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CHECKLIST: How to Start a Digital Marketing Agency & Hit $5K in Less than 90 Days

Youss

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Hi @Sean Marshall
One challenge from my side is that I ll probably need also French speaking team members as a big part of my customers and market is speaking French.
I don't know how you want to set up your team but I can see 2 options for you:

1. Have only one offshore centre and hire your French speaking team mates there. To give you an idea, when I lived in the Philippines 10 years ago I got friends who were from Ivory Coast and they were doing customer support for BlackBerry's Canadian market. Talk about globalization!
2. You have a different offshore centre for both languages. When it comes to French-speaking, IT savvy and service oriented people I would say Tunisia is probably the #1 option you want to discover. Plus the country has good infrastructures as it's a customer service platform for many French companies. Morocco would be #2 I guess.
 
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Bru

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I don't know how you want to set up your team but I can see 2 options for you:

1. Have only one offshore centre and hire your French speaking team mates there. To give you an idea, when I lived in the Philippines 10 years ago I got friends who were from Ivory Coast and they were doing customer support for BlackBerry's Canadian market. Talk about globalization!
2. You have a different offshore centre for both languages. When it comes to French-speaking, IT savvy and service oriented people I would say Tunisia is probably the #1 option you want to discover. Plus the country has good infrastructures as it's a customer service platform for many French companies. Morocco would be #2 I guess.
Thanks a lot for your advices
I ll explore those options
 

Wiezel

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I want to give this a shot.
I've been reading about online marketing before but never really stayed with it.

Where should I start? What service?
Should I learn one? Outsource it right away?

Should I start locally? Nationally? Internationally?
 

TinyTim

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I want to give this a shot.
I've been reading about online marketing before but never really stayed with it.

Where should I start? What service?
Should I learn one? Outsource it right away?

Should I start locally? Nationally? Internationally?
Read all pages of this thread
 
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Wiezel

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Took me 2 hours but I've been reading all the pages.
Tons of useful information, really amazing.

Something inside me is always holding me back to just GO and DO it. I'm kind of introverted and always want to know the outcome before I even start (it's annoying). I should let go off that and just GO.

Any tips on that? I only feeling 'confident' when I know my stuff 100% and I hate being in conversation with someone and you can only reply with 'uhm yeah.. something like that, not sure either'.
 

Zcott

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Took me 2 hours but I've been reading all the pages.
Tons of useful information, really amazing.

Something inside me is always holding me back to just GO and DO it. I'm kind of introverted and always want to know the outcome before I even start (it's annoying). I should let go off that and just GO.

Any tips on that? I only feeling 'confident' when I know my stuff 100% and I hate being in conversation with someone and you can only reply with 'uhm yeah.. something like that, not sure either'.

You sound similar to how I am. You're not going to know everything straight away. Continue learning as much as you can, get selling, learn from your mistakes, keep doing that and after a few weeks you'll be more experienced and in a much better position knowing what you need than trying to gather information beforehand.
 

Bora.s

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Took me 2 hours but I've been reading all the pages.
Tons of useful information, really amazing.

Something inside me is always holding me back to just GO and DO it. I'm kind of introverted and always want to know the outcome before I even start (it's annoying). I should let go off that and just GO.

Any tips on that? I only feeling 'confident' when I know my stuff 100% and I hate being in conversation with someone and you can only reply with 'uhm yeah.. something like that, not sure either'.

Just do it. It took me many years to start a business for similar reasons. First I checked franchise businesses, 3 totally different systems. It took me around 3 years. The last one I almost buy, because of fear to fail I didn't buy it. Then I wanted to buy an existing business, but we quarreled with the owners about the purchase price after almost one year of negotiation and checking. Finally I decided just to start my own business after many years of searching for the right business/ right time/ right circumstances/ right knowledge….. But you know what all the businesses that I have checked are still working today and would have worked for me. Also the business owners I met during this journey, they were not more intelligent than me or somehow special. I started to believe if they can do it, I and you can do it definitely too. All the best for your journey.
 
