In the current financial climate, people are being rather more cautious about spending money than they were just a few months ago. We all have to work harder to win the jobs that used to come through the door without much effort. Looking to the future, all businesses need to ensure that they stand out from the crowd in order to prosper, or even survive.
A good way to raise your profile is to demonstrate your expertise in your particular field. And the best way to do that is by giving out some free advice. Now I’m strongly apposed to working for nothing, but having (for example) a section on your website where you talk about industry news and pass on hints and tips can be hugely beneficial. It shows that you know what you are doing, therefore helping a potential client decide that you are the right company to put their trust in. It also gets people looking at your website who would otherwise never find it. This will happen because over time, the regular updates and relevant information you are adding will cause your site to rise up the ranks in Google. That’s quite a bonus.
And the best thing about offering advice to people is that all it costs you is your time. Most methods of bringing in new business will have some sort of monetary overhead attached to them, but here all you really need do is pass on information that you already know. This is also a form of promotion that works equally well in stronger economic times, so getting into it now will just help you out later down the line.
So practicing what I preach, please feel free to email me if you have any questions or would like a chat about using blogs, Twitter, Linkedin, forums or whatever. No charge.
Pete Clark
Director of CCT Creative
pete@cctcreative.co.uk