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Marketing Agency - (Not a Tai Lopez Wannabe) Finally Going on My Own

Marketing, social media, advertising

Smith11B

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For the past 2 years, I've worked at two marketing agencies, writing copy, running and managing facebook ads, and coming up with marketing strategies.

The first was a small marketing agency, doing lead generation for businesses as small as a local financial planner to as large as a national audiobook publisher. ("Podium" if you must know.)

The second was a multi million dollar agency that actually ran ads and coached other guru's on how to... well guru. I ran ads there for online personal trainers, mindset coaches, and even a guy who taught people how to find herbs in the woods. (he was doing $40k a month. Not kidding.)

I managed over $100k a month in ad spend, trying new things, failing, learning and basically eating shit (I made peanuts.) to become what they called a rain maker.

Eventually I got very good at it, as tends to happen when you practice something for a good amount of time. Webinars, Sales Pages, VSL's, funnels, ad copy, I can do it all.

I read fastlane millionare years ago before all of this, and my story from there is a long line of failures I won't bore you with.

Anyway, I want to use this skill to create a fastlane business, Helping other business owners print money.

Here is my issue and something you might be able to help with.

While I learned a crap ton about marketing, especially to consumers, I did not learn B2B sales.

I'm making this thread because I am going out on my own, soliciting business owners and trying to help them get clients. However I am literally scared shitless of cold calling.
But I know if I am to grow I had better get over it. Sales, aka the lifeblood of any business has always been my weakness. I must unfuck this, and I need accountability.

So tomorrow, I will make a list of all the clients in my area I would like to work with. and get to dialing.

P.S I know most of you guys crush it, but if anyone needs marketing help, just ask. Love this forum so I'm not here to pitch anything.
 
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Parker fields

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Can you build a website to market your service and promote your service? Outsource the website build to someone else, then market yourself with ads?

Seems this is pretty similar to MJ doing what his online limo service was when he began a PPC (Pay Per Client) system. Albeit it's a different scenario, you just need a way to market yourself, and it sounds like you don't want to cold call, which most don't, but it can't hurt your chances.
 

Lord Business

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Great attitude! Let us know, how the sales are going. Also - I think as for your marketing skills, which I assume are in the top 1%, I'd love to read your experiences and philosophy on marketing 2018. Obv I don't mean you should give anything away for free (unless you'd want to)
 

Andy Black

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I don’t cold call.

Start with people you already know?
 
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Smith11B

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Can you build a website to market your service and promote your service? Outsource the website build to someone else, then market yourself with ads?

Seems this is pretty similar to MJ doing what his online limo service was when he began a PPC (Pay Per Client) system. Albeit it's a different scenario, you just need a way to market yourself, and it sounds like you don't want to cold call, which most don't, but it can't hurt your chances.

I definitely could. Originally went to school for web programming, It's definietly something I've thought about.

The reason I do not simply start with paid traffic, which I know so well, is that (and this could be a mindset thing.) I feel like everyone and their mom is pitching facebook ads on facebook to the point of nausea and I have not found a great way to differentiate myself from them. The guys I worked with did this, and did it well however. (They charge $10k)

Great attitude! Let us know, how the sales are going. Also - I think as for your marketing skills, which I assume are in the top 1%, I'd love to read your experiences and philosophy on marketing 2018. Obv I don't mean you should give anything away for free (unless you'd want to)

I could probably write a book on marketing now, but to keep it short what I spent most of my time doing was turning cold traffic into high ticket sales. The local based stuff is pretty straightforward, you don't need extremely great copy or any of that. Eccommerce I shy'd away from because it is labor intensive. (100's of products, retargeting, dynamic ads, etc.)

So it depends what's your business my man? what are you selling? I'll give you what I would do if you were a client.

I don’t cold call.

Start with people you already know?

Andy, I won't ask you how you do it because I know you have tons of content on this forum and I could probably find it eventually with a search.

