Archive | March, 2019

Let’s face it – it’s getting a little harder these days to do offline marketing. There’s more competition than ever before as more and more marketers break into the field. There are also more potential services to sell, which just tends to confuse the heck out of both the business owners and the new offline marketers. And as more and more marketers are offering more services to business owners, the owners are often saying “no” before they even know what they’re turning down.

But it’s still true that offline marketing can be hugely lucrative for anyone who makes a serous attempt at it, especially if they find a way to stand apart from the crowd. Imagine the edge you could enjoy over every other offline marketer if you offered business owners just one thing – the thing they want the most – more customers.

Very few marketers are doing this, yet it’s probably the easiest service of all to sell to a business owner.

You could practically pick and choose which clients you work with, because what business owner is going to say ‘no’ to new customers? None in their right mind. Especially when they only pay you for leads or for actual customers. If you don’t deliver, they don’t get paid. Thus there is absolutely no risk to them. And with no risk, there is no reason for them to say no.

So how do you go about getting these leads and new customers for your clients? First, you’re going to think locally, not globally. You’re getting leads for a specific type of local business that serves a specific geographic area, such as a city or region.

Second, you’re going to build a website and then you’re going to drive traffic to that website. You do want to use good SEO, but you don’t want to rely just on search engine traffic. After all, your site could rise or fall on the whim of the search engines. That’s why you’ll want a paid traffic source you can rely on such as Google Ads.

You’ll be choosing niches that can pay you high referral fees so you can afford to spend money to get those leads and still pocket plenty of profit. For example, let’s say it takes you $50 in Google Ads to get a new patient for a dentist. If you’re charging the dentist $100 per new patient then you can do this all day long.

You’ll want to retain ownership of your websites for two reasons. First, if your client ever stops working with you, you’ll be able to sell your leads to a similar client in the same area. For example, if you’re getting leads for a contractor in Austin, Texas, and one day that contractor decides for whatever reason to stop using your leads, you can simply begin selling your leads to one of their competitors.

The second reason to retain ownership of your lead generating websites is so that you can make changes on the fly. Let’s say your site is ranking high but one day it falls to page 3. You can immediately make changes in your SEO without having to get them approved by the business.

As you can see, this business model is fairly simple and the competition is still relatively low. The field is wide open and getting clients can be as easy as asking if they can handle more business.

Here are a few questions you might have:

Q. What type of website should I build?

A. A small WordPress site targeting the best buyer keywords works well. Figure 5 to 10 pages, 10 to 25 keywords to start if you’re optimizing for SEO. Each website should target one niche in one town. For example, dentists in Tacoma or chiropractors in Atlanta.

Q. How do I find the keywords? Can you give keyword examples?

A. Use the Google Keyword Planner to find out which terms are commonly searched for in a particular industry. Then add those keywords to the location to form your keyword phrases. For example, Tacoma Washington dentist. Use singular and plural, and also add appropriate “buying” keywords, such as buy, rent, lease, hire, etc. Lastly, add descriptive keywords such as best, cheap, fast, etc.

Q. What domain should I use for my site?

A. First, don’t buy a domain that uses the actual business name. For example, if your client is Bob Smith, dentist, Tacoma Washington, don’t buy BobSmithTacomaDentist.com because if he ever stops using your services you won’t be able to use that domain. Second, choose something generic with your best keywords in a .com, .org or .net. For example, TacomaWashingtonDentist.com or DentistTacomaWashington.com. (These may or may not already be real sites.)

Q. What should I have on my website?

A. – A toll-free number prominently displayed.

– A contact form above the fold. (70-80% of people will call, 20-30% of people will fill out the contact form.)

– Images – either use images from your client or buy your own images.

– Lots of headings and paragraphs to break up the content.

– Great content with a clear call to action. Don’t use PLR for this – either write your content yourself or outsource it. If you need ideas, check similar websites but do not copy. Above all, make your copy engaging.

– Proof – real customer testimonials are good for this, as well as industry backed facts quoted with sources (IE: “People using a lawyer for their personal injury claim receive on average $42,000 more per claim than those going through the process without legal representation.” – The American Bar Assoc.) btw, I just made that up – DO NOT use it.