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Andy Daniels

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Took me 2 hours but I've been reading all the pages.
Tons of useful information, really amazing.

Something inside me is always holding me back to just GO and DO it. I'm kind of introverted and always want to know the outcome before I even start (it's annoying). I should let go off that and just GO.

Any tips on that? I only feeling 'confident' when I know my stuff 100% and I hate being in conversation with someone and you can only reply with 'uhm yeah.. something like that, not sure either'.


The main theme throughout this entire forum is to simply START. Honestly, if you can take that first step and take real action, you are already doing more than 97% of the others out there.

Crush fear with action. Learn as you go. Good luck!
 
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DaveT

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Hi Sean, thank you for all the knowledge you are offering here.
I would have some questions too:

1. At the beginning, how were you looking for the right companies to offer your services to? Do you think it could be a good strategy to google for a key like "thermography construction company", look for companies on second and third page and offer them the to get in the first page?

2. When you talk to a prospect for the first time introducing your services, how deep you go with details of what you can do for them?

3. Right after you win a new client, do you still get in contact with him or do you assign him to your team?

Thank you!
 

Palamar

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  • Consider taking a class or two on Udemy.com or Lynda.com to get an overview of the online marketing world. Strongly consider also going to QuickSprout.com/University
  • Think about an industry you might like to serve (i.e. – chiropractors) and then look up “online marketing for chiropractors” or similar terms and study what comes up.
Sean, I am pretty new to Online Marketing and was wondering what would be the best courses to take to learn most important aspects of it? Currently signed up for Lynda.com, and just watching all of them one by one, was wondering if I should filter courses or more = better?

Also, what are the best 5 industries to start the business in? What are the hottest 5 which would be able to deliver best results?
 

RoadTrip

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Also, what are the best 5 industries to start the business in? What are the hottest 5 which would be able to deliver best results?

If you read the whole thread you would have found the answer already. I really hope you agree that you can’t expect him to give the same answer twice after all the value he has already given.

Since I saved the reply to Evernote, here is Sean’s earlier recommendation:

“I have clients that include:
Concrete fitting manufacturing
Adhesive manufacturers
Thermal imaging
and others

Nobody is going after these businesses. All the online marketers want to spam dentists and plastic surgeons.

But these "industrial" companies have loads of money and desperately need the help”




Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk
 
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Palamar

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Thanks for the response!

Sean was also wondering about your outsourced team, I respect that you call them your team and they are loyal to your business (very smart and long term oriented) and you pay them well as well to keep mutual interest in success. But have you ever actually went to meet them in Philippines or did you have online Skype sessions, trainings on getting everyone on the same page? Or do you think its unnecessary overhead? How many outsourced team members do you have? And are all of them freelancers or do you have an office in Philippines and someone like a manager/supervisor to coordinate work in a right direction? Or you doing it all yourself through Asana?

Thank you for all the value!
 

Telamon25346

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absolutely duped... I'm sure there must be something wrong that i'm doing, but getting the first sale has been very hard, I've been putting some upfront value like website audits, videos, but i've just been receiving NO's.

Any ideas? I'm ready to do anything, my current method just doesn't seem to be working. I'll knock on doors if I have to
 

NewManRising

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A couple suggestions...

Maybe your approach is wrong. Maybe you need to target different businesses. Try to niche down (if you haven't already) and/or target clients that have no social media or some other really obvious problem. They will be easier to sell to. There is a lot of competition out there and a lot of businesses are hit up all the time by marketers.

Your pitch/offer and how you deliver it is also important. When I send out proposal for copywriting jobs I learned how to talk to people to make them say yes. The first thing is identify their problem and then explain how you will solve it (and are the best person for the job). You then need some sort of statement or proof you have some credibility. You need to disarm them. They have to trust you enough to not feel like they are taking a big risk. Remove all or as much risk to them as possible.

Then if you want, you can even write out a step-by-step process about how you are going to deliver the results to them (make them visualize and think about how easy it is and that this won't cause them any stress/headaches) . Expectations about time and money is something else I have learned clients like to know.

