One of the first ways I got started in internet marketing and, after several failed attempts at other things, started making some real good money with was to bring local offline clients online. What do I mean with this? Well, a true entrepreneur sees possibilities everywhere. Remember the old “Ask and you shall receive?” Without getting biblical, it’s actually a very valid and true quote. You need to start opening your eyes, and you need to start asking questions. Don’t be afraid of no’s, you’ll get PLENTY of them, focus on the YES’s.
The next time you visit your local car repair shop, hair salon, spa, car dealer, electronics store (ok, not the major chains), even grocery stores, ask to see the manager. Present yourself as a happy customer who’d like to give something back, and tell them what you work with. Ask if they’re currently doing any online marketing, if they have a website, if they’re happy with it, if they’re interested in slashing advertising costs and increasing their ROI (return on investment, meaning they will get back more than they invest) etc. Some of them will, some of them won’t.
Always be professional, because if you are, you might land a client who first said no a bit later. Tell them about pay per click (or whatever you think is suitable for their niche, but ppc works for most businesses), tell them about ranking high on google, heck, even bring a laptop/iphone and show them the competition’s ads for the keywords that would be relevant for them. Tell them how this new kind of target marketing will slash their ad costs compared to newspaper advertising, and there is a great chance that it will increase their ROI greatly.
Set up a deal with them, and the kind of deal will depend on what they want and what they do. Maybe they need a new website, maybe the current one needs to be a bit optimized, maybe you need to get a commission for all online sales, if they sell stuff online, paid per lead, or just a ppc management fee. Bring in 5-6 clients, and quit your day job.
Now, I know that if I end my post here, people will start begging for a blueprint like “what did you say, how did you do it, how much do you charge, how did you know what to do, I don’t know PPC, etc.” Okay, here is EXACTLY what I did when I first got started, and it should be enough for you as well:
1. First client was a hair salon, I happened to know the owner. He wanted more clients and was complaining about the competition who seemed to do so well online, but all he did was lose cash when trying that “pay Google thingy.” I said “let me get back to you, we’ll fix it.” At the time I wasn’t really too knowledgeable about PPC, so I went to some forums and asked what the best book on PPC was, and got he answer “Perry Marshall’s ‘The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords‘,” so I bough it at a bookstore the same day. I read the book twice in a couple of days, went back to my friend and explained how I was really good at PPC, and that we should set up a deal.
At the time, I didn’t really know about lead generation and performance based marketing deals, so I just said, give me $199 a month, and I’ll take care of it. He set a budget, I opened a Client Center account with Google, put in his account (yes, he paid the click fees to Google, I didn’t), and off we went.
2. Next client was my car repair guy. I actually Googled him, and discovered that he wasn’t online at all. No website, no presence. I went over there and explained how he was missing out, and showed him other garages in the area and what they were doing on my laptop. He got all excited, so I said the same thing: Give me $199 a month, and I’ll take care of it, and I’ll charge you 700 bucks for a simple 5 page website. That was about 2 days of work, and it brought in $900 for that month. I actually did the website myself at the time, now I outsource all website creation to elance.com.
3. And so it went, I learned about more marketing models and started charging commission, lead generation fees, doing SEO work for $499-$1200 a month, that I outsourced completely, and started offering custom software/programming/backend solutions, also outsourced, as my programming skills are completely non-existing. Not very long after, I was making way more with my new clients than I’d ever done before. Now I have a couple of other ventures going on, and I’m not actively pursuing new clients, but if I see an opportunity, I ALWAYS ask about their current marketing strategies.
Don’t ever be afraid of asking, don’t ever fear a no, read up on sales techniques, and I can dearly recommend Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn and those guys. Fantastic!
Get some audio tapes, listen to them on the computer, in the car etc. This is a real business, this is your life, take action now!
Peace out!
–Sam
Great post Sam.
Did you notice any specific industry as being more interested in this or would you say it depends largely on the area and current competition?
Sam here, but with Brian’s picture. We’ll get that fixed
Well, good questions. I’d say many industries are interested, you just have to sit down and do some research, check what the competition is doing etc. It’s usually easier if you know, kind of know, or know someone who knows a decision maker for the company. I always go to chamber of commerce meetings, toastmaster’s, rotary etc and I get new referrals almost every time. Of course area and current competition plays a role, but I wouldn’t let that scare me. When you get good at it, you can set up lead generation sites for any area, just find areas that don’t have too much competition, make some phone calls, and start rockin’ it. I just used the yellow pages (the paper version), called ‘em cold, told them they were wasting money when they could pay for performance and get exact measurements on who, when and how people visit them on the web. It’s all about taking action.
“He wanted more clients and was complaining about the competition who seemed to do so well online, but all he did was lose cash when trying that “pay Google thingy.” I said “let me get back to you, we’ll fix it.” At the time I wasn’t really too knowledgeable about PPC, so I went to some forums and asked what the best book on PPC was, and got he answer “Perry Marshall’s ‘The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords’,” so I bough it at a bookstore the same day. I read the book twice in a couple of days, went back to my friend and explained how I was really good at PPC, and that we should set up a deal.”
HAHAHA! I did the same thing with a pest control company I worked for in Albuquerque! Perrys dope- Keep rockin it Sam, I got you dudes on my radar now thanks to some link love by the vaynerguys
Did you need a lawyer or anything to draw up a contract for each client?
I never worked with offline biz but it seems we would need something in place with them. If you did not set up a contract, would you send them an invoice each month?
I’m sure, I’m like most affiliates who only deal with networks and ad networks. Our accounting is pretty basic. But once you start getting clients it seems more complicated.
For the first clients I brought in, I just typed up my own standard contract, very simple, and there were never any problems. For the bigger clients and more advanced agreements, I use templates, but since I’ve worked with legal contracts for a long time, I can put together my own. I would definitely suggest a lawyer for the bigger clients if you don’t know about contractual law.
I sent them invoices every month, for the first ones just the ppc managment fee, which was a flat rate. Then I got to management fee plus commission, plus leads, plus SEO etc., and those would have to be calculated every month.
Well, people usually find it hard to start with the ad/cpa networks, and this is a great way to build some capital to invest in buying traffic to make even more money with the networks, but it’s also perfect for extra income, as most of it can be outsourced. You run the network stuff, your team runs your clients, you make more money
Whatever you feel fits you the best, run ‘em both, run one, run none. We’re here to help!
When did you start doing this? If you don’t mind me asking? I’m going to go ahead and get Perry Marshall’s book based on your recommendation. I’m only curious to know when you started. I think the local aspect of it is perfect for newbies since their will hardly be any competition.
Thanks for the post, I’ve been inspired
First clients dropped in around 2004/2005, but I signed up new clients as late as a month ago
I can, with many others, definitely recommend that book. Superb. Has all you need to know, and after that, it’s all about just doing it. Start out small, scale it up.
Also, now more than ever, I see a huge market potential, because today everyone knows about Google, everyone has heard about online advertising, so it’s a pretty easy sell.
Good luck!
Thanks for clearing that up. Could you show us an example template of the contracts you use?