. As you pass through this life, you realize more and more just how much more valuable friends are than money.
However, Relationship Marketing WILL make you wealthy if you make your number one interest PEOPLE, you treat these people with integrity and respect AND if you happen to have a product or service that really is valuable to them.
I strongly suggest that if you don't have a great product or service at this time, don't worry about it. Work on getting to know people, first. You will find the rewards much greater than you can imagine. Your best source for good products to sell or excellent affiliate programs is the people you get to know. They will be happy to share their ideas with you once they get to know you.
Once you get to know a number of people, start a friendly newsletter. There are a number of good listservers that will host your list, free.
Make sure that you carefully read the rules of a listserver before you sign up for their service. I know from personal experience how frustrating it is to lose a list because the host I was using felt that my newsletter did not fit their criteria.
Most reputable listservers no longer allow any kind of commercial activity with their free service, but usually offer a very reasonable paid service.
Do not use a newsletter to fill your friend's email box with hundreds of new programs. Only recommend a few that you actually find valuable, and only a few of those at a time.
Give your friends real content in your newletter. It doesn't have to be hard-hitting, cutting edge stuff. Just keep them up-to-date on what you are doing and how things are working for you. Tell them about your experiences, however humble.
Most people who have been online for any length of time will find a simple article about your own experiences much more interesting than a hundred polished articles from so-called gurus. (These are all over the place and mainly just the same old stuff rehashed and repackaged)
Remember, these people are your friends, or are becoming your friends. Treat them the way you want to be treated.
It is OK to include classified ads in your newsletter (as long as your listserver allows it). Just don't put them before your main article, and don't overdo it. Giving away free classified is a great idea, too.
If someone who receives your ezine sends you some really good information or hints, write to her, ask for a short article or ad from her and feature it in your newsletter. You are doing her a favour, your readers a favour, AND yourself a favour.
To sum up: Marketing is about developing relationships. So relax, have fun, and make friends. The wealth will come.
Dave Cottrell is opinionated, compassionate, and passionate about people, marketing and online business. He does a lot of digging, experimenting and research, and writes like crazy about a wide variety
of topics and subjects. He is the owner of many websites and blogs; you can read his rants and find out more about him at http://davecottrell.com/blog.html
This article can be shared freely as long as this box remains intact.
Copyright © 2006 David H. Cottrell. All rights reserved.
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