March 2005

Give Away the Milk

Nadia Cornier

by Nadia Cornier

Perhaps you've heard the saying. "You'll never sell the cow if you keep giving the milk away for free."  Well, in relationships this may still be true, but in the business world it's considered good practice. Giving away your 'milk' or free sampling of your services, can be an excellent, and inexpensive, marketing tool for the growth of your business. The idea is that by giving away free services you are: proving your expertise in your chosen field, identifying potential clients and meeting those clients face to face - building name recognition and your reputation before they even step through your business doors.

"So what do you mean by giving away the milk for free?"

When I say 'giving away the milk' - I am referring to the practice of networking by providing a free service that is not directly associated with the services you provide through your business. For example, the service that a lawyer provides through his/her business is legal counsel - but if a lawyer wrote an article for a non-profit organization's newsletter - he'd still be giving away a service (his legal expertise through the article), but not one that directly conflicts with his professional growth.  Current and potential customers would then read his article in the newsletter, become more educated about the article topic, and perhaps even learn that they needed this lawyer's service!

"Okay, but I'm not a lawyer."

There are thousands of ways to 'give away the milk.' In order to identify a good or excellent 'milk' opportunity - it needs to be judged against the following criteria:

Is this something I would normally charge a client to accomplish? You do not want to gain a reputation for doing work for free. If this is one of the services you normally charge a fee for, this is not the 'milk' you want to be giving away.

Can I reach my target market by giving away this 'milk'?  You want to make sure that the audience that will be receiving your 'milk' is the group as your target market. It would be counter productive to spend your time and effort on this type of marketing campaign if your target audience (potential customers) never know about it.

Are there ways to create multiple marketing and promotional opportunities from this 'milk'?  Sometimes you'll find that by giving away the milk, you've created half a dozen new opportunities for marketing and promoting your business - this is exactly what you want, the most bang for your buck (or time, or effort...). This is what 'giving away the milk' is all about!

"Sure, sounds great - but I still don't have any ideas for giving away my milk!"

Ideas are a dime a dozen, really. I'll give you a few to start you off, but when you're done reading, I implore you to sit down with a pen and pad and jot off a few more possibilities. I guarantee that once you get started more "milk" ideas will just begin to flow! And if you have any great ideas that you think should be listed here, please send them to me at: info@cornierassociates.com with "Give Away The Milk" in the subject line, and I'll send you a complimentary tip sheet on how to write and give away articles to different publications.

Some possibilities for giving away your milk:

• Write and GIVE AWAY articles to different publications. As long as the publications are not competitive markets, you can give away the same article to as many publications as you'd like. Be sure to add a bio that includes your name, your company and how you can be contacted, at the end of the article.
• Give a short (2 hour), free seminar at your local library. Make sure you call the local press to cover your story!
• Create and distribute your own newsletter.
• Volunteer to teach a class through a local business certification course on your area of expertise.
• Create an industry or trade association that compliments your business.
• Volunteer to participate in regional "shadow programs" where a HS student shadows a member of the professional community. Be sure to contact your local papers or write a letter to the editor about your experience.
• Write a letter to the editor about your professional experience or new trends that you are seeing in your profession.
• Use your website to provide potential clients and current clients with a wealth of resources - make your website a hub for information exchange so they keep returning (this will be the area of your site where you can list new or updated services, as well!).
• Create an industry award and give it away - web awards will link back to your website.
• Volunteer at your trade's conferences - a great way to go to the conference for less or no cost and network with other professionals!

About the Author:

"Give Away The Milk" is part of a series of seminars and workshops on Building a Business Outside the Box given by Nadia and Rubin Cornier. For more information on this or any of their other series, please contact them directly at info@cornierassociates.com. Nadia Cornier is the President of Cornier & Associates, a virtual assistance firm specializing in writer services. For more information, please contact her personally at info@cornierassociates.com.