What's this 'relationship with your subscriber non-sense' all about?

I posted this on a different thread yesterday, where a fellow warrior was asking about what "role" she needed to play in the niche to be successful as an affiliate.

That's a slightly different conversation than the "guru" figures who have their own products, but assuming that all of us strive to be both affiliates AND product producers... I think it fits.

I developed the idea of those roles primarily as the guy who WROTE all the promo emails at StomperNet (ghostwriting for whichever faculty it was "from") until last year - including the content ones, the house promos, AND the affiliate promotions.

In fact, I even wrote the swipes for the affiliates to use to promote StomperNet's stuff as well. I don't say that to brag, but to say that the above isn't just some idle thought exercise. I have literally used those roles in copy to develop - yeah - RELATIONSHIPS with the people in the list that are being interacted with.

The true power of the internet is in how you can use the tools of automation and mass communication to provide the SUSTAINABLE ILLUSION of a deeper, more personal pseudo-friendship than you can with say, direct mail or TV ads.

My shortcut is to use the list and a blog together, and always encourage commenting and participation as much as possible, and ENGAGE in the comments as the niche persona. That way you never have to touch EVERY person on your list, but you provide them that visible indicator that you "walk among them".

Then, through carefully placed "clues" throughout the messaging sequence, you can subtly draw them toward you mentally, and move the "friend" line. To do that I use a 5 step message tempate I call the "Introduction Induction."

1. Verify something in the niche or in life that they observe or perceive. This lets them know you "see" where they are coming from. It mentally places you beside them.

2. Validate the way they feel about that observation. This moves you closer still, into the realm of a family member or trusted friend, because you feel on the inside the way that they do.

Using the two above points together is vital, it puts your persona both INSIDE and OUTSIDE their brain - you are basically verifing for them that their sense/memory complex is working, and correct, and yours is the same.

3. Use that powerful connection as a Vantage to present your new information that you want them to absorb. You're already basically holding the door to their head open - whatever comes next is going right in and sticking.

4. Share their Values with them - Whatever it is that they value in themselves - loyalty, hard work, patriotism, whatever - reflect that back to them, not necessarily explicitly, but in photos, anecdotes, whatever.

This positions you as part of that general circle of friends and acquaintances where they feel that you are not just a distant figure like the author of a book they are reading, but that you are actually a real person who lives in the world, and that you are "one of them" when they are out among the English.

5. Identify and decry Villains - Nothing holds a group together better than the outside pressure of a good antagonist. Other gurus, Google slaps, The Economy, BP, Osama, whatever - villains are the flip side of the Values coin. Values draw them toward you positively. Villains push them towards you AWAY from something else.

If you use that pattern over and over and over again, you become part of the world, and not just a brand name. You become part of their "tribe" because you have common rivals. You become part of their "friends" because you share the same values. You become part of their "family" because you feel the same way they do about the things you SEE - and you see them because you are RIGHT THERE with them.

Eventually, when you call out things YOU see and YOU feel that they might not necessarily share, they WILL adopt them and ACCEPT them without thinking twice because your mental apparatus is so attuned to be like theirs, their brain will subconsciously TRUST your information.

This makes it way more likely that not only will they pay attention and remember, they will INTERNALIZE it, forget that you told them, and then think it was their idea all along.

Which is why when you develop this relationship based marketing, you don't talk about the products - you talk about the problems they face. Whether they actually face them NOW or not doesn't matter because they believe the problem is REAL, and that they WILL face it. They trust you.

So when you then offer solutions to the problem, there's no need to push - no need to sell. You are offering a solution to a problem they ALREADY feel the have, or are in danger of facing. They already WANT the product. All you have to do is make them aware it exists (with an affiliate link) and get out of the way.

This is how these top level gurus can send a once sentence affiliate email that says "Check it out - link" and be a top 10 finisher for a huge product launch. It's NOT about the content of the email - it's about the relationship they built up in EVERY PREVIOUS communication.

Anyway, hope that contributes.

Don't know how I missed that...

I think his son has taken over, and sounds so much like the original, it's scary. Just the other day, I heard one of those 'rest of the story' segments.