Q. What shouldn’t I have on my website?

A. Anything that is on the client’s own website. Assuming they have their own site, you’ll want to use all fresh and unique content. If you need to post their address, do so as an image so Google doesn’t see it as duplicating. And don’t use PLR. Ever.

Q. How do I charge?

A. It’s up to you and the client, but here are some suggestions:

Get paid for the leads you generate, rather than the sales you make. You’ll get paid less per lead of course, but you’ll get paid for every lead regardless of whether or not they become a customer. It’s important to note that clients may be more reluctant to do it this way if they are not confident in their ability to close leads. You can overcome their resistance by giving the first leads to them for free so that they can test the quality of the leads before agreeing to pay for your services.

Establish a flat rate for each sale you generate. Your client might offer many different services at different prices, in which case you can establish a different flat rate for each service. With flat rate you typically get paid right away.

Take a certain percentage of each sale. If your client bills far into the future rather than upfront, you might not get paid for awhile using this method. Commissions over the lifetime of the client/customer relationship. For example, if your client is a landscaper and they service the client weekly for months or years, you could get paid a small amount of money for a long time, which adds up.

Q. Are there any clients I should avoid?

A. Yes. Any business in direct competition with one of your existing clients. For example, you can work with one dentist in each geographical area, but not two dentists in the same small to mid-sized town (2 dentists in a large city would almost certainly be alright, but after that look for other locations or other professions.)

Also avoid any business that does not either make a large sale up front or offer a long term ongoing service. For example, a bakery wouldn’t be a good business since each sale is probably $5 to $20. But a doctor, lawyer, accountant, contractor, swimming pool sales, realtor, insurance agent, mortgage broker, etc., would all make for good clients. So would someone who provides an ongoing service such as the landscaping and lawn care we mentioned earlier, or a maid service, high paid personal trainer, etc.

Q. How do I know which businesses to approach?

A. Look for those that are already spending money on trying to get business. This might be in the Yellow Pages, Google Ads, newspaper advertising, etc. These are businesses looking for more customers and ready to spend money to get those customers.

Q. How do I track leads?

A. The opt-in form makes tracking of those leads easy. You can even offer an incentive such as a relevant report to encourage their opt-ins, and then follow up to encourage them to use your client’s services.

For the phone number, you can use a virtual reception service to take down the name and number of each caller before forwarding them to the business.

Local affiliate marketing can be extremely lucrative if you’re willing to put some time into it. You’ll need to build websites, optimize them and run Google Ads campaigns. But once you get everything set up, you can continue to make money for months or years to come with very little additional effort.

Hopefully you are the exception to these mistakes. If you’re not, take heart: 9 out of 10 online marketers make these very same mistakes. Here’s how to rise above your competition and increase your bottom line simply by NOT making these 5 mistakes…

Spamming on social media. You opened your Twitter account with the best of intentions to Tweet valuable content and answer questions, but now nearly every tweet you send out is a link promoting a product. If this is you, then it’s time for a change. Promotion is fine as long as it makes up only 20-30% of your tweets at MOST. The rest should be content rich and helpful to your followers. And this goes for every social media network, not just Twitter.

Not testing. You create a new squeeze page but you don’t test one headline against another. Result? Every day that goes by, you are losing money. Test everything and eventually the exact same effort will yield 1.5, 2 or even 3 times the results.

Not asking for the sale. Whether you’re looking for an opt-in, a share or a sale, tell them exactly what you want them to do. If you don’t make your call-to-action clear, you will get less than stellar results every time.

Ignoring your current customers. Are you so busy looking for new business that you forget to pay attention to your most important asset – your current customers? These are the people who already trust you enough to have purchased at least one of your products. That’s why your current customers are actually your best future prospects in the world – treat them like gold.

Talking about you, you and YOU. Do you know who your customers care about? Themselves. They don’t care about you, only about what you can do for them. This sounds harsh, but it’s true. Yes, you can tell them an anecdote about what happened to you last weekend, but it better have something in it for them. Your customers don’t want you or your products. They want solutions to their problems. Remember this and you can’t go wrong.

