Do relationships in email marketing matter anymore??

38 replies
ok so i'm on a lot of email lists and I study different marketers "styles" when it comes to email marketing. Ive read so many times, its important to build a relationship with your subscribers, build rapport, trust, deliver value etc. etc. but it seems more often that not many of the top marketers (the ones that finish at the top of JV leaderboards) do none of that, they just blast away copy/paste emails and yet it seems to work.

So my question is, do relationships even matter if you have a huge list a s**t ton of new leads coming in daily??? Wondering other warriors thoughts on this
#anymore #email #marketing #matter #relationships
  • Profile picture of the author Matt Morgan
    Originally Posted by Jason James View Post

    ok so i'm on a lot of email lists and I study different marketers "styles" when it comes to email marketing. Ive read so many times, its important to build a relationship with your subscribers, build rapport, trust, deliver value etc. etc. but it seems more often that not many of the top marketers (the ones that finish at the top of JV leaderboards) do none of that, they just blast away copy/paste emails and yet it seems to work.

    So my question is, do relationships even matter if you have a huge list a s**t ton of new leads coming in daily??? Wondering other warriors thoughts on this
    If you have 2 lists of 20,000 each (40,000 in total)...and both get 100 subscribers a day in..

    List 1 (20,000 subscribers - 100 New subscribers a day)

    you build a relationship with, they trust you, you dont always promote, you provide hot content to them, without overpromoting, and the relationship + trust gets big between them and you.


    List 2 (20,000 subscribers - 100 New subscribers a day)

    There is a weak releationship with them, they DONT trust you, Everytime you promote to them the conversion rate is low, they dont know Anything about you, and they are need help on that niche. You also don't provide them any good advice in your emails.

    Now out of the 2 lists:
    -which one would would have more warm leads?
    -Which one would you get more sales on?
    -which one would get more unsubscribes from?
    -which list would recommend 'other people' to this list?
    -which list would make money?

    If you answer them to yourself, you will have the answer to your question.

    Other peoples views might differ though.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jason James
      Originally Posted by Matt Morgan View Post

      If you have 2 lists of 20,000 each (40,000 in total)...and both get 100 subscribers a day in..

      List 1 (20,000 subscribers - 100 New subscribers a day)

      you build a relationship with, they trust you, you dont always promote, you provide hot content to them, without overpromoting, and the relationship + trust gets big between them and you.


      List 2 (20,000 subscribers - 100 New subscribers a day)

      There is a weak releationship with them, they DONT trust you, Everytime you promote to them the conversion rate is low, they dont know Anything about you, and they are need help on that niche. You also don't provide them any good advice in your emails.

      Now out of the 2 lists:
      -which one would would have more warm leads?
      -Which one would you get more sales on?
      -which one would get more unsubscribes from?
      -which list would recommend 'other people' to this list?
      -which list would make money?

      If you answer them to yourself, you will have the answer to your question.

      Other peoples views might differ though.
      I see your point Matt...but there seems to be A LOT of "List 2" email marketers out there that are really killing it..hence my questions about this entire topic.
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      • Profile picture of the author Matt Morgan
        Originally Posted by Jason James View Post

        I see your point Matt...but there seems to be A LOT of "List 2" email marketers out there that are really killing it..hence my questions about this entire topic.
        I suppose that List 2 marketing works, and many people are doing it.

        Mabey if they did increase the trust/relationship methods with the subscribers they might get higher conversions, more sales,

        BUT as they are happy with the Vast amount of sales they get anyway (As the list is huge anyway, with less trusted subscribers) then they aint too bothered to make the relationship as hot as people say it should be?
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        • Profile picture of the author Jason James
          Originally Posted by Matt Morgan View Post

          I suppose that List 2 marketing works, and many people are doing it.

          Mabey if they did increase the trust/relationship methods with the subscribers they might get higher conversions, more sales,

          BUT as they are happy with the Vast amount of sales they get anyway (As the list is huge anyway, with less trusted subscribers) then they aint too bothered to make the relationship as hot as people say it should be?
          Makes me think, imagine if these marketers did put in just a little bit of effort building a relationship how much MORE they would make??

          BUT, as an example would you rather make $5,000 with almost NO effort (over and over again) or make $10,000 or more by taking the time and effort to build that trust and relationship??
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          • Profile picture of the author Matt Morgan
            Originally Posted by Jason James View Post

            Makes me think, imagine if these marketers did put in just a little bit of effort building a relationship how much MORE they would make??

