HOT TOPIC AndyTalks with @Contrarian about starting his side hustle in local lead gen

[Andy Black]

AndyTalks with @Contrarian about starting his side hustle in local lead gen

@Contrarian is amazed it's so simple.
No building fancy landing pages.
No building "directories".

I facepalm about people building "stuff" - directories, social networks, etc - when they're just trying to connect people. (This is a common facepalm for me.)

About 30 minutes in @Contrarian talks about how he's read the first 5 chapters of @MJ DeMarco's new book, and how it's inspired him to finally just take some action and build something that he owns.

> Click here to access the recording <


What were your takeaways?

What will you do differently going forward?



(For other recordings click HERE.)​

 

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[Contrarian]

Thanks for having me Andy - it was a pleasure. And thanks again for the inspiration on the local lead gen model.

Yes, I've been playing at the Fastlane for the past 15 months within a structure in which I don't (yet) have any ownership and will never fully control. Within a very complicated, labour-intensive business model with lots of moving parts that's difficult to scale. Because it was the deceptively "easy" choice of what I already knew how to do, working with people I've already worked with.

I don't regret it as I've learned a huge amount and made a lot of great contacts. But one day recently I woke up and realised that I was pushing a boulder up the wrong mountain.

I'll do a detailed writeup soon of what I've been doing all this time and the lessons I've learned along the way. In the meantime - forget the grand plans and just build something!

 

[FastNAwesome]

My cliffnotes:

Look for the opposite of red flags. Our focus should be on qualifying clients, but of course using disqualifying as a tool for just that.

It's the end client that pays us through our client. So that's the one we need to keep happy. And we also want to estimate whether our client will be happy to keep their clients happy.

Smaller recurring fee makes it easier to sign up clients than a big upfront fee - and it makes it easier for them to see positive ROI sooner, if not even right away - a great incentive for them to stay signed up.

Fixed fee helps both sides plan their cash flow and optimize their processes to become more profitable.

A great type of cold call is when you have something they already want, and call them for exactly the reason they put their phone number out.

Your beautiful website may actually deter some people from calling you. Sometimes ugly is the way to go.

 

[Andy Black]

My cliffnotes:

Look for the opposite of red flags. Our focus should be on qualifying clients, but of course using disqualifying as a tool for just that.

It's the end client that pays us through our client. So that's the one we need to keep happy. And we also want to estimate whether our client will be happy to keep their clients happy.

Smaller recurring fee makes it easier to sign up clients than a big upfront fee - and it makes it easier for them to see positive ROI sooner, if not even right away - a great incentive for them to stay signed up.

Fixed fee helps both sides plan their cash flow and optimize their processes to become more profitable.

A great type of cold call is when you have something they already want, and call them for exactly the reason they put their phone number out.

Your beautiful website may actually deter some people from calling you. Sometimes ugly is the way to go.

Thanks for listening and writing up your takeaways.

I love seeing what people takeaway from these calls.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Listened to this last night while driving in the car - really enjoyed it - thank you @Andy Black and @Contrarian!

My takeaways:

"Cold-call"
Call business owners with a present for them. Instead of trying to sign them up for directories, you actually give them a little taste of what is to come. Question for you guys: do you give that first lead away for free? Has it happened to you that they didn't come back and ran off with the lead without paying you? How do you follow up?

----


"Just do it already"
Great lesson @Contrarian. Big reminder for us all to stop f@cking around and produce more.

----


"Keeping it real"
Launch a basic version, buy data and improve upon your benchmark. No need to polish everything for months before launching it.

----


"We live our dream"
I am in a similar situation like Andy. I am working from home, without any commute. I save money on food, choose my breaks wisely and fill them up with things that really push me forward in terms of productivity.

No social mingling, no Happy Birthday lunches with the colleagues and no BS.

My friends (the ones that finally got what I am doing) don't get how I can isolate myself so much.

I have a friend who recently quit his job and rented a shared office, because he needs it to be productive. Because he gets depressed at home. No income, but already around $ 500 down the drain before lifting a finger each month.

Guys, we live our dream.

And every day we don't realize it, is lost.

Work hard, but also realize that life is happening NOW.

----


"Make it a game"
People spend nights collecting rewards and earning money in games.

We spend nights collecting the same in reality.

Make it a game.

Make it YOUR game.

----


Thanks for sharing guys!

