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E-Mail Marketing Agency (Not Webdesign, but same Principles apply)

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
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Day #21

Pomodoro Sessions: 9
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Setup Browse abandonment for a client
- worked 3 hours on setting up split-tests for welcome series and Abandoned checkout sequence of another client
- Setup a split-test for site popup
- Fixed an issue with newsletter subscription that was causing me headache, now it works!
-
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
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Hamburg, Germany
Day #22

Pomodoro Sessions: 2
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Spent most of my time in the train today travelling from hamburg to munich
- Learned about setting up 2 important flows (that I didnt setup at all before) --> Abandoned cart flow (No, its not the same as abandoned checkout) and setting up site abandonment flow


I will give a more detailed update tommorow, im very short on time
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
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Day #23

Pomodoro Sessions: 3
Sleep: 7hrs

To dos that I completed:
- had 1 hour call with my interns
- created a new version of abandoned checkout email sequence (3 mails) split testing vs my control flow, really excited to see how itl perform
- won a new client with 20k+ email list, will onboard next week on monday
- Focusing on building out results and improving my skills, cant wait to charge higher prices soon and take on more clients
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
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Day #24

Pomodoro Sessions: 0
Sleep: 7hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Had an extra OFF DAY, didnt do any work
- Tommorow I will reflect + plan next week
 
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DacariBusiness

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Jul 17, 2021
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Hey Everyone,

I want to use this post to share my Journey in building an E-Mail Marketing Agency, which I believe is a similar goal to many of you who are building your webdesign agency. I have experience running my own Shopify store and was making around 40k Revenue per month at the maximum point (10-15% Margin). Now I have decided to step away from running my own online store and instead focus on Agency work, since I want to keep my business completely 100% digital (dont want to handle physical returns). I see lots of Potential, which is why im going all in on this idea.

I will try to post at least 2-3 times per week in here to keep you guys updated about my actions, how its moving forward and whats happening.

Here is a summary of my Situation so far:

- Im focusing on this business full-time (quit my job 4 months ago, been travelling and working simultaneously)
- I acquired 3 clients so far, each of them paid approx 1k Euros and they will also be paying me 10% of revenues generated by email marketing for the next 2 months.
- My website: emailperformancemarketing.de (its in German, but im very happy if anyone experienced with agency business can give me feedback)
- Current focus is to build a team (hire 2-3 people) so that I can have an automated system Lead Generation --> Lead Conversion --> Service Fulfillment system
- I intend to focus on Social Selling via Instagram + Linkedin Platform. If you have an agency business and are doing something similar, please PM me to connect, I really want to share and discuss my strategy in-depth with other people who are doing this.
- My goal is to bring this business to 100k Profit/ Month by 10th of December this year

If you are interested to follow my Journey in this business, I would really appreciate it if you leave a short post and introduce yourself so that we can connect. Also, it motivates me to keep this post active and keep sharing my progress on a more regular basis.

Best,
Champion
Lovely. Will follow up, learn and implement. am also trying to build a Digital Agency
Hi Champion (if it is your name)
I am just starting out. My Name is Biswas. Just wanted to know how did u get clients? And yeah it would be great if we connect
Will love to connect. Am Jorge dacari a newbie on this agency business. your journey is the truth and Inspiration for me to expand my potential. Whatsapp me on +1(650)246-4680
God bless
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #25 (Sunday)

Pomodoro Sessions: 0
Sleep: 7hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Reflected the last week
- Planned the entire next week and prepared everything in my calendar, its going to be extremely busy
- Had first feedback from my biggest client today that some customers complained about getting too many mails --> First real issue starting to surface, I cant wait to deal with it and work my way through with the client and show him my commitment to providing value even more.
- Had one client who didnt pay his invoice --> In the future im going to be trying to get more clients to pay with credit card (Stripe) rather than bank transfer. That way I also have control, about when and how much I charge them and dont have the administrative problem of chasing after the customer and running after my payments.
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #26

