Case Study Of How To Sell Your Online Marketing Skills To A Local Business
Friday, January 18th, 2008Last week I wrote a blog post, called Selling Your Online Marketing Skills To Local Businesses.
I wrote the post after reading Andrew Cavanagh’s new report called “Offline Gold For Online Marketers – The Simple System For Selling Your Online Marketing Skills To Local Businesses”.
I was very impressed with Andrew’s report, so much so that I immediately contacted him and asked him if I could offer his report to my list members and blog readers. I had no doubt that his practical and step-by-step advice would work.
Would like to share something with you that happened this week…
As you may know, I am busy finalizing a new report I am working on about niche marketing. I decided that I would not focus on anything else this week. However, things don’t always turn out the way we plan…
I got a phone call from a friend of mine that has been trying for several months to get a website done for his offline business. He originally asked me a couple of months ago if I could help him but I politely declined, saying that I am not a website designer but an internet marketer.
After reading Andrew’s report I decided that it may not be a bad idea at all to sell some of my time and skills to local businesses. The thing that appealed to me most was not getting paid something like $1500 a day to build a website. No. I was really interested in the residual monthly income possibilities. It starts getting quite interesting when you have a portfolio of 100 websites!
Anyway, my friend was complaining that he still does not have a website and is getting really frustrated at the lack of interest some website designers have shown in getting his business.
I was about to say something like “Yeah right, it is terrible… blah blah blah…” while thinking I hope he is not going to ask me again to help him because I simply do not have the time right now and must finish my report, when I remembered Andrew’s report…
Instead of sympathizing with him and telling him I will phone him back sometime, I decided to help him. He has a business that sells individualized weight loss solutions in Cape Town. His main method of getting new patients is by advertising in local and regional newspapers and magazines. The problem is that his weight loss solution program really works but it is not cheap.
Many people will only see his advertisement once in the paper (one exposure to his message). Some will phone him for additional information (two exposures to his message). Fact of the matter is that many people do not like to phone for information and selling the program over the phone is not easy…
He really wanted a website that he could refer people to for additional information. His intention was to mention the website address in his newspaper advertisements. He could also refer people to his website when they phoned him…
He received many phone calls from people that were interested in his program but wanted to visit his website to get more information and to read some success stories.
Imagine their reaction at being told there is no website!
After thinking about it for a couple of minutes I realized just how easy it was to help my friend. He did not need a massive website full of content. He had no interest in search engine optimization. First of all, the weight loss niche is VERY competitive, and, secondly he is only really able and interested in helping people from Cape Town.
What I proposed was the following:
He needs to work on building a list or database of prospects. It is not easy to establish your credibility as an expert in the weight loss niche! Especially when people do not know you, do not know if they can trust you and you are selling an expensive weight loss solution.
I felt that he had to get his message across more than once (newspaper advertisement) or twice (when prospects phone for more information after reading his newspaper advertisement).
Although I was confident that even a simple website would be better than no website at all, I felt that he had to work on his credibility. He had to show goodwill and create an impression that he really wants to help people and are not only interested in their money.
I suggested that he not only provide people with additional information about his weight loss solutions but that he offers a free seven day email course to people where he shares useful weight loss tips for free that has nothing to do with his program.
At the end of each email he can remind people about his weight loss program and even list one or two additional benefits per email. Furthermore, he can encourage his list members to forward the email to any of their friends that they feel may benefit from reading it.
He can also compile a short but free report that new members can instantly download when they join his list. The possibilities are endless…
By working on building up a database of prospects and by providing these prospects with good and helpful information he does not only establish his credibility and goodwill… He also gets his message across at least nine times, instead of only once or twice!
Why am I sharing this story?
Many offline businesses feel that they do not need a website in order to sell their products or services. Furthermore, it is not always easy to give an offline business owner an estimate of how much traffic his website will generate and how many new sales he will conclude as a direct result of having a website.
When a business places an ad in a newspaper they are given a lot of information such as readership base, number of copies that are sold every day, etc. For example, “Our newspaper is read by more than 100,000 people every day”.
What do you tell the owner about putting up a website? You are going to get 100,000 visitors every day? No… So, why don’t you turn the situation around? For example, tell him that even if every single visitor to his website is an existing customer and even if his website does not generate one new customer it is still worthwhile investing in a website.
Why? Because he can and should be building a database full of BUYERS. He should work on strengthening his relationship with his customers. He should work on fostering customer loyalty. He customers should feel embarrassed at the thought of spending their money somewhere else, simply because he is giving them so much value.
Illustrate to him the advantages of sending one promotional email to a huge list or database of PROVEN BUYERS. Buyers that he has built up a relationship with. Buyers that trust him.
An autoresponder company such as Aweber will allow you to add unlimited mailing lists. Every single email can be personalized.
You see, an offline business can really benefit from a website, even if that website does not bring them any new customers.
The business owner can simply give every client a little card with his website address and promise them a free gift or free information when they sign up for his mailing list. He can even argue that his “members” get special discounts or hear about new promotions first before everyone else. He can say that he emails special coupons to his members, etc.
How can you help? Well, you can write the email messages. In fact, you don’t even need to write it yourself… You can preprogram a sequence of messages into Aweber that will provide your client’s customers with content (say one email per week) for a whole year. All you need to do is write and send the occasional broadcast message to his whole list whenever he runs a special promotion or wants to make an important announcement.
There are so many money making opportunities when you just take the time to think about it!
In case you are interested, Andrew has not yet increased the price of his report. You can still pick it up for under $20! Simply click on the following link: Internet Marketing From Home
That’s all for now. I have a report to finish! 
To YOUR Online Marketing Success!
Francois du Toit
Your Host Francois du Toit