            BUT, as an example would you rather make $5,000 with almost NO effort (over and over again) or make $10,000 or more by taking the time and effort to build that trust and relationship??
            Yes that is the thing, if they made more effort to build the trust, they would get more trusted buyers,

            and with your example they might want to make a high amount of 'quick profit' in a quick amount of time compared to taking the time to get trusted customers via emails and then make more money.

            James, I printed your 'Untold Marketing' report before christmas, on paper and made notes on it.

            I must say the picture on that report looks different to your WF photo lol. Good report though.
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            • Profile picture of the author Jason James
              Originally Posted by Matt Morgan View Post

              Yes that is the thing, if they made more effort to build the trust, they would get more trusted buyers,

              and with your example they might want to make a high amount of 'quick profit' in a quick amount of time compared to taking the time to get trusted customers via emails and then make more money.

              James, I printed your 'Untold Marketing' report before christmas, on paper and made notes on it.

              I must say the picture on that report looks different to your WF photo lol. Good report though.
              I am a man of many looks :-)
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          • Profile picture of the author paulie888
            Originally Posted by Jason James View Post

            Makes me think, imagine if these marketers did put in just a little bit of effort building a relationship how much MORE they would make??

            BUT, as an example would you rather make $5,000 with almost NO effort (over and over again) or make $10,000 or more by taking the time and effort to build that trust and relationship??
            You have a point there, Jason. I think that they have probably figured out their average cost to get each lead, and their average money made per lead, and at the end of the day if they can turn a profit just using simple and effortless copy-paste emails, then it'd make perfect sense for them to keep doing what they're doing, i.e. the "churn and burn" technique.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      I suspect it kind of depends on what your market is to some extent. If you have a list growing by leaps and bounds every day, it may not matter too much if you build any kind of relationship with them if you are only using them to bring you money.

      The new folks will take the place of the older ones who drop out after being pounded and you might even make out better as far as profit goes.

      In some markets, there may not be that many products coming out at the frequency which they do in IM, so in order to make the amount of profit you are looking for you need to have long term readers.

      But I would also think that if the only reason you have a list is to make money off of them, then perhaps your relationship skills as far as lists go and probably in most other areas, might leave a bit to be desired.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Fulton
    Using your example of 'S**t loads of new leads coming in each day' I would say building a relationship doesn't matter. I agree with you that the recurring winners of most jv's contests just blast copy & paste emails out to their large lists. Doing this doesn't seem to hurt their bottom dollar.

    But they can afford to have a high unsubscribe rate due to their large influx of new leads each day, something most people don't have the luxury of doing.

    So a relationship does matter if you're not bringing in more leads than your losing.

    Hope i made sense, ha ha

    Jason
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    • Profile picture of the author Jason James
      Originally Posted by Jasonb25 View Post

      Using your example of 'S**t loads of new leads coming in each day' I would say building a relationship doesn't matter. I agree with you that the recurring winners of most jv's contests just blast copy & paste emails out to their large lists. Doing this doesn't seem to hurt their bottom dollar.

      But they can afford to have a high unsubscribe rate due to their large influx of new leads each day, something most people don't have the luxury of doing.

      So a relationship does matter if you're not bringing in more leads than your losing.

      Hope i made sense, ha ha

      Jason
      Yes Jason, that makes total sense..I guess the point is to discover how to bring in so many leads that completely bombarding your list doesnt do anything except make a lot of money.

      Seems internet marketing is now simple, get aweber or similar autoresponder, generate 1,000's of new leads daily, copy/paste emails and deposit checks...OMG I've cracked the code! :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Ouroboros
    I think relationships matter more than ever, but in this day of submitter bots and "instant systems" few people make the effort.

    The success of those gooroo efforts can be attributed to some extent to the size of their lists and their reputation. Surely they put in the effort somewhere to build such trust.
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  • Profile picture of the author houstonb
    I voted sometimes because if some one that im subscribed to gives me good free tips and content over a few weeks im more likely to take their advice once they do promote a product, then again if I see it as a true product with real value then it may not matter what kind of relationship I have had with them. So for me its sometimes.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaZamora
    I definitely due think building relationships matter. Keeping free content emails and promotions emails on a 3:1 ratio is good for building rapport
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    Many of the top marketers you're thinking of use the "Churn & Burn" email marketing method. Because they have a mammoth system in place to add a lot of new subscribers constantly, they feel none of the pressure the rest of us feel to keep the unsub rate low.

