There are many poor strategies for finding love.

One of the worst could be betting on love at first sight.

It sounds so perfect: your eyes meet across the room, you cautiously approach the other person, when you introduce yourself, it feels like you’ve known them forever …

Why settle for less, right?

You cannot argue against that by saying that it is impossible. Happens all the time!

But just because it’s possible, that doesn’t make it the best strategy.

Which brings me to one of my favorite expressions:

As with love, so with business.

Will people buy from you the moment they discover you?

They could … but it’s not smart to trust that.

Better to play by the odds and go for the winning strategy of regular contact over time.

Most of your friends and lovers didn’t start out like this. It took time to build the relationship, explore their commonalities, and cultivate trust.

That is what makes email marketing so powerful.

Someone walks through your website once and is probably not ready to buy. But they may be ready to sign up for your list, especially if you offer them something worthwhile.

Then they read your emails.

Over time, the relationship grows.

Until they are ready to take it to the next level.

You might think that social media is where it is. But social media isn’t intimate, it’s like a fully packed convention hall, with everyone talking to each other.

How can the relationship be built if meticulous algorithms bury their messages?

With email, the only algorithm to worry about is the spam filter, and it’s pretty fair too.

If you’re smart enough to avoid mentioning anything that sounds like a scam, your emails will get through. And if you miss an occasional one anyway, it’s not a big deal, especially when you’re emailing frequently.

But will your audience read them?

That depends on many things, many of which you cannot control.

What you can control is how attractive the subject is and how much the words are worth reading.

It’s not enough to trick people into opening up, just like you can’t trick someone into loving you. The simple act of using a trick shows that you are not worth it.

It’s about giving them what they want (or even need) to read.

Do that and your business will become much more satisfying, simple and powerful.