Secrets From OfflineBiz.com Copyright 2010 Andrew Cavanagh all rights reserved The Lucrative Gold Mine In Brick And Mortar Businesses If you've studied internet marketing for 6 months or more then there's a very good chance you could be working with local brick and mortar businesses helping them with their internet marketing. What's exciting is that this kind of business requires no upfront capital, has no real costs and if you choose to you can outsource nearly all of the work involved. You can be charging $500 to $10,000+ upfront for each project. You can also charge ongoing monthly fees. Put simply it's quite possible to talk to a business owner today and get paid in advance to set up an internet marketing strategy that will make them real sales and profits. The Market Is HUGE And Almost Untouched If you just take a look online at the average business website it's kind of obvious that there has been pretty much NO penetration into any market of highly skilled internet marketing consultants. See if you can find a business website that has: # A website with good sales copy or good lead generating reports or any kind of site that would effectively move prospects forward in the sales process. # A website that captures contact details with a genuine incentive and gets people wanting to open those emails. And then has great email follow up that moves prospects or customers forward in the sales process. # An attempt to capture contact details of prospects and customers in the business and follow up with them by email etc. # The use of good SEO on the website and other methods like marketing with online video on sites like youtube, social bookmarking, article submission, online press releases etc etc. If you can find one business in 100 doing even a fraction of these strategies in your area I'll be very
surprised. And the great irony is even if a business was doing ALL of these they'd still be great prospects because they'd be looking for more strategies to increase the substantial profits they were already making (businesses that market well have even more money to spend on marketing). Looking at the broader view: Small business is the largest business niche in the world accounting for over half the turnover done in business. Helping small businesses with their internet marketing may be the largest growing niche in the world. If you include helping small businesses integrate their offline marketing, internet marketing and marketing to other devices like cell phones then it probably is the largest growing niche in the world. If you search in a local area you'd be lucky to find a handful of internet marketers who have any idea what they're doing...in most cases you'd be lucky to find one who understands how to help a brick and mortar business make real sales and profits. Put simply you have a world of opportunity open to you and the opportunities are getting better all the time and will continue to do so for many years to come. The people who master internet marketing for small business are going to be leaders in a massive industry in the future. I love outsourcing. Andrew Cavanagh On Outsourcing Who says I don't like outsourcing? When I was still a young man in my twenties (literally before the internet was invented) I built a small footwear manufacturing and retailing business. We made and sold surf sandals and leather sandals. I knew nothing about making sandals when I started but it's amazing how fast you can learn something when you already have customers (we started out buying footwear that was on clearance in discount supermarkets and footwear stores and selling them to tourists in the markets). The surf sandals required quite a bit of sewing to create the velcro straps and once we had worked out a process we outsourced all of that to local housewives with sewing machines. (For those of you who aren't old enough to remember some women chose to stay home and look after
the children...make a happy house etc. We used to call them housewives. Okay I'm kidding with you.) We also had piece workers on a few different parts of the production. That business went from zero to at one stage having as many as 12 different people doing various tasks at a per piece rate. One nice side benefit was that we could see the lives and finances of the people doing the piece work was improved enormously with extra income and a sense of controlling their own lives (we let them do as much work as they wanted from home at whatever pace they wanted). I am a huge fan of outsourcing work and in setting up your business so as far as possible it can run without you. You can outsource any task. If you couldn't then share owned companies couldn't exist. One thing I think it's important to understand: The real value of a business is in the relationship of trust it has built with its clients... When you're starting out in this business model of selling internet marketing services to brick and mortar businesses it's vital to understand that your business is going to rise or fall on the relationships you build with business owners. So if you want a stable thriving business at the outset building your skills at talking to business owners and committing to building those relationships yourself is probably the best strategy. In the paid Gold Members section of offlinebiz.com we have a whole range of resources that will help you develop your skills at talking to businesss owners and building strong relationships: Talking With Business Owners Threads And Resources (ebook, audio and over 50 different threads answering every question you have)... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=7&threadid=1767 NOTE: This link is a paid Gold Members resource. If you know 100% you can't do that you may want to consider having a joint venture partner who can. Over the years at offlinebiz.com we have seen members at both extremes...completely unable and unwilling to talk to business owners in any way and only wanting to talk to business owners and unable to do anything else. Members have partnered up in various ways to overcome those challenges.