Anyway, you have to be a bit creative and learn what things need to be said to get a client sold on you. It's a bit of a practice and requires some testing and tweaking. Mix up your pitch/offer.

Other than this, it helps to create content and market yourself on various channels.
 
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The Abundant Man

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Marty Foley

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...most clients usually opt to go to the monthly services - if nothing else, at least a security/maintenance package.

Sean, great info you've been sharing.

Quick question, when you said the above, are you talking about a website (hosting?) security/maintenance package?

Just curious. Thanks in advance.
 
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MHP368

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superb thread.

So have you found most companies want an all in one marketing team package or do you feel plenty of room exists for just web design or jsut lead gen or SEM etc ?

While your building out a team would it make more sense to be a generalist and price accordingly or is it just as easy to find folks with a specific skillset and then have them as an ace up the sleeve before making the sales?

I was looking around and obviously consumer focused companies and small businesses are the main focus , not so much industrial internet marketing, but then I feel like finding talent to outsource work for on such a niche might be a serious roadblock.
 

Wiezel

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@Sean Marshall I'm talking to a company owner (indoor activities) who told me their challenge is expanding quickly and adaptation to changes in the niche/market.

How do I know what I can offer them? What service?
I guess FB/IG ads to get more customers in their places (younger people is there target group).
Currently they run a few ads (not that great) but they're also very low ranked on Google (#16).

How should I present to them what their best option is to do that I can solve for them?
There are so many online options to help a company, how do I know which one is the best for now?
 
Last edited:

Anfield

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I read both e-books and I also purchased the course. I feel that there is a tremendous amount of great information and a great step by step guide for opening a lifestyle business. For the amount of money Sean charges, he gives out a boatload of information that is both thorough and very well structured.

A question came to mind, nevertheless. I did a search and I didn't find an answer to this yet. If there already is an answer, I apologize.
My question is: since some student's comments in the course are 5 years old and Sean is stating that he has several thousand students, how many of them have already achieved the lifestyle status with their companies that were set up following Sean's advice? Basically - how many people are now able to work less than 10 hours per week and be somewhat financial independent, sustaining their lifestyle solely through cloning Sean's online marketing agency?
 
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NewManRising

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@Sean Marshall I'm talking to a company owner (indoor activities) who told me their challenge is expanding quickly and adaptation to changes in the niche/market.

How do I know what I can offer them? What service?
I guess FB/IG ads to get more customers in their places (younger people is there target group).
Currently they run a few ads (not that great) but they're also very low ranked on Google (#16).

How should I present to them what their best option is to do that I can solve for them?
There are so many online options to help a company, how do I know which one is the best for now?
Do a little exploring or ask them directly where their weaknesses are. Talk about a long term strategy you guys can build off that will result in more traffic and sales. Ask them about their sales funnel and look for ways to optimize it.

Maybe they need a better website? Maybe their social media presence is weak or non-existent? Maybe their copywriting sucks? It can be all or any of these things. Your job is to diagnose the problem, come up with a plan, and present it to them all while reducing their risk for investing in you. Talk about a long-term strategy you guys can implement, test, and re-adjust. You should know that a businesses main focus is to increase more sales. You be the mastermind in accomplishing that.
 

A-A-ron

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I've been meaning to write this post for a long time. It's basically the story of how I started a digital marketing agency to be able to do cool stuff. And I would like to give you a nice little checklist that you could use as well if it interests you.

I started my business in 2010. Since then, I reduced my own work load to less than 10 hours a month, lived in Mexico for 4 1/2 years, traveled to 15 countries, and am prepping to head to Scotland for 6 months in Sept - all together with my wife & 3 kids.

I cracked the code to scaling a service-based business using detailed systems (a fancy checklist on Asana) and a good team (all based in the Philippines).

I made $2,450 in my first month. Not crazy I know but it was a big deal for me just starting out. More importantly, that number increased every single month afterwards.

At about month 11 is when I read The Millionaire Fastlane and it completely changed how I viewed my business. I made a bunch of changes based on MJ's advice and started hitting 5 figure months about two months later.

DOES IT FOLLOW MJ'S COMMANDMENTS?

