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My Unusual Marketing Agency.

Marketing, social media, advertising

MHP368

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Update : 03/18

This is...quite a time to be a registered nurse...

Site was rebuilt, expanded linkedin outreach to include mortgage brokers and real estate brokers.

Met with a friend who is the CCO of a construction company last week, he cant help but introduced me to a commercial broker , no word back from the broker.

Reached out to a mortgage broker I know, he said he would touch base with his marketing department, waiting on that one.

Wild Week
 
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BizyDad

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I've been meaning to post on here the sales process that I think will work. Just been busy with a lot.

Plan on it taking two meetings. At your first meeting you're trying to close on them giving you your data. Ask for a small upfront just for the data analysis. It's a small commitment, but it will separate the serious people who are probably going to close for more versus just the lucky lous. Get that customer list.

In this meeting you need to pitch it like you don't know if this will work, you need the data. you can talk about how things have historically worked for others, but there are no guarantees, so without the data you guys can't have a real conversation.

then you return a week later having analyzed the data they gave you access to, you pitch an actual marketing plan, explain how it works further and why it'll work for them, and close them on the 5K per month. Wow them with how much you know about their existing customer base.

They will be a lot more likely to not balk at your 5K+ month figure, if they've already spent money to get started with you.

HTH.
 

MHP368

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I sell business oxygen.

Survival.

So today is pivot day.

I'd originally planned to focus on personal injury lawyers and then branch out a bit into real estate brokers and mortgage loan originators. Then once I had things built out so that I could escape work I could expand into more lucrative B2B areas.

So now the pivot will be to really focus on the site visitor pixel (the pixel that allows me to get the name and contact info roughly 50% of the time from a US website visitor) , it has a higher margin and less moving parts then me using the targeting data and white labeling an actual ad run to generate leads. Someone visiting a clients site is relatively speaking already pretty far down the sales funnel , if someones willing to actually work this info (make the calls and shoot out the emails) its a big winner. Doubly so if they sell a higher priced good or service.

I need clients with money as well, medium and large size companies right now are probably already planning to scoop up all the bankrupt little fish , they might be tightening belts but they aren't planning liquidation sales, they're planning to buy the liquidations.

The next two weeks is going to see companies making choices that would usually take 3-4 months of back and forth.

So sites with lots of organic traffic, the math is easy for them. Sites for companies who aren't retreating. Anyone who still has cash flow and cash on hand. I imagine this could be rather fruitful for any company needing to compeltely pivot right now, car lots don't do much business during a quarantine right? or how about the other digital marketing agencies charging for SEO and graphic design? anyone in the tradeshow or event space etc

I should have a non compete / non circumvent in my hands in a day or two. My original plan was to hire a salary sales team and offer commission, guess what just happened to the market?

Yeh! it got flooded with hungry experienced sales people.

I'm gonna get an ad up on craigslist "sales staff needed, not MLM!!!" , something like that.

1099 commission only, 80/20 applies here as anywhere so I imagine i'll have a ton of washouts come knocking but if I can automate the sales training ASAP (maybe a landing page with a signup form?) it shouldn't matter.

"I sell business oxygen" , not my quote but god damn if I aint gonna use the hell out of it!
 

BizyDad

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I sell business oxygen.

Survival.

So today is pivot day.

I'd originally planned to focus on personal injury lawyers and then branch out a bit into real estate brokers and mortgage loan originators. Then once I had things built out so that I could escape work I could expand into more lucrative B2B areas.

So now the pivot will be to really focus on the site visitor pixel (the pixel that allows me to get the name and contact info roughly 50% of the time from a US website visitor) , it has a higher margin and less moving parts then me using the targeting data and white labeling an actual ad run to generate leads. Someone visiting a clients site is relatively speaking already pretty far down the sales funnel , if someones willing to actually work this info (make the calls and shoot out the emails) its a big winner. Doubly so if they sell a higher priced good or service.

I need clients with money as well, medium and large size companies right now are probably already planning to scoop up all the bankrupt little fish , they might be tightening belts but they aren't planning liquidation sales, they're planning to buy the liquidations.

The next two weeks is going to see companies making choices that would usually take 3-4 months of back and forth.

So sites with lots of organic traffic, the math is easy for them. Sites for companies who aren't retreating. Anyone who still has cash flow and cash on hand. I imagine this could be rather fruitful for any company needing to compeltely pivot right now, car lots don't do much business during a quarantine right? or how about the other digital marketing agencies charging for SEO and graphic design? anyone in the tradeshow or event space etc

I should have a non compete / non circumvent in my hands in a day or two. My original plan was to hire a salary sales team and offer commission, guess what just happened to the market?

Yeh! it got flooded with hungry experienced sales people.

I'm gonna get an ad up on craigslist "sales staff needed, not MLM!!!" , something like that.

1099 commission only, 80/20 applies here as anywhere so I imagine i'll have a ton of washouts come knocking but if I can automate the sales training ASAP (maybe a landing page with a signup form?) it shouldn't matter.

"I sell business oxygen" , not my quote but god damn if I aint gonna use the hell out of it!

If you don't mind a flood of applications, Craiglist works. But if you want to be targeted in the approach, pony up $100 and sign up for Indeed's resume finder thing. It's actually $100/mo but if you only need a couple salespeople, this should be a more efficient use of your time.
 
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Kid

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Interesting, lets see how it will pan out.
 

