Your First Contact

Now that you have your customer and/or prospect's email address, what's the next step? This is probably the most critical time in the relationship building process. Please note that we said Relationship Building Process and not sales process, because this is the mistake that is made by most email marketers. They have some misguided idea that you can simply send out an email and people will come flooding in to buy your product or service.

Wrong... Email can be developed into a great lead and sales driver, but first and foremost, email has to start as a relationship building tool. Just because you have someone's email address does not mean that they are going to give you the privilege of communicating with them in their inbox. You have to earn that right and develop trust and a relationship with them.

This is why the "first contact" is so critical, it is the one opportunity you have to introduce yourself, your product/service, and ask them for permission to start developing a relationship via email.

One of the best ways to develop a relationship is to give the email recipient something of value, like advice or a tip; something that the customer and/or prospect can utilize and is useful to them. Connecting with the customer and/or prospect in this manner will allow you to build trust and develop a relationship with them. Following this plan will cause your customer and/or prospect to anticipate and look forward to your emails.

To learn more about how our clients are successfully building relationships click here.