Getting started in offline marketing

by ShaunQ
2 replies
Hi everybody,

I'm new to this part of the forum and was hoping you guys could give me a few tips to get me started in this offline world!

A quick introduction. I'm an accountant/analyst by trade, but never particularly enjoyed the office lifestyle. Its been a dream of mine to work for myself and having recently been made redundant I feel this is the time. I've been a procrastinator in the past and I want to stop this right now... I do not want to look back in a year or so and still be at the same point, its time to move forward. I had a little dabble in IM, primarily building adsense sites. This seemed like a good introduction to the marketing world, but I don't like how hit and miss these sites seem to be especially for such small change. However I did enjoy building the websites so I consider that a bonus!

I have decided to attempt to start selling websites to small local businesses. This gives me the option to expand in the future into offering other services. Having read several posts on this forum, it seems that the type of niches to target are handymen (plumbers, builders, decorators, etc), solicitors and dentists. Could anyone recommend any other niches that someone new to this game should look into targetting?

To get started my intention is to build a website. I was going to make a sample site showing the type of themes I would use for each niche, so it would be useful to know all the niches I should target in advance of this!

My second question is regarding my list. This is primarily to the UK based forum members, but where is it you find your potential clients who do not have a website? I have seen the yellow pages mentioned, and this will be where I start, but I wondered if there was an automated way of getting the list, or is it just manual labour going through the actual book?!

My final question is regarding the pricing points for the site. I think from a newbie point of view it is hard to accept that businesses will pay large sums of money for me to put a site together for them and so charge too little. But charge too much and you price people out of the market. I'd also like to know my pricing point is realistic before I start selling, as this is an area I may initially lack confidence, and so when it comes to generating a quote for the client I want to remain confident and not in fear that the customer will laugh at a high quote. Obviously this sort of issue will diminish with experience. So if anyone is prepared to share with me the sort of prices they are charging their customers just for a small website then that would be hugely appreciated. Residual income would be fantastic, and I understand some people charge around £30 per month for hosting?

Thankyou so much in advance for your help. If anyone is interested in my exploits then I'm more than happy to keep a diary and update it regularly.

Thanks.
#marketing #offline #started
  • Profile picture of the author MartinBuckley
    I know that John Durham made a great post here on the offline section of the warrior forum on making money creating and selling website to offline businesses, so do a search for his name and I'm sure you will find it.

    All the best,

    Martin
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  • Profile picture of the author RD Phoenix
    I would suggest if you are going in low cost then try and rent but with 18 month or 2 year contract.
    There are some very good local themes around and you can quickly get the hang of them or get an outsourcer to do it for you.
    The biggest thing is just getting to talk to business owners as much as you can. The presentation is important but often we can spend too much time making things just right and not actually generating business by contacting potential clients.
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