I need to mention that a digital marketing agency does NOT follow all of MJ's 5 business commandments. It breaks one - Barrier to Entry. Basically, anyone can do this. They really can.

BUT, that's also the catch - most people DON'T ACTUALLY EXECUTE! You can give them all the tools, step-by-step instructions, templates, etc and they still won't do anything. I know because I offer a course giving people literally everything they need and only a handful of people actually do the thing.

So in a way, the barrier to entry commandment is almost a non-issue. Besides, there's more than enough business out there.

With the other commandments (time, scale, control, & need), this kind of business passes with full marks.

MAKING $5K IN UNDER 90 DAYS

Why $5,000? Two reasons:
  1. It’s usually enough money for most people to quit their jobs to focus full time on the business
  2. It’s totally realistic & achievable
This is a number that most people can hit with some focused work. How fast you’re able to hit $5k is up to two things:
  1. Your Prices
  2. Your Hustle
Obviously, the more you sell, the more you’ll make. Keep in mind that some services typically cost more than others (for example: websites cost more than social media management)

Like I said, I made $2,450 in my first month. How did I make that money? I networked with people I already knew and got in touch with a few key business owners. I shook hands and spoke with everyone I knew.

Simply put, I hustled.


Hitting $5K in under 90 days is totally doable. I have students in my course that have done much more in less time.

WHAT IS AN ONLINE MARKETING AGENCY?


Before I give you a checklist, I have to answer, what is an online marketing agency?

There are a lot of names for this kind of business - internet marketing company, digital marketing agency, online marketing business, and more. They’re all the same thing.

In a nutshell, it’s a service-based business that manages the online marketing activities for companies of any size that are in need of growing their presence online – which is all of them.

This includes services like SEO, social media management, reputation management, website design, and more.

You can choose to focus in on just one branch of online marketing (like website design or SEO) or you can choose to do it all.

As the business owner, you’re responsible for creating the services that your clients will choose from.
Then you will need to recruit a team of people to do the actual work. You can even hire salespeople or a sales company later on and scale it infinitely.

There’s no shortage of businesses that need help with their online marketing so the sky’s the limit.
There’s also no shortage of people who can do the actual work and you can contract them relatively inexpensively.

*NOTE: Building an online marketing agency might not be your passion.

It really doesn’t matter.
What matters is that it offers you a way to sell a valuable service to real people who pay real money. You can quickly build this business, scale it up, and then do whatever the heck you want!

QUICK BENEFITS OF AN ONLINE MARKETING AGENCY

The benefits primarily include:



    • You can get started for less than $300
    • Extremely low overhead
    • Large profit margin - you literally set the prices
    • Huge potential - an extra $50K/year or $500K/year - it's up to you
    • Work online
    • Flexible schedule
Benefits.png


THE 5 S's OF YOUR ONLINE MARKETING AGENCY

Starting and running a digital marketing agency breaks down into what I call the 5 S's.

1. Setup
2. Sales
3. Systems
4. Staffing
5. Scaling-Up

5-S.png


I'm going to break down the checklist into those 5 groups.

The rest of this post is literally made up of the steps you can follow to start your own digital marketing agency. If you have any questions, obviously I'll be paying attention to this thread. I won't hold anything back.

Just ask.

***

SETUP
This portion is to help you get started by establishing your business services, messaging & branding, website, and so forth. The goal is to move quickly to hurry and get to making sales.




