Generosity as a marketing tool

In recent months, much like many other small businesses, my design studio, the zen kitchen, experienced a slowdown. Work was still coming in, but my sales process pretty much doubled in length. What's a girl to do when she needs to get the marketing machine moving? I started looking at what I could give away - and I gave with all my heart.

Generosity as a marketing tool may sound a bit weird, but it's actually quite simple. What you give comes back to you. You give a referral to someone else, they want to give back to you. You give someone information that will help them solve a problem they're having, you've given them a great excuse to do something good for you - and they remember you the next time someone comes up with a need you can fill.

Over the last couple of years, my relationships with prospects and clients have deepened as a result of my tendency to give freely, and it's resulted not only in positive attention for my business, but it's directly resulted in referrals and new clients.

So how can you be more generous? Some ideas:

• Offer a half hour of your time to someone in your network and talk about what's on their mind.
• Write an article based on your expertise and publish it where the people you need to reach will read it.
• Take someone out for coffee.
• Send an interesting article or opportunity to someone you've been meaning to keep in touch with.
• Pay someone a compliment.

What are your favorite ways to give back to the people you know?

Comments

[Deborah Bailey]

Generosity always works and is a wonderful way to build relationships and trust. I love to share information with others just for the fun of it. I find that is always comes back to me in so many different ways.

[Diane K. Danielson]

Dani - Way to kick off your womensDISH writing career with such a great post. I'm pleased to say that our DWC Mentor-ning pilot program is proving your point. We have our members mentoring each other online and we're finding we have a whole bunch of experts within our midst. We'll be opening it up to all DWC+ members next month. But, as with all things, you only get what you give. And, per Dani's post, even though times are hard, being generous can also be a good marketing strategy.

[Susan Hammond]

Dani,
Your post reminds me of Tim Sander's book, "Love is the Killer App". I agree with and support your ideas. Welcome to the DISH.
Susan

[Alline Anderson]

Perfect! I just have to believe that thinking and acting abundantly and generously brings us abundance and generosity. Thanks for saying much more eloquently than I am (obviously) able to!

[Leah Graves]

Great post Dani! This topic is something that too many folks in Business Development forget.

[GenerosityMarketing]

Generosity is more than "giving free stuff away"
The mindset is what really transforms the interactions from "marketing" to relationship building.
Ideally generosity in Business empowers and inspires the customer. the real rapport is created when the prospect realizes that you have truly helped them solve a problem and come closer to achieving their goals.
The strongest way to really impact and empower is by sharing your knowledge.
By generously sharing your expert knowledge you gain credibility, gain authority and gain exposure.
We know thats what good marketing and good salesmanship is all about: helping the customer Know, Like and Trust you.
A free video, a free report a free recorded consultation webinar are all much more effective and empowering ways to relate to your customers than just giving away free hard goods samples.
thanks and take care
Bryan