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks for the write up @Nicoknowsbest

This accidentally turning into a great way to get show notes. Get *other* people to write up their take-aways!

do you give that first lead away for free? Has it happened to you that they didn't come back and ran off with the lead without paying you? How do you follow up?

Yep... give the lead away for free. Say you'll ring back to find out how they got on. If they take the lead and can't be contacted again, then move on. They don't see the value in what you're offering them. "Sales is a screening process."

I think I mention a bit more about how to speak to people and the script started working for me (that I've not really followed up on but makes sense anyway). In this call:

• AndyTalks with @Pittman09 about his foray into AdWords

 

[cautiouscapy]

I love seeing what people takeaway from these calls.

I find other people's takeaways can make me understand things I might not take in otherwise - adding value.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

This accidentally turning into a great way to get show notes. Get *other* people to write up their take-aways!

Definitely!

As @cautiouscapy mentioned, it is great to read other people's notes. We are all tuned into slightly different things, so we each pick up on things that others might not even hear. Reading different views always helps me a) challenge my own believes and b) look for different angles.

Yep... give the lead away for free. Say you'll ring back to find out how they got on. If they take the lead and can't be contacted again, then move on. They don't see the value in what you're offering them. "Sales is a screening process."

Thanks for clarifying!

Oh yes, sales definitely is a screening process.

It took me a long time to understand, but you don't want just any sale.

You want the right sale.

This also means leaving some "money" on the street.

Which I needed to get comfortable with at first.

I think I mention a bit more about how to speak to people and the script started working for me (that I've not really followed up on but makes sense anyway). In this call:

I have to listen to this talk again - I might have missed this!

Thanks for the link

I find other people's takeaways can make me understand things I might not take in otherwise - adding value.

100% agreed.

Curious to read your thoughts @cautiouscapy!

 

[cautiouscapy]

Curious to read your thoughts @cautiouscapy!

@Nicoknowsbest actually I haven't listened to this one yet...setting up some "manual" tasks to do while I listen.

 

[Greg R]

AndyTalks with @Contrarian about starting his side hustle in local lead gen

Listened to this one on my way home from work yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised. Thank you @Andy Black +REP

 

[Andy Black]

Listened to this one on my way home from work yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised. Thank you @Andy Black +REP

Thanks for the rep.

Gosh, now you have me curious. What were you surprised about?

 

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[Greg R]

Thanks for the rep.

Gosh, now you have me curious. What were you surprised about?

The topics were focused and you guys talked about local lead gen at a higher level. Great value in this one.

 

[Contrarian]

Listened to this last night while driving in the car - really enjoyed it - thank you @Andy Black and @Contrarian!

Glad you enjoyed it @Nicoknowsbest!

"Cold-call"
Call business owners with a present for them. Instead of trying to sign them up for directories, you actually give them a little taste of what is to come. Question for you guys: do you give that first lead away for free? Has it happened to you that they didn't come back and ran off with the lead without paying you? How do you follow up?

I did make a few calls before I built anything, but more to suss out the economics of it than anything else. How much is a new client worth to you? How do you currently generate leads? How much does that cost? Etc. And how does that stack up against my cost to generate the lead?

The most receptive of those, I told him I'd be back in touch when I had a lead for him and that I'd give it to him free of charge as it's also a learning experience for me too.

Two weeks later, I got the first lead through, called her up, clarified what she wanted and the timescale, then told her to expect a call from my contact. Passed it on - and he called me back to inform me that he'd done the work and made £85.

What's interesting to note is that he also told me he gets tons of calls from people offering "internet advertising", "digital marketing", "SEO", "help for your website", and so on, and gets rid of them all. Moral of the story - focus on helping people get the results they want, not on telling them your credentials and expertise, and hoping they'll connect the dots and be impressed (they won't be).

This hasn't been a revelation for me, since I've worked in sales of one kind or another for 12 years now. What's been my revelation is how easy it can be when you stop trying to push boulders up mountains. Why continue running on the treadmill selling highly complex services to highly complex companies who can't even agree on anything amongst themselves, against hundreds of other companies that sell similar services?

Why not take a fraction of the same skill and leverage it into a scaleable platform to solve common sense problems at scale? That's what I learned from this.

"Just do it already"
Great lesson @Contrarian. Big reminder for us all to stop f@cking around and produce more.

