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The Digital Marketing Dream

Marketing, social media, advertising

Mass

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Morning Everyone,

I thought I would start this thread for a number of reasons;
1. Outline and talk about any issues I experience hopefully shedding light for anyone else who follows this path
2. As a bit of a brain dump that I can come back to when I go off piste
3. Accountability
4. I'm uncomfortable putting all the details, the good and the bad in a public domain so its a bit of a comfort level breaker thing for me.

The Business: Digital Marketing
Niche: I'm aiming at Home Services in the UK so Builders, Plumbers, Electricians etc.
Major Goal - When I would class it as successful: When I'm clearing £10k a month profit - must be recurring, not one off sales
The Inspiration: Reading through Fox's Web Design posts and Sean Marshall's posts

Income Streams- The Three Pronged Attack:
  1. Website Building - This is more of a means to a end, its not something that I am going to push too much but if a clients website is awful then its my responsibility to advise that it needs a good overhaul. There will be 3 price points - £349 + VAT for a basic site (think landing page), £499 for a standard site (upto 5 page) and £999 for a larger website (upto 15 pages)
  2. Managed SEO - This should be forming the foundations of my recurring revenue model. "I" will manage the clients SEO with the understanding that it is not a quick fix. It can take anything from 3 - 9 months to see true results and rank at the top of google. Again there will be 3 prices points - £299 + VAT for the basic package, £449 for the standard package and £749 for the premium package
  3. Managed PPC - This is the second part of the recurring revenue model. "I" will manage the clients PPC although they will have to pay for the advertising budget on top of my fee to see quicker results while the SEO kicks in. 3 price points again - £199 + VAT for the basic package, £349 for standard and £649 for premium
The above will form the core of my offering although at a later date I may venture into Social Media Marketing and whatever else rears its head to look needed.

The Hook: No Contracts & I will work with only one type of service in each area so can focus on getting them number one.

Competition: There are a few companies offering this service that I have listed below (hope that its allowed) but I think I can offer a better service, my background is sales so that should give me a hand.
Main Competitor: SEO for Tradesmen | Expert Marketing To Help You Rank #1 on Google
Premium Competitor: https://www.imwebdesignmarketing.co.uk/ (Expensive - £1900 for a website)
Others but look very basic: Front Page - SEO 4 Tradesmen & Construction Marketing | Web Design For Tradesmen | SEO for Tradesmen

End Game: Be able to step away (reduce workload to less that 10 hours a week) without and significant impact on the company or profits - hence the recurring revenue idea.

When I mention "I" what I plan to do is to outsource everything either through Fiverr or some of the White Label Digital Marketing Companies that there are knocking around now. I will also look at the possibility of VA's as they appear to be a good route.

My main focus will be on winning the business and securing the deals, the sales side of things.

So here is what I have done so far as of 29th April 2019;
  1. Purchased Domain Name
  2. Set Up Hosting
  3. Logo is in the process of being revised through Fiverr
  4. Website is currently being built by me (will take another week or so while I get something presentable/that I am happy with)
Potential "Clients" (Not really as they will be portfolio pieces to build a bit of social proof).
  1. Family Friend who is a French & Spanish translator - Her website is absolute garbage
  2. Wife of my mortgage broker who is a self-employed Will's and Life Planning Adviser
  3. My wife's friend's husband who runs his own building company - he doesn't need anymore work but doesn't have a website so again I could build one for him and use that as a way in for other tradesmen.
For now I need to work on finishing the website off and then landing a couple of the portfolio pieces so I can hone my skills and take it from there.

I work full time so its going to be either done in the morning or in the evening. At first it will slow me down but once I hit £2,500 recurring profit then I will be able to reduce my hours at my job and focus more on this.

If anyone would like to ask questions please go ahead, likewise if you want the address for my website just ask.
 
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bingnanxu

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Alright, great stuff, great ideas.

But one thing need to be cleared up,on the very very top of this post, the first thing before anything else is how do you find clients?

I've seen many, many digital marketing agency go down, even though they had the best service, best funnel page, after all that effort, they have no idea how to market and sell their service and go down the drain

I suggest you listing out some marketing channel you can utilize first before you even create the website.

