When Hurricane Ike mercilessly punished eastern Texas in early September, America watched the 24-hour news coverage sympathetically as residents weathered the storm in boarded-up homes and numerous shelters.

Unexpectedly, Ike dealt a damaging blow to the Midwest when the hurricane merged with a large cold front out of Canada to create a ferocious windstorm. The storm cut a swath from Arkansas to New York, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power (some for a week or more); damaging homes; uprooting trees; and littering streets, yards and parks with debris.

Suddenly a massive number of customers needed home repair and maintenance, yard cleanup and tree removal--fast. Many of these people hadn't sought such services before. That was an incredible opportunity for businesses that could provide them.

For businesses that provide products or services people only seek when the unexpected happens, marketing to potential users before the need arises can be a challenge. The solution is to implement a marketing strategy that networks for the worst. You must build a network of referral sources who will automatically think of you and your services when they are needed.

You do this by planting seeds everywhere to build your reputation as an expert and a useful resource. Provide potential customers and every referral possibility with educational information related to your business that will be immediately helpful in a disaster. You goal is for people to hang on to this information and even pass it around, rather than throw it out. Here are the tools you'll need:

Think Outside the Toolbox
Identify the gatekeepers: These are people with the potential to refer customers to your business. In a disaster, referrals play a huge role because consumers don't have time to research companies. They need services immediately and will gladly use a trusted referral to select your business instead of a competitor.

In your strategy for marketing for the worst, identify these potential referral sources long before a disaster occurs. Who are the trusted referral sources for your type of business? Nonprofit and crisis organizations often assist in disaster situations and offer numerous resources. Get on their referral lists.

Companies involved in the housing market are all possible sources for a home repair service referral; insurance agents; local hardware stores; homeowners' associations; other types of maintenance, repair and replacement businesses; and lawn and garden businesses.

It's important to reach out to all of these referral sources on a regular basis. That's because this marketing and networking strategy depends heavily on regular communications. Rather than a sales-oriented format, however, these communications should educate and provide helpful resources in an informational format. This strategy isn't about getting immediate sales; it's about telling the story of how best to repair and maintain homes, and repeatedly planting the seed that keeps your name top of mind among potential referral sources.

Give Your Business a Memorable Face

Get involved in the local community, consistently telling the story that you're here to help. If you do home repair, you could join the local Rotary Club and volunteer time to work on a local Habitat for Humanity house. You could also speak to other clubs in the area on how to maintain or increase the value of a home by keeping it in good repair.

Neighborhood fairs and customer appreciation days are good ways to attract new business and educate people about your services. Show the community you care by giving away prizes, such as free installation of home insulation to one lucky homeowner.

The truck you drive, as well as all marketing collateral, should display a good marketing message: home repair help whenever you need it.

Embrace the Web, Locally
A website with home-repair tips and resources for premium and quality services is another way to network. This is a golden opportunity to get others who provide non-competing services to cross-link and cross-refer.

If you offer services to a specific area or region, you'll want to make sure your website reflects your local business agenda. A recent study by comScore Networks discovered that 60 percent of consumers search for local content. You can easily optimize your website for local searches by including common modifiers such as:

• Full address, including street and ZIP code
• City or town, as well as descriptive words such as "north," "central" or "eastern."
• State and country, both spelled out and abbreviated
• Complete phone number with area code
• Recognizable or well-known landmarks or destinations, such as "located across the street from the post office"

Become Media Friendly
To really establish your company as an expert local source, try some simple public relations tactics. Pay attention to local current events and learn which reporters cover subjects that could relate to your business. Reporters always need sources for their articles. Let them know you're available to provide useful information on a regular basis. Be sure to communicate with the reporters regularly, even if you just to follow up a story with an encouraging comment. If you build a relationship with reporters, they'll think of you first when disaster strikes and they need a quote from someone with your expertise.

Show Your Relevance
Make your story relevant year-round to potential customers and referral sources, ensuring that you're the one phoned first when a problem occurs. Adding relevant educational themes to your marketing messages is well worth the extra effort required.

There are multiple ways to create themed messaging. In the fall, print a "house checkup" sheet containing a checklist of potential structural ills with suggestions for improvement. Give this tip sheet to local insurance agencies to pass on to their clients.

Timing your communications to coincide with national holidays is often a great opportunity to get noticed. For the Fourth of July, a business providing home repair and maintenance services can send out an e-newsletter detailing simple tips for revitalizing weathered deck wood so potential customers can host the best cookout on the block.

Never Stop Networking
If you provide "at-need" services, it doesn't take a disaster to grow your business. But by establishing an effective business network of key referral sources early on, you'll lay the groundwork for success. Communicating regularly with these referral sources by providing helpful resources, along with information about how your business can help, will secure your business's top-of-mind position. Also remember to use associations, community events and the media to your best advantage. The results will knock your competition out of the game.

Merrily Orsini is managing director and founder of corecubed, a marketing communications company that specializes in resource-rich marketing communications programs for companies that provide at-need services.