    In other words - you and I are just $ signs to those guys. You're on their list to buy or leave... period.

    You know what? I actually have no problem with that. I don't do it myself, but then my lists combined are under 3,000 in size. And it's not my style to churn & burn. But it does work under the right circumstances. Too many of the big names do it for me to believe it isn't effective.

    You have to decide what kind of marketer you are. Some just want to make money and squeeze every penny they can out of their subscribers. I think of them as the hardcore marketing types. And some of us are more into relationship marketing, where we want to keep people subscribed and try to make the occasional sale without ruffling their feathers enough to cause an unsub.

    Both styles work, clearly. If you can stay ahead of a high attrition rate and you don't have any problems sleeping at night, churn and burn. If you're more into lots of repeat buyers, cultivate that relationship. To each his own.

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author Jason James
      Originally Posted by Zeus66 View Post

      Many of the top marketers you're thinking of use the "Churn & Burn" email marketing method. Because they have a mammoth system in place to add a lot of new subscribers constantly, they feel none of the pressure the rest of us feel to keep the unsub rate low.

      In other words - you and I are just $ signs to those guys. You're on their list to buy or leave... period.

      You know what? I actually have no problem with that. I don't do it myself, but then my lists combined are under 3,000 in size. And it's not my style to churn & burn. But it does work under the right circumstances. Too many of the big names do it for me to believe it isn't effective.

      You have to decide what kind of marketer you are. Some just want to make money and squeeze every penny they can out of their subscribers. I think of them as the hardcore marketing types. And some of us are more into relationship marketing, where we want to keep people subscribed and try to make the occasional sale without ruffling their feathers enough to cause an unsub.

      Both styles work, clearly. If you can stay ahead of a high attrition rate and you don't have any problems sleeping at night, churn and burn. If you're more into lots of repeat buyers, cultivate that relationship. To each his own.

      John
      Awesome point John..I guess at the end of the day we all have to decide what type of marketers we want to be, or what we can sustain.

      For some its just a numbers $$$ game, for others when a mailing goes out it goes to Tom, Mike, Sam, Mary, joe, etc. etc. like you know, actual people.
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  • Profile picture of the author jwenberg
    Whether it does or doesn't, personally I would want to have a relationship with my list whether anyone appreciated it or not. I would at least feel good about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author JonWebContent
    FWIW, I have a rule.......

    Anyone that SPAM emails me or sends me a bunch of canned emails because I somehow got on their mailing list- I will NEVER buy a single thing from them.

    Personal relationships are important in any business. The better you do of connecting with others, the more people that will want to buy from you. Also, it's a good long-term strategy. You can't just think of things in terms of 1 sale. Consumers give repeat business to those that they trust and have built some sort of relationship with.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    I was subscribed to a popular super affiliate that sends out blast after blast on a daily basis.

    I never had to unsubscribe. Google just started sending them to Junk after a while.

    Be careful with the emails you send out...if you don't treat your list right, you'll also end up in the junk folder. And once you're in there, it's hard to get out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ouroboros
    It's also about numbers...

    These guys have formed so many JV relationships that have thousands of subscribers...everybody can mess up and copy their email scripts and still get a good return.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrismarcans
    Relationship matters in everything we will do in this world. So therefore in email marketing it will still matters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Moffatt
    Even the people who claim they are building relationships are still full of sh*t. In the end, they are just trying to sell stuff.

    Building real relationships involves actually meeting your customers for lunch, inviting them to the beach, or actually picking up the phone and calling them. Very, very, very few marketers actually spend time to do these kinds of things.

    I hear lots of talk about building relationships, but in my opinion they are pseudo relationships the majority of the time, and I think people are smart enough to get it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
      Originally Posted by Jason Moffatt View Post

      Even the people who claim they are building relationships are still full of sh*t. In the end, they are just trying to sell stuff.

      Building real relationships involves actually meeting your customers for lunch, inviting them to the beach, or actually picking up the phone and calling them. Very, very, very few marketers actually spend time to do these kinds of things.

