I have a personal coaching program for Internet marketing, and on one of the calls, a student asked me, "What exactly is relationship marketing, and how can I use it to increase the responsiveness of my list?" I thought that was an interesting question, and one that's simple to answer, but not so simple to do. When your subscriber is interested in you as an individual and signs up for your list, and you know something about them in return, you're then Internet marketing via relationship. There are ways to learn more about the people you've been list building around, but maintaining a rapport with them is really the key.

Whether you're into Internet marketing or an offline business, there is some level of relationship between you and your customers. Relationship can mean more than one things, too. You might be talking about how things connect, like if you're selling dog whistles, you'd better have a relationship with people who have dogs. Right? But what I'm talking about here are personal relationships, relationships that are more emotionally involved, kind of like the relationship you have with your family, or a romantic relationship. Those are relationships that can help a business to grow, and it holds true for Internet marketing just as it does for offline business, but in a different way.

Relationship marketing is beyond all the hype and crap that you see being peddled out there every day. This is where list building strategies just tank. I'm talking about the kind of relationship marketing where you meet someone on your list at a seminar and you have dinner together. Maybe you find out the names and ages of their kids or about what kinds of pets they have. That's how relationship marketing gets started, by connecting with people on a personal level. It can be just as deep in Internet marketing, and for an example of what I mean, go over to www.Tut.com.

Go to www.Tut.com, and register to receive "Notes from the Universe." Then, fill out all the questions the site asks of you. What happens is that every day, you'll get an email from Tut, who will tell you interesting things about your life. It's pretty powerful and always inspiring. I think that's relationship marketing at it's best, and if you're list building, this is how you should treat your list. You need to build relationships in Internet marketing, and they want to know about you, too. They need to trust you.

Then, I explained to my student, "A Coca-Cola billboard on the side of the road, and what we're doing here right now are different, right? I mean, we've never met in person or anything. But I know you because I talk to you every week, and you've done some work for my company and you were part of another program that I had for a while. I've actually referred you to other people, not just my customers, but also my business friends and colleagues. Isn't' that relationship marketing at its best? When was the last time that you got any business from Coca-Cola?" That was a no-brainer. List building and list maintenance is all about relationship marketing, and it can be very, very powerful.

Automated communications work well in Internet marketing, but when you write to your audience, you need to "speak" to them on a personal level, in a way that feels as if you're directly communicating with them. Run an ASK campaign and see what the people on your list really want and need. It can be extremely powerful.

You'll need to do some testing to see what works best for you. Use the good things you find and create a relationship with your list. Survey your clients and see what they want and need. That's very powerful for Internet marketing, because we rarely get to meet our customers on a face-to-face basis. Just be sure that you aren't list building and doing nothing about it. If you build relationships with your list, you'll have a business that lasts.