Just about everybody is outreaching and advertising to their prospect in hopes of attaining something.

Some might be marketing their services through a cold email outreach in hopes of securing more retainers.

Others have set up Instagram Ads offering their product at a certain price.

And others have approached influencers in hopes of having their clout increase the campaign's overall conversions.

Everybody is out there to get something...

And we're all well aware of this.

Try this with me...

Open your inbox for a second...

What do you see?

"Click here..."

"Do this..."

"Join us..."

"Sign up..."

Do, do, do...

Take, take, take...

Introducing the value first approach;

The value first approach was something first I coined in 2020.

It's nothing revolutionary, just a way to go against the flow and effectively stand out.

When everyone is trying to take, take, take...

You essentially; give, give, give.

It helps you stand out, especially as a service provider, because you're:

1. Giving something in an effort to initiate a relationship.
2. Offering something whilst everyone is trying to take.
3. (in some cases) appearing more competent* both as a firm or  freelancer

Examples of tools/methods you can use for a value-first approach include:

1. Communities

2. Leads

3. Checklists

4. Free Services

5. Discounts

and of course others...

Communities:

can be offered in value first approaches to essentially collect your target market in a single distribution channel whilst giving them the ability to network & communicate with one another.

An outreach for building a community can look something like:

"Hey (First_Name), wanted to personally invite you to our group of 100+ eCommerce CEOs. We're sharing tips & tricks on eCommerce marketing and host a weekly webinar where we discuss the topic in a manner alike to Clubhouse..."

These communities can then serve as a distribution channel for any future marketing you roll out, as well as a ground for cheaply pre-testing any offer without the need to advertise externally (Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, PPC, etc.)

Communities can be offered to both B2B & B2C markets.

I personally love high-margin B2B communities because they assist in networking, closing deals & developing partnerships.

Leads:

can also be offered in a value-first context. An example of this would include outreaching to Crypto projects and offering them a free lead list of 100 potentially interested high ticket investors that have invested in projects alike to theirs in the past.

You'd usually offer this one in a B2B scenario with a "carrot on a stick" approach, meaning; that you'd be looking to pull a call from the prospect in order to redeem access to the list.

Checklists: can also be used in a value-first approach.

I've personally seen checklists being used in Facebook ads targeting other marketeers.

Examples include something along the lines of, click here to grab this free Facebook advertising checklist.

In doing so, you're also submitting an email for future re-marketing.

Free Services:

can definitely be used as a value-first approach but only when the list is super targeted.

The last thing you want as a service provider, or entrepreneur, is wasting time delivering services (or money delivering stock) to prospects who have no intention of re-purchasing from you in the future.

You'd want to offer this to companies & prospects that you've researched well and that you're sure you can work with.

Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

Discounts:

can also be formatted in the same way as the "free service" strategy; meaning that you offer your service initially at a majorly discounted rate for the initial x days.

Once those days are over, and you've had enough time to demonstrate your worth, the full price comes into effect.

The purpose of the value first approach lies in:

Helping you pre-test markets when you lack the authority & credentials necessary to sell confidently and charge full price, meaning that this strategy can essentially help with acquiring both a proof of concept & enough customer reviews/testimonials to get you going...

And...

In getting your wheels rolling during a dry season.

And, what I mean by that is when nobody is buying and when nobody wants to hop on calls, test a value-first approach.

I can close to guarantee you that it will at least get you the feedback loops necessary to make the right adjustments to get your conversions flowing again.

Catch you guys & gals later.

Kyrill Krystallis

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