Is SMMA still a fastlane?

[Rishabh_1]

I have been working on my SMMA for over 3 months now and I've been thinking that is it really worth the hype the media has created or is it just another "New Business Model to earn millions of dollars from home" just like dropshiping used to be. I believe it was successful earlier in around 2015-16's when it was very new in the market but now it seems like every other high school student is starting an SMMA.
It also violates MJ's Commandment Of Entry as anyone in this day and age start an SMMA without much capital and experience.

 

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[ZackerySprague]

SMMA is an overcrowded market. Big names like Jordan Platten and Iman Gadzhi rode this trend to make millions. That being said though. Learning a skill such as Web Design or Paid Advertising still can be sold to potential clients if you can show them the value that it would bring and what problems are being solved.

The commandments are not absolute, they can be violated, but the idea is to increase the probability of success. You can violate some of the commandments. As an example, for the Commandment of Entry, if the problem isn't hard to solve. Then you would have to be very exceptional at what you do in order to stand out.

You can still do drop shipping, but say for a product you are creating to test the market. But you would eventually want to figure out the logistics and manufacturing side of the house.

The bigger the problem, the hard it is, the better. This was something I learned but didn't comprehend.

 

[Rishabh_1]

SMMA is an overcrowded market. Big names like Jordan Platten and Iman Gadzhi rode this trend to make millions. That being said though. Learning a skill such as Web Design or Paid Advertising still can be sold to potential clients if you can show them the value that it would bring and what problems are being solved.

The commandments are not absolute, they can be violated, but the idea is to increase the probability of success. You can violate some of the commandments. As an example, for the Commandment of Entry, if the problem isn't hard to solve. Then you would have to be very exceptional at what you do in order to stand out.

You can still do drop shipping, but say for a product you are creating to test the market. But you would eventually want to figure out the logistics and manufacturing side of the house.

The bigger the problem, the hard it is, the better. This was something I learned but didn't comprehend.

Thanks for answer helped me alot

 

[ZackerySprague]

Thanks for answer helped me alot

Awesome! I am glad

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Is SMMA still a fastlane?​

Where is it said in my work, or in my posts, that it was EVER a Fastlane?

I view it as more of a stepping stone, and a skill-set enhancement.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

There's always room at the top.

I've been desperately searching for someone skilled enough to handle a couple client accounts for the last year. But they've got to be able to outperform our current metrics.

 

[BizyDad]

SMMA is an overcrowded market.

There's always room at the top.

I've been desperately searching for someone skilled enough to handle a couple client accounts for the last year. But they've got to be able to outperform our current metrics.

I was going to comment the same thing.

I have one single SM person to refer business to. Everyone else I have seen (at this point I have reviewed or worked with at least 20 other agencies in the past 7 yrs) ultimately failed to deliver measurable profitable results for my service based clients.

I mean...



If you are a pro, you will stand out in a sea of amateurs...

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Protip: Any "hot industry" some guru is promoting, is an industry you want to avoid.

A few years ago it was podcasts, then "bots," then it was "SMMA," -- right now AI is hot and there are great opportunities, but 1 year from today—mark my words— it will become the next hot "business du-jour" that all the gurus will recommend through high-priced courses and coaching.

You see, the gurus will make their money in AI as early adopters. Once it hits the mainstream (and becomes saturated) thats when they will convert their business model from AI, to selling business courses using AI.

Rinse. Repeat.

I've seen this cycle repeat dozens of times spanning decades.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Protip: Any "hot industry" some guru is promoting, is an industry you want to avoid.

A few years ago it was podcasts, then "bots," then it was "SMMA," -- right now AI is hot and there are great opportunities, but 1 year from today—mark my words— it will become the next hot "business du-jour" that all the gurus will recommend through high-priced courses and coaching.

You see, the gurus will make their money in AI as early adopters. Once it hits the mainstream (and becomes saturated) thats when they will convert their business model from AI, to selling business courses using AI.

