Hi everyone. I'am interested to discuss here about anyone ever tried to sell website creation services or even social media services to local business, especially in France, that fucking shithole.
I'am from France. I have a background in E-com (not drop-shipping) and i know Shopify, Woocommerce, SEO, Copywriting, Various CMS, Web-design...
A lot of well etablished business don't have a website. And some when they have, look terrible, most are made on google ''business.site''. For those not having a website, they mostly rely on Facebook or Instagram page where is almost no reach, most of them not paying for ads and almost none of them look professional (information missing, just a few post, blur, terrible image, no proper logo, branding...) I didn't lived in France for most of the time since 2015. Im back this year and i realize how we still very late about the internet things. I believe that a lot of business start without including budget for a good website, but later run well enough to be able to fix that. So i choose to offer my website creation service.
What i did so far :
I have set up an agency website + professional email.
I cold emailed them with a template to explain them the benefit to own a website for their business ranked on google and all the benefit about SEO, Branding, Copywriting, Business legitimacy... I'am not trying to selling the tech but rather the result for the business. I mention the beginning price of my offer for a limited time (have upsell) (it's Half price of the market ). At the bottom of my mail are my company registration number and personal contact who can be easily checked on the internet. I put a CTA with redirection to a landing page on my agency website with all the detailed offer if they would to know more. I also DM business on social + (show up to some business around me in real ) Total of around 500 business i contacted everywhere in France.
Since France got hit badly with inflation i excluded lot of common niches such as restaurant (lot of bankrupt since covid) and they also prefer to be listed on restaurant directory platforms. So i choose to target the following : Car detailing / Car Chip tuner / Custom sport car, Motorcycle garage / Tattoo shop / Luxurious Modern Art Craft Decoration / SPA, various wellness business / Food truck / Event planner / DJ / Private driver... It seems these business still running not too bad.
WHAT I LEARNED :
I would to stay humble and would really think im suck to market my offer. But here are some strong signs punching my face. I explained this to a friend of mine who have a digital marketing agency in Quebec so an American culture and he totally doesn't get it about the French Mindset.
-''Boomer business owner'': Most of them are not educated with general marketing. They just don't want to leave their confort zone and still want to run the business like 30 years ago. They easily reject anything not from their age. A waste of time.
-''The far left business owner''. Plenty of them here. They run a business doing the minimum, earning money is a taboo and promoting a business isn't cool, it seem they prefer to stay poor and low key than optimize it. Probably the judaeo-christian things, that's the French shit culture.
-''Most common business owner'' : Despite they recognize their social pages suck, and also recognize that as consumers they use internet everyday, they still underestimate the need of a proper website FOR their business, or at least a professional looking social media service.
I have failed with ZERO sale for now. I even redirect them to a freelance platform where we can close the deal if their concern was safety. Without success.
Most of business in those niches i have checked on Google Maps in Australia, Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec, have a proper website yet, but not in France. I understand there is inflation, i understand a lot of entrepreneur face 80 percents taxe bracket here. But a proper website is still the minimum to have or am i crazy ?
Glad to discuss with anyone aware of the French mindset in general. Of course i looked at Belgium, Switzerland Luxembourg, Quebec but there is less opportunities without network since most of business have already a proper website as i said.
I'am from France. I have a background in E-com (not drop-shipping) and i know Shopify, Woocommerce, SEO, Copywriting, Various CMS, Web-design...
A lot of well etablished business don't have a website. And some when they have, look terrible, most are made on google ''business.site''. For those not having a website, they mostly rely on Facebook or Instagram page where is almost no reach, most of them not paying for ads and almost none of them look professional (information missing, just a few post, blur, terrible image, no proper logo, branding...) I didn't lived in France for most of the time since 2015. Im back this year and i realize how we still very late about the internet things. I believe that a lot of business start without including budget for a good website, but later run well enough to be able to fix that. So i choose to offer my website creation service.
What i did so far :
I have set up an agency website + professional email.
I cold emailed them with a template to explain them the benefit to own a website for their business ranked on google and all the benefit about SEO, Branding, Copywriting, Business legitimacy... I'am not trying to selling the tech but rather the result for the business. I mention the beginning price of my offer for a limited time (have upsell) (it's Half price of the market ). At the bottom of my mail are my company registration number and personal contact who can be easily checked on the internet. I put a CTA with redirection to a landing page on my agency website with all the detailed offer if they would to know more. I also DM business on social + (show up to some business around me in real ) Total of around 500 business i contacted everywhere in France.
Since France got hit badly with inflation i excluded lot of common niches such as restaurant (lot of bankrupt since covid) and they also prefer to be listed on restaurant directory platforms. So i choose to target the following : Car detailing / Car Chip tuner / Custom sport car, Motorcycle garage / Tattoo shop / Luxurious Modern Art Craft Decoration / SPA, various wellness business / Food truck / Event planner / DJ / Private driver... It seems these business still running not too bad.
WHAT I LEARNED :
I would to stay humble and would really think im suck to market my offer. But here are some strong signs punching my face. I explained this to a friend of mine who have a digital marketing agency in Quebec so an American culture and he totally doesn't get it about the French Mindset.
-''Boomer business owner'': Most of them are not educated with general marketing. They just don't want to leave their confort zone and still want to run the business like 30 years ago. They easily reject anything not from their age. A waste of time.
-''The far left business owner''. Plenty of them here. They run a business doing the minimum, earning money is a taboo and promoting a business isn't cool, it seem they prefer to stay poor and low key than optimize it. Probably the judaeo-christian things, that's the French shit culture.
-''Most common business owner'' : Despite they recognize their social pages suck, and also recognize that as consumers they use internet everyday, they still underestimate the need of a proper website FOR their business, or at least a professional looking social media service.
I have failed with ZERO sale for now. I even redirect them to a freelance platform where we can close the deal if their concern was safety. Without success.
Most of business in those niches i have checked on Google Maps in Australia, Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec, have a proper website yet, but not in France. I understand there is inflation, i understand a lot of entrepreneur face 80 percents taxe bracket here. But a proper website is still the minimum to have or am i crazy ?
Glad to discuss with anyone aware of the French mindset in general. Of course i looked at Belgium, Switzerland Luxembourg, Quebec but there is less opportunities without network since most of business have already a proper website as i said.