"Keeping it real"
Launch a basic version, buy data and improve upon your benchmark. No need to polish everything for months before launching it.

Exactly!

"We live our dream"
I am in a similar situation like Andy. I am working from home, without any commute. I save money on food, choose my breaks wisely and fill them up with things that really push me forward in terms of productivity.

No social mingling, no Happy Birthday lunches with the colleagues and no BS.

My friends (the ones that finally got what I am doing) don't get how I can isolate myself so much.

I have a friend who recently quit his job and rented a shared office, because he needs it to be productive. Because he gets depressed at home. No income, but already around $ 500 down the drain before lifting a finger each month.

Guys, we live our dream.

And every day we don't realize it, is lost.

Work hard, but also realize that life is happening NOW.

Yup!

I've been working from home for two years now, and for the first few months it was a struggle. I'm an extrovert. But I've learned to be content with my own company. Such is the price of freedom.

As I mentioned on the call, I recently resigned my position in the recruiting business I co-founded (path did not converge with dream). I've taken a commission-only sales position serving the same industry with one of the contacts I made in the process. Step down, you would think?

I'm sure it will look like that on my Linkedin profile, or by the standards of "society", but I sure don't see it that way. Self-employed with a contract for services only, so I haven't sold my soul or my freedom. Work from wherever I want, on my schedule, and scale back or quit whenever it suits me. Supports, but doesn't interfere with, my own business. And I'm looking forward to the work without seeing it as the end goal in itself.

I couldn't even imagine ever being chained to an office, or signing a contract of employment again. Both deals with the devil. Perhaps your friend would find the same, if he could "embrace the suck" and power through those first few months at home?

 

[GuitarManDan]

Hey Andy,

Biggest takeaway for me was how important it is to stick to one thing.

I've been bouncing around all over the place trying different things (after reading the majority of the gold posts on here) and trying to see what I want to pursue. I've been struggling finding one thing but I liked that you focused on just taking any action to get the wheel turning.

Thanks as always!

 

[cautiouscapy]

@Nicoknowsbest actually I haven't listened to this one yet...setting up some "manual" tasks to do while I listen.

OK, listened to it. My own spin on the takeaways I got from this recording:

• Can’t make pretty web pages yourself? (My personal quickest potential win, looking up at the cliff-face of returning to coding-type stuff after many years away from it.)

@Contrarian says that his web development skills are such that he gave up trying to use Wordpress and just put up a landing page using SquareSpace.
He was able to produce a perfectly adequate landing page (certainly in the market he’s working on; for high-ticket stuff then web design and development skills might need to be improved).​

• An excellent reminder for the techies trying to make a living from their skills - Build once, sell many times - in this case, leads for the same vertical market, different geographic locations. Later you can easily add a different vertical and repeat, etc ad infinitum.

I’d call this “Cookie Cutter” growth. Compare to selling Adwords services to all comers, and never specialising in something enough for it to become as easy as breathing to you. @Andy Black could clearly knock out an adwords campaign for “[any tradesperson example] in [any single location]” before his next breath, because he’s been specialising in that for 7 years.​

• It’s not as much work for you to keep your Adwords ads current, compared to e.g. Facebook ads. Adwords ads don’t really change year in, year out. 10 years ago, people were searching for “emergency plumber Dublin” and they still will be in 10 years time. Facebook requires you to keep your ads “fresh”.

• Do you love playing computer games? Free up some time, stop playing computer games and see the parallels with running Adwords campaigns – same excitement, real-world rewards and levels

• Download and read the first five chapters of MJ’s new book:

Unscripted Download


@Andy Black – you point out a few times that you don’t like using “But...”.

What about trying “Yes, and...” in most of the same places? (A basic tenet in Improv Comedy, it leaves the conversation / exchange more open to possibility).

Also I’m sure you’ve figured out that a Green Flag is the opposite of a Red Flag ;-)

 

[Andy Black]

OK, listened to it. My own spin on the takeaways I got from this recording:

• Can’t make pretty web pages yourself? (My personal quickest potential win, looking up at the cliff-face of returning to coding-type stuff after many years away from it.)

@Contrarian says that his web development skills are such that he gave up trying to use Wordpress and just put up a landing page using SquareSpace.
He was able to produce a perfectly adequate landing page (certainly in the market he’s working on; for high-ticket stuff then web design and development skills might need to be improved).​

• An excellent reminder for the techies trying to make a living from their skills - Build once, sell many times - in this case, leads for the same vertical market, different geographic locations. Later you can easily add a different vertical and repeat, etc ad infinitum.

