Trying out 7878's ORM Mail Tactic

Someone who followed up on a journey after two years! Thanks for the additional info @H0BB5 !

Fantastic thread! Thanks so much Hobbs!!!

I'm gonna try again. The last time I did this, I had 1 out of 30 for a car wash company. I tried doctors and dentists, but those are always tapped into, sometimes they say they had inquired before and was deemed too costly. So if you think about it, nobody's going to pay around $800/mo for this. If you go to the common niches in ORM, there's not much hope, even if they get clients through insurance. My plan is to lower the cost, raise up front fee for the needs, etc. Build my own reputation on my site with testimonials, and then go from there. Thanks for inspiration dude.

Love seeing your follow up two years later and that you were able to turn this into something great for yourself. Congratulations and thank you again for sharing your journey with us!

This is great! Your update is so inspirational, I hope everyone reading can follow your business's trajectory

steroidjoe said:

I'm gonna try again. The last time I did this, I had 1 out of 30 for a car wash company. I tried doctors and dentists, but those are always tapped into, sometimes they say they had inquired before and was deemed too costly. So if you think about it, nobody's going to pay around $800/mo for this. If you go to the common niches in ORM, there's not much hope, even if they get clients through insurance. My plan is to lower the cost, raise up front fee for the needs, etc. Build my own reputation on my site with testimonials, and then go from there. Thanks for inspiration dude.

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If you are selling on the benefits that are obtained by the company, the price can easily be justified and I will attempt to explain why, below. But if you only are selling based upon what your own cheap ass would pay, suddenly the price is not justified.

Figure out why you AREN'T worth that "$800" and fix your offered services and your sales pitch. Are you a set and forget review funnel? You're now probably not worth much to the owner once you describe the entire process, in an attempt to showcase expertise. He may think that you have just taught him how to do it himself.

What the hell do I need you for now? I just pass out a card that says give a review. Go to a site that only allows 5 stars. Mop up the bad guys, squeeze out the cash!

The cheap bastards will almost always try to DIY. These ones are your 3-6 month follow up leads, that you can reach out again to them, and find out how far their self served efforts got them. Unless they stumble upon a place like BHW, it'll generally be too much work for them, and the money will then be justified.

Are you representing yourself as a sole proprietor, a one man show? Or are you the CEO of an Online Reputation Management Agency that specializes in ______ industry, nationwide/internationally, and has the following services available from your company.

This is why you develop numerous ORM packages or modules. You are able to present yourself as an absolute authority, in which it is impossible for one person to do in their spare time. The fun fact, is that's exactly what you're going to do! You can, and should, outsource most of this stuff to your trusted services. Ask your services for an "agency discount," and explain so they understand that you're planning on bringing them a bunch of business. Take their fee, and put some margin in there for your own profit, and sell it!

This list is generic, and can have plenty of twists and upsells/downsells/packages each.

• Sell them on a review funnel. The meat and potatoes. This should come with cards and site.
• Sell them on citation building. A flat fee for "x" many relevant sites. Offer various size packages.
• Sell them on social media management. Take some pressure off, using YOUR team instead.
• Sell them on review response management. Allow the professionals to react to reviews.
• Sell them on branding solutions, usually some sort of publicity stunts.
• Sell them on website design/redesign for better branding.
• Sell them on newsletter management. Develop a newsletter and offer to manage it.
• Sell them on community involvement. See next area.

Give them bait for long term contracts: The honey attracts the bees.
Are they newsworthy? Forms of Charity are usually the best way to get on the news. Or find a dead body in a car in the business' parking lot.

Have they developed a "turn around story," after completely revitalizing their business into a "focus on the customer first mentality?" "After an exhaustive internal audit, we have trimmed fat everywhere we could, and implemented blah blahblah."

How do they advertise? Boring hopefuls such as radio/tv/billboards? Do they do anything for the community?

Even something as "off topic" as a furniture store, could host a waterslide/bbq in the city park as a way to say thank you to the greater community for supporting the business. It might cost the store $1000-2000 to host something like that, including the park permit, rental fees, and food, but it might also be covered in the local news.

We have all heard the term, "the customer is always right." Well I think it got fucked up somewhere along the line. It should be "the customer has priority over profit."

@steroidjoe if you position yourself as an authority of reputation, there should be absolutely no problems in commanding a price.


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One recurring theme that has not been thoroughly looked at, is the bad businesses have bad ratings, and are bad clients. Chances are, they're not just "I didn't know better," and have poor reviews for a reason.


A quick search on restaurants in my local area show an interesting thing. Almost everything is rated 4.x! So that tells me EVERYONE is in the know about the importance of reviews. The review system has simply become crucial to business. I've never eaten at this Chilis, because there are so many fantastic places that surround it. (According to reviews.) And I'm fucking glad. I'd be furious.



Keep in mind. There are three types of experiences. There's memorable, and forgettable.

Was the experience an uplifting, and the absolute best service you've ever experienced? (Good Memorable) You'll probably try to capture it with a food pic, and maybe even a selfie with the waitress. Checked in on facebook, shared on instagram.

Was the experience a run of the mill, polite enough, food average enough, to pass by as you carried a conversation about something else? Forgettable. Check paid, and tooth has been picked. Thanks for the mint I guess.

Was the experience a total shit show? Bad memorable and probably already on it's way to facebook, yelp, twitter, and instagram.


