Give and ye shall receive, it’s not that complicated. To grow your business, your brand, or your following online there is really only one thing you need to do- GIVE. The more you give, the faster you grow. Here are three different business models that are all thriving because they have learned the value of giving.
Foiled Cupcakes
Mari Luangrath started out with one goal- deliver the best cupcakes in Chicago. She learned very quickly that the best way to sell cupcakes was to give them away. She started very simply by offering free cupcakes to the 400th person to follow her on Twitter. Two weeks later she was offering free cupcakes for the 1000th person that followed her on Twitter. The Chicago social media scene was soon buzzing about Mari and her awesome cupcakes. She now has over 2800 followers and in less than 2 months has shared her cupcake sweetness with over 100 Fortune 500 companies in Chicagoland.
Ontario, Canada Estates Attorney
Michele Allinotte was a young estates attorney ready to build her own book of business. So she asked herself, what do my clients need more than anything else? They need to be prepared for the death of their loved ones! So she created the “Peace of Mind Personal Inventory” which is just a simple checklist that helps families put all of their vital information, accounts, and phone numbers in one place. She gives this document away for free online, in exchange for an email address. With this simple tool she has built her brand, grown her prospect list, and most importantly she now has a growing reputation as a giver.
Alexis Martin Neely, Estate Attorney, Pro Giver
Here is a list of the free information available from Alexis’ website:
# FREE Law Business Manifesto “How Every Law Practice Owner Can Get Beyond the Broken Law Firm Business Model and Into Your Dream Law Business”
# FREE Audio Class “How to Get Off the Marketing Merry Go Round and Cash Flow Roller Coaster and Find the Freedom and Money You Deserve”
# FREE Subscription to my highly acclaimed weekly Law Business Revolution briefing memorandum.
# PLUS, I’ll be sending you over $22,500 of practice-building gifts
Alexis has built and sold a million dollar law practice, and is now building a multi-million dollar consulting business and she builds her prospect base through giving away quality content for free. She now has thousands of attorneys on her mailing lists, has spoken on CNN, Fox News, and many others. Her consulting business is booked solid. Was it expensive and time consuming to create all those free products? Sure, but the results speak for themselves.
When I was speaking about this article to a friend she asked, “Didn’t Seth Godin (the marketing maven) come up with that marketing concept?” referring to this whole idea of giving first. He refers to this as “permission marketing” but you don’t need to look too far back to see that it certainly wasn’t Seth’s idea to start a relationship off on the right foot by giving. Nor was it the grocer’s original idea to give out free samples of new products. This is an ancient concept, and it is proven worldwide time and time again. When you give you receive.
Attorneys like most professionals have some great insights to give, they just need to take the time to organize their knowledge, and package it in a digestible format. Make it available online, spread the word, and if what you give is valued and really helps people, not only will you make the world a better place- you will thrive in the online marketplace and gain a reputation as a giver.
I want to thank you for reading this article by giving you a little something special I have put together called the Rainmaker Alert, I do hope you’ll enjoy it.
2 Comments. Leave new
So true, Adrian. It is so simple that I find it perplexing as to why more people aren’t embracing this. I will argue that our biggest obstacle to achieving this notion of giving is the dreaded EGO. We need to understand that we control nothing and once you surrender to that idea and just give, it will come back to you tenfold. No one owns this idea, since it is a variation of centuries of philosophy and thought. Love this post, bro.