One of the most powerful ways to develop your business, is to focus on being useful.
Here are just a few examples of what I mean:
- Useful service providers retain their clients or customers for longer.
- Useful blog posts and newsletters get read and shared the most often.
- Useful videos attract more viewers.
- Useful people attract more contacts and build larger, stronger commercial networks.
- Useful websites get linked to the most.
‘Useful’ beats ‘demanding’ every time!
Typically, we see people trying to build their business by asking for help, rather than being useful. They ask us to; share their links, ‘like’ their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter and recommend them to our friends, etc.
All of these things are far more likely to happen, if we are consistently useful rather than continuously demanding.
A useful tip
Take a look at any area of your marketing, which is under performing. Now, look for ways to make your marketing messages and interactions around that area, as useful and helpful to others as you can. For example, if you want a larger, more targeted following on a social network, focus on being as useful to people in your niche with your social networking as possible. Offer ideas. Suggest useful resources. Connect people. No, you’re unlikely to see thousands of people immediately flock to you, but over time you can expect to make meaningful progress.
In short: If we want to be regarded as a valuable asset for our clients and customers, we need to consistently look for opportunities to be useful to them.