I've racked my brain for the different business owners I know and most of them are not in the wheelhouse I want to play in. I've gotten the greatest results for online coaches and consultants, but I feel like the market is disgustingly saturated. Everybody and their mom is a coach now and half of them are claiming to be able to get you clients with facebook ads. (and we both know most of them are just regurgitating.)

could this just be a mindset thing? Idk.
 

Smith11B

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So I know in order to do this I need to set my goal.

1st goal: By April 12th I want to be able to replace my old income. $2500 a month.

That's it. In some cases that will be just one client, but I plan to charge $1000 a month to start, so I'll need 3 clients.

This seems completely doable to me.

Today, I handled a few coaching calls with old clients. and then the agency fire's needed putting out so I got to that.

I told myself I'm going to be completely honest on this thing.

I didn't get shit done today. Day one and I let bs get in the way. Sitting here looking at my computer screen building this list of people to call I can feel the fear.

I have two options.

1) Figure out a way to get clients without cold calling. and F*cking fast.
2) Get over myself and get on the got damned phone.

I cannot think of a way to do number 1.

and so I must call.

Day 1: Money Made Zero. Progress Made Very Little. Still in the Slowlane
 

Andy Black

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You probably know I like helping local service businesses generate more sales using AdWords.

There's reasons for this:
  1. With local lead gen you're often competing against mom 'n' pop trying to run digital marketing campaigns.
  2. Nail it for a particular vertical, and you can scale by going to other locations.
  3. Get one client in a location and they can refer other business owners in that location.
  4. You can easily become "The Facebook Guy" in your location. Much harder to become "The Facebook Guy" online.

Can you help local service businesses generate more sales using Facebook?

Are there people you already know locally who might be interested in getting Facebook campaigns run for them?

Getting a client paying you even "just" $250/mth to manage their campaigns could show you how easy it could be.

Can you give a quick workshop in front of local business owners? Can you stand up and do your thing in front of people who'll think you're from another planet, and who don't want to learn how to do this stuff themselves?



EDIT:
I know you have tons of content on this forum and I could probably find it eventually with a search.
In a way the amount of content I have is doing folks a disservice. Where do they start?!? Ha.

I'm wondering if this call might help:
 
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Andy Black

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Also... as Jay Abraham would ask:

"Who already has your clients?"


Are there agency owners, or web design freelancers, or AdWords consultants (lol), who might need a freelance Facebook ads guy? Where can you get in front of them and "show don't tell" your expertise so that they know you as "The Facebook Guy" and can bring you portfolios of clients?

I used to get a lot of work through agencies. Now less so because I prefer to have the relationship with the end client.
 

Smith11B

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You probably know I like helping local service businesses generate more sales using AdWords.

There's reasons for this:
  1. With local lead gen you're often competing against mom 'n' pop trying to run digital marketing campaigns.
  2. Nail it for a particular vertical, and you can scale by going to other locations.
  3. Get one client in a location and they can refer other business owners in that location.
  4. You can easily become "The Facebook Guy" in your location. Much harder to become "The Facebook Guy" online.

Can you help local service businesses generate more sales using Facebook?

Are there people you already know locally who might be interested in getting Facebook campaigns run for them?

Getting a client paying you even "just" $250/mth to manage their campaigns could show you how easy it could be.

Can you give a quick workshop in front of local business owners? Can you stand up and do your thing in front of people who'll think you're from another planet, and who don't want to learn how to do this stuff themselves?



EDIT:

In a way the amount of content I have is doing folks a disservice. Where do they start?!? Ha.

I'm wondering if this call might help:

I can do all of these things. Never been afraid of public speaking. Thats brilliant. Im sure I could put together a small marketing event and help teach but grab clients that way.

Never thought of doing it for that price, but I suppose to start its worth it.

I've ran ads for plenty of local businesses at the smaller of the two agencies.

I will listen and take notes on this call.

And ha. No doubt.
 

Smith11B

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Also... as Jay Abraham would ask:

"Who already has your clients?"


Are there agency owners, or web design freelancers, or AdWords consultants (lol), who might need a freelance Facebook ads guy? Where can you get in front of them and "show don't tell" your expertise so that they know you as "The Facebook Guy" and can bring you portfolios of clients?

