Alternative Tips For Attracting New Clients To Your Agency

Alternative Tips For Attracting New Clients To Your Agency

by | May 7, 2020 | Business, Guides

Client Attraction Tips To Help You Get New Clients Into Your Agency

 

Clients, not everyone loves working with clients and I hear horro stories about this almost weekly. The end of the day the agency model depends on the clients to continue trading. What this article is about is some alternative ways to attract and sign new clients and some ideas for improving your process around this.

*Disclaimer I am not client facing and do a lot of my work through an account manager or someone who handles that client relationship. I know areas where I am not so strong and that is definatley client relationships.

ClickBucks does not take on clients.

 

Potential clients need one thing above all others. A valid reason to believe what you have to offer will work for THEM. You see we have all purchased products and services that haven’t lived up to the promises made. So we have become smarter at not getting burnt again.
The easy way to do this is say no.
But what hasn’t changed is our wish to fulfil our wants, needs and desires. So as a business we need to give potential clients a reason to believe that what we offer will live up to the promises made. There are many ways to solve this problem but an easy one is to find something new in your offer.
That way people can see that your offer has this thing and the others didn’t so it may work for them.
One question you can use to find the something new is.
What is something clients can only get from me?
It’s challenging but rewarding work and it is also highly profitable.

Things You Need To Do To Get Momentum

Even doing 1% each day works, but you need to do it more than once.
If you improve something you do to market your business each week by just 1% the impact over a year is enormous.
Here are a few 1% actions you can try:
  1. Do 1% more propspecting.
  2. Speak to 1% more people.
  3. Post more valuable content to social media
  4. Test sticking to one social media channel per week
  5. Contact 1% of your current clients for a catchup
  6. Focus on improving your Ad optimisations by 1%
  7. Focus on improving your website page content by 1%
  8. Improve your tool stack by 1%
  9. Review your expenses for improvement and use that saved $$ on advertising
Like Al Pacino said in the locker room scene in Any Given Sunday, Life is a game of inches. If you put in 1% focus each day you will start moving the momentum on that thing you are focused on.

I’ll stop there as I think you get the idea.
Now please do yourself and your business and take 1% more action on something before the end of the week.

“I’m not really a client facing guy I do prefer the background operations of client work. But I do enjoy the assist where I will help a account manager with a technical pitch or a really unique opportunity where they need some out of the box thinking. In essence the client wants the expert advice from the professional. As long as you can confidently demonstrate that you are the boss at what you are selling they will have confidence to give you their money.”

Shenzu

Would you like to know what I believe the most potent and underused marketing weapon is?
If you didn’t say yes and you own a business please call a doctor and make sure you’re OK. 😂
It isn’t curiosity like I used in the opening line though that is powerful.
I believe it’s a word you don’t hear often.
>> Consistency.
In other words doing the things you need to do to drive your business every single day.
Some days you will do them and seemingly nothing happens. That’s the why life is.
Other days you’ll strike gold. But unless you do the things that matter consistently you will have substandard results.
My number one thing every business should be doing daily is running prospecting systems to bring in new clients.
This doesn’t have to be one of those 60 step sales funnels the gurus are so fond of.
It can be as simple as reaching out to 10 people a day and having helpful conversations with them. 
Multiply that by 52 weeks a year and if you are doing it even half right you will get some decent clients coming in. 

Quick Method To Attract New Clients

One of the fastest ways to get a bunch of new clients is to access other people’s audiences.
That is find someone who already has a great relationship with a group of clients you’d love to have. Make sure they are non-competing of course.
For this to work well you must make sure you have something to offer that is great for their clients and ensures they gain status by passing it on. Not everyone will go for it but those that do can bring you in a ton of new sales.
If you’re stuck for ideas on finding people with your potential audience ask questions on Reddit or Quora and monitor teh comments you will get some unique tactics this way and potentially introductions to new clients or people who have complimentary skills to you.
Make sure you include what you offer and what a great client looks like for you

What Can You Do To Lower The Risk For A Client?

The lower the risk a potential client feels the easier it is to say yes to doing business with you?
In challenging times the businesses that reduce risk the most will perform the best.
What do you do to reduce risk for your clients?
Here are some ideas:
> Provide a minimum result guarantee
> Provide batches of leads upfront
> Provide 1 week of work free
> Provide 1 month free
> Help get them $$ upfront before they pay you

The Key Takeaway

 

There’s never been a better time to reflect on your unique selling position, systems and offering to take stock and answer some of these key questions.

How can I make it better?

Here’s some examples to get you started.

