Yes Honey, Give it Away for FREE! by @MallaHaridat

I know as an entrepreneur we often cringe at the word “FREE” when it comes to our business, but I’m going to share something that can be very powerful for your long term brand – give away your best stuff for FREE and watch how you can grow your brand as you position yourself as an expert.

Now let me clear up quickly what I mean by what you should give away for free. You are NOT giving away your services to manage an event for free.

• Discounted – yes.
• Offering to do more for the same fee – yes.
• Free – NO way!

What I’m suggesting you give away for free are your best practices, ideas and the reasons why customers hire you again and again to deliver their events.  Yes, I’m suggesting you blog or find some method of sharing your best ideas via a content management strategy with your business.  It will help position you as an expert and allow your prospects to see why you are the best at what you do.

Because here’s the truth – they can read about all of the great ideas and suggestions you have for their events.  But that doesn’t mean they have ability – either time, desire or both – to implement it.

And while you are worried that they are going to “steal” your ideas or worse someone in your industry “copies” it – you’ll be landing new clients and coming up with even MORE ideas.

Because here is what most people don’t realize about their website – it is the most powerful business development tool imaginable.  If someone wants to learn more about you – send them to your website and let them spend hours learning more about why you are the best in your event category.  You’ll spend less time on initial introductions and more time with qualified prospects who want to buy what you are offering – because they will have a clear sense of why you can solve the pain they have.

Now I’m clear – this idea I”m suggesting is not easy.  I spent over 6 months last year writing, writing, and doing more writing for my own blog.  Only the best articles made it to the site.  But after 6 months, 12 months of sharing content, I am meeting more and more prospects that “get it”.  They are easily familiar with what I do and I’m learning more about how to solve my client’s pains even more effectively.  (How do you do that?  Find out what pages are getting the most traction through your analytics and that’s a key indicator of where they need help)

So take the first step.  Get started on writing your best ideas down.  Get help from a friend on starting your own blog.  And promote.  Promote. Promote.

Well that’s a whole ‘nother post about how to spread the word.  But you get the idea.  Just get started!