So what not better way to share my thoughts on creating better customer relationships, business partners, fans and followers by sharing a story in today’s post. I have had a lot of success by simply sending out e-mails to other people in the online marketing space just striking up conversation based around something they have done with their blog or have created. People like to know when they are helping others.
About 5 months ago I was researching the idea of purchasing a keyword research tool to understand how to rank more content on Google and possibly even build a niche site. At the time there was a lot of people for years that had talked about Market Samurai but I had also heard of a newer tool called Long Tail Pro. So I did what most people do these days, I started searching and comparing both tools by reading articles on Google. So of course, I typed in one of the most obvious search terms “Market Samurai vs Long Tail Pro” and I came about Matt Allen’s blog post (currently ranking #2 for this search at the time of writing). I left a comment about how helpful his post was and from there I decided to give the 7 day trial version of Long Tail Pro a shot.
Since Matt was having some success with his online ventures and his blog Dumb Passive Income part time I decided to reach out and simply ask if he was interested in allowing me to interview him for my show. I had already interviewed about 7 people at the time and purely look at my blog as a way to invite guests who can bring any knowledge to the table. Within a couple weeks I was able to have Matt on the show and we talked for nearly 2 hours including the interview itself. Matt got to share his story about how he got started online and also focus on the topic of niche sites, something he had experience with and I was and am still learning about myself.
Sending E-mail – A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy
One of my favorite blog’s to read is SocialTriggers.com, Derek Halpern recently wrote a blog post about a simple yet so easily misunderstood concept.. e-mailing people!
Beyond just leaving a comment on Matt’s blog I took the time to actually reach out and focus on him. I asked if he would like to be on my show, talk about his story and share his knowledge with my audience. It’s really that simple, I’ve used this same exact tactic to land high end guests on my show such as Pat Flynn, Shane Melaugh, Andrew Warner, Rob Fore and many others!
You could easily base an e-mail around the same idea referencing content on someone’s blog, talking about how it helped them and providing ways you can benefit them.
Checkout Derek’s post on e-mailing people and then watch the video below.
How Testimonials Help Build Better Customer Relationships
Matt has continued to stay in touch with me over the past several months by actively e-mailing me with comments, thoughts and suggestions on my site, introducing me to other online marketers and admitting he listens to all of my Podcast episodes. I really thought Matt went above and beyond what most people would do to stay in touch so I actually made a testimonial for him:
Creating a testimonial is my way of giving back and showing my appreciation for help and guidance, I’ve created testimonials for many other people and each of them always reaches back out to me to thank me.
I’ve now created multiple videos like this, including testimonials for Pat Flynn, Mike Thomas and Shane Melaugh for how much they give back to the online community and for helping me out.
You can also checkout a tactic I like to call The Testimonial Technique, the tactic is basically showing proof that when you do something positive for people they will thank you in return and generally you will stand out to them in a positive way.
Create Written Or Video Reviews To Build Strong Business Relationships
Since starting to interview other entrepreneurs online I have been able to build some really great relationships, I could e-mail any one of the people I’ve now interviewed and possibly ask for help or advice on a given topic they have knowledge about. The unique thing about interviewing people is there are so many people that are knowledgeable on all kinds of different topics.
I interviewed Ronnie Bincer and we talked quite a lot about using Google Hangouts for just meet ups or even doing interviews. I won’t go into depth here but merely purchasing a microphone and webcam will allow you use Google Hangouts for free allowing you to instantly upload the recording right to YouTube. Even if you only did one interview a month, they are very easy to schedule and setup if you use a service like Schedule Once. If you decide to get serious then I suggest going through Pat’s free Podcasting Tutorial.
You can checkout these two interviews I did with Mike Thomas & Andrew Warner who both run very popular interview shows:
Mike Thomas Discusses The Benefits Of Hosting An Interview Show
Learning About Hosting An Interview Show With Andrew Warner of Mixergy
Some Great Tips For Building Better Customer Relationships
So let’s recap:
- When you find a post on Google while researching a topic for yourself take those extra couple minutes to leave a comment and start a relationship from there with the owner about the topic.
- Send an e-mail to them (Revolutionary Right?) Focus on how you can help someone, mention that you enjoyed their post or content and focus on them in the e-mail, offer ways to help them out.
- Create Testimonials – Create a testimonial for someone who has helped you and why, it only needs to be a couple minutes long.
- Interview people – What better way to build or get to know other people as customers, or business partners is to e-mail them and request an interview. You can use Google Hangouts to do this and it’s completely free if you have a microphone and a webcam (both very inexpensive these days).
I hope you enjoyed this post and it helps you start creating better relationships online.
Connect with me on Google+ +John Shea