Pomodoro Sessions: 10
Sleep: 7hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Fixed a problem with one of my clients where people who purchased where actually still getting abandoned checkout emails after buying --> With Klaviyo it seemed like the problem was due to people falling into the flow twice or even 3 times because they initiate checkout multiple times. The way I solved this, is by adding an additional filter, that people who were in the flow in the last 4 days are not allowed to enter it twice.
- Setup site abandonment + abandoned cart flow for another client
- Sent a portfolio of my work to someone who has a fbook agency. He wants to expand his offering to email marketing and im open collecting % of revenue with him. If he gets me clients, this will be awesome because its another source of business.
- Setup a split-test for welcome series of another client (reviews and pictures of customers, really curious to find out how it will perform).
- I setup the main steps of another new client and I documented the steps so I have a checklist for the next time

Realizations:
- I really think im spending a lot of time on service fulfillment at the moment. This is kinda intentional, but at the same time I just have that urge and feeling to make more money and I want to make more sales and take on more clients. I guess the answer is YES: do more sales, however, only focus on BIG clients who will make me more money, because the workload really is the same whether its a small or a big client. Usually the bigger clients even complain less and are more pleasurable to work with
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #27

Pomodoro Sessions: 11
Sleep: 6.75 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- learned about the importance of SPF, DKIM DMARC, Email Deliverability and dedicated sender domains, lots of good knowledge that will be applied in the future
- Setup new flows left and right for different clients also finished the initial setup for the one I started with yesterday
- Tommorow im planning to have my last day focusing on service delivery and working on client stuff, then its really back to getting on the sales machine.
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #28

Pomodoro Sessions: 9
Sleep: 7 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Fixed ATC and Site Abandonment flow for a client
- Put an order for a website creator to make me a new website for my biz that will generate me leads
- Recorded a podcast episode with a member from the fastlane forum - was lots of fun and great experience!
- Got clear about refining my offer and presentation material for the next wave of sales im going to be diving into
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #29

Pomodoro Sessions: 9
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Had a call with one of my interns and allocated her some important tasks to move things forward with one of my clients
- Had a long strategy session (2 hours), where I really got clear and broke down my goals / kpis for the next 2 months. I know exactly what I need to do.
- Got started doing sales again, did 5-6 calls and only 2 ppl picked up, one was not interested and the other was not qualified to be in my niche unfortunately.
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #30

Pomodoro Sessions: 4
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- 1 hour call with my interns, gave them new tasks and checked off on what they did this week
- 1 hour call with my biggest client, went through a lot of stuff, had some technical issues
- took me about 2-3 hours to fix those technical issues but also learnt a lot

Realizations:
- I really learnt the importance of having employees that understand the technical aspects of my business, because this one issue cost me 2-3 hours and a lot of headache today, completely brought me out of the flow of doing sales as well... and this kind of stuff can always come up. You need to be able to hand off headache tasks like these to other people so that you can keep a clear mind.
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
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Day #31

Pomodoro Sessions: 0
Sleep: 9 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- None, had a complete OFF DAY today
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #32

Pomodoro Sessions: 10
Sleep: 7 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Reflected on the entire last week (Health, Business, Relationships)
- Planned next week with my new structure:
Monday -> Wednesday = Sales
Thursday -> Saturday = Service Fulfillment
- Focusing on the essential 20% that deliver 80% of results
- Trying to not waste time where its not neccessary, instead focus on sales and expanding business
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #33

Pomodoro Sessions: 10
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Did 3 hours of leadgen + sales, sent about 10-15 cold emails + instagram DM's and had 3 calls, nothing that came out of it yet.
- Scheduled this weeks campaigns for 2 clients
- Gave the person creating new website feedback, took approx 45 min --> This will help with the new wave of sales
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #34

Pomodoro Sessions: 13
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Worked on improving my direct outreach messages and cold emails for sales, got 1 strategy session appointment for Thursday
- Reached out to 10 leads via Linkedin to arrange more strategy sessions
- My goal is to have 3 strategy sessions per week next month = should turn into 3 new clients for August!
 

Bekit

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Loving your progress! Impressed with the consistency of your updates.

I'm an email copywriter and am also connected with a few people who are good at the technical aspect of things (such as setting up flows). If you ever need a resource or an intro, let me know - I might be able to help.

