Taking things niche by niche....
A few things....
One of the things I'm very much starting to learn as I go in my offline career is that it's important to take things niche by niche. What I mean is that what works in one niche might not work in another. What's important to one may not matter a bit to another niche. No matter what you'll be able to apply your IM knowledge and sell them a service of some kind but depending on the niche it may not be what you think it is going to be. I went into this one particular niche thinking surely I would sell SEO. Really that's just not a good angle with them because of the way their traffic works and they type of buyer they are after. So I ended up doing a lot of custom web design, Facebook and even set up a custom video service just for that niche. It's working well I can tell you that.
Rather than targeting businesses at random I'm finding better luck in just a couple niches and then tailoring my services to what works for that niche. One of the best ways to do this is to pick the brain of somebody who has long term inside knowledge in the industry, especially the local industry.
It's really a pretty easy approach because your not actually trying to sell them anything. I have found it's pretty easy to say hey this is what I do and I think that the business owners in (insert niche) could really benefit from it. I just wanted to get a better understanding of your industry. They will open up like a book, people love talking about themselves and their businesses. Most of them will even recommend you some people to talk to as well. Then you can give them a call or drop in and talk to them and be like oh yeah Jim so and so said I should talk to you. It's a lot easier than cold calling or D2D and it flat works better.
Also I have found that once I settled into a niche and people get to know me, referrals come easy. Every niche needs a "web guy" so the best thing to do is find out who those guys are, what they are charging and what people like/dislike about them. Then just do it all better. Usually they are ready for fresh face anyways.
That's just some stuff that's working for me. Thought I would share.
Neil
One of the things I'm very much starting to learn as I go in my offline career is that it's important to take things niche by niche. What I mean is that what works in one niche might not work in another. What's important to one may not matter a bit to another niche. No matter what you'll be able to apply your IM knowledge and sell them a service of some kind but depending on the niche it may not be what you think it is going to be. I went into this one particular niche thinking surely I would sell SEO. Really that's just not a good angle with them because of the way their traffic works and they type of buyer they are after. So I ended up doing a lot of custom web design, Facebook and even set up a custom video service just for that niche. It's working well I can tell you that.
Rather than targeting businesses at random I'm finding better luck in just a couple niches and then tailoring my services to what works for that niche. One of the best ways to do this is to pick the brain of somebody who has long term inside knowledge in the industry, especially the local industry.
It's really a pretty easy approach because your not actually trying to sell them anything. I have found it's pretty easy to say hey this is what I do and I think that the business owners in (insert niche) could really benefit from it. I just wanted to get a better understanding of your industry. They will open up like a book, people love talking about themselves and their businesses. Most of them will even recommend you some people to talk to as well. Then you can give them a call or drop in and talk to them and be like oh yeah Jim so and so said I should talk to you. It's a lot easier than cold calling or D2D and it flat works better.
Also I have found that once I settled into a niche and people get to know me, referrals come easy. Every niche needs a "web guy" so the best thing to do is find out who those guys are, what they are charging and what people like/dislike about them. Then just do it all better. Usually they are ready for fresh face anyways.
That's just some stuff that's working for me. Thought I would share.
Neil
Just here to see the shenanigans.
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