Trying to get started freelancing - Google Ads / Web Design

[Tacko6]

This is a really interesting thread. its good to see you working through the problems. The support in this community is priceless.

Im sure you will make a break through!

I look forward to seeing this all unfold.

 

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[Andy Black]

Client acquisition Andy

What are you doing and how?

 

[mavdm22]

What are you doing and how?

Cold email outreach

 

[Andy Black]

Going to give it till the end of march and if still nothing, I will need to look into something else.

Cold email outreach

Do you mean at the end of March you'll look at another channel for acquiring clients, or offer another service via cold email outreach?

It's one thing having a skill. Getting paid for that skill is another thing.

 

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[mavdm22]

Do you mean at the end of March you'll look at another channel for acquiring clients, or offer another service via cold email outreach?

It's one thing having a skill. Getting paid for that skill is another thing.

Offering another service. Very true what you said about the differences. Focused on trying to get clients at the moment.

 

[Andy Black]

Offering another service. Very true what you said about the differences. Focused on trying to get clients at the moment.

Will offering a different service make it easier to get clients?

 

[mavdm22]

Will offering a different service make it easier to get clients?

I can't answer that question at the moment Andy but I understand the message.
I'm focused on home services and it just seems that with sites like checkatrade in the UK and home advisor in the US amoungst others businesses don't want to pursue Google ads and those that do want to advertise mainly use FB.

Basically what I am trying to explain is that when is enough enough. When does one reach the conclusion that it's simply not working.

I'm sure you can understand or am I looking at this the wrong way?

 

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[Andy Black]

I can't answer that question at the moment Andy but I understand the message.
I'm focused on home services and it just seems that with sites like checkatrade in the UK and home advisor in the US amoungst others businesses don't want to pursue Google ads and those that do want to advertise mainly use FB.

Basically what I am trying to explain is that when is enough enough. When does one reach the conclusion that it's simply not working.

I'm sure you can understand or am I looking at this the wrong way?

I mostly do local lead gen, in the UK and US. Plenty of local service businesses use or want to use Google Ads.

I also have other clients that are lead gen but not local service businesses.
And there's a few eCommerce businesses that reach out occasionally but I turn down.

Many businesses that already use Facebook Ads worry they have all their eggs in one basket.

Personally, I prefer to offer Google Ads than Facebook Ads.

Anyway, all that to say it's possible. I suspect people starting out would be better off doing inbound than outbound. Have you tried inbound? Have you been through the inbound/sales thread in my signature?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Listen to @Andy Black @mavdm22. He has been very patient with you and has tried to help you see for yourself that the problem isn’t the service.

A lot of young people these days get their minds poisoned by gurus who tell them they can just open an email account, send emails to strangers or get a phone number and cold call strangers and get thousands of dollars in sales.

The reality is that it takes multiple touches in most cases to get someone to buy. We don’t live 10-15 years ago anymore.

People will check you out. They’ll check out your profiles on social media. They’ll check out your website. They’ll check out for how long you’ve been in business. And all these factors go into creating your credibility.

Today it’s harder to “trick” someone to buy what you have. Much harder.

If you reach out cold to a stranger, and you have a basic website and pretty much a naked LinkedIn profile with little to no content, no case studies, no testimonials, do you think you will be seen as a respectable business in thier eyes?

The correct answer is you won’t be. What you really need to do is start building relationships. Post content. Engage with people. Provide value. Start conversations. Get on discovery calls with people (not calls where you pitch them, just calls where you learn more about them and IF what you have can help, then you can invite them on another follow-up call to discuss it).

You can’t sell anything with 0 trust and 0 credibility, because no matter WHAT you say, people won’t BELIEVE you. You can say the most wonderful words in existence - it won’t help!

So I suggest you do focus on inbound. Even your outreach on social media should be angled towards building relationships FIRST, before selling. And the content you post will add to your credibility over time. The fact someone sees your post every day, for 90+ days will change the way they see you. By the end of those 90+ days you’ll be an expert in their minds.

In addition to that I suggest you join BNI. You can try a local chapter or even go for an online chapter from the US/UK. Get to know the people there, chat with them, make friends. You’ll get a lot of business in a little while if you do that.

 

[Andy Black]

People will check you out. They’ll check out your profiles on social media. They’ll check out your website. They’ll check out for how long you’ve been in business. And all these factors go into creating your credibility.

