“I want to treat my audience like friends and family instead of just customers.”

That’s Celia’s* number one goal for marketing her business. She sells natural self-care products for women, and admits that her marketing efforts have fallen by the wayside. She hasn’t sent regular emails in years. There’s no welcome series to bring new customers into the fold. Business has been steady, thanks to word of mouth and repeat customers, but she’s not making the impact she knows she can.

Celia wants to treat her audience with integrity, honesty, and kindness. She wants to empower them by sharing how she’s changed her life, and why it’s important to offer kindness and caring to others… and to ourselves.

Doesn’t Celia’s goal sound like exactly how you want to be treated?

I’ve been on plenty of email lists that send me weekly, if not daily, emails alerting me to new products and colors and sales and deals. But no one needs to buy that many pairs of shoes, bottles of alcohol, or self care products. Getting products shoved down your throat isn’t friendly.

How do you treat friends?

What IS friendly? How do you treat your friends and family, and how could you parlay that into the way you treat your customers?

• We talk. Obviously you talk to your friends and family. But think about how you talk to them, versus the way you talk at a networking event. Networking conversations are often killed before they begin by aggressive so what do you do questions laced with agendas or awkwardness. Could you address your audience – a new acquaintance, a customer via email, a prospect on the phone – more like you address your friend or cousin?
• We update. When you see someone you love, whether you just saw them yesterday or it’s been a year, you bring each other up to speed. What’ve you been up to? Any news? How’s that friend of yours, or that book you were writing, or your mom? If you’re going to treat your audience like friends and family, keep them up-to-date on what’s going on with you. And make sure to follow up on things you’ve shared before.
• We process. I’m a verbal processor. When something upsets me, it helps to talk it out. You don’t want to overdo this with your customers, and make them feel like they have to take care of you. But if you’re marinating on something, why not share that? Why not let them know when you feel conflicted, or when something happened that you’re still processing?

I’m so glad Celia has this goal and shared it with me. In our age of increasing automation, human connection is so precious. And while I understand the irony of talking about human connection and marketing emails in the same sentence, email IS a tool of connection. I have three messages from “pen pals” in my inbox right now, waiting for a reply.

What if you treated your audience like friends? What kind of community could you build? How would your customers’ loyalty evolve? What your open-rate increase?

I hope that Celia and I find out.

*Not her real name

This post is part of my 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days series. View the rest here.

Image by Create Her Stock.