The easiest and most effective way to follow up and nurture relationships with your clients and potential clients is to build an e-mail list of people who have “opted in” and given you permission to send them e-mails.
With a profitable e-mail list you can:
- Fill your seminars and programs
- Attract more clients and sales
- Turn current clients into repeat clients
- Promote other peoples’ programs that you believe in and earn $1,000?s in affiliate commissions
Here are 3 basic keys to building a successful e-mail list:
First of all, you need to have one in the first place. That means that you need an e-mail delivery system, which is commonly called a CRM (Contact Relationship Manager).
There are MANY systems to choose from. I recommend Mail Chimp or Constant Contact if you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of funds to work with. I recommend 1ShoppingCart if you want to be able to process credit cards online. Once you have 500 people on your list and are making $100,000 or more in revenue, it’s time to consider switching to Infusionsoft, which is more pricey but much more advanced.
You also need an Opt In Page where people can sign up to be on your list. When people opt in, their contact information gets entered into your CRM automatically.
Next, it’s important to nurture relationships with people on your list by offering them something of value, other than sales, sales, and more sales.
Your list is a community of people who have put their trust in you. They’ve trusted you with their name and e-mail address. Since many people change their physical address more often than their e-mail address nowadays, that’s actually a generous show of trust.
They’ve trusted you to provide them with valuable information and not to sell their contact information or spam them. Honor that trust by sending them articles (like this one), helpful tips, or inspiring quotes.
One of my colleagues runs an auto repair center, and he realized that his clients didn’t want to learn about auto repair (that’s why they hired him) so he just sends them funny quotes, comics, and stories that have nothing to do with auto repair but make them laugh.
Finally, you need to continually build your e-mail list by having new potential clients opt in. Focus on attracting your tribe of ideal clients, not just anyone. That way, the people who join your list will be more likely to actually invest in your products and services.
