Oxenbeef is right. You suck..thanks for lowering my rates...JK
Your perfect client doesn't know WTF he is doing, If he did or had the staff to do it he would have. Dentists (or any business) know how to pull teeth not internet marketing. But good for you for stepping out and making the call. There is no magic bullet for that.
I've been doing offline for awhile and it can be a real bitch. I had to change up what I do and how I do it, because of local competition. I used to under promise and over deliver at a great rate, But now I realize I don't have to do that. I saw that the big boys where doing crappier work than me BUT they had prettier reports and therefore greater perceived value. I jumped on that band wagon and undercut them all and succeed.
Now that you are joining our ranks, here are some of my experiences. Take from it what you will
/rant on
I speak to people in the SEO market here all the time (they sell SEO/SEM services) and they know DICK about generating sales. Seriously, its sad. They know a lot about H1 tags but not how to put the whole shebang together and convert it to lead. They think they do, but they are like a business professor that has never run a business. The guys they work for ( the seo/sem business owner) know what they are doing, but the worker bees are just that. Drones doing a job.
I tell a client what they want to hear. Acronyms like SEO, SEM don't mean squat to them. In fact it's how I differentiate myself from competitors. I am the ANTI-BUZZWORD king. I say this: " I know that you really only care about 2 things, more customers and more money. That is what I'm going to provide for you. Here is how...." That's working pretty great.
Here's all you need to know about SEO (or anything else) to make money in it in the offline arena. Following this would have saved me time early on.
- get a copy if IBP and run the a client a report (if doing SEO)
- wow him/her with the thud weight
- get a paid to fix the problems
- outsource all the work
- rinse and repeat
All the rest is bullshit and stuff for the worker bees. Yes, you need to know how to do the stuff . But knowing and having to do it are 2 different things. Offline only really works when you can outsource. Work toward that goal.
Some things I learned through painful experience
1. There is NO perfect customer.
Well, ones that pay you a lot and leave you alone are good. I provide value and a GREAT service. I have no time to educate someone why the need marketing or me. They either get it or they don't. They either have money or they don't. ...next.
2. The less you charge, the more of a pain in the ass they will be.
I can assure you of of this 100%
Seriously, do no favors, cut no deals. You will live to regret that, especially with local businesses. For clients that I even perceive will be a pain I charge double sometimes triple. One guy I told $20K up front + $2k a month and 20% of gross sales (hoping he would go away) and he took it without even batting an eye. So NEVER sell yourself short.
3. Templates are necessary
There are tons of "offline" programs out there. download them all, grab all the templates (their only real value . you should thank Beef for his) and brand them as your own. Hire someone on, fiverr, taskarmy or odesk to format all the offline templates uniformly and add your branding. That was the best $10 I spent.
4. Make up a rate sheet so you know a few things.
- what services you want offer
- what to charge
- what it costs you to do or outsource. Your time has a cost as well.
5. Understand what you are good at and what you like to do. Do not try and be all things to all customers. Do one thing REALLY well then add other services.
Anything you don't want to do, find a partner. I for one REALLY don't like ad management and media buying for clients. It's a pain in the ass. I have a partner that charges 10% of total ad spend. I then mark that up to 15% and he private labels all the work. We don't touch anything less than a $10K a month ad spend. Trust me, it's not worth it for less.
- I have a partner that manages all of my social media work
- I have a partner that manages all of my content creation
- I have a partner that manages all of my ad management
- I have several partners that manage my graphic design
- I have several partners that manage my SEO/SEM work
6. Your website is almost immaterial.
You talking to a client is what makes the sale. So don't waste any time trying to get it cool and having tons of info. Nobody cares. Set up a clean simple website and Google places account. Don't get fancy. I set up my site in less than an hour and haven't touched it in a year. Pay someone to blog once a week on current issues. Pay for a GOOD writer. My site gets over 200 hits a day with NO promotion and I'm 1-3 in Google places in 3 cities . Those 2 things alone keep me pretty occupied while working in my pajamas.
Things that make/have made me money and may for you as well
- Local lead gen (Google places, etc.. bread and butter)
- Reputation management (big ticket. very willing clients)
- Internet Marketing and Business Process consulting (catch all stuff)
- Product management ( careful: potential pain in the ass)
- Affiliate Management (just started this. also potential pain in the ass)
- Consulting start-ups (fun, but they always run out of cash)
/rant off