MHP368

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Nothing like being a nurse during a worldwide pandemic where you're home country completely botched containment to serve as "F*ck this event" LOL

So I have one proposal out, 3 on the fence.

As I said above i'm focusing on the site pixel technology. Might have a very lucrative wholesale leads thing to dig into as well, will know by monday.

The company I resell for is going all in to make sure we succeed which is nice (daily webinars, they made up all sorts of generic videos and pitch decks for us)

If anyone reading this isn't on linkedin looking for business, you're missing out, my connection rates and conversations are through the roof the last few days, everyone's scared and ready to listen.

I'm spending like 3 hours a day just conversing on linkedin so I really want to get some salespeople on board. I'm gonna try to get that rolling here tonight but everything I think will take 20 minutes end up taking hours so we'll see (futzed around for 45 minutes trying to get my contract up for auto sign)

interesting turn of events, the CEO of a major international restaurant (wont name it but you've eaten at it) accepted my request on linkedin and then told me to bring it up with his marketing VP , thats about as good as an introduction is going to be. "Hey yeh, your boss says you have to listen to my shpiel" , fingers crossed on that one but its not a vertical I normally would even think about.

So right now i'm going to try and get some kind of website up with some basic videos, hash out what i'll pay the salespeople on residual. I feel like 50% if you closed it and 25% if you have no people skills but can book me calls seems fair.
 

aeden

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If anyone reading this isn't on linkedin looking for business, you're missing out, my connection rates and conversations are through the roof the last few days, everyone's scared and ready to listen.

If you solve a problem that helps businesses directly impacted by the lockdowns, and you are not selling the hell out of it on LinkedIn right now, then yes, you're missing an amazing opportunity.
 
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valuecreator

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My thinking was this is for Linkedin peeps.

Only one was to know and this is to put some cash and time where your mouth is and test it. I would use plenty of videos on the page to humanize and simplify for the layman.
 

MHP368

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So got the ad up on here.

Craigslist ad for sales people, might make that a little more official per bizydad's suggestion.

Got the e-mail campaign lined up for myself today, right now i'm kind of just doing cowboy sh*t on linkedin and its not working great, i'm having some conversations but even if it could be a legitimate prospect they just want me to do the whole song and dance via linkedin messaging or they ghost me, very few are willing to sign up for a 10 minute "exploratory call"

and why would they honestly? , i'm using a piece of first stage email marketing copy as the connection request on someone I don't know, we have no trust, I haven't nurtured anything. At least if I start sending a series of emails and THEN ask for a request or start calling them at the office its slightly tepid instead of straight cold.

I do have the sales navigator paid linkedin subscription though so still on the fence on if I should just stop doing any connection requests and just auto view tons of profiles (if they view back I have short explainer videos linked into my profile) or what.

Where i'd like to get this in the next week is to have some 1099 contractors setting up calls for me and trying to close sales if possible. I think my efforts would best be spent directly reaching out to other digital marketing agency owners who are wounded from everyone walking away on things like SEO and SMM / reputation management etc , the calculus is clear, if the clients having to fire half the staff and 80% of their marketplace vaporized overnight (say car sales right now, or mortgage originators once the refi's are done) those people need something thats bankable and they need it fast.

One funny/sad thing on linkedin, its got those same lonely people you run into IRL , I had a back and forth with this one guy for like 45 minutes before I realized he just wanted someone to talk to.

Met some characters too, real affable chap who does publishing and handles press releases and publicity, this guy was oozing charisma, palpably friendly. To the point where you don't even care if its fake you just let go and enjoy the ride (became apparent pretty early on this was more a networking connection and our business plans didn't overlap too well but by god the man could weave a tale)

An eye opening observation i've made is also how many people do weird little niche freelance stuff out in the world. This one lady had some marketing firm experience and I think a history as a grade school teacher? and now you hire her and apparently she teaches you how to network on linkedin? , did not know that was a thing one could do to pay the bills.

You get these hipster looking guys, black and white photos with weird coats on and bad lighting and it doesn't say what they actually do, just a bunch of buzzwords and spin and they call themselves CEO.

I met one fella who has an agency where he handles sponsorship deals (his business vaporized as well) , so obviously the teams have someone working on this right? and then the stadiums yeh? (you've seen games, they have ads plastered up) . Well apparently enough moving parts exists with this that for these big sports teams and venues it actually makes sense to outsource that part of it and have someone else coordinate. Fascinating.

If you have a skill that produces value and a little creativity you'd be surprised by all the opportunities you can build for yourself.
 

MHP368

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So, had originally planned a nice daily play by play - then the plague hit and look who's swimming naked?

Anyway - proper update at some point but I just had a realization I thought was worth sharing.

only-factor.png


So we have this concept the "only factor" , which is huge for maximizing your value proposition, makes buying a "no duh"

BUT , lets refer back to cents in this context shall we?

What we find is, its of course better to have an "only factor" then have a "me too" offering with a low barrier of entry scenario, however - if what you sell isn't an actual "need" this by itself isn't going to move mountains.

If the customer already has a belt and you sell "The belt PLUS™" , well thats great , go ahead and throw it on the marketing copy and keep it in the pitch deck but unless your product or service is cheap enough that people can buy it impulsively while waiting in the checkout aisle...well yeh, just keep it in perspective.

I guess nothing about that is like "revelation' material but its interesting to actually have the lived experience of watching marketing strategy play out.
 
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