    • Start thinking about your business brand including your business name. Think about what kind “feel” you want your business to have. Write out at least 10 possible names.
    • Look up “online marketing company” and check out the first few sites – the goal is to get a feel for what they do and what you’ll be doing.
    • Consider taking a class or two on Udemy.com or Lynda.com to get an overview of the online marketing world. Strongly consider also going to QuickSprout.com/University
    • Think about an industry you might like to serve (i.e. – chiropractors) and then look up “online marketing for chiropractors” or similar terms and study what comes up.
    • Write out (or type out) your motivation. Why are you interested in starting this business? Answer this with something more specific than “to have more money”. Get as specific as you can. Don’t skip the mental work!
    • List out the amount of money you would like to make in your first month, second month, following months. Include your first year’s goal.
    • Go online and look up other online marketing companies (again) – jot down everything that you like and that you would like to emulate.
    • Start thinking about what sets you apart. Ideally it can be summed up in one sentence. i.e. – “We provide SEO services for dental professionals”. This is your USP (unique selling proposition)
    • Come up with your 3 packages. List out the services that each package entails. Yours may be just offering social media or just website design or whatever. Be sure to be detailed - list out everything.
    • Come up with your package pricing. Decide what you think is valuable for all parties involved and use this as a starting point (you’ll most likely adjust this as you get more experience). Use this pattern: $499/$599/$999 OR $999/$1199/$1699 and so on.
    • Identify and write out your USP.
    • Write what your ideal client looks like – the more details the better.
    • Decide right now you will stay true to your niche and not take on anyone and everyone who needs help “online”. It’s better to focus on a core audience to avoid wasting time and money. Don’t be afraid to say no.
    • Come up with your business name. Come up with your business tagline (if you need one).
    • Pick your colors. These can literally be your favorite colors. Don’t stress on this one.
    • Get a logo done (use 99designs.com, Upwork.com, or Fiverr.com) – don’t do it yourself unless you’re a graphic designer.
    • Write up your business plan. Print it out. Change as necessary. Just answer the following questions:
      o What is your company name?
      o What is your company tagline?
      o What services do you provide? What problem do you solve?
      o Who is your target audience or what does your ideal client look like?
      o What is your USP?
      o How much do you charge?
      o What is your monthly revenue goal?
      o How many new or repeat clients do you need to achieve this goal?
      o How do you get new clients?
      o How will you fulfill your services? Who makes up your production team?
      o Who are the other key players of your team? List their names and titles.
    • Set up your corporation (use LegalZoom – for now, just get a DBA and then incorporate once you’ve brought on a few clients and know this is going to work for you)
    • Set up your business checking & savings account. Set up your PayPal (or Stripe) business account.
    • Buy your domain name (use a registrar like GoDaddy.com). Buy your hosting (use a reliable & affordable host like SiteGround.com . Set up your website (use Wordpress – it’s super easy & all you need). Your host should have a 1-click Wordpress install.
    • Create a home page, about page, services page, & contact page to start. This is the minimum. Set up your social media platforms (Facebook business page, Twitter, Google+/YouTube, LinkedIn all a must. Pinterest, Instagram, etc are bonus).
    • Buy your business cards (and nothing else) Use VistaPrint.com because they’re super cheap. Only order 250 for your first cards. You may change some info later.

SALES
This portion is to help you start making sales - the lifeblood of your business. If you’re not making sales, you don’t have a business.




    • Get your first sale (work your own personal network to get started – make a list of 10 business owners you know or your friends/family might know and approach them offering them a discount or added value to get started).
    • Complete the work of your first sale and be sure to get results! If you don’t know how to do any of it, go to UpWork.com and hire someone immediately – see next section.
    • Document all of your work – you’ll need this to scale & build a team.
    • Get your next 3 clients quickly. Go to networking meetings in your area. Consider joining your local Chamber of Commerce and possibly a BNI group or other networking group.
    • Use online directories like Manta.com to find more businesses in your chosen niche. When you find their contact info, reach out to them leading with value - do a mock-up website with their info, list out specific tips to drive more business, or share exactly how they could tweak their online presence for increased traffic and conversion, etc. Think value!
    • Reach out to associations in your chosen niche and offer to give free webinars.
    • Optimize your company website to reach your target niche and drive traffic to it – have specific pages on your website that you get to rank in Google for organic traffic (i.e. – a page on “Search Engine Optimization Services for Chiropractors”). Then get it ranking and collect leads.
    • Continue to look up the Chambers of Commerce in your area and other mixers and networking opportunities. Look to set up 1-on-1’s with potential clients but only ones in your niche. Don’t waste time with anyone else!
    • Set up speaking and teaching gigs to get in front of a lot of people at once. Be as helpful as possible. Give your best stuff away for free - be incredibly detailed.

