Chapter 4 – Relationship Building in Your Niche
Once you’ve determined that you’ve chosen a paying market, it is time to think about relationship building. To start, you want to locate the main sites, blogs, discussion boards, and forums that are associated with your niche.
Look through each of these to see what topics concerning the niche they are continually discussing. Write down the five most popular issues that are being discussed. This will give you a start on ideas for content on your blog, your newsletter, and possibly a free special report that your potential customers might be interested in receiving for providing you with their email address.
In other words, they are asking to hear more from you, and your email marketing platform can email lists that you will be gathering that can help create a closer connection with potential customers through more regular communication about items of importance.
Posting regularly at social sites will keep your followers updated and make it easier for them to pass along the information to anyone they know who might be interested in it. Always ask for shares and re-tweets and train your target audience to take the actions you wish them to take when you want them to take them.
One of the main reasons you want to start an online business is to make money. However, if this is your only motivation, chances are it will show. Think about a pushy salesperson in a store. You may be polite to them but are usually turned off by their aggressive approach and instantly resist any idea of buying from them.
You probably even try to make a discreet exit as quickly as you can. Others might just walk out as soon as they are confronted.
People online don't have to act politely. They can click out of your page and site, and you will never see them again, and you will be none the wiser as to why they left.
Being able to register them for an e-course or newsletter will provide you a better chance of communicating with them on a regular basis, for building a relationship with them, and building your business brand.
Studies show that it takes at least 17 exposures to a brand or business for people to begin to recognize it and understand what it does and what it represents. Unfortunately, an online business, usually never gets a second chance to make a first good impression.
Your email marketing campaigns are a valuable resource that provides you with a lifeline of communication with those who are interested in your niche. Give them different reasons to opt-in, such as special reports and newsletters.
If they buy an item, put them on a new customer list, rather than leaving them on a prospects list. You need to treat this list like a precious, rare, and valuable goldmine.
Once you get them on a list, keeping them there can prove to be a challenge. For example, the subscriber may unregister from your list as soon as they obtain the free special report.
This is why an e-course that contains several lessons spaced out over the course of several days and delivered through an autoresponder is a good idea if you want to keep the lines of communication open.
If they do happen to unsubscribe, don’t take it personally, but do see if they give a reason. Some people will take the time to tell you. They may feel like they received too many emails, or they don’t have enough time, or they decide they aren't interested in any of your offers.
Others will leave and never let you know if you have offended them in some way. You never know what the tipping point will be for a customer in a particular niche.
Sometimes you will have customers on your list for a year or more before they purchase something. Once they do, they may end up buying other items soon after. There might have been some triggering event in their personal life that would have caused them to take action suddenly.
It could have been a purchase for a loved one. It might also have been that after enough communications, they felt more confident that the information was reliable and trustworthy since they saw the quality of the free emails over that period.
Whatever the reason, apparently it can take some time to build a relationship with individual customers.
As a general rule, you can often catch them when they are at their most enthusiastic when they are first coming to your email list. For instance, you can thank them for registering for your free newsletter, and as a special welcome, give them a members-only price to your most popular product at 50 percent off.
If they take the offer, you can then offer them a second product at the special discount of 25 percent off. In this way, you will not only be building a relationship with them by creating the perception that they will save money by staying on the list, but also that you value them as a customer.
Always give your best prices to your best customers, to keep them loyal and see the benefits of being a member. Encourage them to pass along your email to others so they too can get the great deals.
They will probably forward your outstanding offers to others, but that's okay. Word of mouth marketing can quickly spread to a vast number of people.
Your social media accounts can also help with this. People on Facebook can like, comment, and share your information. This means that all of the people they are connected to can see your postings too.
This is also a powerful marketing and relationship-building opportunity that can bring in free traffic and sales.
Your product offerings should be varied, with you tracking and testing to see which are the most popular. In this way, you can deliver exactly what they want, at a price they like.
Bundling special price offers can be a powerful tool that can help you increase the dollar amount per customer, per purchase.
Your newsletter is your chance to send your customers exciting content on a regular basis that is related to your niche. You can review common issues in FAQs, quizzes, and more.
You can use all the information you've gathered from the forums and discussion boards to provide them with answers to the problems you know they are experiencing.
In this way, you are building relationships and positioning yourself as an expert in your niche without resorting to any aggressive selling. You are providing them offers you are reasonably sure a niche shopper in a paying market will be interested in taking advantage of.
You can choose to email the offers separately, on particular promotional days, or placed within the information email or newsletter. You have to be careful because they may want to opt- out if they get too many overtly commercial emails.
It is all about your customers' wants and needs concerning the niche and how you can build a relationship with them and show them how you can meet those needs. It is about staying on topic in the niche and giving them a range of options related to that niche.