I’d call this “Cookie Cutter” growth. Compare to selling Adwords services to all comers, and never specialising in something enough for it to become as easy as breathing to you. @Andy Black could clearly knock out an adwords campaign for “[any tradesperson example] in [any single location]” before his next breath, because he’s been specialising in that for 7 years.​

• It’s not as much work for you to keep your Adwords ads current, compared to e.g. Facebook ads. Adwords ads don’t really change year in, year out. 10 years ago, people were searching for “emergency plumber Dublin” and they still will be in 10 years time. Facebook requires you to keep your ads “fresh”.

• Do you love playing computer games? Free up some time, stop playing computer games and see the parallels with running Adwords campaigns – same excitement, real-world rewards and levels

• Download and read the first five chapters of MJ’s new book:

Unscripted Download


@Andy Black – you point out a few times that you don’t like using “But...”.

What about trying “Yes, and...” in most of the same places? (A basic tenet in Improv Comedy, it leaves the conversation / exchange more open to possibility).

Also I’m sure you’ve figured out that a Green Flag is the opposite of a Red Flag ;-)

OMG. A GREEN flag!!! --face palm--

Great tip on "Yes, and". I even wrote a thread on it and can't get that blasted "but" out of my language:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/yes-but.59605

Great write up, especially the bit about games. Just turn the game on and you'll get hooked.

Rep+ Thanks @cautiouscapy

 

[Contrarian]

Hey Andy,

Biggest takeaway for me was how important it is to stick to one thing.

I've been bouncing around all over the place trying different things (after reading the majority of the gold posts on here) and trying to see what I want to pursue. I've been struggling finding one thing but I liked that you focused on just taking any action to get the wheel turning.

Thanks as always!

We've all been there. Doing something sub-optimal is better than doing nothing. It's easier to adjust when you already have something in motion.

The company I'll be doing sales for started as a hobby blog. It's now a seven figure B2B content marketing & native advertising company. Now they're also moving into live events. The founder had absolutely no idea, or vision towards, what it would become when he started it. He just wanted to write useful stuff. I think it's a pretty awesome demonstration of the value of just producing.

OK, listened to it. My own spin on the takeaways I got from this recording:

• Can’t make pretty web pages yourself? (My personal quickest potential win, looking up at the cliff-face of returning to coding-type stuff after many years away from it.)

@Contrarian says that his web development skills are such that he gave up trying to use Wordpress and just put up a landing page using SquareSpace.
He was able to produce a perfectly adequate landing page (certainly in the market he’s working on; for high-ticket stuff then web design and development skills might need to be improved).​

Sure. Wordpress would be optimal, no doubt about it. I've used beautiful, all-singing, all-dancing WP-powered landing pages for the recruiting business in which case they were necessary. But we hired a developer to build the site and set all that up. No sense in doing that here, yet. Can always learn how to or pay someone to build a replacement Wordpress site if it makes sense down the line.

• An excellent reminder for the techies trying to make a living from their skills - Build once, sell many times - in this case, leads for the same vertical market, different geographic locations. Later you can easily add a different vertical and repeat, etc ad infinitum.

I’d call this “Cookie Cutter” growth. Compare to selling Adwords services to all comers, and never specialising in something enough for it to become as easy as breathing to you. @Andy Black could clearly knock out an adwords campaign for “[any tradesperson example] in [any single location]” before his next breath, because he’s been specialising in that for 7 years.​

I have to thank @Andy Black again for highlighting the power and simplicity of this business model. Doing it through the centralised site model also unleashes the power of ownership. I forgot to mention it on the call, but I tell you what else was motivating - browsing the listings on Empire Flippers! Sites typically sell for 20-30x monthly profits. So, with monthly profits of "just" $20,000, you can sell the site for perhaps $600,000.

That's life-changing money.

Not enough to be a millionaire.

Not enough to buy a Lambo (if you value your financial freedom, at least).

But enough to "retire" in a cheap country until you get bored of it, do all those things you always wanted to do, and then provide the capital and a very long runway to focus 100% on building something bigger and better without having to worry about making ends meet or getting a job ever again.

