The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future


The Strategic Giving Marketing Plan



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The 100 Startup Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau (z-lib.org).epub

The Strategic Giving Marketing Plan
 
Freely give, freely receive: It works. The more you focus your business on
providing  a  valuable  service  and  helping  people,  the  more  your  business
will  grow.  A  number  of  the  subjects  of  our  case  studies  discussed  how


giving  (often  described  in  different  ways  but  with  the  same  meaning)  has
been a core value of their business. One of the best descriptions came from
Megan Hunt, the Omaha dressmaker we met in 
Chapters 1
 and 
3
:
My marketing plan could be called strategic giving. When I launch a
new  line  of  dresses  each  year,  I  contact  two  or  three  influential
bloggers and create a custom dress for them, which always brings in
tons of new customers when they write about it. But most importantly,
I  turn  my  attention  toward  my  clients.  Often,  I  upgrade  someone’s
shipping to overnight for free, or double someone’s order, or include a
copy  of  my  favorite  book  with  a  handwritten  note.  I  like  to  package
my products for shipping like a gift to my best friend. This strategy has
been a huge contributor to fast growth and popularity in my industry.
 
John Morefield, an unemployed architect during a time when jobs were
scarce,  set  up  shop  in  a  Seattle  farmer’s  market  with  a  sign  that  read  “5-
Cent Architecture Advice.” In exchange for a nickel, he would give advice
on any problem that homeowners, real estate agents, or anyone else brought
to  him.  The  5-cent  advice  was  effectively  a  lead-generation  program  that
might  lead  to  additional  business,  but  John  legitimately  and  genuinely
offered professional advice without the expectation of more than a nickel.
As  news  spread  of  the  5-cent  architect,  John  got  free  advertising  from
CNN,  NPR,  the  BBC,  and  numerous  other  media  outlets.  Because  of  the
attention—and new clients who came in through the farmer’s market—John
is now a successful self-employed architect, a key distinction from his peers
who are still trying to get hired at firms.
Another  way  to  practice  strategic  giving  is  to  deliberately  not  take
advantage  of  every  opportunity  to  increase  income.  As  my  own  business
grew  and  I  received  more  public  attention,  I  began  to  receive  a  lot  of
requests for consulting sessions. I never really saw myself as a consultant,
but  I  figured,  Why  not?  If  this  is  what  people  want,  maybe  I  can  do  it.  I
created a page on my website, received plenty of interest, and conducted a
few  sessions  as  a  test.  Long  story  short,  the  whole  thing  felt  false  and
inauthentic to me. I had helped lots of people with specific problems before,
but not on a pay-per-time basis. When I talked with people who had paid
for access to me, I felt physically ill. I realized my discomfort was in doing
it for money, so I stopped.


I still do some limited consulting whenever I can, but now I do it for free.
With the right people and on my own terms, I enjoy it—especially without
the pressure of knowing they are paying me to deliver. I’m not always able
to offer helpful advice, but I know that when I can be helpful, that person
will likely be there for me at some point in the future. It’s not about keeping
score or trading favors on a quid pro quo basis; it’s about genuinely caring
and trying to improve someone else’s life whenever you can.
*
Like any kind of marketing, this practice can be manipulated or abused.
Tourists  landing  at  the  international  terminal  at  LAX  are  met  outside  by
friendly  people  with  official-looking  clipboards  who  offer  to  help  with
directions to the city. “Hey, where are you headed today?” they ask. “Can I
be  of  assistance?”  After  they  provide  directions  or  answer  questions  from
unsuspecting  tourists,  there’s  a  pitch:  “I’m  working  today  on  behalf  of  a
great  organization.  Can  you  help  us  out  with  a  donation?”  The  implied
message is, I just helped you … now it’s your turn.
This isn’t the kind of strategic giving that serves your interests well in the
long term. The intention of the airport solicitors isn’t to be helpful; they are
merely using helpfulness as a tool to gain the trust of unsuspecting tourists.
Strategic giving is about being genuinely, truly helpful without the thought
of a potential payback.

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