^^^ This.

If someone messages me on LinkedIn or Facebook and we take it to email then I use email address andy@andyblack.net

They'll check out AndyBlack.net where they can follow their nose and look over my LinkedIn profile, YouTube channel, and articles I've written in this forum.

I make it easy for them to check me out.

I don't do "content marketing". I don't really get leads from the content I publish. I get referrals from building relationships. Those referrals do their due diligence and check out my content before or after they reach out to me.

That's how some small YouTube channels with barely any videos and only a few hundred views can generate lots of business ... they're not "content marketing", they're making it easy for people to check them out.

For those just starting out I suggest going through the Inbound/Sales thread in my signature.

 

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[mavdm22]

I mostly do local lead gen, in the UK and US. Plenty of local service businesses use or want to use Google Ads.

I also have other clients that are lead gen but not local service businesses.
And there's a few eCommerce businesses that reach out occasionally but I turn down.

Many businesses that already use Facebook Ads worry they have all their eggs in one basket.

Personally, I prefer to offer Google Ads than Facebook Ads.

Anyway, all that to say it's possible. I suspect people starting out would be better off doing inbound than outbound. Have you tried inbound? Have you been through the inbound/sales thread in my signature?

Hi Andy

Hope you are well. Apologies for the late reply.

Completely with you. Came across many businesses also using fb only. Personally i prefer Google, especially for home services. I find google more targeted. I have said in my previous posts that and i have nothing against fb advertising.

I have read your posts on inbound but not all. Just going through a few issues at the moment.

Thanks for your posts on this thread. You've been fantastic.

 

[mavdm22]

Listen to @Andy Black @mavdm22. He has been very patient with you and has tried to help you see for yourself that the problem isn’t the service.

A lot of young people these days get their minds poisoned by gurus who tell them they can just open an email account, send emails to strangers or get a phone number and cold call strangers and get thousands of dollars in sales.

The reality is that it takes multiple touches in most cases to get someone to buy. We don’t live 10-15 years ago anymore.

People will check you out. They’ll check out your profiles on social media. They’ll check out your website. They’ll check out for how long you’ve been in business. And all these factors go into creating your credibility.

Today it’s harder to “trick” someone to buy what you have. Much harder.

If you reach out cold to a stranger, and you have a basic website and pretty much a naked LinkedIn profile with little to no content, no case studies, no testimonials, do you think you will be seen as a respectable business in thier eyes?

The correct answer is you won’t be. What you really need to do is start building relationships. Post content. Engage with people. Provide value. Start conversations. Get on discovery calls with people (not calls where you pitch them, just calls where you learn more about them and IF what you have can help, then you can invite them on another follow-up call to discuss it).

You can’t sell anything with 0 trust and 0 credibility, because no matter WHAT you say, people won’t BELIEVE you. You can say the most wonderful words in existence - it won’t help!

So I suggest you do focus on inbound. Even your outreach on social media should be angled towards building relationships FIRST, before selling. And the content you post will add to your credibility over time. The fact someone sees your post every day, for 90+ days will change the way they see you. By the end of those 90+ days you’ll be an expert in their minds.

In addition to that I suggest you join BNI. You can try a local chapter or even go for an online chapter from the US/UK. Get to know the people there, chat with them, make friends. You’ll get a lot of business in a little while if you do that.

Hi, Hope you are well.

I get to the end of your post and all i can think is he's right. I had a basic website with only the service and nothing else. Literally nothing else, Not even a Facebook page.

I have engaged with many people and provided value to them and never heard from them again. Which is fine, i'm just picking things from your post where i have been active but for 90% of what you said i have not done. Inbound was what i was planning to do once i got the ball rolling.

I'm just confused. Outbound doesn't work because of the things you mentioned (case studies, testimonials) Inbound would be based around teaching eg structure, settings, landing pages, tracking etc. i presume that was what you were referring to.

When you mentioned "online chapter from the US/UK" Could you explain that part please? Just the correct name so that i can look it up.

Thanks for your insights. I appreciate it.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

When you mentioned "online chapter from the US/UK" Could you explain that part please? Just the correct name so that i can look it up.

Sure, it’s referring to an online chapter of BNI, the networking organisation: Home

It’s a good way to get to know other business people, build some relationships and get some referrals. Like all things, it’s what you make of it through the effort you put in!

