Local social media uber early adopter and twitter cognoscent Ben Young has made an interesting offer that reminds me of something I heard at the Christchurch World Busker’s Festival yesterday. A street performer there, when asking for tips said that street performing is the most honest commerce in the world – you only pay after the event, and you pay what you believe the show was worth.
Taking a line from street theatre, Ben is offering free marketing advice to companies. As he says;
Given all the doom and gloom in the media at the present.
A rough start to the year for some.
I thought I would offer Free Internet Marketing Advice.
That is you email me with your problems, questions, advice on strategy.
Anything Internet Marketing related.
Who is this suited for? Any kind of business, maybe your a small business who hasn’t ventured online, a tourism business, owner operator, b2b, b2c….
You probably have made cuts of your marketing expenditure.
And so you should, if it has questionable returns.
BUT with internet marketing you can measure your returns. Down to the dollar.
If you know how.
So to help clear misreprentations about it and encourage spending in internet marketing I am doing this.
The catch? Well the catch is I ask you to pay me what you think my information to help you out is worth to you. If its worth nothing pay nothing, if its worth $50 pay that. Up to you, no pressure, my aim is to help you.
I just want to repeat that, my aim is to help you!
You can find out the details here.
Ben I had the same caveat [and still do] on my invoices:
“We believe in the value of the work we do, but if
at any time, you are not satisfied with the value
that you have received when we invoice you,
then we ask that you pay the value that you
deem appropriate.”
Interesting approach Adrian, has anyone ever taken you up on that?
Thanks Ben for the mention as well, helps me help others, which is the aim.
It’s happened a few times yes. It’s a good thing, the biggest benefit though is that I’ve not had anyone argue about paying a bill since, and that’s a lot of stress that doesn’t occur any more 🙂 It’s also been central in a 5 figure invoice that had originally been budgeted at 3 figures, went out with a covering letter highlighting the promise and leaving me with my fingers crossed. Bill was paid on time without question.