How can I make my ads better?
How can I make my website better?
How can I make my social posts better?
How can I serve my clients better?
How can I make my product/service better?
You can also apply this powerful question to your self.
How can I make my health better?
How can I make my skills better?
I think you get the idea.
What I am going to do is to ask you to takke stock and take action. Start with your why and then set your self a task to answer the questions raised here and come up with a better offering.
And finally…Which question will you work on today?
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10 Tips To Be Productive Online

10 Tips To Be Productive Online

by | Apr 19, 2020 | Business, Guides

Do These 10 Things To Get More Done and Increase Productivity

 

I found in my early days of online marketing that I would open tab after tab after tab and click down the rabbit hole. Taking control of my day helped me get serious and move past roadblocks while buildingva team of likeminded goal orientated ninjas here at Click Bucks. Ive compiled 10 tips for you to use to build and grow and effecive team.

 

Tip <h1> Tackle the BHAG First

BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal or big hairy ass goal. This refers to doing the bbiggest meatiest hardest thing you need to do first. Another reference is swallowing the frog. I like to tackle the hardest things first to get them done and from me subconciously putting the off because they are hard to do.

Tip <h2> Make a List For The Day

This will help you prioritize whats the focus verse what just needs to be done. I find visualising the list of what I need to do in a day helpful. We as humans love lists because we can cross things off them and feel a slice of accomplishment when we complete the mini tasks on that list.

Tip <h3> Remove Distraction

This was a real big one for me when starting out. I needed clear focus and having dogs and no supervision I would find myself at the fridge more than I needed to be and wandering from the computer to go play with the dogs. How I tackled this was to create a space that was work only with a door I could close.

I would also block out time chunks. Hard core tasking for 60 minutes then 5 mins of free time then back into it with another sprint session with a small reward at the end. This helped me chunk out my day so I could operate effectively and give myself small rewards for completing micro goals.

Other tips: put your phone on silent or flip it over. Sign out of Facebook and try to limit the number of tabs you have open at once.

 

Tip <h4> Assign Tasks To The Team

I often have to review my task list for a backlog that builds up being the leader means I review a lot of work and this is a squeeze point in the operation so I give allocate a time to review and assign tasks so that the work can be done. Dont hold onto things assign it out or outsource what you cant do or dont have time to do.

 

Tip <h5> Clearly Define What Things Are

This is a great tip for helping others work with you. I often move so fast its hard for my team to keep up and I find that I do two things that slow them down:

  1. Spell everything like an ape
  2. Leave brief notes so vague they just dont understand

What Ive done to fix this is slow down when creating the brief notes for teh team. I write it out and think does this capture everything they need to know and will they understand what this means. Its ok to have teh idea in your head but passing that onto someone else who may not be an all round marketing weapon can be hard.

Write your brief notes, take a breath and reread it. Make it clear and include reference links and linked things they may need. 

I use the following project management tools for making sure my projects are managed effectively:

  1. Asana
  2. ClickUp
  3. Google Sheets
  4. Integromat

For more Tools that might help your team check out the marketers toolkit here.

Tip <h6> Move Impact Tasks Forward

I like to review the task list of my team each day and opush forward the tasks that help me complete goals or are what I call impact tasks. The impact tasks help me move something closer to complete. These can have a huge impact on the project but also team morale and momentum two things that need to be given boosts every now and then. 

Tip <h7> Move Quick To Complete Tasks Forward

When you have tasks on your list that will take less than 3 minuites to complete either do them yourself or assign to your fastest worker and get them done and off your lists. These are quick wins that can add up and add momentum to your productivity.

 

Tip <h8> Improve Your Process When You Can

Im a big fan of constant optimisation in processes and techniques. This is no different, review how you do things and make improvements where you can. This will be really valuable when you start workingw ith teams. If you pick up a new technique that cuts down implementation time by 5 minutes work that into your process.

Share these wins with your team and encourage them to contribute. As you grow your team you will find this culture to save you money and build a string team culture.

 

Tip <h9> Apply Parkinsons Law

To reference someone moe famous than me “Don’t give more time to a task than you absolutely need to”. This rings true the more complex you make a task to be the bigger it gets and the bigger it gets the more time and resources it takes to complete it. Keep it super simple and allocate the tie that it needs to be done and keep it to that rule.

Tip <h10> Like Nike Just Do IT!

The best advice I can give you is just do it, dont put it to the side and move it back. Take the bull by thehorns and get that thing done. This give syou momentum and removes something that you needed to do from you list.

 

This is just a list of productivity tips that can help you get more done each day and help your team be better at delivery of thier tasks. I hope it helps you get more stuff done each day.

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How To Beat Amazon Affiliate Commission Drops

How To Beat Amazon Affiliate Commission Drops

by | Apr 15, 2020 | Affiliate, Business, Guides

Amazon made some big changes early this morning causing ripples throughout the affiliate community. I honestly think if you didnt see this coming then you need to now take control of your revenue. I made big moves away from Amazon in late 2016 after they blundered a big investment in Amazon FBA and made some bogus claims against my Amazon associates account. 

