Offline Business Dev Ideas....includes pricing
This post is for those you looking to get started in Offline Business. I have noticed some confusion on what to do first, how to get clients, etc. I hope I can give you some advice from my experience.
First:
If you are fairly new to IM, I suggest the first thing you do is open an Aweber account and learn how to set it up on a website or blog. Use a test website that you aren't promoting, but learn the mechanics of setting it up. There are plenty of videos and tutorials out there to show you how to get the most out of your Aweber account.
Next, create a reseller hosting account at a service like Hostgator. This is useful for turning over the websites or blogs you create to your clients. You also earn annual commissions on hosting and the domain names for the client. There are plenty of videos and tutorials on how to manage your reseller account.
After that, learn how to register a domain and set up a blog (such as Wordpress) on your reseller account.
After doing these things, create a blog for yourself around a niche you can research and develop content for, and set it up to build an email list for your niche. Make sure to install an analytics package, such as Google Analytics. Make sure to add content consistently and use a nice theme. Keep this blog rolling, as it will help you close business.
Drive traffic to your blog using articles and social bookmarking traffic. By now you should have developed a strong level of confidence to talk to prospects. You will use this as your sample, showing your list stats and your traffic stats to prove your skills.
To Get Prospects:
I'm sure Andrew Cavanaugh (who knows Offline like nobody else) will check in and let me know that my prospecting methods are nothing new, but either way this is what ACTUALLY works to get prospects and I'm not saying that I am an innovator...
1) I meet small web designers and web hosting companies at Chamber of Commerce events. Most DO NOT do internet marketing the way we think of it. They may say they do SEO, but when you start talking about traffic-building and link-building you can see you are leaving them in the dust. It will take time to crack this nut, BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT. Most of my business comes from this network of folks.
I will research sites they have built (most put their link in the footer of the website and you can find by Googling their name) and I will email them and tell them I have a few ideas to get the traffic to the site. I ask if they would like to contact the customer and arrange to discuss it. They already know I am willing to act as a subcontractor to them on the deal, so everything can be done in their name and they can charge whatever they want over and above me. They also know I pay referral fees because it is in my email signature and LinkedIn profile. Many are interested enough that they make the call and get an appointment. All I need is one appointment with them in the room and they are sold to continue to refer people to me. Currently my best referral source is a web hosting company, and they refer me at least 3 businesses per week.
2) I hire college interns to create leads using a marketing survey. They canvass local businesses with a 3 question survey. They do not collect contact info, but they do write the business name down on the survey before they turn them in to me. After the survey they give the business owner a flyer with basic information about internet marketing. It is NOT a sales flyer. On this flyer is also the INTERN'S email address set up for this purpose. The biz owner can request more info using this email address. I pay them for each email they get and forward to me, usually $10. I pay them a referral fee for each client that signs as a result of this, usually 5%. Make sure you obey local labor laws and make sure they know IT IS NOT for college credit.
For every 50 surveys I get I land about 5-7 clients.
3) I have developed my LinkedIn profile to drive leads. I have a Slideshare presentation embedded. I update my "message box" every week so the LinkedIn updates email to my network always contains a message from me. I attend as many networking events as I can, collect biz cards, and take a few minutes to tell people what I do. Then I spend the next day sending out connection requests with a message reminding them where we met and what I do. They will go to my profile and inevitably check out my slideshow. I get a confirmation of my connection request about 90% of the time. This has generated leads for me with very little additional effort, mostly from seeing my weekly message update.
4) I have spoken as a panelist for a Chamber event. This is good, but I find these to be labor intensive for the return. I have picked up two clients from the one event, so other people would say it was worth it. Most people want to pick your brain, but not actually retain you.
I find that networking is far more effective than advertising. I consider the marketing survey more of a network opportunity than an advertising opportunity.
My Pricing:
Blog Creation - $500 (includes first 3 posts.)
Onsite Optimized Content Dev - $150/pg (Whitepapers - $400/paper)
Analytics Install - $200 one-time plus $50/mo reporting
Onsite SEO - $150/pg
Offsite (links from articles, guest blogging) Optimized Content Dev - $150/pg
Lead Generation System (aka List Build aka Autoreponder) - $500 setup
Email Transmission - $100 design, $100 for sending and reporting
Socialization (Manage online reputation via social platform outlets. (Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlogCritic, Technorati, etc.) - $750 setup, $250/mo
Link-Building - Priced based on campaign, but I charge $100 per Linkvana post as an example.
Video - $250 per finished minute using my equipment; commercial quality $1,200 per finished minute.
Video Syndication - $100/video
My average client spends about $3,000 over 12 months, but my video clients spend well over $6,000. I still have all of my monthly clients, but most clients spend in chunks, not monthly.