It’s almost cliché: People buy from and work with people they know, like and trust. People get to know you through your content, and they trust you based on your reputation and track record of service. But how do you get people to LIKE you?

Be honest. Who doesn’t like an honest person? If I came to you and said I did a really stupid thing and asked for your forgiveness, you would almost certainly forgive me AND think more highly of me, even though I did the stupid thing. But if I tried to cover it up and you found out, you probably wouldn’t like me, and who could blame you?

This is why mistakes are actually an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between vendors and customers. When the vendor owns up to the mistake and takes immediate action to correct it, the customer will often feel even more positive about the vendor than if the entire transaction had gone off without a hitch.

Be responsive. When someone takes the time to write to you, write back. When an affiliate has a question or concern, answer it immediately. If you can’t, let them know you’ve received their message and will be replying as soon as you can.

If your joint venture partners and affiliates can’t get a hold of you when things are running smoothly, they’ll be concerned that you won’t be there for them should something go wrong. And if you (or your assistant) answers customers questions in a timely manner, you will stand apart from those competitors who never bother to reply.

Be passionate. Yet another reason to work in niches you love – when you’re passionate about your topic, people just naturally like you. You exude an energy and charisma that draws people to you. Positivity is contagious – and people who are passionate about the topic will naturally bond with you.

Tell stories. Imagine a subscriber is on 10 emails lists. 9 of those lists are a constant bombardment of “BUY THIS!” But the owner of the 10th list tells stories. In fact, every email s/he sends contains a story, even if it’s still selling something. Which emails will get opened and read? And who will the subscribers like more? I know of list owners who promote a product every single day to their lists, but because they always tell an interesting story, their open rate is through the roof.

It’s no different than 150 years ago when the farmers would sit around the wood stove in the general store in the middle of winter. The farmer with the best stories was almost always the most beloved of the bunch.

Be yourself. Vulnerability, humility and authenticity will shine through every time. Which of your friends do you like the best? Odds are it’s the ones who don’t put on a facade and can just be themselves.

In the long running British series, “Last of The Summer Wine,” 2 of the main characters were Compo and Foggy. Compo had all sorts of faults, dressed like a bum and obviously didn’t care what people thought. Foggy, on the other hand, was continually trying to paint himself as a regimental, heroic leader. He cared a great deal about what others thought and often told stories of his many imaginary exploits in the great war. Of course he was really rather timid and somewhat incompetent. But he was too busy putting on a false front to notice that he was the only one who believed it.

So which character do you think was most beloved? Compo of course.

Use humor. You don’t have to be a comedian or even tell jokes if you’re not good at it. Simply telling tales about yourself and laughing right along with your readers and viewers will show you have a sense of humor. And they will be able to relate to you all the better when they see you can laugh at your own stupid mistakes.

Surprise people. Find ways to pleasantly surprise your affiliates and customers and they’ll keep coming back for more. For example, you might do a blog post in which you thank each of your active affiliates by name. It wouldn’t cost you a cent, but it would certainly surprise and delight your affiliates when you took the time to publicly recognize their efforts.

Be thankful. Thank your joint venture partners and affiliates every chance you get (see the previous paragraph.) And of course thank your customers. Simply sending an email is a good start, but consider taking your gratefulness further by sending e-cards or actual snail mail cards or even calling. Imagine calling someone who just purchased your $97 product just to say thank you. You’ll have a new best friend for a customer every time you do it.

Keep it simple. Every day the world gets a little bit more complicated, which is an opportunity for you to find a way to simplify things. Taking complex ideas and distilling them down to their simplest forms makes it far easier for your audience to understand what you’re saying and to appreciate you for making it easy for them.

Take a look at every component of your business and find ways to simplify. Is your ordering system a 4 page maze of forms and check boxes? Simplify it. Is your product 26 videos of step-by-step information? Make a mind map so they can see the entire thing on one page. Do you make new affiliates jump through a hoop or two before they can promote you? Simplify. The last thing anyone needs is more complication. By making things simple, you will again become that much more likeable.

If you are the marketer who is honest, responsive, passionate and thankful, who tells stories and uses humor, who keeps things simple and down to earth and even occasionally surprises people, you will be well-liked indeed.