Giving Clients That “Little Something Extra”

Reports. E-books. E-newsletters.

This is just a sampling of some of the free products I’ve seen freelancers offer as a way to retain existing clients and entice new business. It’s a great idea—with so many freelancers out there, clients are going to look to hire someone who has a clear knowledge of their field. More importantly, they'll want to hire someone who will clearly go above and beyond for their business and deliver the results the client is looking for.

My business partner and I are in the process of developing a number of these products that we’re using in our information packets and as a “draw” on our website. We’re using a few different angles with each product:

1. Why a business needs a copywriter (not us, necessarily, though of course we hope they’ll want more information!)

2. What a copywriter is/does (we’ve been getting a lot of questions about whether we can help someone legally protect—i.e. copyright©—their manuscript)

3. How we, specifically, can help their business. We’ll be featuring e-newsletters and the like in the not-too-distant future, but are working on building our client base and getting our name established first.

For new freelancers, these extras can go a long way toward establishing credibility in a particular field. Veteran freelancers can use these products to add a new element to their website or existing offerings. We need to stand out from our competitors just like any other business, so if you provide that little something extra to clients, that’s a pretty good indicator of what a client can expect if they hire you for a larger project.

What about you? Do you provide free “extras” like downloadable reports or other similar offerings to entice clients? Have they worked?