SYSTEMS
Once you have some sales coming in, you need to make sure you document everything and create systems in order for others to do the work for you. This also includes establishing what tools you use in your business. It’s simple but incredibly important.




    • Create a sales manual and a production manual. Be detailed and use bullet points.
    • Set up your work email (use Google apps or even just gmail to make it easy and route your Name@Company.com email through it)
    • Set up your account in Asana.com – it’s free and it will be your project management tool. Name each new project after your client name. Each project is a client & list out in the project all of the work you said you would do in the list of services.
    • Set your file storage using DropBox or Google Drive.
    • Set up your bookkeeping with Quickbooks

STAFFING
Getting a team in place to do the work for you is key to your growth. You need to hire, train, and lead your team members. As soon as possible, you’ll hire more team members to make sure all work is being done effectively.




    • Create a company org chart with you as owner. Create a general manager position with manager positions also in sales, production/operations, & finance.
    • List out the work for your first job (base this off of your services in your game plan). Then go to Upwork.com or OnlineJobs.ph and post your job.
    • Interview your top 3 candidates. Hire 1 but keep the other two on a short-list for when you need them in the future. Start them off on a part-time basis with the expectation of them doing more soon.
    • Hire your first employee or contractor – generally this is a production staff member first (you should not be doing the actual production beyond your first client).
    • Take time to train your first team member. Refine your systems and make sure they can operate independently of you as soon as possible. Use Asana (or Basecamp or Trello) to manage everything. If you’re concerned about tracking everything, consider using HubStaff.com.
    • As soon as revenue and need justifies it, hire another contractor. And then another. And another.

SCALING-UP
Once you have sales coming in and a team and systems in place, it’s time to scale-up. This section is all about refining your processes so that you can handle 5 or 500 clients while the work to you remains the same. In other words, this is how you make more money while working less.




    • Refine your services – productize them! When mapping out your services, make sure your offer is the same to everyone. If you choose a service like SEO for example, then it’s relatively the same regardless of the industry your client is in. Don’t match a service to the client. Match the client to one of your preexisting services.
    • Refine your clients - it’s OK & very necessary to the growth of your business to be choosy. Stay away from any "high maintenance" clients. Choose early on how you will handle communication with your clients. Most are just fine with email.
    • Refine your systems. Look for ways to save money, increase productivity, and so forth. When possible, swap out human effort with software and automated work.
    • Refine your sales. Spend money if necessary on advertising, always targeting your ideal niche/industry.
    • As soon as you have at least 90-day’s worth of savings in the bank, have made at least 3 sales (with a lot more in the pipeline), consider going full-time with your business. If you have a significant other, be sure to be on the same page.
    • Over-deliver with your clients. If the relationship is there, try asking for a referral but only if you’ve already done a great job.
***

That's it! Just sell. There's plenty of businesses out there. I don't mean to downplay it at all but really, I'm nobody special. I'm not like most of the successful hustlers in this forum. I'm a pretty average dude that managed to create a sweet business.

You can do the same. Just follow the checklist above.

If you have any questions, just ask!

-Sean

This post is full of so much information. Thank you, Sean! I have some experience with SEO from a previous ecommerce business that I owned, but have been really studying SEM over the past couple months to brush up. My intent is to build a SEM business which caters specifically to Veteran Owned Businesses.
Thanks again. This thread is worth reading several times over and over!
Aaron
 

A-A-ron

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That's right. Wasn't sure about the prices.
What would you suggest? What price range?

Personally, I would focus more on the different services and NOT advertise set prices for your different service packages and here’s why.
If your car is broke, your auto mechanic is going to first have to diagnose the problem before giving you a price to do the repairs.
SEO services should be not different.
First...offer to provide a FREE SEO audit of the customers website (creates value). I believe you will find that some websites will require more work than others.
Next...provide the customer with a proposal based on the amount of work it is going to take to get their website performing like it should.
This gives you the ability to gather quotes from outsourcers, which you mark up, and ensures that you do not undercut yourself.
Just my $.02
Aaron
 

Shaw Caldwell

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This is an amazing thread. So thankful for this.