I used to get a lot of work through agencies. Now less so because I prefer to have the relationship with the end client.

Ha of course, There are actually tons of agencies like that out there. Now that you mention it. I've been sitting in groups full of facebook ad agencies giving value and thinking I'd get some of their outsource work. While I've gotten some work that way, I'd probably get a ton more giving value in a group that doesn't already do what I'm doing, but has clients that need the service. Imagine that!

Also since you mentioned it lol... do you by chance need a facebook ads guy that didn't just come out of some course and all of a sudden thinks he's Gary Vaynerchuk running a $100MM agency? Gladly work for free to show you I know my way around ads manager and can write good copy. Let me know.

Mind blown though, While I also like the client relationship. (yes even the ones that email late at night or try and run their own campaign parallel to yours to see if you're better.) I think it would be smarter to start the way you are saying, pickup work through agencies until I've build up a warchest of cash.
 
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johnp

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I've been getting the itch to go back on my own and do marketing for businesses. I have an idea in my head that's a combination of a small marketing agency and something more passive.

Anyway, I did the client service thing for two years. Cold calling sucked, I wasn't good at it. I focused on outboud emailing. That worked better for me, but even cold email has its problem.

If I do this again, then I'm going totally inbound.

My plan would be to build a small clickfunnels site.

Then build a list and mail the list daily positioning myself as an authority in the service/niche with multiple offers for the various parts of the funnel.

I sort of have this setup now, I just keep wondering if I want to do the whole client thing again.

If there's one mistake that I made in the past, it was in positioning and taking on crap clients. I want to find a way to get clients beginning to work with me. Like how Frank Kern does it.

So that's what I would do.
 

Andy Black

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I've been getting the itch to go back on my own and do marketing for businesses. I have an idea in my head that's a combination of a small marketing agency and something more passive.

Anyway, I did the client service thing for two years. Cold calling sucked, I wasn't good at it. I focused on outboud emailing. That worked better for me, but even cold email has its problem.

If I do this again, then I'm going totally inbound.

My plan would be to build a small clickfunnels site.

Then build a list and mail the list daily positioning myself as an authority in the service/niche with multiple offers for the various parts of the funnel.

I sort of have this setup now, I just keep wondering if I want to do the whole client thing again.

If there's one mistake that I made in the past, it was in positioning and taking on crap clients. I want to find a way to get clients beginning to work with me. Like how Frank Kern does it.

So that's what I would do.
I love having clients, especially business owners.

I get paid to learn, to communicate with people doing interesting stuff, and to build my business.

(Just make sure you come up with a way that you’re building assets you own, not just providing a service. Oh, and provide value doing so of course!)
 

Smith11B

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I've been getting the itch to go back on my own and do marketing for businesses. I have an idea in my head that's a combination of a small marketing agency and something more passive.

Anyway, I did the client service thing for two years. Cold calling sucked, I wasn't good at it. I focused on outboud emailing. That worked better for me, but even cold email has its problem.

If I do this again, then I'm going totally inbound.

My plan would be to build a small clickfunnels site.

Then build a list and mail the list daily positioning myself as an authority in the service/niche with multiple offers for the various parts of the funnel.

I sort of have this setup now, I just keep wondering if I want to do the whole client thing again.

If there's one mistake that I made in the past, it was in positioning and taking on crap clients. I want to find a way to get clients beginning to work with me. Like how Frank Kern does it.

So that's what I would do.

Well that's what I've done for others, I've helped people become personal brands, nobody extremely major, but major enough that they certainly aren't doing cold outreach anymore. Through facebook lives, group building, youtube and of course, facebook ads. That's my forte.

The reason I do not do this myself is the above post and well quite frankly I lack the budget. Not in an I don't want to spend the money kind of way either, in an I just don't have it kind of way.

Anyway, if you ever feel like scratching the itch, let me know.

been listening to Andy's call. Pure gold.
 
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johnp

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The reason I do not do this myself is the above post and well quite frankly I lack the budget.

