Giving First

We aren't talking about Freebies here... We are talking about time, information, help, and kindness. You can do it in several ways, including sometimes with freebies, but we aren't talking about freebies specifically.

When you give something of yourself, in a way that seems personal, or that helps someone solve a minor problem that matters to them, it goes a long way toward starting the process of building a relationship with them.

And that is how you want to use this strategy. As an extension of relationship marketing.

This means you have to give something meaningful. You have to provide something that is hard for them to find elsewhere. Often this just means a listening ear, and a kind word or two.

Ways in which you can carry this out are limited only by your imagination and creativity. Some ideas are:

1. Forum Participation. As long as you are there as a helpful influence. Just drop a signature line on your way past, and focus on really being helpful, not on trying to sell. Be real, and be friendly.

2. By producing an informational site that is free to access. You can put ads on it to support it if you want. But information that is free to access is perceived as an act of kindness by someone who stumbles on the item they needed after hours of searching.

3. By producing a viral ebook with genuinely valuable information. Now, the eBook market is totally flooded, so you have to produce quality, and value. Something that has the "ah-ha" factor.

4. By answering emails. When someone emails you with a question, be kind and helpful. Use that opportunity to appear to be real, accessible, and show them that you see THEM as a real person with real needs.

5. By providing easy to find contact information on your site. Really, it can be that simple! An invitation on your site to contact you with questions goes a long way. People don't even need to DO that to begin to feel they can trust you, just the fact that the invitation is there is reassuring to many. Of course, you must then answer emails politely also.

6. By offering good guarantees. Good guarantees show that you are willing to divide the risk fairly with the customer. They require that you be willing to give.

7. By volunteering. There are many ways to volunteer that are good marketing practices.

8. By providing samples and examples that demonstrate what you have to offer. If they are actually usable, they are more powerful.

This comes back to treating your customers and clients like real people - people that you'd like to get to know. Anything you can do to enhance that helps. You can give through automated methods, IF they truly help and reach out. But you cannot substitute automation for a personal touch in everything.

Written by Laura Wheeler