Channel like ppc, linkedin connect, cold calling business,and start there.

Beside that, best of luck :]
 

Mass

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Thanks for the reply. I should've been a little clearer with that point.

I plan on going old school, Cold Calling! I'm hoping that once I get one service on board they'll give me a way in to another one. E.g. Plumbers usually work with Tilers, who usually work with a bricklayer or sparky etc.

I'm not sure LinkedIn is the correct medium for securing new business but I will give it a whirl and explore that more. I think Facebook will be a worthwhile investment of my time and efforts as a way of gaining new business.

Ill be reaching out with value too so a quick SEO report or website review and tips on how they can improve it.

I expect to get a lot of doors slammed in my face but I only need a slight opening and I can prove my worth. I dont expect it to be easy, but anything worthwhile doing never is!
 

Shirkahn

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You say you want Accountability!

I would suggest you clearly state your milestones and dates you want to accomplish them and I am not referring to the admin or ground work but rather milestones related to money coming in!

Example:

A) 15. May cold called 100 businesses
B) 15. June sign 10 clients and receive first payment
C) 30. June hit £5000 turnover

Good luck
 
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Mass

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Thats a good shout Shirkhan, I'll definately use that technique moving forward. At the moment I've been bogged down with work stuff (I'm a Travel Agent and have had a few client in/due to go to Sri Lanka) so its been hard trying to move forward after 12 hours days.

Back on the website this weekend to get it finished.

If anyone is reading this thread who is running a Digital Media Company I'd love to connect.
 

MattR82

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I've been learning web design with wordpress after taking fox's course from around Jan 2018. I sometimes feel my goals are a bit different to a big majority of web designers/digital marketers though. I'm not looking to build a big agency. I'd like to make some recurring income while learning a hell of a lot about the digital marketing world.

Cold calling etc - I've seen it work really well for a lot of people getting started. But things took a big swing for me when I built a relationship with a really good client. I had actually taken down my pretty average looking business website when I started chatting with them, so none of that was even important in the end lol. They just liked the fact that they could trust me, and I built that trust up over time and got them some great results with social media stuff. Now my main problem is trying to cobble together a team and train them up as I have clients waiting. I really wanted to take my time and wasn't actually looking to take on another client, but the more I said no, the more they wanted me lol.

I liked Andy Black's advice. Help someone. (preferably someone that is "perfect" client ie easy to get results for with high ticket item).

Then crush the hell out of it. They send me referrals pretty often now.

That's what happened with me anyway. It looks like May is going to be my last month of making squat, with new clients set to start in June bringing my monthly recurring revenue to about 3 to 3.5k USD. Not great but I'm happy with that for 15 months in. And I still don't have a website! Not even sure if I'm going to bother anymore to tell the truth.
 

Andy Black

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Mass

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Okay so a small update.

I think I fell down the Rabbit Hole. I started building my website and got lost in the process of trying to get as much information on there as possible and make it look as "amazing" as possible. So after a good few days working on it I've just had another look and thought... "F*cking Hell! Why so much information?!" So with that in mind I'm completely wiping it and putting up a much more clean and streamlined landing page.

On the plus side I have had a few people ask about my plans and I've dropped it into a few converstations so it is looking promising.

My plan;

I'm going to fix my website, shouldn't take long.
Get a better understanding of SEO & PPC so I can answer any specific questions from clients.
Going to start the search for decent people to outsource SEO and PPC to
Read more into "AI" SEO which seems to be a cost-effective but highly effective method for SEO
 
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MHP368

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The Hook: No Contracts & I will work with only one type of service in each area so can focus on getting them number one.

I like that you thought of a value skew but I worry that since the main problem with a digital marketing agency is the client churn from the "me too" factor (everyones doing it) you're value proposition isn't a big sell.

But , let us know what the response is selling it , maybe its exactly what the market wants
 

Mass

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Website has been revamped. So should be good to go.

I'll let you know how I get on Kevin. I think the one service in a area is a massive selling point, also adds to the integrity aspect of it.
 