Makes sense. Although I'm not sure why you need a big budget if your services are expensive enough and if you build an email list and mail it all of the time.

Do you have any experience with email?

That's what I'd really put my focus into. I used email to sell services in the 4k-15k range. I also tried going door to door. Email worked 10X better for me. I'm talking about cold email here, which I usually tell people to stay away from because of potential email delivery issues if approached the wrong way. But it does work.

I love having clients, especially business owners.

Up until recently I was very against it because I had a few crazy clients in the past. I got stressed out very fast from them. But that was my fault. And lately, I have realized that I already have one client... a boss/job. I'm putting all eggs in one basket when I could easily scale myself out a little more and be happier. So yea, I guess I'm starting to see the plus side to having clients again.
 

Smith11B

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Makes sense. Although I'm not sure why you need a big budget if your services are expensive enough and if you build an email list and mail it all of the time.

Do you have any experience with email?

That's what I'd really put my focus into. I used email to sell services in the 4k-15k range. I also tried going door to door. Email worked 10X better for me. I'm talking about cold email here, which I usually tell people to stay away from because of potential email delivery issues if approached the wrong way. But it does work.



Up until recently I was very against it because I had a few crazy clients in the past. I got stressed out very fast from them. But that was my fault. And lately, I have realized that I already have one client... a boss/job. I'm putting all eggs in one basket when I could easily scale myself out a little more and be happier. So yea, I guess I'm starting to see the plus side to having clients again.


I've looked up how to do cold email well and always thought that it didn't work. That could actually be an awesome way to go. In fact, I'm on it.
 

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I could probably write a book on marketing now, but to keep it short what I spent most of my time doing was turning cold traffic into high ticket sales. The local based stuff is pretty straightforward, you don't need extremely great copy or any of that. Eccommerce I shy'd away from because it is labor intensive. (100's of products, retargeting, dynamic ads, etc.)

So it depends what's your business my man? what are you selling? I'll give you what I would do if you were a client.
could this just be a mindset thing? Idk.
Great thread! My field is lifestyle healthcare and coaching. Kind of like Virta Health Our focus is on content marketing, but it takes a lot of time to get traction, although, when we do, I think it will be worth it. We have an unique service no-one has yet in my country (Finland) but that is also a problem - no-one knows that it could be done like that. Reaching people is easy, educating people and getting them to pay a large sum of money is another thing. Any thoughts?

As for your "struggles" - I'm not in a place to advise, but your mindset is epic and people like you always find a way! Keep grinding!
 
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Smith11B

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Great thread! My field is lifestyle healthcare and coaching. Kind of like Virta Health Our focus is on content marketing, but it takes a lot of time to get traction, although, when we do, I think it will be worth it. We have an unique service no-one has yet in my country (Finland) but that is also a problem - no-one knows that it could be done like that. Reaching people is easy, educating people and getting them to pay a large sum of money is another thing. Any thoughts?

As for your "struggles" - I'm not in a place to advise, but your mindset is epic and people like you always find a way! Keep grinding!

Yea definitely, you face a conundrum a ton of marketers try to avoid. (or if they don't they have a hard time with it.)

It is always easier and less expensive to market a product people understand and feel they need than to educate the market on the need and then sell it. Especially if you product is intangible, a service, or a result.

It's definitely not impossible though.

Most marketers don't make this distinction and so they try to market the normal way, just getting eyes on a product or service with some good copy, pushing the benefits etc. It's a 1 step thing because they are trying to get people to the sales department or sales page etc. This usually ends up not so good in a way. It will work for most products that people understand, but not for brand new things people need to know about.

If your product is brand new, then your first step in marketing is indoctrination. It's similar to education, but you aren't just informing them, you are getting them to believe a certain way. (Sort of like our school system. Kidding but not kidding.)

Guru's do this through webinars and value videos, new products do this through infomercials and video. This is why marketers are pushing video so hard, not just for personal branding, but you can literraly get people to believe in what you want through a good video. (The same through a good sales page but takes more skill in writing.)


If I were you, I would be pushing hard on demonstrating not just what the product is, but why a person should come around to your belief that it solves a problem.

