THE PRINCIPLE

Establishing an apparent one-to-one relationship wins you followers

Marla Cilley, also known as Fly Lady, nags people for a living. Every day she sends emails to her more than 400,000 followers, reminding them to get up, clean the sink, eat healthy food and take care of their skin. On average, her customers, mainly middle-aged American homemakers, receive 15 such messages a day. She also sells them branded T-shirts, bags, kitchen timers, dusters, books, calendars and more at her www.flylady.net website.

She receives about 5000 emails a day. One of them said, ‘You are the mother I never had.’ It’s that personal connection that makes her customers feel like she’s talking directly to them, guiding them with tips and encouragement, and making their days at home less lonely. Whenever she gets a testimonial for one of her new products, she copies it to the entire mailing list, which sparks a flood of new orders.

To keep in touch with her fans, Cilley does personal appearances at ‘Flyfests’, writes a self-syndicated column that appears every week in more than 200 newspapers and participates in a call-in satellite radio programme on worldtalkradio.net, where hers is the number one show. She’s also written three popular books.

Being a surrogate mum pays well. Cilley’s sales now exceed £3 million. She employs 24 people, including 6 just to deal with all the email.

Does Cilley really have a one-to-one relationship with more than 400,000 people? Of course not. However, by creating that illusion, she provides a valued service. Is there a way you could do the same?