Nonetheless I have questions.

Is there a way I could get a list of recently licensed plumbers, roofers, etc? In my state there are testing facilities scattered around that test every few months. Nice business cards, a stack of brochures, and a good pitch might go a long way there on the test dates. I would rather just have a list and a no-brainer offering as I'm especially incompetent at high stakes social situations.
Maybe I could get in contact with Commercial Registered Agents and get recommendations from them. Does anyone have any experience with how viable that might be?

I was thinking I might try to make an algorithm to create a list of prime candidates by scraping state Business Record Listing and looking at other variables (time since incorporation, number of employees, businesses that have markings of DIY, age of owner, outdated copyright or software on website, website with an abandoned but still live blog, etc).

Is this way overkill?

I've got most of a website, I've toyed with sales videos a little bit, and I'm very vaguely familiar with most aspects of online marketing. With selective omissions and some benefit of the doubt, I think I could get through a sale.

I'm excited to be well on my way to the fastlane. Thanks everyone
 
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A-A-ron

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This is an amazing thread. So thankful for this.

Nonetheless I have questions.

Is there a way I could get a list of recently licensed plumbers, roofers, etc? In my state there are testing facilities scattered around that test every few months. Nice business cards, a stack of brochures, and a good pitch might go a long way there on the test dates. I would rather just have a list and a no-brainer offering as I'm especially incompetent at high stakes social situations.
Maybe I could get in contact with Commercial Registered Agents and get recommendations from them. Does anyone have any experience with how viable that might be?

I was thinking I might try to make an algorithm to create a list of prime candidates by scraping state Business Record Listing and looking at other variables (time since incorporation, number of employees, businesses that have markings of DIY, age of owner, outdated copyright or software on website, website with an abandoned but still live blog, etc).

Is this way overkill?

I've got most of a website, I've toyed with sales videos a little bit, and I'm very vaguely familiar with most aspects of online marketing. With selective omissions and some benefit of the doubt, I think I could get through a sale.

I'm excited to be well on my way to the fastlane. Thanks everyone

Shaw,
These are good ideas, but I think you could get a faster start by starting with your inner circle and working outwards. Think of those that you know that have a business and do a little bit of research before contacting them. If they don't have a business website, then you could propose building one for them that is already built for SEO. If they DO have a website, run a free SEO audit and see if you can help them out. Check out this site: SimilarWeb.com. They have a free version, which does not give you all the tools of the paid version, but you can at least see if their website is performing good or not. Just enter their url and see what comes up.
I did this exact thing for a friend of mine this past weekend. My friend owns a tree service and his website is horrible. After running a check on Similarweb, I called him up and told him that I think I can help him out. He said he's been paying a company $400 a month to do SEO...what a joke.
I then went and research a few keywords so that I could check the local competition out. The highest PA and DA scores of the competitive sites were in the low 20's and very few of them had any backlinks. I think I could probably build him a new Wordpress site and get him ranking on the first page within a few months. We're supposed to talk again tomorrow. Wish me luck. This will be my first customer.
I hope this helps!
Aaron
 

Sean Marshall

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I think that email strategy is working, I'm not sure. When I email these companies I send an email that looks like this:

"Hey, I was on your site after I looked up "chiropractor In Dallas" and I noticed that you weren't on the first page nor were you on the first-page google maps listings. This can be bad for your revenue, and simply put, it leaves a lot of money and customers on the table. There are, however, a few quick and easy ways to fix this, and I'd like to help! Instead of writing to you about the solution, I made you a short video................

That looks like every other email out there.

"Here's a 2 minute video of a few improvements we can make for you right away." Most people won't request a video (boring), but they'll watch it if it's there and two minutes.

Yes!

I would only change the wording to "...a few improvements YOU can make right away..." and then a benefit like...."a few improvements you can make right away to your website to boost the amount of leads coming through your contact form..." Or something like that.

They don't have the time or inclination to do it themselves. If they do, they're not your ideal client.
 

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