Getting this right is easier said then done as usual but it's something I would focus on. I know this isn't very actionable. but It's tough to really give you a specific strategy without knowing more about where you are right now, what your resources are etc.
 

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I don't have my own business yet, but I am a digital marketer too, with same ambition of going on my own.

I would definitely start with the cold emails to see what is the success rate and call only when it's close to zero. Besides, it's easier to call after sending an email because you can refer to it.

When it comes to getting through the noise and competition how about doing something almost no one is doing - offering your very basic service (e.g. website audit or whatever similar and not very time consuming), that yields a real value for the client for free and then upselling other services for a normal price afterwards?

This could help you kickstart your business. First of all, you can learn how to pitch to the client and get more experience, while doing that on an easy mode. It is way easier to pitch the client if they are offered something of the real value for free. Secondly, you can start building your reputation - even if the client won't be interested in additional paid services, he can give you a positive review or refer to his friends.

This guy is definitely not a guru, but he is earning decent money using similar method:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd92eJCdXA8

At the uni, I had an assignment for the digital marketing course to do a website audit for the local business in Dublin. I had to find one and it took me mere 5 emails to get a positive reply. After delivering that audit, I could easily pitch to that guy and probably sell additional services if only I had something to offer.
 
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Whenever you see bad local ads, reach out to them.

The hardest client is your first client, if you get them results, the clients will come.

Business owners know other business owners. There are a ton of SMM and SEO agencies that have burned local businesses. You will want data/proof on your side.

Go to any local business meetups/BNI's they are a great source of leads.
 
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I've looked up how to do cold email well and always thought that it didn't work. That could actually be an awesome way to go. In fact, I'm on it.

It works short term. It's a great way to get off the ground, get a few clients, and get cash flow. I wouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket with it though for reasons that I don't feel like going into right now.

Your best bet would be to find an smtp service and cold email from there, if you can get away with it. Or use something like quickmail.io and integrate an SMTP service into that. That's what I did.

The thing that makes cold email hard is that you are likely to eventually have trouble getting to the inbox. But short term, it works. Just don't go crazy spamming people, and don't buy lists because of spam traps/honey pots. Do it manually.
 

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Yea definitely, you face a conundrum a ton of marketers try to avoid. (or if they don't they have a hard time with it.)

It is always easier and less expensive to market a product people understand and feel they need than to educate the market on the need and then sell it. Especially if you product is intangible, a service, or a result.

It's definitely not impossible though.

Most marketers don't make this distinction and so they try to market the normal way, just getting eyes on a product or service with some good copy, pushing the benefits etc. It's a 1 step thing because they are trying to get people to the sales department or sales page etc. This usually ends up not so good in a way. It will work for most products that people understand, but not for brand new things people need to know about.

If your product is brand new, then your first step in marketing is indoctrination. It's similar to education, but you aren't just informing them, you are getting them to believe a certain way. (Sort of like our school system. Kidding but not kidding.)

Guru's do this through webinars and value videos, new products do this through infomercials and video. This is why marketers are pushing video so hard, not just for personal branding, but you can literraly get people to believe in what you want through a good video. (The same through a good sales page but takes more skill in writing.)


If I were you, I would be pushing hard on demonstrating not just what the product is, but why a person should come around to your belief that it solves a problem.

Getting this right is easier said then done as usual but it's something I would focus on. I know this isn't very actionable. but It's tough to really give you a specific strategy without knowing more about where you are right now, what your resources are etc.
Thanks for the insight! Pretty much what we've been doing in our inexperienced ways. We've started blogs, webinars, newsletter. Best results thus far are google adwords and facebook ads - getting clicks, but ofcourse 80% leave immediately. But of those 20% that stay longer, 15% subscribe to the newsletter at least. We also have an "Free consultation" button, where customer service calls and while consulting, tries to sell the service - best conversion thus far, but the amounts are low. We'll see how the conversion rates turn out in those and on the website traffic. Any idea what we should aim for?
 

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Man I appreciate all of you guys insights. Going to post an update today.