 

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[Andy Black]

Inbound would be based around teaching eg structure, settings, landing pages, tracking etc. i presume that was what you were referring to.

Inbound doesn't have to be based around teaching. I feel that if you teach people how to do stuff then you're likely build an audience of people who want to do what you do. Which is OK if that's your market. Less so if it's not.

My advice:

Help people, in public.

You don't even have to help people with the service you provide.

Think of what I do for example. How many of my 15,000+ posts in this forum are about Google Ads?

I'm a community member first, welcoming newbies and pointing them in the right direction till they find their feet, joining in discussions about ChatGPT or whatever.

It brings me business, but not how you probably think.

1) Forum members sometimes refer people they meet in their travels to me. "You're having trouble with your Google Ads? Oh, I know a guy..."

2) More importantly, I make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins with forum members and people they introduce me to. I end up in lots of PMs. Many end up on Zoom where I love getting to know people and help in any way I can. I braindump whatever i think can help them my thoughts and it mostly isn't about Google Ads.

I'm seen as helpful and someone they could refer folks to without worrying those folks will be hard sold or have a bad time. And I just repeat the cycle of making friends, building relationships, and creating win-wins.

Is this inbound? I don't know and don't think it matters what label's put on it. What I don't do is PM people out of the blue though. I only PM people who follow me, and then it's just to say Thanks and ask how they're doing.


Maybe work through the series of short videos I posted to YouTube last year. Here's some:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/xYEEhRyF1qA?feature=share

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/iaVpqiUETl8?feature=share

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/ZuvJ7HWhU2c?feature=share

 

[mavdm22]

Inbound doesn't have to be based around teaching. I feel that if you teach people how to do stuff then you're likely build an audience of people who want to do what you do. Which is OK if that's your market. Less so if it's not.

My advice:

Help people, in public.

You don't even have to help people with the service you provide.

Think of what I do for example. How many of my 15,000+ posts in this forum are about Google Ads?

I'm a community member first, welcoming newbies and pointing them in the right direction till they find their feet, joining in discussions about ChatGPT or whatever.

It brings me business, but not how you probably think.

1) Forum members sometimes refer people they meet in their travels to me. "You're having trouble with your Google Ads? Oh, I know a guy..."

2) More importantly, I make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins with forum members and people they introduce me to. I end up in lots of PMs. Many end up on Zoom where I love getting to know people and help in any way I can. I braindump whatever i think can help them my thoughts and it mostly isn't about Google Ads.

I'm seen as helpful and someone they could refer folks to without worrying those folks will be hard sold or have a bad time. And I just repeat the cycle of making friends, building relationships, and creating win-wins.

Is this inbound? I don't know and don't think it matters what label's put on it. What I don't do is PM people out of the blue though. I only PM people who follow me, and then it's just to say Thanks and ask how they're doing.


Maybe work through the series of short videos I posted to YouTube last year. Here's some:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/xYEEhRyF1qA?feature=share

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/iaVpqiUETl8?feature=share

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/ZuvJ7HWhU2c?feature=share

Hi Andy

Good evening

Saw your videos and going through the links in your signature and also your yt channel.

Also want to thank you for all the help you have given in this thread. I appreciate it Andy

 

[4gus]

I can understand, because I'm almost at the same situation. Staying in one country while trying to target another country.
I'm also just learning about google ads, I got the certification but I only know the theory, less real world practice.
I also joined in facebook groups for business owners, lots of groups out there and I saw some posts offering free websites, help with ads etc etc. Didn't see much response for their ads, maybe because it was buried under 10 other scammer posts lol. Local businesses are also hesitant because of various reasons that's already mentioned in this post.

So to get real world experience, I signed up for volunteering. I'm sure there are volunteer websites in UK where some nonprofits are looking for people to help them run their google ads or FB ads. I signed up with one of the websites. Google has $10k/ month grant for non-profit to spend in google ads.

Most of non-profits don't have people or knowledge to do that. I contacted 2, told them I got the ads experience plus the certificate (just so my email sounds a bit convincing lol) and I got response from both of them. I got hired from one and last week I started to run a google ads campaign for real.
I know I didn't get a penny from that, but for me the experience is worth more, it'll help build the confidence. I still have lots to learn and I'll start with @Andy Black 's signature. Thanks Andy!

Gus

 

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