Creating a Trusting Business Relationship via newsletters
I don’t have to tell you how important it is to build a trusting business relationship with your clients. When your clients trust you they buy from you, an if they don’t trust you… someone else get’s their money.
Newsletters are a great way to build a relationship with your clients, and they are a fantastic way of building trust. Last week I shared my tips for creating Enticing Newsletters, so this week I thought I would build on that by sharing the importance of the trust factor.
Let me give you an example from my own recent experiences.
I signed up for the newsletter of an author/teacher that I respect and admire. I have followed his work for sometime and really value what he has to share. His sign up form said, “Sign up for our quarterly newsletter,” and I have to say the idea of it being quarterly was appealing to me. My time is valuable, and I don’t want to spend the majority of it reading emails.
Here is where my trust in this person began to waiver. This quarterly newsletter automatically added me to other newsletters, and within a week I was hearing from this author daily, sometimes twice a day. His emails were very “salesy,” and lacked the value I had come to expect from him. As I was interested in the quarterly newsletter and what it had to say, I hung on for three months.
His quarterly newsletter finally came, and it was all about selling his books, workshops and retreats. There was literally nothing of value in the newsletter, and I felt like I had been tricked.
No one wants to be manipulated.
Had I known I would be getting emails every day, I may not have signed up for his newsletter at all. However, it is possible I would have, because I really love his books and teachings. Now I feel as if I were tricked and manipulated. I have unsubscribed to everything, and the trust I had is broken. I have no doubt this will impact my opinion of this man moving forward, and may even keep me from buying any more of his books and services.
This isn’t the first time I have felt this way, and he isn’t the first person to utilize these business practices. Sadly, it is a tactic that used all to often, and one I personally have learned to avoid. It sucks being on the receiving end of this kind of practice. It also creates makes me feel icky and rude.
I said it above, and I believe it is worth repeating… No one wants to be manipulated, so…
- Be up front and be honest
- Clearly state what your customers can expect from you
- When the freebie you are offering also adds your customers to a newsletter, tell them
- If you are going to occasionally send them promotions and discounts as well as your newsletter, tell them
- If you feel it is necessary to email them every day, tell them and share how long you plan to email daily
Finally, don’t rely in trickery or manipulation to get more leads (aka subscribers). Avoid feeling icky and rude, and be you, and share your business with the open hearted authenticity. This is what your ideal client is looking for.