You're The Web Go To Guy Or Gal... But You Don't Want To Be Changing That Font Color At 3am In The Morning Be aware that someone who trusts you and considers you a friend and sees you as being an expert on anything to do with their website and the internet can end up asking you a lot of minor technical questions and ask you to do a lot of minor tasks that can be time consuming to do yourself but simple to outsource to someone else. Ideally you want questions and tasks like that sent in emails so you can just forward them on to someone who can handle them. One good guideline would be if it's a conversation where you're building a relationship in some way it's better to do it on the phone or in person. If it's technical stuff it's better to train your clients to send those questions and problems by email. This is quite simple to do. Once you're beyond the initial period of building a relationship and you have a paying client any time they ask a question like that or ask you to do something technical say something like: Bob I want to make sure I get anything like that done for you as quickly as I can. With things like this there's often passwords or other technical details that are best written down. Could you send me that question in an email to make sure we don't make any mistakes... Many of these emails can be forwarded immediately without any extra work on your part. If you have support staff answering email they may be able to forward a high percentage of the emails or handle the issue themselves. Everyone Starts In A Different Place When you're starting out selling internet marketing services to regular brick and mortar businesses you may already have some internet marketing skills. You may have some business skills. Or you may have no skills in that area. Generally speaking you make the process a whole lot easier for yourself if you start out by making suggestions to business owners based: # The skills you already have. In other words sell a service you know you can deliver yourself easily.
# Services you know you can outsource easily. In other words you already have a joint venture partner or outsource team in place. Or you've already talked to other members on offlinebiz.com, seen what they can do and you know what price range they charge in. There is a long list of Gold Members and the services they provide here: A List Of Gold Members And The Web Services, SEO, copywriting etc they can provide you (you can also add services YOU provide to this list)... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=3655 NOTE: This link is a paid Gold Members resource. Also if you need something or have something in mind it's a great idea to make a post on the Gold Members forum outlining what you have in mind and asking who might be able to provide it... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openforum.cfm?forum=6 NOTE: This link is a paid Gold Members resource. We have many members getting work done by other members, other members' outsourcing teams and many members doing various kinds of joint ventures together (it can be as simple as splitting fees 50/50). 9 Different Ways To Get Paying Clients Ultimately all you need to do to get new paying clients is: # Get in touch with a prospect in some way. They may find you through a website or other way but more likely it will be through actively seeking referrals, talking face to face, mail, email or phone. # Communicate with that prospect to get to the point where they are willing to hire you. # Charge enough upfront that you're happy to do the work even if you never get paid another cent. At Offlinebiz.com we have this article for FREE members that covers 9 Different Ways To Get Paying Clients (yes you can sign up for free membership and read this full resource)... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/255.cfm?sd=54 Forget About Selling... Just Ask Questions One huge mistake many people make starting out is simply trying to hard to sell a specific service. Business owners aren't going to buy your service...in fact they're usually not particularly interested in buying anything.
But they will choose to do business with you because they trust you. And one of the fastest ways to build rapport and trust is to ask questions and listen. We have two long lists of questions you can ask a business owner when you talk to him but it's also important to understand that this isn't supposed to be an interrogation. Don't just pull out a list of questions and start asking one after the other. Take the time to listen to what a business owner is telling you both with verbal and non verbal communication. Be genuinely interested. Ask questions based on the information he's sharing. If he wants to tell you about his children or his hobby or how he dented his car last week then let him. The more he opens up the trust he is building in you and the more likely he is to hire you. The most effective process for getting hired usually goes something like this: # Ask questions and listen. This may take 30 minutes to several hours in one or more times together. # Make customized suggestions based on the information you gather. # When the business owner gets excited about one of these suggestions expand on it and establish the potential dollar value of that suggestion. # Get paid enough in advance that you'll be happy doing the work even if you never get paid another cent. Asking questions and listening is by far the most important part of this process. These resources in the gold members section OfflineBiz.com go into the topics here in great detail: NOTE: These links are all paid Gold Members resources. What Questions Should I Ask Prospects...? http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/186.cfm What Questions Should You Ask Clients At The First Meeting...? http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/303.cfm How To Answer Questions If You're Starting Out Without Websites Or A Proven Track Record... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/193.cfm
If You're Worried About Credibility Read This... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=428 http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=4952 What To Do If You're Getting Asked Too Many Questions By Business Owners... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=24 Secrets To Establishing Value, Getting Hired And Massively Increasing The Fees You Can Charge... http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=2799 NOTE: These links are all paid Gold Members resources. Going Vertical Specializing In Serving One Type Of Business When you're starting out and you haven't talked to any business owners and you've never had a paying client the fastest way to develop some skills is to talk to everybody. For most people that will result in getting a paying client so you can develop some insights into the whole process of talking to business owners, getting hired and working with a client. What you'll find after having a few paying clients is that some types of businesses are more receptive to you possibly because of your personality or your previous experience or any other number of factors too long to list. You may also hit a home run with one business making them substantial profits fast. Or you might decide that you particularly enjoy working with a particular kind of business. At this point you can leverage the work you're doing in one kind of business by going vertical...focusing on getting clients in the same type of business across the country and across the world. This gives you the opportunity to use the same or very similar content for clients in different cities and to create specific products and other services you can supply to one niche. You can also leverage testimonials and results you've achieved from other businesses in the same industry. It can also make outsourcing various tasks simpler because many of the tasks you'll be undertaking will be so similar. In many cases you can expand into a specific industry niche simply by asking for referrals or recommendations from your happy client in the same business.