      I hear lots of talk about building relationships, but in my opinion they are pseudo relationships the majority of the time, and I think people are smart enough to get it.
      Naw, you're just getting caught up in semantics here, JMO. When we say "relationships" we really mean rapport... trust. Yes, a relationship does mean a two-way thing and it's usually not that way with list owners and subscribers. It's one-way most of the time. So your point is taken on the language. We should come up with a better way to describe what we actually mean when we talk about the power of developing relationships with our list members.

      People get on lists knowing you're going to try to sell them. But just like in the real world, sometimes you choose to buy from the person who is willing to spend some time helping and explaining without always pushing you to buy something. Same principle here. That's what we really mean by "relationship." It's more accurate to call it establishing trust.

      John
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  • Profile picture of the author Billy Rey
    ive done this experiment with different niches. You dont actually have to build any kind of "actual" relationship because most people do not know that its an autoresponder talking to them. So definitely, you should be able to craft some good emails that convey that you are there and you are speaking to them. Definitely helps with conversions.
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  • Profile picture of the author drmani
    Originally Posted by Jason James View Post

    Ive read so many times, its important to build a relationship with your subscribers, build rapport, trust, deliver value etc. etc. but it seems more often that not many of the top marketers (the ones that finish at the top of JV leaderboards) do none of that, they just blast away copy/paste emails and yet it seems to work.
    I'll share a different perspective.

    Too often, marketers interpret "relationship building" with
    an email list to mean "becoming their best friend"!

    NOT necessary. In fact, as Allen Says nicely pointed out in
    one report some years back, it may even become a deterrent to
    effective selling... because you'll constantly catch yourself
    editing what you've written to "better fit" your email persona

    So what IS "relationship building" with an email list subscriber?

    It goes down deeper to INTENT and PURPOSE.

    * Why is your subscriber on your list?
    * What do you want to do with/to them?
    * What do you expect them to do in return?

    Those questions are at the core of "relationship building".

    And they can fit nicely in with effective selling.

    Let's take someone who's getting started in building and profiting
    from niche minisites. They WANT to know how to build sites and
    turn them into cash streams. If the quickest, easiest way for
    them to learn that is by buying your program, then selling it to
    them is the FASTEST and MOST EFFECTIVE way for you to "build a
    relationship" with them!

    So, one big-list marketer sends only 'cut-and-paste' emails
    pitching a product or service. And many might condemn the
    practice as "bad", or say "yeah, it works, but..." and COMPLETELY
    miss the point that it IS INDEED relationship building in the
    sense that the people who signed up for that list ASKED or
    EXPECTED to receive exactly that... guidance to the best or
    most useful or valuable products and services!

    By constantly SELLING your subscriber stuff that helps them
    get to the goals they WANT to get, you are BUILDING a relationship
    with them, NOT destroying one.

    By wasting their time or diluting focus by talking about yourself,
    your pet cat, and what you had for breakfast, or the places you went
    to last month on an annual vacation, you may actually be DESTROYING
    that relationship.

    Of course, 'smart' marketing ties in BOTH. The 'personal', with the
    'purpose' of the list.

    But to call that the "only effective" way to market to an email
    list - and condemn all other approaches as ineffective - is short
    sighted.

    Stop parroting what others say or do. Think for yourself about
    WHAT exactly constitutes that magical "relationship" you crave
    with your subscriber. Ask yourself what the best way to foster
    that is. And decide if it is worth investing your time and effort
    into doing it well.

    Then build relationships that MATTER - to yourself, and to your
    subscriber.

    My 2 cents :-)

    All success
    Dr.Mani
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Originally Posted by drmani View Post

      By constantly SELLING your subscriber stuff that helps them
      get to the goals they WANT to get, you are BUILDING a relationship
      with them, NOT destroying one.
      Exactly.

      Many people have the misconception that selling to a
      list is 'bad' and giving away great information is always
      'good.'

      If the products or services you sell to your list truly
      help them to get what they want, then the relationship
      will be improved.

      On the other hand, if you're just 'selling stuff' for your
      own selfish reasons and don't really care for meeting
      the real needs of your subscribers then the relationship
      will not last long term.

      I just wish more list owners would follow the Strategy
      of Preeminence by Jay Abraham and then the world
      would be a better place and more list owners and
      subscribers would benefit in the process.

      The best relationships in business and elsewhere are
      those where BOTH parties benefit. If only one person
      wins, then the relationship doesn't last long-term.

      Go for win-win everytime.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
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  • Profile picture of the author butch04
    Hi,

    Most people at the top of the lead boards are usually some well known names in the business that already build up their status so they can just blast away.