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@H0BB5
, I was on your site yesterday. I really like it. Very professional! Have you done much revision from when you first posted it at the beginning of this thread?

BenWalters said:

I had much more luck just cold calling local businesses.

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BenWalters, are u still cold calling? How successful is the direct approach?

Blain Cooper said:

@H0BB5
, I was on your site yesterday. I really like it. Very professional! Have you done much revision from when you first posted it at the beginning of this thread?

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Hey Blain, Thanks! From the time you asked I had done just 1 redesign to the landing page. Very informative post and addition to the thread btw, couldn't agree more.

H0BB5 said:

Hey everybody!


It’s been a while, eh? I just wanted to give you guys an update to bring my journey around full circle. Since my last post, I quit my job to do this full-time; I currently serve a bunch of individual locations and I am now shifting my efforts to creating orm strategies for franchises. I’ve learned a lot in the last 2 years and I want to use this post to help those who may be encountering the same problems I did.


1. Time is money, manage your time accordingly


Something I couldn’t stand in the beginning was how much time I put into finding leads and creating letters to send. I automated the process as soon as I could by developing my own Google Maps scraper. There are generic scrapers you can pay for online, but I wanted one that would find specific information I needed for my next step in automation: letters. I was able to export data from my scraper into an excel file which I then injected into a 7878-adapted letter template.

The next step was finding a way to automate the accompanying reviews page; this requires a little more work than the letters. First, you have to go to the business’s G+ page and copy their reviews (now located in Google Maps). I sorted them by “lowest score” and used Skitch to take screenshots. I created a template in Adobe InDesign that would autopopulate with my screenshots. I used a blank piece of paper to write things like “is this how you want to be represented” and “I can help”. I used a good printer to scan the second page onto the first page so that it looked like I handwrote these things on every single letter. I still had to go through the page and circle negative reviews but the process was much more efficient now. One more tip, spending a little more on thick paper goes a long way.

2. Be knowledgeable and confident in ORM


A lot of you starting out don’t have examples to show businesses. I would suggest doing heavy research to answer objections before they arise (https://www.justsell.com/the-8-objections/) Once you practice how to respond to objections enough, you will be able to sell the system pretty easily. I used to have a cheat sheet of ORM stats and a script I used as a guideline for follow-up calls. Use the forgetting curve to understand when to make follow-up calls and emails. Assuming I don’t close the client on the spot, I usually send an email the next day, a call within the week, and emails the following week, 2 weeks and a month.


3. Believe in the service


I went from thinking this method was an easy way to make money, to really believing in helping the businesses I serve. I tried a lot of options for funnel software but they all felt outdated to me. I developed my own funnel because I have a background in design. I shared it with some of you before and we’ve all better conversion rates because of it. Whenever you sell something, make sure you’d use it first.


4. Be ready for sales


I started this method without a funnel or process for how to handle clients after I’ve signed them. The first part is easy, find a white label solution that you like and make sure they’re prepared for random shit Google does with it’s rating system algorithms. Second has a few parts: have a solid contract, set up automatic payments, and keep all your transactions documented. I really mean keep all your cheques in order because I started this project thinking I was going to make a few extra bucks for beer money; I never knew I would grow this into a nation-wide company. Taxes are a bitch if you’re not ready so don’t fall behind! I personally use Freshbooks to keep everything neat.


Anyway, I didn’t expect this post to end up so long. I hope you guys learned something and if you have any questions, hit me up on skype: dylzilla i'm always game to talk shop and can add you to our ORM Skype group if interested.

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Hey H0BB5, interested to know about your Google Maps scraper! I am trying to design my own too using Python.

bingbang said:

Hey H0BB5, interested to know about your Google Maps scraper! I am trying to design my own too using Python.

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Nice, we made ours with Python as well. We haven't used the scraper in a while since we still have csv's saved which we haven't touched from previous scrapes. Google updates the paths so frequently it's a pain to keep it updated/functional.

We developed a tool that automates the review page printouts for us - much easier for those doing 7878 method. We're considering opening publicly for bhw'ers to use for their own lead gen. I’ll send you a demo video in a private message if you'd like.

H0BB5 said:

Nice, we made ours with Python as well. We haven't used the scraper in a while since we still have csv's saved which we haven't touched from previous scrapes. Google updates the paths so frequently it's a pain to keep it updated/functional.

We developed a tool that automates the review page printouts for us - much easier for those doing 7878 method. We're considering opening publicly for bhw'ers to use for their own lead gen. I’ll send you a demo video in a private message if you'd like.

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Yes, I thought about the Google updates!!
Yes, send me a demo, as this could save me some time to get this rolling!!!

Such an impressive read. Thanks for the morale-boosting journey

It's about perspective management in conclusion for sending letters, cold calling or anytime else. It's just two major factors that determines the success of any implemented techniques.

1. Do you make the targeted owner feel special, pampered and showered with attention for the fact that a specially curated call, letter, mail is sent to him (in person if you can)?
2. Do you make him feel that he is losing out for not needing you?

Thank you for the great and informative thread. This and 7878's breakdown have been inspiring. After reading it all I was wondering if the demo @bingbang was interested in was ever released? Possible to get a PM as well?

Thanks again!

Really interesting thread!

Super interested in the tools you developed! Can you please DM me??

This is a really interesting thread. Went through 7878 thread and then came across this while searching to learn more. I will keep reading up on this to learn more and apply it IRL. Thank you for sharing.