Would you describe any of the following activities as marketing: Phoning a client to follow up and seek their feedback on a job you have just completed; attending an industry association meeting or seminar; emailing a past client to see if you can help them with their future needs; taking a good referral source out for lunch?

If you answered no, then you have just flunked Work Marketing 101 – the essence of which is that when you work, you are marketing. Yes, you heard right. Marketing is every activity throughout the day that communicates what you can do for people who potentially need your services.

In most lines of business, you are always marketing and, in doing that, constantly sending your customers barrages of small but powerful ads. These ads range from "don't hire us again" to "we want to keep your business – and get more of it”.

The ‘work marketing’ concept, as I refer to it, is pretty simple and not entirely new – it’s been floating around marketing circles for quite a while. Yet it’s apparently not all that intuitive to many businesses and organisations.

I’m amazed at the fact so few have cottoned on to it so far. It’s also incredible they haven’t realised how ‘work marketing’ is not only a basic truth underlying all work practices , but can also be highly strategic in focussing their work efforts.

If you take on board this concept, it will literally help you transform almost every minute of your working day into a highly efficient and cost neutral marketing activity. Indeed, whether you keep this pearl front of mind or relegate it to the back room of “nice ideas” is the difference between having a financially thriving business and having to close your doors during the coming economic downturn.

Now, more than ever, it’s vital to sharpen your focus on your existing clients. It’s the time when you should be seeking ways to help them overcome the challenges they face as a result of the slowdown.

So how do I market when I work?

If you are in any service oriented industry, whether a professional such as a lawyer or accountant, or a service provider such as personal trainer or plumber, you are always marketing when you work. ‘Work marketing’ is where the needs of clients and businesses come together. It's about value to both.

Clients need and want their service providers to do excellent work. And you rely on pleasing the customer in order to get more work. If you rely on repeat business, good work – which includes the quality of communication and follow-up while you are doing it – drives whether you get more of that type of work or, even better, make inroads toward doing other types of work.

To effectively execute this ‘work marketing’ activity, it calls for a healthy dose of curiosity. It means making learning about your clients, and new developments that will affect them, part of your daily routine. It also means creating the time to visit one client or referral source every week.

If, on the other hand, your company deals in single business, where you generally serve the client once for a discrete time period, it doesn’t mean you can’t market while you are working.

It simply means that you need to use your good work and service to obtain word-of-mouth referrals. If you are not sure whether a satisfied client will refer work, just ask them to do that.

10 top tips for marketing while you work

1. The bottom line is that you don’t need a fortune to market your business. You can get out and start marketing your business today just by going to work and doing a good job. You can expand this concept and improve your marketing reach and efficacy by doing a few extra things that are considered work or work related.
2. Go to an industry association meeting or other networking seminar or event and tell your colleagues about the type of work you are doing and your achievements/successes for your clients
3. Call up or email past clients to see if you can help them with their future needs
4. Take your referral sources out for lunch or coffee, or just visit them at their office to touch base occasionally
5. Write a blog about a topic of interest to your clients – regularly!
6. Write editorials for publications in the industries you service
7. Call or email your colleagues to share information and build referral sources
8. Speak at seminars, conferences and other any events that give you exposure to your existing and/or potential clients, and your professional peers
9. Phone a client to follow up and seek their feedback on a job you have just completed
10. Attend industry functions with your clients to meet their work associates

Always provide real value to your clients – real value does not necessarily mean discounting your fees or doing flat-fee arrangements. It will be determined, as always, by the gut-level reaction the client has in that first 30 seconds when they read your invoice.

None of these ‘work marketing’ activities require expensive advertising or brochures. They do require effort though, which explains why many businesses aren’t doing them – or weren’t doing them during the boom times.

Well, those days are long over. But if you start ‘work marketing’ today, your future and that of your business won’t be.