You’ve probably heard of an “open door” policy. Right? You may even have come across a boss, manager, or teacher with that policy in place.
If so, you know that:
- It changes the culture of the workplace
- Helps you build a much stronger relationship with that person
- It creates a tremendous amount of trust and cooperation.
In other words, an open-door policy can be a very positive thing.
Why not adapt it to your online business? At first glance, you may be wondering how this could possibly be done, but it is actually very simple via email. Throughout your mailings, starting on day 1:
- Encourage readers to hit reply
- Have them ask you a question
- Ask them to share a story
- Maybe they can contribute a tip
In other words, encourage your subscribers to engage with you.
At first glance, this may sound like a way to create a lot more unproductive work for yourself but hang in there. There’s method to the madness. The first thing I want you to realize is that you don’t all of a sudden get swamped in emails.
Few people will take you up on the offer in any given email and it won’t take you long to reply to each message.
When you do, however, some pretty amazing things start to happen. You get to know your ideal customers and clients much better. That means you can write better emails and higher converting copy for everyone else on your list.
It also gives you a chance to build a much better relationship with those highly interested people on your list. And guess what? Chances are good that they will turn out to be your best customers. Isn’t that alone worth spending a few minutes a day responding to emails?
Give it a try and you’ll notice something else that will happen:
- Content creation suddenly becomes a lot easier
- You don’t have to try hard to figure out what to blog or write about anymore
- No more guessing what would make a great topic for your next info product or book.
Because you’re constantly “talking” to your customer base, you know exactly what they need and what they are looking for. They are sharing their problems and objections with you and it won’t take you long before you start to see common trends and what they will need to know next to reach their goals.
That information is priceless and it will help you take your online business to the next level, no matter what niche you’re in.
I would like to know your thoughts and opinions about engaging your audience via email. Are you using the “open door” approach? Leave me your comments below.
