I’ve been dusting off my American Express business card, ready to do some professional wining and dining. The biggest conference in my industry is in San Diego this week, and many of my biggest clients are in town. Thursday I grabbed coffee with a VP from one company, and last night I had dinner with an old friend/new client.

I took out my card at the coffee shop (wearing business attire, despite my clothing angst), and the VP said, “No, it’s on me. My boss insists.”

“But, you’re the client,” I protested. “This is how it works.”

He smiled. “We consider this a partnership,” he said.

Later I pondered this statement. I think what he was telling me was that I offer more value to their company than the words I write a page. He was saying that I contribute to his company’s productivity, to the idea pool, to the direction of their product launches and marketing. (I’m not reading too much into his one statement — he actually told me those things during the meeting.)

I do all this outside my hourly work, which is really one of the reasons I don’t bill as many hours as I’d like to. But, in creating these partnerships with my clients, I’m building the relationships and making it more likely that they’ll come to me for all their copywriting needs.

Here are six things I do to foster these types of partnerships with my clients:

1. Send them helpful articles
   When I find a blog post about a new marketing technique that a client is considering, I’ll send a link and a little note. I’ll forward newsletters with articles I think are helpful. These efforts take almost no time, but they let my clients know I’m thinking about them, and the notes remind them to think about me.
2. Reexamine their document pool
   When I write a longer piece for a group, I suggest ways we can create shorter pieces as well. Or I’ll surf their website to see if they have other information we could spruce up and reuse.
3. Help them make long-term plans
   I try to help my clients look forward to the next article or project, saying things like, “We ought to follow up with a piece on X in a couple of months.”
4. Pay attention to news in their industry
   If I’m working with a group that does online registration for events and I see a story about a group getting in trouble for selling tickets to a wine tasting to underage attendees, I’ll forward the story and suggest that my client write an article on how to avoid this problem, since it’ll be on their clients’ minds.
5. Be on the lookout for other article placement opportunities
   A couple of months ago I wrote an article that didn’t generate much buzz for its intended audience. The problem? The article was for techies, not education managers. So I took the initiative to write to a technology newsletter editor from the same industry, and they picked up the article. Although my clients weren’t disappointed that the original article didn’t get much play, they were thrilled that the new article was going to reach another audience.
6. Introduce new people to your clients
   I interviewed an expert for on sponsorships for an article for one of my clients. The expert loved the exposure, and she wants to create a partnership with my client to create more opportunities for them both.

Some of these are specific to freelance writing consultants, of course. What other ways do you cement relationships?