I just booked a one-way ticket to Malta. Perfect climate, effective 5% tax rate and no capital gains tax. So begins the three year plan.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

What's interesting to note is that he also told me he gets tons of calls from people offering "internet advertising", "digital marketing", "SEO", "help for your website", and so on, and gets rid of them all. Moral of the story - focus on helping people get the results they want, not on telling them your credentials and expertise, and hoping they'll connect the dots and be impressed (they won't be).

How to be different in 5 easy steps.

Once you run your own business, you will get quickly understand a couple of things.

I used to take it as a bad sign or rudeness when "bosses" were extremely short on the phone.

Now that I am an operator myself, I don't even read sales emails I get if the first 5 words of the subject line don't convince me.

Why not take a fraction of the same skill and leverage it into a scaleable platform to solve common sense problems at scale? That's what I learned from this.

I used to work for a high end digital agency.

We used to f@ck around for weeks with details that might get us awards. Well, actually get the clients awards.

I disagreed at a certain point and thought I could use resources much better myself.

So I quit my job and started a business.

You just have to be better than the guy who is hiring you, and the money comes in.

Keep it simple, act fast, always move and improve while on the "run".

I'm sure it will look like that on my Linkedin profile, or by the standards of "society", but I sure don't see it that way. Self-employed with a contract for services only, so I haven't sold my soul or my freedom. Work from wherever I want, on my schedule, and scale back or quit whenever it suits me. Supports, but doesn't interfere with, my own business. And I'm looking forward to the work without seeing it as the end goal in itself.

I had a similar experience on the weekend.

My Facebook feed is filled with Rolex's, big Audis, mortgage announcements and engagement rings with stones as big as my index finger's nail.

If you compare the numbers, I come out at the short end.

For now.

I know I am investing in something bigger than I can imagine at the moment.

It will all come back and more.

Once you decided to let go, half the battle is won.

I couldn't even imagine ever being chained to an office, or signing a contract of employment again. Both deals with the devil. Perhaps your friend would find the same, if he could "embrace the suck" and power through those first few months at home?

Not everything is sunshine.

What are you willing to suffer for?

Biggest takeaway for me was how important it is to stick to one thing.

Stick to one thing, and one thing only.

Everything else dilutes your result.

This is the one thing I'd tell someone starting out, apart from "go do something".

That's life-changing money.

It is life changing if it buys you freedom from being stuck in cubicle nation.

It is life changing if it buys you energy and motivation to use your own brain, to see beyond.

It is life changing if you can go grocery shopping on a Monday at 11 am and still be able to pay your bills at the end of the month.

Think about it as your "F@ck you fund":

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI


Happy Monday everybody

 

[Contrarian]

I used to work for a high end digital agency.

We used to f@ck around for weeks with details that might get us awards. Well, actually get the clients awards.

I disagreed at a certain point and thought I could use resources much better myself.

So I quit my job and started a business.

You just have to be better than the guy who is hiring you, and the money comes in.

Keep it simple, act fast, always move and improve while on the "run".

Ah yes. Trinkets over results. Been there...

I had a similar experience on the weekend.

My Facebook feed is filled with Rolex's, big Audis, mortgage announcements and engagement rings with stones as big as my index finger's nail.

If you compare the numbers, I come out at the short end.

For now.

I know I am investing in something bigger than I can imagine at the moment.

It will all come back and more.

Once you decided to let go, half the battle is won.

That's a great sentence of condensed wisdom right there!

Stick to one thing, and one thing only.

Everything else dilutes your result.

This is the one thing I'd tell someone starting out, apart from "go do something".

One thing only. Yep, would definitely have helped big time to keep that in mind in my last business.

It is life changing if it buys you freedom from being stuck in cubicle nation.

It is life changing if it buys you energy and motivation to use your own brain, to see beyond.

It is life changing if you can go grocery shopping on a Monday at 11 am and still be able to pay your bills at the end of the month.

Think about it as your "F@ck you fund":

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI


Happy Monday everybody

Happy Monday indeed!

 

[TheDillon__]

Really loved this talk - had to listen to it twice yesterday! Probably going to give it another run today.

The idea of making AdWords and Lead Gen into a game was so appealing to me.

My inner nerd perked up a bit, now I'm double-intrigued on how to run the best campaign possible.

 

[Contrarian]

Really loved this talk - had to listen to it twice yesterday! Probably going to give it another run today.

The idea of making AdWords and Lead Gen into a game was so appealing to me.

