Sounds good, but how are you supposed to provide value to your prospects and your clients?

The best way is with content rich material - which is just a fancy term for information-packed material that your prospects want and need.

Some examples are:

* an interesting news article photocopied or scanned and sent to them

* free reports available via your website or links provided in an email

* ezine or newsletter

* access to downloads on your website

* links to interesting studies or articles

* how-to lists, tips & tricks and top 10 lists

* new book titles

* information about applicable workshops or seminars (don't have to be yours)

There are many, many different ways you can offer valuable information to people. You can help them learn to view you and your company as an important resource for them - someone who shares what they know (and others know) with them.

Providing value also extends to your email marketing. Obviously the purpose of some of your follow-up material will be to pass along information such as sale dates or workshop registration details, etc.

But you should strive to have the majority of your marketing emails to prospective and current customers to be of some value to them and their needs - whether you're targeting consumers or businesses.

Let me give you a couple examples.

If you are a tax consultant, instead of sending out an email letting people know of the tax return due dates, why not send out an email that lists some of the most-overlooked exemptions (personal or business - depending on your client base) they could claim. You could be seen as someone who cares about making sure people are educated about overlooked money on their taxes.

Or you may run a health and wellness store. You could send out an email to people on your customer list 3 '4 times a year, outlining what nutrients and vitamins people's bodies most need or lack during specific seasons (i.e. vitamin D in winter). You're not overtly selling them anything, just letting them know some important health information.

Take a look around your business and take note of all the material and information you have (on your shelves, in your filing cabinets, in your head) regarding your company, product or services, and the market you serve.

Quickly jot down 5 ideas or ways that you can make this valuable stuff available to your prospects and your clients and then get it up on your website, put it in an email or ezine, post it on your counter.

Start positioning yourself as someone who is valuable and shares valuable information...then watch your number of leads and customers start climbing.