It helps enormously if the business type you choose has some kind of organization, active forum or event you can tap into or some easy way to get in contact with large numbers of members preferably by being endorsed as an expert. At worst you can always use online phone books and directories and direct mail, email and/or phone to contact one business type. But my one suggestion would be if you've never had a paying client you should probably get that out of the way before trying too hard to specialize. What Are The Best Types Of Businesses To Approach...? http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=262 http://www.offlinebiz.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=6&threadid=340 NOTE: These links are both paid Gold Members resources. Real Sales And Profits I think one of the most common reasons people have such difficulty making money in internet marketing is that all they focus on is making money for themselves. It comes across in everything they say and do. Just a simple shift in mindset can completely revolutionize the way you look at what you're doing and the results you're getting. When you shift your focus from trying to make money to looking for ways to help people and deliver real value the income tends to follow. Put another way if you find a way to deliver enormous value to businesses it's not going to be too difficult to find a way to charge for that. At OfflineBiz.com we heavily emphasize that you should have a serious commitment to producing real sales and profits for your clients over the fees they pay you. If you do that you've provided them an amazingly valuable service. Not every strategy you implement will work (or work immediately) and in general you should have a commitment to work with a client until you hit on something that does work. Tracking Results That brings up the topic of tracking the results of what you do and everyone has a different approach to this.
Laser accurate tracking can be awkward when you're helping a business integrate online and offline marketing strategies. In many cases you might find the most effective call to action is to get prospects to call the business on the telephone. Even if you tell prospects to ask for a specific offer (you give the offer a special and different name on each ad or web page so you can track where leads come from) you're relying on whoever answers the phone to keep an accurate record. If you have special offer coupons or emails that customers print out and bring into a business for a special deal then it's going to be fairly obvious how your marketing strategies are working in that case. Web sales and email inquiries are much easier to track...especially if a single client has large value. In other words it's easy to go back and work out that a multi thousand dollar client first emailed you through the contact form on your website. It's also easy to get website statistics on search engine traffic and to keep pay per click statistics. Ultimately for most small businesses a rough overall idea is enough for everyone to be happy. If you can estimate that you've made a business roughly 4 times what they've paid you in extra profits then that should be enough. The Amazing 4 Line Letter In the audio interview with John Jonas Jim gives his outline of how the Amazing 4 Line Letter works. The Amazing 4 Line Letter has produced a response rate of over 20% on average for members who use it (around 20% of the members you send the letter to will call you back). So members using this letter tend to shift their focus to handling those calls effectively so you can turn a reasonable percentage of the callers into paying clients. This takes that major skill of talking to business owners which is why gold members get access to the Amazing 4 Line Letter around 3 ½ weeks after joining so they have a chance to absorb and apply the resources on talking to business owners before getting those calls. I should warn you in advance that if you try to use what Jim explained on that interview without having access to the actual wording of the 4 Line Letter and the report that goes with it then you probably won't do so well.
After a couple of months we realized that some people were changing different elements in that letter and it was killing their response. So a whole section was added on the psychology of the letter and how it works to produce a response rate that is incredibly high for direct mail. Put simply you need the exact wording and directions to expect such an amazing response. And to protect the letter from overuse we only make it available to paid Gold Members of Offlinebiz.com (by itself that should be more than enough reason to become a gold member). If you were given this report by John Jonas you can become a paid Gold Member of OfflineBiz.com through this affiliate link... OfflineBiz.com