The Third C of Email Management: Community Building

It seems that more, now than ever, people are looking to be a part of a like-minded community. To chat with people who have the same interests. And to share knowledge, dreams, and fears with people who understand.

And many people look for this same community-minded spirit on the internet.
You can use your autoresponder systems to help to create a community for your prospects and customers.

Using Your Autoresponder System to Create Community

1. Start a dialogue with your prospects and customers. Ask questions in your email sequences, and invite your readers to answer, and also to ask you questions. Then select some of the responses or questions (with permission of course) and go deeper into them in your emails.
2. Create a survey around a topic of interest to your market. Invite people to respond to the survey questions, and then share a summary of the answers with the group.
3. Ask open-ended questions from time to time. This will allow your prospects and customers to use their own language and express themselves; to tell their own stories.
4. If someone poses a particularly good question, or shares a great success story, you might ask their permission to include that question or story in a future email or on your blog.
5. Invite people to visit your blog and make comments related to the posts. Then respond to those comments and start a conversation.
6. Ask people if there is someone else they would like to hear from in your market. If there is, invite that person to be a guest blogger, or create an event featuring that person. It’s a win-win-win all the way around.
7. And, from time to time, fire up your personal email program and send a more one-to-one email to someone on your list. Thank that person for trusting you by allowing you to send him or her information. Let them know they are valued.

Can you think of additional ways to use your automated systems to develop a sense of community in your business? We’d love to hear from you.