If there’s one piece of advice that outshines and outperforms time and time again, it’s the idea of offering free materials and resources to your prospective clients and customers.

In my opinion, there is nothing that you can do to catapult your business more quickly to the top.

The first reason is that marketing has changed dramatically in the past few years. People are sick of interruptive ads and hate being sold. The consumer is becoming more immune to the old ways of advertising and is looking for ways to interact with the companies that they do business with.

Today’s marketplace wants to develop relationship with companies before they make a purchase. So, it’s your job to make sure that there are plenty of different ways for the customer to get to know you.

The second reason is that by offering your prospects a free sample of your product or service, it allows them to get a taste for who you are and what you represent.

Your local grocery store has been using this exact concept for years. While you are strolling the aisles, they offer you a free sample of a tasty food item. You probably wouldn’t have purchased that item until you tasted it. Now, you’ve sampled it and you’re hooked!

It’s really no different with your prospects. Once they have sampled your wares, they are much more likely to make a purchase. Especially in today’s overcrowded marketplace, if you aren’t doing anything to separate yourself from your competition, your prospective clients and customers will simply ignore you.

The third reason is that when you offer your prospects free resources, it automatically positions you as an expert in your particular industry. If your free product/resource is high quality (and it must be high quality!) then, your prospects will automatically trust your authority in this particular field.

The best news is that developing free offers and resources doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task.  The most important factor when creating your free resource is to make sure that it’s not a sales pitch. It needs to be educational, informative and essentially solve a problem that your prospects are facing.

If you are able to create an instructional free offer that teaches your prospect something that they didn’t know before, the long-term benefits are priceless.

There are dozens of examples including:

- Downloadable e-books

- Downloadable audio classes

- Articles

- E-Courses

- Ezine or Newsletter Subscriptions

- Special Reports

- Videos

- CD’s

- DVD’s

- Free Webinars/Teleseminars

- Complimentary Coaching Sessions

- Free Local Seminars

Obviously the sky is the limit and creativity helps. If you are able to write or produce the material yourself, that’s wonderful. If you need to hire an inexpensive “ghost-writer” go to: www.guru.com and describe your project in detail. You will soon have dozens of people who will bid on your project for a very reasonable amount.

When clients access free material that you have developed, they will intrinsically view you as an expert in your industry. They will get to know you and your business style and begin to trust you.  Of course, trust is a key component to building a lasting business relationship.

Last Monday, one of my neighbors proudly announced her determination to learn the “secrets” behind marketing on Twitter. She thinks that Twitter will save her business. Ironically, the very next day, one of my clients reported to me that if he only understood how to “power market” on Facebook, his business would catapult to the top of his industry. And three days later, I noticed a small business owner complaining in a forum that he will never succeed until he has unlocked the keys behind YouTube marketing.

Enough is enough! Without question, new media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) are wonderful places to market your small business. Obviously, I market my own business through every single one of those platforms.

Believe me, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, there is absolutely nothing magical or supernatural about any of the new media platforms. They are just platforms. Nothing more, nothing less. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are simply ways to spread awareness about your brand.

Mark my word, there will always be another “amazing” platform that will supposedly “save” you and your business.

But, before you tap into any marketing platform, you need to understand the basic philosophy behind marketing. You need to know “how” to market your business before you even dip your toe in the pool. Because if you don’t understand the basic tenants behind good marketing, Twitter won’t do a thing for your small business. Even if you spent eight hours a day with 2 million followers, you wouldn’t get anywhere if you went about your marketing in the wrong way.

Marketing platforms come and go, but understanding how to market will never go out of style.

Whether you are marketing on YouTube or running an “old-fashioned” ad in the newspaper, the same rules of good and solid marketing apply. You use marketing platforms as a way to drive your prospects back to a webpage, landing page or blog in which they give you their name and email address in exchange for free information from you and your small business.

You might offer a downloadable ebook, a special report or a 10-part audio class. It isn’t the format of your offer, it’s the offer itself that is important. Your offer must be perceived as a means for your prospect to better their life or solve a particularly stubborn problem. You want your free offer to be utterly irresistible.

Once you have obtained your prospect’s information, you can begin the task of building solid and significant relationships with them. This is when you are able to send your prospects’ additional educational materials, helpful advice and important resources that will position you as an expert in your industry.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube marketing are only effective if you use them as tools to drive traffic to your landing page or blog. Newspaper classifieds are only effective if used as a tool to drive traffic to your landing page or blog.

So, yes, in essence there is a well-kept secret on how to effectively tap into the power of new media. Learn the basics of marketing. For if you understand exactly how to market, you will always be ready for the “next great marketing platform.”

One of the threads that ties successful small business owners together is the fact that they are considered “experts” in a particular niche of their industry. As experts, they exude leadership qualities that naturally attract a base of loyal followers.

Unfortunately, this concept escapes many business owners who are desperate for success. They feel that they either don’t have an area of expertise, don’t have the right qualifications, or don’t possess a formal “degree” in order to effectively lead a group of people.

The interesting fact is that all experts, at one time or another, took time to become an expert in their field. And there are countless ways to become an expert in your field. Some small business owners go back to school for a formal degree, others attend seminars and workshops, while still others teach themselves.

Both Albert Einstein and Earl Nightengale declared that if an individual dedicates just thirty minutes each day to studying a certain topic, they will become an expert on that topic within one year’s time. (Obviously, if you study for an hour every day, you can conceivably become an expert in six months time.)

It’s time for you to become an expert in your industry today. Your expertise will be one of the most important components to the overall success of your business in the long-run.

Here’s a very simple three-step formula to develop expertise in your field:

1) Identify Problems. First and foremost, you must find an area within your industry that is in need of expert advice. One of the simplest ways to do this is to make a list of problems that your prospective customers and prospects face in your industry. What frustrates or angers your prospects? Do they need to lose weight? Are they sad or depressed? Do they need marketing help?

No matter what small business you operate, their are numerous problems that your prospects face.

2) Research Solutions. Once you have identified problems in your industry, begin researching possible solutions. Read online articles, visit your local library, attend classes, seminars and webinars. The main goal of your reasearch is that you eventually want to offer tangible solutions to your prospects.

3) Educate Your Prospects. One of your main objectives is to offer your prospects a sample of your knowledge base. You can turn your knowledge into a special report, short e-book or 10-day e-course. Once you begin packaging your knowledge and offering it to others, you will be surprised how quickly you will develop a group of followers that are eager to learn from you.

So, take the time to identify the problems in your industry, research the solutions and then educate your prospects. You will soon find that you have more business than you can handle!