Keep up the good work!
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
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Hamburg, Germany
Loving your progress! Impressed with the consistency of your updates.

I'm an email copywriter and am also connected with a few people who are good at the technical aspect of things (such as setting up flows). If you ever need a resource or an intro, let me know - I might be able to help.

Keep up the good work!

Hey Bekit, thanks a lot for the motivation! Are you also using Klaviyo? Do you have experience with SMS?

Best
Champion
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #35

Pomodoro Sessions: 11
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Prepared 25 min for sales call tommorow (Lets close this new client!)
- Contacted around 10 ppl on linkedin
- Did 4 cold calls, got email adresses of key contacts, sent them my email pitch that has gotten ppl interested before, so I know the copy of that email works
 

PhilKowalski

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Jul 5, 2017
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Interesting ... love the consistency in this thread. That definitely separates you from tire kickers.

Two things I saw on your website: there are quite a few grammatical errors (I'm native German). This might not be a problem, if you deal with digital natives etc but might be difficult when you step up your game if you approach brick and mortar businesses

The other thing I saw is that the calendly is not working. If you get the micro commitment that someone clicks "book appointment" I think this is a biggie. Immediate turnoff.

Other than that, I love the idea. I think you really have a USP with that approach as all the big marketing agencies have no clue about email marketing. The present a lot of shit in their Powerpoints that seems to be like 1990.

Definitely a thread I'm going to follow.
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #36

Pomodoro Sessions: 9
Sleep: 7.5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Had a strategy session that went really well --> Biggest learning was the importance of using SILENCE in sales calls. Also huge: the difference between complaints and objections. Its really important to know the difference, because 99% of the times when the buyer is nagging or saying but this and that.. its actually a complaint, not an objection. Whats the difference?

Complaint = something he doesnt like, but it wont stop him from buying (e.g. omg.. your service is so expensive)

Objection = something he doesnt like and will stop him from buying (e.g. your service is expensive to the point that it doesnt make rational business sense for me to buy this, even if you deliver on the numbers you are saying in your presentation)

The way I handled complaints in this sales call today, was simply by using silence and not even responding to them. Sometimes it was awkward, like 3-4 seconds of no one saying anything. But then something magical happened: everytime the buyer made a complaint and I didnt respond to it, after 2-3 seconds of silence, he would immediatly justify himself and then almost apologize for even making the complaint lol. Basically, the problem solved itself. Back in the day, I would have made a big deal out of those complaints eventhough there was no need to do so. Sometimes it got the conversation completely sidetracked.. and sometimes I even gotten emotional and messed things up... but now I have learned to improve and handle complaints way better either by using silence or by just having some things to say prepared and moving on.

Other tasks I did today:

- Setup abandoned checkout flow for a client
- Setup a new popup offer for another client
- Testing new exit-popup that apparently works well on mobile (opti-monk), anyone ever tried this? I have been facing problems with it, because it seems to popup all the time, even when no exit intent is shown... lets see.. I notified their tech team about the problem and they said they will fix it.
 
Last edited:

Champion

Silver Contributor
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Apr 12, 2019
682
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Hamburg, Germany
Interesting ... love the consistency in this thread. That definitely separates you from tire kickers.

Two things I saw on your website: there are quite a few grammatical errors (I'm native German). This might not be a problem, if you deal with digital natives etc but might be difficult when you step up your game if you approach brick and mortar businesses

The other thing I saw is that the calendly is not working. If you get the micro commitment that someone clicks "book appointment" I think this is a biggie. Immediate turnoff.

Other than that, I love the idea. I think you really have a USP with that approach as all the big marketing agencies have no clue about email marketing. The present a lot of shit in their Powerpoints that seems to be like 1990.

Definitely a thread I'm going to follow.
Hi Phil, really nice to meet you here!

Thanks for taking the time to look over my website. Indeed I believe it may have some spelling mistakes as you mentioned, however I actually have not been using the site actively for leadgeneration or making appointments, so I guess thats the only "excuse" I can give hehe... but you are right, I need to sort it out.

