How To Earn The Trust Of Your Ideal Customer With An Email Nurture Sequence
The most important asset in any business is your community of raving fans, also known as an email database.
This is more important than your premises, or your tools, or your system to achieve results, or your years of experience!
Why?
Because your next sale will come from your community of raving fans.
Seriously, making a great product or service is only part of what you need to create a profitable business.
If you can’t sell your product or service, then you don’t have a business.
If you don’t know where your next sale is coming from, then you will have a chaotic and stressful business journey.
A community of raving fans lets you relax with the security of knowing where your next sale is coming from.
Why do I keep calling an email database a community of raving fans?
Because I want you to remember that your database is filled with people that want to change their lives. People that want your help to achieve a specific result.
The result could be to remove their back pain, to lose weight, to find the love of their life, to start a new business, or to grow their existing business.
The point is that your database contains people that are on a journey to change their life. If you can show them how you can help them, why they should trust you, and what makes you different, then you will earn their trust.
If you can do that, then they become part of your community and not just 2 pieces of information in a database.
One Night Stand To Committed Relationship
Marketing is the process of building a relationship with your customers.
This process starts with finding people that you don’t know and offering them something of value in exchange for their contact details.
You can think of this as walking up to a beautiful girl in a bar, and asking if you can buy her a drink. If she says yes, then you can have a conversation and ask if you call her. Once you’ve got her number, you can start a relationship.
What will you do next?
You would take her out on a date to get to know her.
I’m sure you’d agree that asking her to marry you on your first date would be jumping the gun.
And yet… this is exactly what many people try to do in their business. They try to sell before they have earned the trust of their ideal customer, and they burn the relationship.
If you have paid to get a lead through advertising, and then you immediately try to make the sale, without first earning the trust of your ideal customer, then you burn that relationship, and you burn the money you spent on advertising.
How do you stop burning money?
You take your customers out on a date. Then a second and third date. You take small steps to earn their trust before you ask them if they would like to invest in your product or service.
When you create an email nurture sequence, you take people out on a date series of dates to earn their trust. Each email gives them a manageable amount of content, so you tickle their taste buds, and leave them wanting more.
So how do you create a series of delicious and satisfying content meals that pulls your ideal customer into your world?
That’s exactly what this blog will show you…
Trust Building Tools
There are 3 tools to build trust:
- Valuable content
- Inspirational personal stories
- Customer success stories
Let’s look at each of these in turn.
Valuable Content
Valuable content is where you give away your hard-won secrets for free. When you do this, you demonstrate your expertise, help your customer to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or you show them how to do something specific.
When you help your ideal customer without asking for anything in return, you earn their trust.
Because you have demonstrated your expertise, this proves to your ideal customer that you can deliver on your promise. This proves that you can help them change their lives.
Most importantly, if you can deliver results in advance, then you will earn the trust and loyalty of your ideal customer.
This is a lot harder to do than it sounds.
The first thing you must do to deliver results in advance, is teach your ideal customer how to do one specific thing. This is where a lot of free content fails, because the author wants to charge for the How To detail.
So, the first thing you must do is make your content so valuable and specific that it teaches your ideal customer how to do one specific thing.
The second thing you must do to deliver results in advance, is to motivate them and inspire them to actually use the information that you've given them. This is much harder to do.
Why?
Firstly, because most people do not value free content.
Secondly, because we are all busy and using some new information takes time and courage to step out of your comfort zone.
I remember the first time that read a personal development book and actually did the one thing the book suggested.
It completely changed my life in ways I couldn’t imagine!
Why did I take action with this particular book? Because the action was so simple.
The book was Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. The book gave me a simple money management system. The first thing I needed to do was set up 5 savings accounts. With online banking this was super simple. Then I just needed to manage my money using the system outlined in the book.
I thought I'd try it for a couple of months and if it didn't work, then I could easily go back to what I was doing before.
To my shock and amazement, after the first month, I felt richer even though I wasn’t earning any more money.
How is that possible?
That’s a story for another day. For now, all I’ll say is that the psychology of money and how you manage your money is far more important than how much you make.
The point of the story is that the book motivated me to take action. It delivered results in advance. Yes, I’d bought the book, and what it gave me was far in excess of the £6.99 that I paid.
