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OFFLINERS: Making money is so much easier than you think

by kswr123
4 replies
Hey Guys,

Mubarak Waseem here.

Now, a lot of people on the main forum are asking more offline questions, so I thought that I would post a quick nugget of info:

From my year or so of experience in the offline niche, I have found that the NUMBER ONE THING I need to do is get my clients to REMEMBER my first contact with them.

Let me tell you what I mean,

In the UK, there are thousands of SEO companies all offering the same services to businesses - businesses literally get hundreds of SEO requests through their door. Now, just thanks to the warrior forum I know more SEO than these companies do, hence why they are trying to rank for short-tailed high-competition keywords.

I want to stand out from that same old crowd, and so there are different things that I do.

Firstly, why not try to send something a little 'different'. Instead of the usual 'imagine how it would be to get to the top of google', why not send them an image of a google search page with their competition on it, and than photoshop in some text saying: He is getting 1200 more visitors than you a MONTH or something like that.

Even if you are sending plain ole' emails, make them stand out from the crowd - you need a USP or unique selling point. I use 'student in summer vacation, doing a few projects' etc. I'm sure that you can use your own.

Let me give you another example: I was talking on the phone to the owner of a company after sending him an email the previous 2 days.

Now, this guy gets around 50 emails a DAY from other businesses all offering im different rubbish from Pizza hut to loans to Viagra etc etc

I was on the phone to him, and BEFORE I told him who I was, and BEFORE I mentioned the preliminary email that I sent him, he said "ahh, you emailed me a couple of days ago. I remember that".

Why?

Well, I made sure that my email STOOD OUT. No, Dear Sir/Madam. I went straight in with "You're busy. So am I. Let's keep this short and sweet".

I have to wrap this post up now, and I wish I could re-iterate and give you guys more examples.

just remember that there are plenty of fish in the sea, but only a few whales. And it's the whales that stand out. If you want to stand out, you'll have to do something pretty spectacular (but, don't jump in and out of water )

OK, perhaps that analogy failed. Just make sure that you, at all times, keep in mind that you will NEVER get a client until you can stand out from the crowd. It may be expensive to do so, but rather than an expense I call it an investment.

Mubarak
#easier #making #money #offliners
  • Profile picture of the author GoGetta
    Hey Mubarek,

    I agree completely!

    There is certainly enough business to go around even though competition is fierce. The hard part is actually standing out from the crowd. The approach when prospecting is important for many reasons.

    * First Impressions
    * Standing Out
    * Trust
    * Being Taken Seriously

    These are just a couple of the many barriers.

    This is where testing comes into play. If something doens't work for you, don't give up and think offline is too hard, or it isn't as easy as everyone says. Do what others do, and try different routes!

    Its the same as IM, test, tweak, test, tweak, test, tweak, BE CREATIVE!

    Then when you find something that works, keep hitting it home!

    GoGetta
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    • Profile picture of the author garyfromdurham
      You are right about there being thousands of SEO companies in the UK.

      5 - 10 years ago web site designers were all of the rage and now it is SEO.

      A lot of offline businesses are sick of them...but do you know why?

      In most cases they have not got a clue what half of these SEO companies are promoting and they just switch off.

      I attended a networking even last week and 99% of the businesses did not have a clue how to promote their web sites BUT they weren't interested in SEO companies either.

      When I dug down a bit I found out it was because they did not understand what the SEO companies were offering.

      It was like the SEO companies were speaking a foreign language to them.

      Take a look at the majority of SEO sites and you need a degree just to understand what on earth they are talking about.

      Your average web site owner does not have a clue what they are talking about.

      All they see is "blah blah blah web site blah blah blah customers blah blah blah Google blah blah blah ........" zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

      If you manage to break throught that barrier and have the penny finally drop in their minds what you can do for them you will have a customer for life.

      Forget using terms like SEO and start talking about making their web site finally start earning some money and help them get back the massive investment that they put into getting the web site created.

      Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    The point you make is a good one but it doesn't have to cost anything to stand out.

    I don't advertise for my clients - they all come to me because of what other people tell them.

    There are a lot of people that treat getting offline clients as a numbers game and then just look for how to flood as many of them as possible with a message.

    That can work, and you then end up spending a lot of effort trying to make your message effective because you're interrupting them with it and need to be creative to get a response.

    You can be much more subtle and get great responses.

    I seems to come down to how you are describing your value.

    If you're trying to sell 'leads' 'traffic' 'rankings' 'extra business' etc... then you're still selling.

    If you go under the radar so that they think they're getting what they want from you and you don't realise the value you're offering - you don't need to sell at all.

    I used to love testing this sort of thing out - it's fun, even in the IM niche.

    If you put up a landing page and make the product price $27 - you'll get one conversion rate.

    If you put the same page but have the copy state $47 but the buy button says $27 - more people often buy, because they think they're getting a bargain you weren't planning to give them.

    People like to think they're getting more than they're paying for - this goes for cold-calling too.

    If you call and say you can give them extra business - you'll get resistance from some of them even though they want extra business.

    If you say you've found a source of leads and are trying to find out who might be able to use them - they'll react differently.

    It's fun to play with this stuff and not come at everything from a "how do I convince them to buy" angle.

    Andy
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    • Profile picture of the author kswr123
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      The point you make is a good one but it doesn't have to cost anything to stand out.
      Very true indeed Andrew - I remember the first time someone came to me through another client of mine - it was a great feeling, because businesses only tend to recommend services and products that have actually given them RESULTS.

      It was only because I had sat down with him and translated SEO for him that he realised why it was so important.

      mubarak
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