Can I ask you to take a minute and think about how you look at your list? Rather than a business asset that might not be growing fast enough or giving you what you want – what if you treated your list like you would treat your best friend? Your list is literally the lifeblood of your business and, I promise you, if you treat the people on your list like your bestie, your world will change!
Today’s post covers: How to Build a Vibrant, Engaged List of Clients Who Love You – aka your besties. It’s #3 in our series on Simple Strategies to Build the Business and Lifestyle You Dream Of – designed to help you make a difference in the lives of others, build your client list and create a great income for you and your family. If you have been in business for some time, or if you are new to business – these strategies will work for you. Please enjoy!
Strategy #Three: How to Build a Vibrant, Engaged List of Clients Who Love You! (aka your besties)
Step One: Understand where your people hang out and hang out there too
Building a list of clients who love you is a lot like creating a new group of friends when you move – it takes time but it is so worth it. If you were moving to a new place and you wanted to make new friends you would go to the places where people like you hang out. As a Mum this would be at your child’s new daycare or school; if you loved yoga – you would join a yoga studio; if you loved fitness and health you would join a gym and meet people there.
The same thing goes with building your list – you can go to places physically or you can go online to the social platforms your people love. If you haven’t done your audience research (see Strategy #One here) this can be a problem. You must know your audience well enough so you can go where there are.
The bottom line is – you must understand where your people are and hang out there too so that people can engage and relate to you. When I say hang out I mean hanging out like you would with a best friend. Be there regularly and BE THERE FOR THEM – not for you! If this is your tribe you will already be using the language and the terms that mean something to them. Like all good friends you’ll listen, you’ll make comments, answer questions and add some value.
One of my client’s, Paul, is a property buyer’s agent and his key referral mechanism is mortgage brokers. So our strategy is building his presence on Linked In (where they hang out professionally) and using Facebook advertising to offer them targeted content on another platform we know they hang out on. All the time we’re speaking to his brokers about the things that matter most to them.
Step Two: Know your friend well enough to make an offer they would want!
Once you are in the hang-out zone with your audience and trusted by them, it’s time to offer them something they want. This offer is most often called a lead magnet – something of value, that solves a specific problem and is free – in exchange for an email address. A lead magnet can be a training video, a swipe file of valuable information or a cheat sheet. You’ll choose the format based on your audience, their problem and how you can best present yourself.
There’s a fine art to creating a great lead magnet – it must solve an urgent problem. Ideally, you want to make it a quick win that will make people feel like they have succeeded – in turn this will help them feel great about you. Once they have put into practice something that works – you will have established yourself as a go-to person and they will be inclined to look to you for other help and support.
Your lead magnet can also be the starting point of your friendship with a person so, just like any new friendship, make sure you share something about you at the same time!
On a practical note, your lead magnet needs to be attached to a good landing page and customer relationship management system (CRM) to make sure they are captured well in your system. If you are looking for a good system I use Igloo for my landing pages and Active Campaign as my CRM. I love them both because they are extremely intuitive and have excellent support. Active Campaign is great if you are a visual person – their dashboard layout is extremely easy to pick up and run with. If you want to check out Active Campain click here to get a 14 day trial of ActiveCampaign. (Note: this is an affiliate links and I only every affiliate with products I use myself and that save me time and money.)
Step Three: Build your friendships with consistent contact!
Once you have started a new relationship with new people to your list – it’s vital you nurture the friendship. Just like a real-life friendship – your online connection will not go anywhere until you look after it and love it! One of the best ways to do this is through a dedicated email autoresponder series called an ’email nurture sequence’. To be successful your email nurture sequence must:
- continue to build the relationship with your new friend
- continue to provide high-quality value – in different formats – maybe a blog post, a video or a swipe file
- demonstrate the value and the transformation that you offer
- continue to be in your voice and share something personal about you … so your new friend can get to know you too
- be consistent.
Ideally, it should run for at least 30 days (BTW that doesn’t mean you need to send an email every day), with regular communication after that. The plan here is that you become a good friend! People get into the habit of hearing from you and look forward to seeing you in their in-box because they find you interesting and your information valuable.
Looking at my list like a group of best friends has made all the difference to everything I do in my business! What do you think it could do for your business? Please share your thoughts in the comments box below! I would love to hear from you!
Are You Ready to Transform Your Business?
If you feel you would like any coaching or support for building a business that lights you up from the inside and makes your heart sing please feel free to email me at hello@jenramsey.com – I would love to help you.
If you are ready to increase your YES rate and build a business that you love and manifest the life of your dreams .
Would you Like a Free One-on-One Diagnostic Session?
If you need some one-on-one support for your business apply for one of our free strategy diagnostic sessions. We offer a limited number of these sessions every month because we know first hand that working out ‘how to sell yourself’ can be very hard.
In these sessions, we take a look at your business, what your offer is and we make a plan to get yourself out there to the people who need to hear your message. It’s great to have an objective view and a mentor to hold your hand so you know what you are doing is going to work. We’re offering these strategy calls because we want you to avoid spending months struggling and still not have the right offer for your audience. Spots are limited so if you feel you are ready to take your business to the next level apply for a session here now.
Maybe you have a friend or colleague who might find these strategies the game-changer that they need in their business? If so, share the love!
Yours!
Jen xo
P.S. Stay tuned for next week’s post where we cover Strategy # 4 – Putting Yourself Out There to Create New Leads