How did the book motivate me to take action?
It made the action simple, and gave me a lot of reasons why how you manage your money is more important than how much money you make.
Believe me, I didn’t believe that either until I started using this system.
You can change the lives of your community when you give them valuable content, inspire them to use it, and make the next action manageable and straightforward.
Inspirational Personal Stories
There’s no better way to show your community why they should trust you, and what makes you different, than with an inspirational personal story.
When you tell your audience about your 10-year overnight success and all the challenges, failures, and moments when you wanted to quit, then you will earn the trust of your community.
Why?
Because you are being honest. You are showing them that success didn't come easily to you. You are showing your community that you aren't better than they are, that the only difference is that you started before them and refused to give up.
How does the story end?
It ends with you explaining how you developed your system and why you want to help other people to avoid the pitfalls that you went through on your journey of discovery.
If you tell your story honestly, with all the challenges you suffered, and all the tears you shed, then you will create a lasting connection with your community.
Customer Success Stories
When you share customer success stories with your community you answer the question in their mind, can ordinary people succeed with this system?
It’s easy to dismiss the success of the “guru” as them being special or that event being a one-off, fluke.
But…
When you see success story after success story, the truth becomes undeniable. The truth that if you take action with a new system, or if you use the product, then you too will enjoy life-changing results.
Yes, it’s hard to build a bank of customer success stories. Yes, it takes time for your customer to achieve results, and it takes courage on your part to ask them for a testimonial.
And…
When you build a bank of customer success stories, then you have a critical persuasion asset that you can use for the life of your business.
So, how do you use these 3 trust building tools in an email nurture sequence?
Your Nurture Sequence Emails Must Link To Your Content Library
When you enter a new building, what’s the first thing you do?
If you’re anything like me, then you follow the signs to reception and then you ask for directions to the office or person that you want to see.
Your email nurture sequence does the same thing. They let your new friend know where they can find the information that will help them achieve their goals faster than they thought possible.
The beauty of directing people to content in your content library is that they can then consume other content if they want to.
Please don’t be intimidated by the word Content Library. This is a blog on your website. A section of your website that contains free, valuable information, that the customer can use to help them on their journey.
When all of your written content, and videos, and audios are in one place, then you make it easy for your customer to explore at their leisure.
If you have your written content on a separate website, and your videos YouTube or on Facebook, and all your audio content is on your iTunes Podcast, then you are forcing your customer to run an assault course to find the information that they want.
You don’t want to do that!
You must make it as simple as possible for your customer to find the information that will help them. That’s why you must keep everything on the blog on your website. That’s why you must build a Content Library.
You can ALSO have your videos on YouTube, and your audios on an iTunes Podcast. This is not a one or the other decision. This is the perfect instance of having your cake and eat it.
Blog & Video & Podcast
You want your nurture sequence to share your content in as many different formats as possible.
Why?
Because different people prefer consuming content in different ways.
There are those that love watching video. There are others that prefer to read, especially when you are giving them the specific steps that they must take to achieve a specific result.
Finally, there are those that prefer listening to audio in the car, or at the gym.
These groups of people are not mutually exclusive. I enjoy watching videos and feel that’s a great way to build an emotional connection with someone.
When it comes to learning how to do something, I prefer to read the information, so I can get all the detail. This gives me the freedom to read it as fast or as slow as I choose.
And, I’m a lover of audio content in the car and at the gym. So, if you can share content in all formats with new members of your community then do so.
If you only have written content then don’t think you can’t create a nurture sequence today. I created a nurture sequence with the only content that I had at the time, which was written blog content. A year later, with a lot of audio and video content, I still haven’t updated my nurture sequence.
Why?
Because time is a limited resource.
So start compiling the content that you have. Believe me, you’ve already got the gold to create a powerful nurture sequence.
Where Are You Taking Them?
We all want to be led somewhere. And we will follow the person that tells us where we are going.
In the same way, you must tell your new contacts what information you are going to share with them and how it will help them.
This could be going into greater detail on the content areas that are in your lead magnet (the ethical bribe that you used to persuade people to join your community).
It could be that you are giving new contacts the success steps that they must take after they have read your lead magnet.