@Lord Business When going to cold traffic, via facebook in particular. here is what we like to see, specifically for viewing a strategy call.

Also, newsletters are a waste of time IMO. But I'm not one to completely shut down anything you're doing that's working. Test test. In my experience People don't read them and in most cases they aren't waiting to be updated on your product unless it's some sort of kickstarter campaign.

Anyway back to the metrics.

We test things in stages. (also note that the costs will be higher with adwords but adwords also has a higher intent, as people don't usually go to facebook with their credit card in hand like they do google.)

@Andy Black is the adwords pro if you want more info that he hasn't already written up in this forum lol.

For facebook to cold never before seen traffic it should look like this.

Ad Clicks $2: If your ad clicks are above $3 on facebook you know your ad sucks. The first thing to change is the image, it has the most effect. The second is the Headline, the third is the copy itself. Test one thing at a time. (one change per ad) Not all three or you won't know which one worked.

Website/landing page conversions 20%: If you are sending them to a home page, I would stop. I would send them to a page that is specific on what they clicked the ad for and what to do next to get it. This can be an informational video, a sales page, whatever but you don't want them click around to other things, you want them to get the information or product that you targeted them for. If your conversions are below 15% start testing again. Start with the headline, then the button placement, and then the copy. (On the Landing Page not the Ad)

People who book a call 4-5%: Of those 20% who opt in, 5% of them should book a strategy call. If you are seeing less than that, tweak your copy.

We start with a budget of $10 per ad we test. It we usually test 4 ads at a time, 2 images and 2 copy variations on those images.

This math is why Guru's are all preaching high ticket. It goes like this.

$1000>> 500 clicks >> 100 Optins >> 5 Call's >> 1 Sale at $1997+ or 2x or more ROI depending on price.

The numbers get even more ridiculous when you include re-targeting and running traffic to look alike audiences. Plus you have 100 emails for followup which usually ends up in another 2 sales. This is how you spend a crap ton of money on facebook.

For anything below $1000 you can sell it straight from a webinar or value video without a call.

This has worked in B2B and B2C
 
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Parker fields

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I read fastlane millionare years ago before all of this, and my story from there is a long line of failures I won't bore you with.

I think I'm actually very interested in some startup failures you've had. If you wouldn't mind sharing one or two major ones that stick out in your head that would be awesome!


I was reading through some old Gold threads and you should also try Linkedin for initial contacts. Join some similar groups the prospective client is in. It can break down barriers or keep you from talking to gatekeepers as well.

GOLD! - No network? No money? No idea? No education? NO PROBLEM!
 

Smith11B

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I think I'm actually very interested in some startup failures you've had. If you wouldn't mind sharing one or two major ones that stick out in your head that would be awesome!


I was reading through some old Gold threads and you should also try Linkedin for initial contacts. Join some similar groups the prospective client is in. It can break down barriers or keep you from talking to gatekeepers as well.

GOLD! - No network? No money? No idea? No education? NO PROBLEM!


Hey no problem, so the companies I started are as follows.

-T-shirt Company - Had no Idea what I was doing, sold about $5000 in T-shirts and ran for about 9 months then rent kicked in and I had to get a real job. (I was in college.) This was before facebooks ad platform even came out.

- T-shirt Company - I had learned a ton from my first failure and this time partnered up with a graphic designer. We did really well and even built a bit of celebrity in our area. I remember for about a week we had almost everyone in our city change their profile picture to one of them wearing one of our shirts. Good times, but we couldn't get repeat sales. Rent again caught up and we had to shut it down. Read the Millionaire fastlane during this time.

- Music Label - I know I know, the typical move for a T-shirt guy right? Again we got pretty damn famous, Even got invited (not nominated.) to the grammy awards. and had an artist sign to a larger major label. (His album never was produced.) I started to get pretty good at marketing here. And this was the first time I used facebook ads. Built an artists page to 200k fans with $200 in ad spend. This was when page reach still mattered and people still clicked on everything they saw on facebook. All this fame but we made VERY little money. Turns out people just wanted music for free. (They still do.) Selling records got extremely hard and so I bowed out.

