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Cold Outreach Strategy For Digital Marketing Agency?

Marketing, social media, advertising

GetShitDone

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I recently launched a Digital Marketing Agency and I am trying to Cold Organic Outreach via LinkedIn.

However, I'm having lots of trouble getting hot/qualified leads with it.

Lots of businesses can't afford the monthly marketing fee or have been burned by a marketer in the past.

Is there any way to have "An edge" to get Digital Marketing Agency clients when doing Cold Outreach?

I'm considering stacking my linkedin outreach strategy with sending follow up emails with some sort of automation tool, building authority via content, etc..
 
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BizyDad

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Have you asked yourself what would work on you if you were approached this way? Would you pay yourself this much money?
 

PizzaOnTheRoof

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Your "edge" is to actually be good at what you do...

...so send them leads.

@Andy Black
 

BizyDad

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Your "edge" is to actually be good at what you do...

...so send them leads.

@Andy Black

Exactly.

My first 2 clients I worked for free for a month. They saw results, I started charging them the second month, and they sent me my next 3 clients.

8 years later, I've never advertised or cold called for a client...
 
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PizzaOnTheRoof

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Exactly.

My first 2 clients I worked for free for a month. They saw results, I started charging them the second month, and they sent my my next 3 clients.

10 years later, I've never advertised or cold called for a client...
You could also send them a few leads before even making initial contact. It'll cost some money but the magnitude of that exchange would be huge.

In this age of Tai Lopez wannabes and cold calling, how much of a mindf*ck would it be to a business owner if the past five sales they've gotten came to them courtesy of you?

"Hey biz owner, I just shot an email over to you showing you how the past 10 leads you've gotten came from a little experiment I was doing with Google Ads. I would love to chat sometime about how I can keep generating you guys more leads."
 

MattL

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To get hot and qualified leads, you need to use the latest LinkedIn automation tools (LinkedCamp). With these, you can find ideal prospects, send them messages and follow-ups.
2 posts, both promoting some random tool I've never heard of.

:|
 
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Harman

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It takes just one.

Even if you have to do it for free you need to start by building a portfolio. I'm in a similar business and I built out a marketing system for my first client who was my step-brother, I did it for free.

That single experience taught me the fundamentals, I made plenty of mistakes but learned from each one.

Furthermore, that single job worked for my step-bro and successfully generated dozens of leads for him, it was an excellent case study that I used when cold-calling similar businesses.

My step-bro also referred a friend to me.

It all kind of snow balls but it starts with one.
 

OverByte

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Why not use the skills you intend to use for your clients to get clients?
This is exactly what I was thinking and why everyone is skeptical of digital marketing agencies. Way too many people jumping on this bandwagon. Why should anyone pay you for marketing services if you don’t know how to market yourself...

Anyway what everyone else said is correct. Provide value in your outreach and people will take notice. If you can’t provide that value then you don’t deserve the client
 

Andy Black

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This is exactly what I was thinking and why everyone is skeptical of digital marketing agencies. Way too many people jumping on this bandwagon. Why should anyone pay you for marketing services if you don’t know how to market yourself..
I understand people wondering why a marketing specialist can’t get clients.

I do think some of these marketing services are very technical though. They can be undertaken by good techies who may not have good soft-skills and sales skills.

E.g. SEO seems a very technical service. Ditto extracting emails from LinkedIn and successfully bulk cold emailing. They seem almost like IT disciplines to me, and many IT folks don’t know how to market themselves.

So someone could be excellent at those tasks and get great results for businesses, but not know how to get clients for themselves.

They *could* use their particular skill to get clients, but not always. I don’t run Google Ads for my Google Ads service - I prefer to help people in communities (online and IRL), create content, build relationships & win-wins, and that has generated referrals over the years.
 
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Andy Black

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It takes just one.

Even if you have to do it for free you need to start by building a portfolio. I'm in a similar business and I built out a marketing system for my first client who was my step-brother, I did it for free.

That single experience taught me the fundamentals, I made plenty of mistakes but learned from each one.

Furthermore, that single job worked for my step-bro and successfully generated dozens of leads for him, it was an excellent case study that I used when cold-calling similar businesses.

My step-bro also referred a friend to me.

It all kind of snow balls but it starts with one.
Yes. I did the same. I helped my now brother-in-law for free, and used that as a case study to get paid clients.
 

Andy Black

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Provide value in your outreach and people will take notice. If you can’t provide that value then you don’t deserve the client
There it is again. Give value first.
 

BizyDad

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I don’t run Google Ads for my Google Ads service
I don't do SEO for my SEO service. A good friend of mine ranked #1 for a couple years, and I heard the annoying amount and quality of the calls he would get. No thanks.

Here's a marketing strategy not many newer marketers use.

Buddy up with a bigger/better/more prominent firm, and trade clients. Ask that they send out clients too little for them, and you'll send them clients too big for you. To make this work, you have to strike up a bit of a friendship somehow.

Back then, I sent my buddy 2 leads in 2 years. He closed neither. He sent me several clients in those 2 years before he ultimately shut down his agency to start a tech company.

I managed to do it again a couple years later with a different friend/agency, until I'm pretty sure it was COVID that got him. That was a bad day.
 
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PapaGang

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I don't do SEO for my SEO service. A good friend of mine ranked #1 for a couple years, and I heard the annoying amount and quality of the calls he would get. No thanks.

Here's a marketing strategy not many newer marketers use.

Buddy up with a bigger/better/more prominent firm, and trade clients. Ask that they send out clients too little for them, and you'll send them clients too big for you. To make this work, you have to strike up a bit of a friendship somehow.

Back then, I sent my buddy 2 leads in 2 years. He closed neither. He sent me several clients in those 2 years before he ultimately shut down his agency to start a tech company.

I managed to do it again a couple years later with a different friend/agency, until I'm pretty sure it was COVID that got him. That was a bad day.
Great point @BizyDad. This works.

I was a cofounder of an agency and this is a great way to acquire new clients while building a solid partnership with larger agencies. It usually also leads to you getting a fair amount of spillover work when the larger agency doesn't have enough resources for projects.

Also, we really specialized with custom dev work for Shopify and HubSpot software. We became known as specialists in those two platforms and that meant we could charge more for our services because we were the only game in town for that type work. So I would say specialization is key also.
 

Black_Dragon43

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I think outbound is a strong strategy for someone just getting started. It's the quickest way to get work, and if you target your clients well, and invest time in learning about them and tailoring your proposals, your success rate will be excellent.

However, in the long run, I think all the money is going to those who have mastered inbound and produce quality content day after day. It's the difference between the push vs the pull in sales. One side is focusing on attraction, which takes a longer time to build but is ultimately more effective, while the other side is focused on the short-term result. Get some sale QUICK, yesterday if possible.

So if your goal is a QUICK sale, keep doing outbound, and put your focus on personalization. That's your "edge" in outbound. You're delivering greater upfront value, and reaching out only to businesses that really do have the burning problem that you can solve. Therefore your conversion rates will be higher.

If, on the other hand, you want to build a BRAND, then start producing quality content and sharing it. I mean look at Gary V. The guy built one of the biggest digital marketing agencies in the world by producing content over and over again, and focusing on ATTRACTING clients rather than the quick sale. And he's scored some damn big clients too!
 

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