In the A – Z of Marketing H is for… How to ?

How do you promote your service business? When you provide a service, such as coaching, consulting or training, it can be difficult to really show a prospective client how you can help them. Some people don?t want to pay for your services until they’re sure that you’re the right person to work with, that you have the right level of expertise. How do you build up this level of trust?

One of the best ways of showing that you’re an expert in what you do is by writing about it. And writing ‘How to?’ articles or guides is a simple way to get started.

What can you write about? Start by thinking about the questions that your clients or prospects commonly ask you. If you’re a sales trainer, the number one question might be ‘How do I close more sales?’ If you’re a tax consultant, people probably keep asking you ‘How do I pay less tax?’ For the image consultant it could be ‘How do I dress so that I can look at good as you?’

Gather up all the questions you can think of and answer them. Each one could start out as an FAQ – a short answer to the question – which you can put onto your website. Click here to see a good example of this.

In order to go into more depth, you could write a blog to answer each question. You can create a series, as we’ve done here with the A-Z of Marketing.

If you’d like to write even more, how about a newsletter or an article: That’s what we do every month in our newsletter, Scribbles, which you can find here.

Another way to share your expertise is by creating fact sheets, practical work sheets or technical ‘how to’ guides. Click here to see a great example of how one of our clients shares her expertise on her website.

Appletree has been going for over 13 years now and in that time we’ve given away heaps of free advice. People phone us to ask questions about marketing. They email and tweet their questions. In response, we give them the best answer we can, never thinking ‘I’m not going to give you my best answer because you’re not paying for it.’ We learnt a long time ago to treat everyone as if they’re a paying client. Why? Because you always remember the people who have helped you, and not the people who wouldn’t help, or who wanted to charge for their time. When someone is ready to pay for professional support, they’ll come back to the generous people. That could be you!

What could you write about, to share your knowledge and show off your expertise?