My inner nerd perked up a bit, now I'm double-intrigued on how to run the best campaign possible.

What will you do to turn your double-intrigue into double-action?

 

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[UncommonWay]

@Andy Black - This was a great interview. Thanks for messaging me when I followed you. You put me on to this interview, and I think it will be a great complement to what I'm doing now (getting leads for local businesses). You make Adwords seem easy, and although I know it's not "easy", it now seems like an attainable skill.

 

[TheDillon__]

@#Andy Black - This was a great interview. Thanks for messaging me when I followed you. You put me on to this interview, and I think it will be a great complement to what I'm doing now (getting leads for local businesses). You make Adwords seem easy, and although I know it's not "easy", it now seems like an attainable skill.

Hey mate - not sure how far along you are in your business yet, but from one forum member (and one lead gen guy to another - hello!)

Seriously, buy Andy's course.

But Dillon, that's $400!

Well luckily the course is 10% off!

Take $60 and sign up for the Insiders part of the forum (MAN talk about content! You should see some of the talks we have in here about Lead Gen alone!)

Andy gives discounts to Insiders, making his course only $299. Congrats, you just surrounded yourself with some brilliant entrepreneurs, got a kickstart to AdWords, and saved 40 bucks in the process.

(If you're still worried about price - think of it like this. The barrier to entry in Lead Gen is knowledge. Any guy lounging around in his undies can create an account and have an ad running in just a few minutes, Andy shows you how to make ads that get results. The day after I finish his course, I'm hopping on the phone and sending leads to people all around Texas.)

If you're like me and you need a little time to scrape the cash together, go ahead and read through his post history (yes, the whole thing.) You'll eat up everything you find.

Cheers man.

Adure.

 

[astr0]

Thanks @Andy Black and @Contrarian for the talk.

Here are my takeaways:

• Keep it simple. Don't over-complicate things for yourself. Understand that other people might don't understand a thing in areas you're familiar with, but they do know what's important to them and it's simple for them. Also, try to find simpler solutions for people's problems. They're almost always better.
• Magnitude or mass. Helping fewer people at magnitude may be better that helping a lot of people a little. Although, it may not be that hard, not necessary inventing a cure for cancer. MJ wrote about it in his books, but just now I seems to get it.
• Focus on needs, not building stuff. Kinda hard to keep that focus for a tech INTJ-T guys like me.
• Make your process fell like a game. This game parallel helped me a bit in the past with poker and affiliate marketing. It's kinda hard to risk money when you think of them like money. But if you think of them like a score on the screen and just make +EV decisions without fear that score gets better. The same can be applied to the whole process.
• Pretty much a do 1, 2, 3 local lead gen blueprint out there. Not getting into to much details, but looks like the major steps are covered.

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks @Andy Black and @Contrarian for the talk.

Here are my takeaways:

• Keep it simple. Don't over-complicate things for yourself. Understand that other people might don't understand a thing in areas you're familiar with, but they do know what's important to them and it's simple for them. Also, try to find simpler solutions for people's problems. They're almost always better.
• Magnitude or mass. Helping fewer people at magnitude may be better that helping a lot of people a little. Although, it may not be that hard, not necessary inventing a cure for cancer. MJ wrote about it in his books, but just now I seems to get it.
• Focus on needs, not building stuff. Kinda hard to keep that focus for a tech INTJ-T guys like me.
• Make your process fell like a game. This game parallel helped me a bit in the past with poker and affiliate marketing. It's kinda hard to risk money when you think of them like money. But if you think of them like a score on the screen and just make +EV decisions without fear that score gets better. The same can be applied to the whole process.
• Pretty much a do 1, 2, 3 local lead gen blueprint out there. Not getting into to much details, but looks like the major steps are covered.

Yes. Keep it simple, and help people instead of building stuff.

 

[CopyDane]

This may be a low-tech question, but: You mention in the podcast that you should have the "client" pay for the AdWords spendings. How to practically do that? Do you register a brand new AdWords account with their information etc.? Or can you use your own account in some way?

As it may tell from my question, I'm not really that experienced using AdWords. The few attempts on creating a local lead gen service were made using organic traffic - but I really like the idea of using AdWords instead.

Best regards, and great work!

 

[Andy Black]

This may be a low-tech question, but: You mention in the podcast that you should have the "client" pay for the AdWords spendings. How to practically do that? Do you register a brand new AdWords account with their information etc.? Or can you use your own account in some way?