    I have a list of 97 people and I offer great content along with a great service and talk to the people on the list on a weekly basis via emails (not my auto responder or broadcasts). When I do acutally send out a broad cast to this list I usually generate a great deal of income cause I have a great connection with everyone.

    I have another list of 11k people. I slammed this list with pitch after pitch after pitch. Today I call it my $#@% list, and I'm lucky if I pop 5-10 low end sales from it when I do a blast.

    To me treating your list the right way vs. the wrong way makes all the difference in the world. I could be wrong though, but that is what I've learned from my own personal expereince.
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    • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
      Hi Jason,

      Trust is a lot more important than relationships when you have a very sizable email list.

      There simply are not enough hours in the day for you to reply with “personalized” messages to each person on your list.

      Let your readers know that while you appreciate their support and input, you just will not be able to answer each and every email.

      However, building relationships is the most powerful marketing tool out there.

      That is why Social Marketing is so popular.

      What you need to do is weigh what is most important to you and try to compromise and find a middle ground.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    I think a lot of the confusion comes from how you define the word "relationship"...

    In my mind, "creating a relationship" is about building up the degree of "know, like and trust" between the list owner and the list members. Notice, I said the list members, not the list.

    My list members get to know me by my consistency in delivering certain kinds of value, not by sharing the "TMI" parts of my life inappropriately. They know that, within my subject area, I know what I'm talking about and that they can expect me to tell them the truth as I know it.

    My list members, for the most part, like me because I deliver what they expect from me and it resonates with them. If it doesn't, they don't like me. Either way, it's their choice, not mine. As is remaining on the list or accepting my recommendations.

    My list members grow to trust me because I stick with the expectations I gave them when they opted into the list. As JMo so eloquently put it, much of the time, it's to sell them stuff. Where the trust factor comes in is the experience of only trying to sell them stuff that I believe will help them get what they wanted when they signed up.

    Doing the 'churn and burn' would violate that trust on my lists, so I choose not to do it.

    Even the 'churn and burn' list owners have a relationship with their list members. It's just a different relationship than the one I choose to foster.

    The same can be said for the 'I just wanna be your pal' approach. On a business list, I don't necessarily want to be your pal. I want to be a trusted adviser.

    Taking the long way around, to answer the original question, yes, I believe relationships in email marketing DO matter. Just not in the way most people mean when they say it...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay White
    Hey Jason--hope you're doing well these days...

    To me, it's all a matter of finding that perfect balance between trusted advisor and salesperson. The method I teach my email and autoresponder copywriting students involves blending the two as seamlessly as possible, so you can build trust while simultaneously presenting a soft sell message that doesn't beat their brains out.

    Your lists may vary, of course. But this has always worked for me and my clients. And from what I'm hearing, it's working for my students' clients too.

    JW
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    • Profile picture of the author Jason Moffatt
      Originally Posted by Jay White View Post

      Hey Jason--hope you're doing well these days...

      To me, it's all a matter of finding that perfect balance between trusted advisor and salesperson. The method I teach my email and autoresponder copywriting students involves blending the two as seamlessly as possible, so you can build trust while simultaneously presenting a soft sell message that doesn't beat their brains out.

      Your lists may vary, of course. But this has always worked for me and my clients. And from what I'm hearing, it's working for my students' clients too.

      JW

      Haha, I know bro. Just stirring up the pot and making people think a bit.

      And yeah, doing great these days. Surfing a ton.
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  • Profile picture of the author ShaneRQR
    The following are just my 2c on this topic, but the 2c are based on experience, not just my opinion.

    "Chrun and Burn" does work. You slam out enough offers and get enough fresh leads on a regular basis and you'll definitely make money.

    Hype also works. Hypey headlines, excited copy and all that really do help in getting e-mails opened and links clicked.

    Building trust does wonders for your conversion rate. I've seen absolutely mind-bending conversions on my "warmest" lists and from my top affiliates. There's no other way to get conversions like that. None I know of, anyway.
    You can have a huge list and write amazing copy that makes everyone open and click, but nothing gets you conversions like TRUST from your subscribers. That's when they KNOW that you have their best interest at heart and that you only recommend completely awesome stuff. And it can't be faked, I think.

    Plus, when you have that trust, you can still write great headlines and great copy to get those high open and click-rates, right?

    You probably can't build this kind of trust and promote five offers a week at the same time, though.

