[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/audio-wb/wb-day4.mp3|titles=Build Relationships – Website Blueprint]
If you want to turn website visitors into paying customers, you’ll want to remember that your website provides the opportunity to build relationships. This is so important for you.
Now there are just a few ways to extend the relationship after someone visits your website. They can pick up the phone, email you, or come and see you. But if they don’t do any of these, you’ve lost your prospect.
The solution is to persuade them to sign up to your email list (aka email marketing). Email marketing is a vital (and I mean the most vital) element to building relationships with your website visitors.
Your website should have a form on every page that simply asks for two pieces of information – first name and email address. When someone fills out that form, they’re now on your “email list.” This means you can email all your website visitors that have signed up all at one time, whenever you want. Of course, “whenever you want” shouldn’t be more than once or twice a month. The goal is to stay in front of your visitors or customers without bugging them. An email sent once a month seems to be a sweet spot.
You can email those on your list to tell them what specials you have and why they should call or visit you. Your email will be even better if you can add a “tip” each month. It doesn’t have to be more than a paragraph, but it should contain something either helpful or interesting related to your customer and your business field or industry.
So that brings us to how this is done. The email marketing program I recommend (and that is being used to send you this message) is Aweber (www.aweber.com). You can sign up for an account, create a web form for your web person, and have them add it to your site (or do it yourself with Aweber’s help — they make it easy with great support). Then, you can begin to manage emailing your subscribers. There’s a learning curve to sending out that monthly email, but it’s not too steep. It’s definitely one of the jobs I recommend to do yourself.
There aren’t many ways to build a relationship with folks that visit your website. Email marketing is one that I’ve found to be the most simple and effective way to stay in touch.
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Attract. Persuade. Connect.
Greg Murray
Website Blueprint Architect