As it may tell from my question, I'm not really that experienced using AdWords. The few attempts on creating a local lead gen service were made using organic traffic - but I really like the idea of using AdWords instead.

Best regards, and great work!

The client can add their billing details into the Google Ads account and pay the bill directly to Google. You or the client may own the Google Ads account.

Alternatively, you can pay the Google Ads bill and charge it to the client - one way or another.

 

[CopyDane]

The client can add their billing details into the Google Ads account and pay the bill directly to Google. You or the client may own the Google Ads account.

Alternatively, you can pay the Google Ads bill and charge it to the client - one way or another.

Thanks a bunch! I like the former method the most I think, at least until the business and trust/partnership becomes stable.

I actually went straight ahead and bought a domain and started setting up a landing page last night. This was also inspired by your other thread, in which you talk about 2 columns landing pages, company name and bullet points etc. on the left side, phone number and contact form on the right side.

Both of the above raised two more questions in my head though, if you don't mind:

1) Regarding the who-pays-for-AdWords-thing; What about the very first leads/initial cold calling the "client"? I mean it would be nice to pick up the phone and actually be able to deliver a handful of ready leads to the client instead of having to convince him that they will come as soon as he starts paying. But that would mean that I'd have to pay for the AdWords myself in the beginning. And don't get me wrong - I wouldn't mind paying for that at all, I'm just wondering if I'm missing something here @ which came first, the chicken or the hen kinda thing.

2) A minor but important detail to me; In your other thread that I mentioned earlier, you talk about adding a headline with the company name. Given the fact that this site that I created is meant for generating leads not to my own company but to a client's, should I then be entering the client's actual company name or my own "ficticional" one? For now I just entered e.g. "Dublin Carpenter Service". But I'm thinking that potential leads will be confused when they see that, call the number in the right column and are greeted with a "Hello, this is Jack from Dublin Building Inc." what ever. How to go about this?

I know these are small details and I'm making sure they're not restraining me, but I got curious anyway.

Again, thanks so much for the great content of posts and podcasts!

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks a bunch! I like the former method the most I think, at least until the business and trust/partnership becomes stable.

I actually went straight ahead and bought a domain and started setting up a landing page last night. This was also inspired by your other thread, in which you talk about 2 columns landing pages, company name and bullet points etc. on the left side, phone number and contact form on the right side.

Both of the above raised two more questions in my head though, if you don't mind:

1) Regarding the who-pays-for-AdWords-thing; What about the very first leads/initial cold calling the "client"? I mean it would be nice to pick up the phone and actually be able to deliver a handful of ready leads to the client instead of having to convince him that they will come as soon as he starts paying. But that would mean that I'd have to pay for the AdWords myself in the beginning. And don't get me wrong - I wouldn't mind paying for that at all, I'm just wondering if I'm missing something here @ which came first, the chicken or the hen kinda thing.

2) A minor but important detail to me; In your other thread that I mentioned earlier, you talk about adding a headline with the company name. Given the fact that this site that I created is meant for generating leads not to my own company but to a client's, should I then be entering the client's actual company name or my own "ficticional" one? For now I just entered e.g. "Dublin Carpenter Service". But I'm thinking that potential leads will be confused when they see that, call the number in the right column and are greeted with a "Hello, this is Jack from Dublin Building Inc." what ever. How to go about this?

I know these are small details and I'm making sure they're not restraining me, but I got curious anyway.

Again, thanks so much for the great content of posts and podcasts!

For mobile we just do single column. Mobile is much easier to design. Make sure it runs fast. You can then start with mobile only Google Ads campaigns while you’re creating a desktop site. For one plumber client we’re only running mobile campaigns.


Mostly we get clients via inbound word-of-mouth referrals. I’d start by leveraging your network. Maybe there’s someone you already know who could do with some extra calls/work/leads/jobs/cases?


Don’t worry so much about the “business name” on the landing page. The most important copy is a relevant headline:

“Need a blacksmith in Dublin?”

“Looking for a carpet cleaner in Bristol?”

 

[Magicdave]

Hi Andy,
Awesome thread. I love the idea of local Lead Generation. After doing some research on keyword planner, CPC is off the charts for “city name plumber” etc. Do you address how to get lower CPC for whatever niche you are going after?


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