    I, for one, would much rather engage with my subscribers in a real, human way, only recommend really good stuff and get good conversions when I do, than churn and burn, even if the latter did make more money.

    Plus, there are lots of awesome things a mailing list can do for you, apart from putting money in your pocket.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eamon Diamond
    Hi Jason,

    Nice point you hit on here, I've been reading a lot on sites about this. I feel it's SO important to look after your email list with care.

    Blasting out email after email has exploded, especially last year I think, my inbox was filling up so quick day after day. I know what you mean about the big guys that have a big emailing list and also get hundreds signing up new everyday.

    People will catch on to this before long, by that time the marketer will have done himself more harm than good, that's if he has his name attached to it, then there's the others with their pen names that won't be worrying as much.
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  • Originally Posted by Jason James View Post

    So my question is, do relationships even matter if you have a huge list a s**t ton of new leads coming in daily??? Wondering other warriors thoughts on this
    Relationships matter, even more so when you're receiving tons of new leads every day. Unfortunately, it's become common practice to just copy+paste launch emails and not provide any value, just pitch one launch after the other. Those lists do buy (just because new leads enter in daily and there are more subscribes than unsubscribes) but if you compared that lists' longterm value to one that has built a strong relationship with it's readers, the latter will always perform better.

    In short, if you're lazy and only interested in short term money and not a business, go ahead and copy-paste emails and don't build a relationship. If you want to build a business and a reader base that's going to buy your stuff even years down the road, go the extra mile and provide value.
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeid Makkawi
    Wow, im amazed about the whole warrior members who's responding the op question...
    Tons of high quality response on this thread, honestly i learned a lot of stuff from this thread

    In my opinion, if you got pretty big list and also growing bigger each day... it's not hurt if you can invest some of your time or money to have sequence email with "personality" touch inside. Relationships does really helpful to maintance your subsribers stays or until you gain credibility from them.

    From there you can do some promotions while keep in touch with them weekly. Even if you don't have any time to do it, you can outsource to copywriter. Maintance it as your bussiness, and if you didn't treat it right... you can lose your subscribers trust in really fast manner.
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  • Profile picture of the author Angela Wills
    How *I* feel about how I treat my list is just as important to me as how my list feels about me.

    So my answer is definitely, yes, it matters to me
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  • Profile picture of the author fated82
    I would blend the two together in such a way that I can still promote my stuff and build trust at the same time.

    Recently I learn of a concept which should be able to help you solve your problem - Here is how it works:

    Create a weekly newsletter and have one of these type of posts per week

    1) Information only
    2) Hybrid
    3) Promotional
    4) Participative

    Informational Only

    Obviously, this means no offers, no sales pitch - just quality content that is relevant to 1)your target audience and 2) your products
    So if you are selling SEO services, you can have an article on SEO.

    Hybrid

    This means that you provide quality content that is good but incomplete and at the end of the content, 'recommend' your audience to purchase your product. Classic example will be article spinning. Talk about how to spin articles and opps, they need your article spinning product to do that.

    Promotional Piece

    Nothing by a sales pitch. period

    Participative

    Rarely do you see IM do that in their mailing list. But if you are to do that, you will surely stand out. The reason why social media is such a phenomenal is because people finally have a platform to get their voice heard.

    Why don't you provide the same platform to your subscriber? Once a month, email your subscribers and ask them to contribute something of value to you. For example, if I want to create an eBook on Affiliate , all i need to do is email my list and have them send me their stories on affiliate marketing. I will then compile it together and either give it to my list or sell them on the market.

    People like to be involve in other people's success. Give your list a chance to do that too.

    So yes, your entire IM biz is going to be based on building trust with your list and create lifetime value for them.

    Hope it helps
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    • Profile picture of the author oneplusone
      The relationship is important, but the quality of the data on your list is far more relevant.

      Most of us can't see beyond the buyers list v prospect list, but it goes much further than that.

      If a competitor's buyers make up your opt-in list, then what?

      In terms of "worth" have you got a buyers list or a prospect list?

      They didn't buy from you, but it isn't your typical opt-in list.

      A lot of talk about "trust" here, sure this is important ... but confidence is king.

      People buy when they're confident. So make them confident.

      But you've got to get their attention and stay in their awareness first, look at the advertisers who are making tens/hundreds of millions of dollars on the CPA networks and they are doing multi-channel sequencing etc
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