Im actually currently working on my new website, which will go live in about 1-2 weeks, so then I will definitely make sure that the spelling, grammar and so on is absolutely top notch.

If you have time, you can take a look at my german calendly page here and let me know what you think:

May I ask what your business/background is? Are you doing online or offline business?

Best
Champion
 

PhilKowalski

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Hi @Champion ... I do not think you need any excuse, because I think the idea - as said before - is amazing.

The caldendly page looks really good and what I like most about it, is that you spare some anglicism but instead explain it in a good and understandable German. You focus on the point "only make an appointment if you mean it seriously" and that's awesome. Way too many tirekickers on for that, your time is just to valuable.

I do not have a background in marketing or so, other than self taught. I am a podcaster by choice and run my own website accompanying that podcast. Hope to have an online course about negotiations up soon (that's my main job, my passion and what I podcast about). So professional education (as a marketer) = 0 but very passionate and interested in it.

You rock that thing (who knows, maybe someday I can say "hey, I know that famous guy" :) )
 
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Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #37

Pomodoro Sessions: 6
Sleep: 7 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Today was the last day for 2 of my interns who started begining of july and stayed with me for 2 months. It was great to have them onboard and they did a great job. I filled out their reference letters and everything. I have to say, management really isnt easy and I learnt a lot. I will deffinetly work with this university again for the next round of internships (better prepared to handle the interns and that way scale the business even further).
- Migrated some transaction emails for one of my clients
- Overall today was not very productive, I need to refocus tommorow and boost productivity.
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #38

Pomodoro Sessions: 7
Sleep: 8 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Completed Accounting & Financials for June 2021
- Worked on my new Website for the german market, im planning to be running facebook ads on it towards the end of September
- Did some tiny work here and there for clients
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #39

Pomodoro Sessions: 7
Sleep: 7,5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Reflected the entire last week
- Prepared everything for next week
- Got my Audio Recording setup ready, so I can start recording all my sales calls next week --> Which I will do first thing Monday morning when I will hopefully close the client from last weeks call on Thursday!
 
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Last edited:

inabox1

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Great progress thread @Champion, I'm in the process of starting my web design biz and your consistency is inspiring.

Interesting how you use Pomodoro sessions - how do they work? Something like 25mins work/5mins rest?
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #40

Pomodoro Sessions: 12
Sleep: 7,5 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Closed the sales call and got a new client! My goal for this month was to close 3 clients in total, so its great that 1/3 is done already.
- Prepared summer campaign and scheduled it for one customer
- Fixed an issue for the welcome series of another customer
- Did Sales for 3 hours --> 6 cold calls and approx 6-7 cold emails
 

Champion

Silver Contributor
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Apr 12, 2019
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Great progress thread @Champion, I'm in the process of starting my web design biz and your consistency is inspiring.

Interesting how you use Pomodoro sessions - how do they work? Something like 25mins work/5mins rest?

Hey, thanks for following my thread!

Yes indeed, pomodoro is 25min work and 5 min rest. I usually do double sessions (50min work and then I take 5-10 min rest).

So far, its the best method I have found to track my work/energy input effectively.
 
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Champion

Silver Contributor
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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #41

Pomodoro Sessions: 12
Sleep: 7 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Prepared linked-in post for tommorow
- Did lead generation, got 22 prospects I will contact tommorow
- Had a call with one of my interns who is doing lead generation in US --> He will be reaching out with a proven cold email template
- Had a call with another one of my interns who is doing lead generation in UK --> She will be reaching out with a proven cold email template
- Scheduled a campaign for one of my clients today, open rate >20% (very good), not so many purchases though, still waiting for sales to come in
 

Champion

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Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Day #42

Pomodoro Sessions: 12
Sleep: 7 hrs

To dos that I completed:
- Lead generation session, generated 10+ leads
- Direct Outreach session, reached out to 16 cold emails of qualified leads
- Posted on linkedin a case study of one of my popup-split tests, so far got 700+ views and im getting a lot of friend requests from coaches/consultants in the ecommerce space
- Had a 45 min call with one of my clients, he is satisfied with work so far so im really happy
 

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