“A New Approach to Marketing: Beginning a Job Without Having Been Asked to”

Being between projects, and having some, let us say "unwanted" time on my hands (as evidenced by my recent blogging spree), I felt the time had come to be just a little bit more proactive in landing my next job. The time had come for a new approach; the thought had been on my mind, the seeds had been planted, and I would now test the theory. I was about to discard all of the rules which I had thus far been working by in favor of a more "un-orthodox" approach.

The un-orthodox aspect of my approach had to do with the fact that the business which I meant to do work for had not asked me to do work for them. They had not even contacted me. I was taking a chance. I was also going to be investing a certain amount of time in the work; my estimate was three hours. They would be three hours potentially lost. There was no guarantee they would result in winning a project or being paid. I quickly performed the cost-benefit analysis:

Here, at the end of my 42nd year of life, I have been alive (thanks to the assistance of a calculator) for 15,664 days. That’s about 375,000 hours during which I’ve been walking on the surface of G-d’s green earth. Could I spare three hours? You betcha!

I sat down and proceeded to the website of the company in question. It is a company with which I am familiar-a company with which I have in fact done business. Having seen their website, however, I have noticed one important piece missing: the website is in Hebrew only. They seem to be missing out on an entire segment of the market: Anglos who might not understand a Hebrew-only website. I also thought of the many new olim who arrive in Israel from around the world with English, but not yet Hebrew as a spoken language. The students, both university and seminary, who might not have a working knowledge of Hebrew. And yes, the tourists.

I sat down for just over three hours and began typing. My introductory letter explained to the head of the company why having an English counterpart to his Hebrew-only website might behoove him. I stated very clearly that he owed me nothing. No money. Not even a reply if this was his preference. This was a free un-solicited sample. But take a look, I explained, this is how your "new" website would look. Think of the extra customers, I asked him to imagine. The extra revenue. Extra word-of-mouth referrals. There seemed to be no conceivable drawbacks for him.

Then I got down to the bread and butter. I translated several pages of the website into English (I can translate well from Hebrew-to-English, but not English-to-Hebrew), brushed and polished them, proofread and edited them, attached them to the email as a .pdf document and sent the package off into cyberspace.  

This was on Friday morning.

I have received a reply this morning from the secretary of the firm. The CEO, she said, was duly impressed. He admired, she added, both the quality of the work and the initiative I had shown. An answer of whether he will be hiring me to complete the site is expected in the coming days. I am hopeful.

Offering free services up front is nothing new. Health providers, masseuses, and other alternative practitioners often offer a free consultation to prospective customers. As do lawyers. Coaches often offer a free session. I’m not really sure if a content writer has done so to this point in such an un-solicited manner?

A "freebie" is an excellent strategy meant to draw customers in. To show them what we are capable of doing for them. It is a chance to be taken, with much to be gained.

It has also planted in my head the fact that I myself need a counterpart to my English-only website. There is in the non-English speaking Israeli populace, a market which I am missing out on.

The project I have undertaken? This un-solicted approach to marketing? If it works out, I will have a new client. If it doesn’t I will have spent three hours trying. And you know what? I can live with that!

 

Yonatan Maisel 

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Dear Reader, If you enjoyed this article, perhaps you might like to read my newest posting. With flu-season approaching, the time to "vaccinate" yourself is approaching. With "dog-eat-dog" competition out there, whatever your profession, the time to "vaccinate" your business is now! By strengthening and fortifying it, you’ll be ready to take on the competition and win! To read the article, click the link below the picture: 

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http://jobshuk.com/yoni67/blog/2009/09/16/get-vaccinated-against-the-flu-and-vaccinate-your-business-to-achieve-success/