Hope this helps some of you starting out! Good luck.
First:
If you are fairly new to IM, I suggest the first thing you do is open an Aweber account and learn how to set it up on a website or blog. Use a test website that you aren't promoting, but learn the mechanics of setting it up. There are plenty of videos and tutorials out there to show you how to get the most out of your Aweber account.
Next, create a reseller hosting account at a service like Hostgator. This is useful for turning over the websites or blogs you create to your clients. You also earn annual commissions on hosting and the domain names for the client. There are plenty of videos and tutorials on how to manage your reseller account.
After that, learn how to register a domain and set up a blog (such as Wordpress) on your reseller account.
After doing these things, create a blog for yourself around a niche you can research and develop content for, and set it up to build an email list for your niche. Make sure to install an analytics package, such as Google Analytics. Make sure to add content consistently and use a nice theme. Keep this blog rolling, as it will help you close business.
Drive traffic to your blog using articles and social bookmarking traffic. By now you should have developed a strong level of confidence to talk to prospects. You will use this as your sample, showing your list stats and your traffic stats to prove your skills.
To Get Prospects:
I'm sure Andrew Cavanaugh (who knows Offline like nobody else) will check in and let me know that my prospecting methods are nothing new, but either way this is what ACTUALLY works to get prospects and I'm not saying that I am an innovator...
1) I meet small web designers and web hosting companies at Chamber of Commerce events. Most DO NOT do internet marketing the way we think of it. They may say they do SEO, but when you start talking about traffic-building and link-building you can see you are leaving them in the dust. It will take time to crack this nut, BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT. Most of my business comes from this network of folks.
I will research sites they have built (most put their link in the footer of the website and you can find by Googling their name) and I will email them and tell them I have a few ideas to get the traffic to the site. I ask if they would like to contact the customer and arrange to discuss it. They already know I am willing to act as a subcontractor to them on the deal, so everything can be done in their name and they can charge whatever they want over and above me. They also know I pay referral fees because it is in my email signature and LinkedIn profile. Many are interested enough that they make the call and get an appointment. All I need is one appointment with them in the room and they are sold to continue to refer people to me. Currently my best referral source is a web hosting company, and they refer me at least 3 businesses per week.
2) I hire college interns to create leads using a marketing survey. They canvass local businesses with a 3 question survey. They do not collect contact info, but they do write the business name down on the survey before they turn them in to me. After the survey they give the business owner a flyer with basic information about internet marketing. It is NOT a sales flyer. On this flyer is also the INTERN'S email address set up for this purpose. The biz owner can request more info using this email address. I pay them for each email they get and forward to me, usually $10. I pay them a referral fee for each client that signs as a result of this, usually 5%. Make sure you obey local labor laws and make sure they know IT IS NOT for college credit.
For every 50 surveys I get I land about 5-7 clients.
3) I have developed my LinkedIn profile to drive leads. I have a Slideshare presentation embedded. I update my "message box" every week so the LinkedIn updates email to my network always contains a message from me. I attend as many networking events as I can, collect biz cards, and take a few minutes to tell people what I do. Then I spend the next day sending out connection requests with a message reminding them where we met and what I do. They will go to my profile and inevitably check out my slideshow. I get a confirmation of my connection request about 90% of the time. This has generated leads for me with very little additional effort, mostly from seeing my weekly message update.
4) I have spoken as a panelist for a Chamber event. This is good, but I find these to be labor intensive for the return. I have picked up two clients from the one event, so other people would say it was worth it. Most people want to pick your brain, but not actually retain you.
I find that networking is far more effective than advertising. I consider the marketing survey more of a network opportunity than an advertising opportunity.
My Pricing:
Blog Creation - $500 (includes first 3 posts.)
Onsite Optimized Content Dev - $150/pg (Whitepapers - $400/paper)
Analytics Install - $200 one-time plus $50/mo reporting
Onsite SEO - $150/pg
Offsite (links from articles, guest blogging) Optimized Content Dev - $150/pg
Lead Generation System (aka List Build aka Autoreponder) - $500 setup
Email Transmission - $100 design, $100 for sending and reporting
Socialization (Manage online reputation via social platform outlets. (Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlogCritic, Technorati, etc.) - $750 setup, $250/mo
Link-Building - Priced based on campaign, but I charge $100 per Linkvana post as an example.
Video - $250 per finished minute using my equipment; commercial quality $1,200 per finished minute.
Video Syndication - $100/video
My average client spends about $3,000 over 12 months, but my video clients spend well over $6,000. I still have all of my monthly clients, but most clients spend in chunks, not monthly.
Hope this helps some of you starting out! Good luck.
theory of constraints project management consultant