The Easiest Way to Get Offline Clients
In the last month I have bartered my services as a webdesigner, and marketer to three local businesses in exchange for their services as: an exterminator, a home cleaning service and lawn maintenance. Our agreement is that as long as I maintain, and host their sites, they provide ongoing service to me.
I haven't tested this theory extensively, but my guess is that this works best with service based businesses that will *mostly* be giving you their time, and not physical merchandise.
I began by posting an ad in the "barter" section on my local Craigslist. I explained my experience, and that I was wanting to move into the local business market, but needed sites to put in my portfolio. I had two businesses contact me through that ad. I don't live in a very large city.
Then, I went to the "services" section on my local Craigslist, and emailed directly those companies that offered services I was interested in. I sent them basically the same thing I posted in the bartering section, but customized it to fit their service. I emailed around five cleaning services. One replied, and the very nice lady who owns the business spent over five hours cleaning my house yesterday. My wife, who takes care of our two little girls during the day, is thrilled!
Finally, I found the lawn company by simply calling the number of businesses who had the small signs posted on the side of the road. I called two that way, giving the same information I had given in the emails. The first one I called wasn't ready for a website, but said they would contact me next year (we'll see). The second one said, "I like your idea, let's meet." We met, and he'll start cutting my grass this week. It just so happens that he has a simliar arrangement with the owner of the big small business web portal in town.
Maybe I got lucky by finding the business owners I found, but I think they were exceptionally open to my offer for one big reason. There was something in this for ME. If I had just offered them a free website, they would have been suspicious of me frome the beginning, and convincing them they could trust me would have been much harder. Because I made it clear to them that I wanted something in return (their services) and wanted to use their site in my portfolio, their "salesman" shield was down.
I wasn't able to do all of the work on these sites myself. For example, I outsourced the graphic design, and logo design, but that's cost me a grand total of $60. I purchased their domains for them too, but that was just a measly $10. I already had a reseller account with plenty of space for these types of sites, so I just plugged them right in.
In a couple of weeks, I'll have three local businesses with functioning sites that I can show to potential offline clients as examples of what I can do. And because of feedback I've already gotten, I know I'm going to get some great testimonials from these business owners I'm already working with.
72 Hour Article Review Guarantee - Acme Articles
NLP Website Design Secrets for Internet Marketers - NLP Cash
Learn the Secrets to Website Branding - Website Branding Strategies
SupportPRO -24/7 transparent outsourced tech support
Expert web application development and programming
Consulting Tycoon
[SALES COPYWRITING] "$80,000 in Just One Email!"
REVIEWS & LOTS OF EXAMPLES!
[SALES COPYWRITING] "$80,000 in Just One Email!"
REVIEWS & LOTS OF EXAMPLES!