Whatever you are doing it must
- Be easily understood
- Stand on its own
- Be a simple step towards the result your ideal customer wants
The reality is that most people that download your ebook will not read it immediately. Why not? Because we all have busy lives. We start out with the best intentions and then life gets in the way.
I’ve got books that I’ve bought and I haven’t read yet (sometimes many years later, and I read at least 30 books a year) so what are the chances that I won’t read an ebook that I’ve been given for free.
Your ideal customer is the same. They are busy. They want to change their life, and they want your help to make the change in the fastest and easiest way possible.
So, the content that you are sharing in your nurture sequence should not be so advanced that it will only make sense if they have read the lead magnet. It should be a simple first step on their journey to the life they want.
A simple first step that is going to make them feel good about themselves, and good about you.
Why Are They Taking This Journey With You?
So, you’ve told your new contacts where you are taking them, you have demonstrated your expertise by revealing your hard-won secrets.
But…
Journeys of discovery are challenging, even if the only challenge is giving up your time.
So…
Why are these new contacts taking the journey with you?
Is it because you have insights and wisdom that no one else has?
If that's the case, then great. Chances are, there is someone else in your niche competing for your customers' attention, heart and loyalty.
So, why should your customers take their journey of discovery with you?
Because of the emotional connection you create with them through your valuable content, through your inspirational personal stories, and through your customer success stories.
You see, even your valuable content should be infused with your personality. This will come through in the way you write and your delivery to camera. It will also come through in the mini-stories you tell in your valuable content.
In this blog post, I told you about the first time I acted on what I learned from a personal development book and that the only reason why I took action was because the action was so simple.
It is mini-stories like this, that reveal your values. They prove to your community that you are just like them.
It’s the emotional connection that you create in your valuable content that will earn your customers trust, and make them want to take a journey of discovery with you.
How Long Should A Nurture Sequence Be?
There’s no right or wrong answer to the question how long should a nurture sequence be.
The truth is that it should be as long as you think it should be. As long as you think it takes to earn the trust of your ideal customer.
You see, while customers are in your nurture sequence, you must exclude them from your sales messages. Why? Because you want to earn their trust before asking them to work with you further.
In my opinion, a nurture sequence should be at least 14 days with emails going out every other day.
I’ve written nurture sequences that are as long as 28 days and as short as 10 days.
The most important thing is to create one.
Why?
Because done is better than perfect.
If you've got 4 blog posts, then you've already got an 8-day nurture sequence. Once you've written your next blog post, add it to your nurture sequence.
The most important thing is to create one. Start using the assets you’ve already got and improve your nurture sequence later as your bank of valuable content grows.
Now It’s Your Turn
There is a huge difference between a database and a community of raving fans.
An email database contains pieces of information. A community contains the hopes and dreams of people. People that you can help to achieve their goals faster than they can on their own.
To create a community of raving fans, you must first earn the trust of new contacts. You do that with an email nurture sequence that links to valuable content and inspirational stories in your content library.
That's it! It's a series of emails that link to your blog. Don't make it more complicated than that. Just make it so good that you earn the trust of your ideal customer.
Get started today, and let me know how you get on.
If this can help a business owner that you know, then please share it with them.
If this has helped you in your business, then please leave a comment below.
Until next time…
Carpe diem
Roland Eva
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About The Author
I’m a copywriter and business growth trainer, mentor and consultant.
For the last 5 years, I’ve helped authors, coaches, mentors, consultants, software developer and health professionals to sell products and services in industries as diverse as property, technology, finance, personal development, business opportunity, weight loss, and alternative health.
These products and services have ranged in price from £5 to £12,000. My most successful campaign made £672,989 in just 9 days. I took that result and transformed it into a simple repeatable system. A system that I teach to ambitious entrepreneurs that want to make money on demand without a sales team.
Why do I want to help other business owners? Because my marketing journey began when I lost my first business, a photography and graphic design studio. The pain of watching my business slowly die, and being powerless to do anything about it, motivated me to discover how promotional messages can make money on demand without a sales team.
Today my mission is to prevent every business owner from suffering through the same pain as I did. I’d like to take entrepreneurs on the ecstatic ride that comes with having a proven system to make money on demand and to relax with the security of knowing where your next sale is coming from.