Rinse. Repeat.

I've seen this cycle repeat dozens of times spanning decades.

I've been deeeeeeep diving AI. 6-8 hours a day, every day (for over 6 months now). And the amount of bullshit that people are pitching right now is mind-boggling. The latest is "using AI to start an agency to make 10k/month!" -- which they're just using a white-labeled version of High Level to send emails... Soooooper AI

And there's a dozen "gurus" doing just that.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

And there's a dozen "gurus" doing just that.

Yea my favorite is the white-labeled ChatGPT API scheme painted over with some slick marketing.

This shit is working right now. When it stops working, expect the courses to blow up.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

Yea my favorite is the white-labeled ChatGPT API scheme painted over with some slick marketing.

This shit is working right now. When it stops working, expect the courses to blow up.

 

[sendz]

Protip: Any "hot industry" some guru is promoting, is an industry you want to avoid.

A few years ago it was podcasts, then "bots," then it was "SMMA," -- right now AI is hot and there are great opportunities, but 1 year from today—mark my words— it will become the next hot "business du-jour" that all the gurus will recommend through high-priced courses and coaching.

You see, the gurus will make their money in AI as early adopters. Once it hits the mainstream (and becomes saturated) thats when they will convert their business model from AI, to selling business courses using AI.

Rinse. Repeat.

I've seen this cycle repeat dozens of times spanning decades.

Its funny seeing how the gurus work. All of the biggest SMMA gurus don't even do SMMA anymore.

Iman Ghadzi did it so smart. He made tons of money from SMMA then saturated the market by making videos about it while simultaneously dropping a software for the agencies to use and quitting SMMA himself.

 

[RicardoGrande]

I've been deeeeeeep diving AI. 6-8 hours a day, every day (for over 6 months now). And the amount of bullshit that people are pitching right now is mind-boggling. The latest is "using AI to start an agency to make 10k/month!" -- which they're just using a white-labeled version of High Level to send emails... Soooooper AI

And there's a dozen "gurus" doing just that.

This. Got approached at a networking event by some twitchy guy, he said he was the "founder" of a "world-changing business optimizational consultancy."

Alright, big words.

Asked him about what he did, he started popping off about how he brought "real and effective changes, perfect processes, and a sense of ease that will let owner's kick up their feet as their tools run their businesses for them."

I had an inkling and asked "Is this AI-powered?"

"OF COURSE! It's a miracle, I've been with this gpt stuff since day 1, I'm just out here spreading the word and doing good work with my team."
"Oh, so you have your own LLM model you developed for your business? Y'all had a research team working with Altman and OpenAI since 2016?"
"What? haha no... we leverage chatgpt! We're just really good, we're called prompt engineers, we just got ahead of the other guys starting last fall, learning the ins and outs ya know."

I'm still mildly traumatized from half a decade of crypto grifting and would really prefer not to suffer another one full of AI/marketing agency hustlers and a million awful AI get rich quick schemes.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

A few years ago it was podcasts, then "bots," then it was "SMMA," -- right now AI is hot and there are great opportunities, but 1 year from today—mark my words— it will become the next hot "business du-jour" that all the gurus will recommend through high-priced courses and coaching.

I'm still mildly traumatized from half a decade of crypto grifting and would really prefer not to suffer another one full of AI/marketing agency hustlers and a million awful AI get rich quick schemes.

Oh yes, I almost forgot... CRYPTO.

The early adopters and crypto hustlers selling courses and ICOs got rich... the rest, not so much.

 

[Kak]

Oh yes, I almost forgot... CRYPTO.

The early adopters and crypto hustlers selling courses and ICOs got rich... the rest, not so much.

And FBA. And self publishing.

 

[Simon Angel]

I've found success selling my services for SMMAs in the past, but not much in running my own. Though to be fair, when I tried, I really had no idea what I was doing.

Want to start a digital marketing agency? Work in one for a while and take note of what's working for them and what isn't/what could be improved. Then take their winning framework and make it even better.