- Mortgage Company - This is when I got serious, but I had already read millionaire fast lane so I wasn't about to get stupid.. until I did. Our first month we did about $20k in revenue with no office and no overhead save $1000 in leads. Our second month I took out a $30k credit card and bought an office, desks, chairs, computers, etc. Also made our first hires. Maxed it out in about 4 Months, We did $60k in revenue during those 4 months, but my partner started taking money from the account and not paying the credit card etc. The red flag, was that when we partnered up he had an extravagant lifestyle and wasn't making the money to support it. His wife was a heavy heavy spender and he cow towed to her. Let that be a lesson.

-During that last one I had a kid, and been married for a few years. The wife was getting sick of the up and down rollercoaster entrepreneurship can be so I took a gig at another mortgage company. One thing you have to realize if you are married and entrepreneurial. Most of us think that it's stressful because we're trying to drive this thing, putting out fires, and making things happen, and yea it's a rollercoaster.
But have you ever been in a car with someone who is driving way too fast and crazy and you're like, "Bro slow the hell down."? Scared for your life because you don't have control and you're just sitting in the passenger seat? That's what it feels like to be married to an entrepreneur, specifically one who hasn't succeeded yet. Magnified by 10 if you are a woman and like security. So I folded and took the gig.

I explained that less to prove I'm fastlane and more to help anyone out who has a spouse.

-So mortgage company failed, I'm at the new mortgage place and I apply for a job as a fb ads intern at this guru's company. The rest is really history. Moved up the ranks and become a full on manager and coach, and now I want to do my own thing.


I've thought about linked in. I have not been certain on how to use it correctly. Something I'm going to have to look into for sure.
 

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Update for today.

I painstakingly sent 40 emails to different agencies today. (I haven't tried to send direct to businesses yet.)

They were simple, short, and each contained a custom first sentence about the person I was talking too. (No spam) as well as a Custom P.S.

these were things like, "read your article on such and such really liked the part" or "saw your interview..."
Some of them were a bit more personal but that's the gist.

After that I simply asked.

"Was wondering do you guys outsource any of your copywriting or paid traffic work?"

Let me know.

Signature.

on some of them I followed that question with a short blurb on what I've done so far. (getting 500% ROI for most of my past clients.)

Here are the results
upload_2018-3-14_13-32-44.png

My open rate is pretty damn good, especially considering 5 of the emails got out of office repliess and not opens. (Mailshake tracks both.)

Now, there must be something I'm doing wrong in the email itself, because I did not get a single response.

Any tips? Lay it on me. I've never done this before so I know I could be missing a ton here.
 
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Parker fields

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- Mortgage Company - This is when I got serious, but I had already read millionaire fast lane so I wasn't about to get stupid.. until I did. Our first month we did about $20k in revenue with no office and no overhead save $1000 in leads. Our second month I took out a $30k credit card and bought an office, desks, chairs, computers, etc. Also made our first hires. Maxed it out in about 4 Months, We did $60k in revenue during those 4 months, but my partner started taking money from the account and not paying the credit card etc. The red flag, was that when we partnered up he had an extravagant lifestyle and wasn't making the money to support it. His wife was a heavy heavy spender and he cow towed to her. Let that be a lesson.

-se you don't have control and you're just sitting in the passenger seat? That's what it feels like to be married to an entrepreneur, specifically one who hasn't succeeded yet. Magnified by 10 if you are a woman and like security. So I folded and took the gig.

I've thought about linked in. I have not been certain on how to use it correctly. Something I'm going to have to look into for sure.

I’ve learned a few things going into big business deals with partners myself. One: Trust your gut feelings!
Two: If it seems to good to be true it probably is.

Finding genuine partners is almost as rare as finding a lifelong partner.
They have to have equal goals and Visions or business could end up splitting or the common denominator crash and burn.



As for LinkedIn atleast what I’ve gotten out of it thus far. It’s for professionals and good for finding people with skill sets or opening good leads and networking that would otherwise be harder to achieve.