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Andy Black

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Posts 32, 33, 41 and 42 in that Inbound/Sales Braindump I linked to earlier.
 

Mass

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Bit of a update. Have spoken to a few SEO companies and think I may have narrowed it down to who I'm going to go with.

On the flip side a few people I know have declared their interest in what I'm doing but they are not in the niche that I aiming for. Might just do the work anyway to build up experience.

Once of them said that the company they are currently using is £39 a month for website rental and SEO. Can't imagine they are doing much in terms of SEO for that...
 

Mass

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Another quick update.

The cold calling isn't going well! I've don't it in the past and I know it's a pretty thankless task with a very low success rate but part of me feels like I'd be better spending time developing my website and working off generating warm leads. The other part me of me thinks Stop being such a pussy and just crack on.

Im gonna keep calling and see how I get on. Maybe be more effective to try and leverage any contacts I have.

One shut down reason I've heard a few times is that they are so busy that they couldn't take on any work even if they did get it. I know everyone's mindset is different but I'd want miles more work than I can handle to try and grow my business. Perhaps aim for larger companies rather sole traders?

Back to the phone after my whinge...
 

Timmy C

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Another quick update.

The cold calling isn't going well! I've don't it in the past and I know it's a pretty thankless task with a very low success rate but part of me feels like I'd be better spending time developing my website and working off generating warm leads. The other part me of me thinks Stop being such a pussy and just crack on.

Im gonna keep calling and see how I get on. Maybe be more effective to try and leverage any contacts I have.

One shut down reason I've heard a few times is that they are so busy that they couldn't take on any work even if they did get it. I know everyone's mindset is different but I'd want miles more work than I can handle to try and grow my business. Perhaps aim for larger companies rather sole traders?

Back to the phone after my whinge...


Forget the website you need sales.

forget calling businesses if its not working go in for a casual chat say hello tell them what you do, who you help and go from there.

Make ads for your service on craigslist, gumtree.

Join local facebook groups, and or groups that need help with what you can help them with. Offer advice provide value in those groups get known to be helping people. Do not try to sell these people, get to the point they know who you are and know they can trust you.


I am in facebook groups atm giving value. see attached.
 
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Mass

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@Timmy1990

You're a damn Genius!

Why didn't I think of that, I've just looked at a local facebook group for tradesmen and seen loads of people advertising there. Hopefully some clients there, I will look at reaching out to them.

I still need to set up a Facebook Page which I think you may lambaste me for :(

Have a little rep on me brother!
 

Timmy C

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@Timmy1990

You're a damn Genius!

Why didn't I think of that, I've just looked at a local facebook group for tradesmen and seen loads of people advertising there. Hopefully some clients there, I will look at reaching out to them.

I still need to set up a Facebook Page which I think you may lambaste me for :(

Have a little rep on me brother!


Some groups are just people advertising heavily and you will struggle to cut through the noise, Do use it to advertise, but not in the way your probably thinking. For example.


don't advertising saying this is my business yada yada, engage in conversations that are already happening, and provide the most VALUABLE answers and keep doing this over time.

If someone says oh i cant do X - reply and say i was helping John with x yesterday for his XXX project and this is the process we went through and how we helped him etc etc i hope that helps, and keep doing this.

You dont want to tell people you do it, you want to show them and get THEM to contact you about doing stuff for them.

Thanks for the rep.
 

Mass

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Some groups are just people advertising heavily and you will struggle to cut through the noise, Do use it to advertise, but not in the way your probably thinking. For example.


don't advertising saying this is my business yada yada, engage in conversations that are already happening, and provide the most VALUABLE answers and keep doing this over time.

If someone says oh i cant do X - reply and say i was helping John with x yesterday for his XXX project and this is the process we went through and how we helped him etc etc i hope that helps, and keep doing this.

You dont want to tell people you do it, you want to show them and get THEM to contact you about doing stuff for them.

Thanks for the rep.

I was thinking along those lines, for the guys that are heavily advertising I was going to drop them a message asking how they handle their online marketing and try a way in there. I was going to offer a free website review as a bit of value and then make a few other suggestions.
 

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