However, I feel like your time would be better spent doing something else entirely.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

"Oh, so you have your LLM model for business? Y'all had a research team working with Altman and OpenAI since 2016?"
"What? haha no... we leverage chatgpt! We're just really good, we're called prompt engineers, we just got ahead of the other guys starting last fall, learning the ins and outs ya know."

I'm still mildly traumatized from half a decade of crypto grifting and would really prefer not to suffer another one full of AI/marketing agency hustlers and a million awful AI get rich quick schemes.

To play devil's advocate, in the early days, maybe prompt engineers were necessary because I guess nobody knows how to communicate... like, at all... but that was months ago (light years in AI time)... and it only lasted for about 3 days...

Oh yes, I almost forgot... CRYPTO.

The early adopters and crypto hustlers selling courses and ICOs got rich... the rest, not so much.

I doubled my money... and then QUADRUPLED my money! ... and then lost it all... follow me for more pro investing tips.

I've found success selling my services for SMMAs in the past, but not much in running my own. Though to be fair, when I tried, I really had no idea what I was doing.

Want to start a digital marketing agency? Work in one for a while and take note of what's working for them and what isn't/what could be improved. Then take their winning framework and make it even better.

However, I feel like your time would be better spent doing something else entirely.

There's a huge difference between someone who eats, sleeps, breathes their business and is super passionate about building that business the right way... and someone who is a constant biz-oppportunity seeker looking for the easy button (there ain't one!)

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Then take their winning framework and make it even better.

Success with agencies isn’t usually about a winning framework. Sure, that helps. But I can give you my winning framework, in fact anyone can copy it, but you’ll still not get my results.

The key is relationships, network, and credibility. You need to engineer all 3 to be successful.

It’s very strange to think about it but… the real truth is that most businesses aren’t successful because they’re fastlane. They’re successful because of those 3 factors.

They take time to build. It’s not like you can just take the strategy and obtain results. But, say you’re best buddies with the CEO of General Electric and play golf with him every week. It won’t be very hard to print a few millions.

If I were starting from 0, all my focus would go to building a personal brand on social media. Once you have that, the sky is the limit. Building a personal brand imo is the single most important thing you can do as a young person, bar none.

What else can allow you to make money out of anything? Give me a creator with 100K followers on Twitter, and I’ll show you someone who can print $100K tomorrow, starting with no business whatsoever.

A personal brand is your ticket to freedom. Andrew Tate, if you take away all his fortune, he can snap his fingers and get the millionz back. Just needs to advertise some crypto on Twitter or some Tshirt or whatever. Nothing matches this power. Not even a productaucracy — a productaucracy is hard to build, and if yours is destroyed, then it’s very hard to recreate it. There’s very few people like Elon Musk who have had massive success with multiple ventures, in different industries. On the other hand, a personal brand, when it reaches a certain level, cannot be destroyed.

 

[Simon Angel]

The key is relationships, network, and credibility. You need to engineer all 3 to be successful.

I classify those as "framework" as well.

Agree with the rest but it's not something I'm interested in doing myself. My personal brand is from ear to ear and I don't intend on becoming a public figure in the near future. It seems like a heavy burden to carry despite the benefits.

 

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[Raedrum]

Does industries still need webmarketing ?
Yes totally

Is this market saturated ?
No, it seems like but there is a bunch of people who need help with their webmarketing, you must find them. There is also big ones. A few clients can be enough.

How is the competition ?
Beatable. Look a all the bad website and bad ads on social medias.

Is that truly a fastlane ?
It might become at some point.There is people doing 20-30k a month alone (google ads, not really smma) then you can scale.

In fact once again, execution is more important than ideas. You must get over the competition and find good clients. It is doable. Like MJ say it is a good stepstone for skills and networking.

But beware of the social media because it is a serious mess. I tend to quit FB despite excellents results and go full Google Ads + Websites.

Try to think more about webmarketing than about SMMA in particular.