Graham McGregor: Is your business a helpful resource?

What can you offer potential clients that would position your business as a helpful resource? Photo / Getty Images

One of my favourite business writers is James Clear.

James writes about habits, personal success and motivation.

One of the things I really like about James is the huge amount of helpful resources that he offers at no charge on his website and in his regular emails.

For instance if you go to this page you will see a helpful summary of dozens of different books that James has read.

Each summary starts off with a three sentence description of the book and why it is worth reading. Then it continues with an in-depth summary of each book along with many of the key ideas that James got from reading the book.

As a result of reading a few dozen of these summaries it inspired me to buy a number of the books that James had recommended.

And every book I bought has been useful.

What James has done is to position his business as a helpful resource.

This makes it very easy for a lot of people (including me) to recommend his business to other people. (Just like I am doing now in this message.)

Here's another example to get you thinking...

I received an email a few days ago from my marketing friend Bob Serling.

Here's what Bob told me in his email..

Check out this packet of free email templates my friend John Corcoran is giving away for free (before he goes back to charging $300 for them).

This includes what John calls his "magic email template" which he's used over and over again in different industries to connect with hundreds of different influencers and VIPs over the years.

Sound too good to be true? It's not.

These email templates were drafted by John, who is an expert at connecting with VIPs and Influencers. He literally networked his way to a job as a writer in the White House at the age of 23, even though he had no special connections and no Ivy League or advanced degree.

If sending "cold emails" to influencers and getting a positive response was a science, John would have a PhD.

What can you offer potential clients that would position your business as a helpful resource?

Even before the White House gig, John had landed a job as an early employee of DreamWorks working for Steven Spielberg ... and he's also worked as a Speechwriter to the Governor of California and even worked with startup entrepreneurs in the heart of Silicon Valley, right across the street from eBay.

Since then, he's been profiled in books, written for Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Huffington Post and other big publications, and appeared on some of the biggest iTunes top-100 podcasts like Entrepreneur on Fire, The Art of Charm, and The Art of Manliness podcast.

All because he knows how to communicate - to send emails that work. Now, you can use his actual email templates - the email templates he's used for years.

• Want more clients?

• Need more referrals?

• Looking to find investors or funding?

These emails will get you started - and help you to build relationships with the most important VIPs and Influencers in your industry. Grab your copy here.

I went to this link and downloaded the email templates that John was offering at no charge. I was very impressed with what I got and here I am telling you about these same templates. (Yes they are well worth getting.)

What John has done by offering these email templates is to position his business as a helpful resource. This makes it very easy for other people to recommend his website to a lot of their own clients and contacts.

I have a very simple marketing question for you today:

What can you offer potential clients that would position your business as a helpful resource? (When you do this well you make it very easy for a lot of people to start recommending your business to their own contacts and clients.)

'Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?' - Brian Tracy

Take Action:

If you would like some more ideas on how to position your business as a helpful resource just contact using the email link at the top or bottom of this column.

Tell me the type of business you have and the city and country you are located in. I'll give you three simple strategies on how to position your business as a helpful resource. (These three strategies are with my compliments.)

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com.