It’s worth setting up a fast profile and using it as a resource.

What’s the software picture?
 

Lord Business

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Man I appreciate all of you guys insights. Going to post an update today.

@Lord Business When going to cold traffic, via facebook in particular. here is what we like to see, specifically for viewing a strategy call.

Also, newsletters are a waste of time IMO. But I'm not one to completely shut down anything you're doing that's working. Test test. In my experience People don't read them and in most cases they aren't waiting to be updated on your product unless it's some sort of kickstarter campaign.

Anyway back to the metrics.

We test things in stages. (also note that the costs will be higher with adwords but adwords also has a higher intent, as people don't usually go to facebook with their credit card in hand like they do google.)

@Andy Black is the adwords pro if you want more info that he hasn't already written up in this forum lol.

For facebook to cold never before seen traffic it should look like this.

Ad Clicks $2: If your ad clicks are above $3 on facebook you know your ad sucks. The first thing to change is the image, it has the most effect. The second is the Headline, the third is the copy itself. Test one thing at a time. (one change per ad) Not all three or you won't know which one worked.

Website/landing page conversions 20%: If you are sending them to a home page, I would stop. I would send them to a page that is specific on what they clicked the ad for and what to do next to get it. This can be an informational video, a sales page, whatever but you don't want them click around to other things, you want them to get the information or product that you targeted them for. If your conversions are below 15% start testing again. Start with the headline, then the button placement, and then the copy. (On the Landing Page not the Ad)

People who book a call 4-5%: Of those 20% who opt in, 5% of them should book a strategy call. If you are seeing less than that, tweak your copy.

We start with a budget of $10 per ad we test. It we usually test 4 ads at a time, 2 images and 2 copy variations on those images.

This math is why Guru's are all preaching high ticket. It goes like this.

$1000>> 500 clicks >> 100 Optins >> 5 Call's >> 1 Sale at $1997+ or 2x or more ROI depending on price.

The numbers get even more ridiculous when you include re-targeting and running traffic to look alike audiences. Plus you have 100 emails for followup which usually ends up in another 2 sales. This is how you spend a crap ton of money on facebook.

For anything below $1000 you can sell it straight from a webinar or value video without a call.

This has worked in B2B and B2C
Thanks! As for newsletter - our target market is 55+ people and we have found, that they open and thoroughly read every newsletter 5x more likely than younger people. But we'll keep experimenting.
Cheers to you.
Also - reppoints transferred ;)
 

sdbrownlie

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Back when we did consulting still I used to target the people who 'have the customers I want' eg web designers who don't do marketing, accountants who have tons of SME clients etc via LinkedIn. We used to just travel round from city to city that first year trying to hustle up business. We'd go to the town for an event (often one we'd organised and promoted on FB - eg 'learn how to use Facebook in your small business') then fill up our diaries with 'target people' from linked in. We'd just add them up by the dozens and the ones who added back we'd offer to buy lunch etc. Usually ended up with a full event of 20 people to present to and a fairly full diary for the few days in town from LinkedIn.
 
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Smith11B

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Back when we did consulting still I used to target the people who 'have the customers I want' eg web designers who don't do marketing, accountants who have tons of SME clients etc via LinkedIn. We used to just travel round from city to city that first year trying to hustle up business. We'd go to the town for an event (often one we'd organised and promoted on FB - eg 'learn how to use Facebook in your small business') then fill up our diaries with 'target people' from linked in. We'd just add them up by the dozens and the ones who added back we'd offer to buy lunch etc. Usually ended up with a full event of 20 people to present to and a fairly full diary for the few days in town from LinkedIn.


That's brilliant. Today is a new day. I plan on putting together a bit of a better action plan. Getting my 1st client this week. I like this idea for sure.
 

HackVenture

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Have you heard of Justin Brooke? I highly recommend his free Daily Edge newsletter, I've learnt alot from him even though I've been doing digital marketing for a long time.

I dislike the idea of having anything to do with clients anymore but if I were to start an agency today, I would likely buy Justin's program and base my business off his teachings.

Do check him out if you haven't already.
 

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