I opened my eyes and looked for other alternatives. They do exist and they are always better to work with than a huge corporation who at any moment can screw its affiliates. Funny enough the screwing happened in the early hours this morning.

 

Summary of what happened:

assive fee changes for some categories on the Amazon Associates program, starting on 21st April.
Home improvement, Garden, Pets,Beauty and more go from 8% to 3% Ive added a change table so you can see what the commissions were and what they are as of 21st April 2020.
To change table  by Amazon – Heartbreak link

The Opportunity For Amazon Affiliates To Pivot

Amazon associates program is not the only revenue stream for affiliate sales. There are so many more opportunities available and Ill show you some of the better places to get affiliate deals setup.

I would suggest taking the approach of diversify your revenue stream just like COVID-19 taught us that things can change. Never leave all your eggs in one basket, make moves to secure multiple revenue streams and this works for affiliates as well. Look at using multiple affiliate programs to monetise your websites.

Think of these platforms like Landlords:

  • Google
  • YouTube
  • Amazon
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Bing
  • Pinterest

You dont control them, you cant control them. All you can do is play by their rules and hope they dont change the rules on you after you have invested time and money building your empire around their goal posts. These are goal posts that move when they say they need to move.

Google will make algo updates and ruin yoru organic strategy overnight.

Facebook will create social engagement changes so you can no longer bait people to click and share your pormotions.

Instagram will hide your engagement metrics so people have to do more things to engage with yoru content making it less rewarding for them.

YouTube can ban your account because you posted more videos in one day than they think you should. The list goes on about how you can loose everything because of these platforms changing their goal posts.

I actively search for new affiliate programs every 6 months in my niches and I would ask you to do similar. Book a date in your calendar and set it to 6 month reoccurring and do the searching you will be suprised at what you find.

My Advice: Consider expanding your site’s potential profit by diversifying your affiliate networks.

Amazon being a big orange bag of dried up apricots is not the end of the world. In fact there are other alternatives and I went through this process when I swore off Amazon when they F#@cked me over back in late 2016.

Here is a roundup of the affiliate networks I would suggest you look at joining to get that loss of revenue back while still selling from your site you were using with Amazon. Each network has strengths and weaknesses and different terms, I found most are decent enough and when you can verify traffic results and sales your almost set to renegotiate your percentage of commission that you get for a sale #winning.

Check them out below.

How to find affiliate programs?

I would always start by searching Google first. a simple query like “Pet food affiliate programs” is a good starting point.
you can search Google using the term “<brand> affiliate” and you will have a range of affiliate program options in most cases. 
Like to have the tech do that for you? I have a solution. You can also try searching platforms like odigger.com and  affi.io.

 

10 Other Affiliate Networks and Programs

 

Clickbank

The staple in naffiliate marketing and where I began my journey into promoting other peoples products. Clickbank is a well-known name withmore than 20 years online maketing history they are the belly of teh beast. Clickbank has developed a reputation for relatively high commissions ranging 10-75% and a name that pays on time everyy time. They say they have reach of more than 200 million customerbase

Clickbank comes with a learning hub for beginenrs, very functional analytics dashboard, extended oppotunity for partnerships and has many reoccurring commissions offerings.

This is a great starting point for beginners and really should be in everyones marketing arsenal.

CJ Affiliate by Conversant

CJ Affiliate are a big player with a LOT of offers. They are a massive affiliate network that works with and promotes products and companies all over the globe, I am suprised by some names that keep popping up in the dashboard of local companies near my home city. Its a suprise to see but just goes to show the power of online marketing.

I love the simplicity of the affiliate dashboard and search functions for finding those winning offers. They have history and expereince o their side and it shows. Great expereince with them so far and Ive been really impressed with thier dropshipping component. They have extended features for more expereinced affiliates called “premier” where you can earn $10k a month and upwards. 

This is free to sign up to and a great starting point for beginners, the more expereinced marketers will thrive with this platform.

 

Rakuten Marketing

Hosting a library of household names think Best Buy, Lacoste, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, and the like this is a one stop shop for affiliates who want to promote more retail type offers. Think big machine style affiliate marketing, they say they have pushed over 120 million orders a year and growing.

They have sme high profile industry awards thrown their way thanks to mThink, they picked up Best Affiliate Network seven years running. 

Rakuten manages the quality and reliability of products and services being promoted. I found this platform a little clunky to use and staying on top of it was a chore. Useful to be part of and you can find amazing offers that do convert really well.

This is good for beginners who want to test the general retail sales offers and clothing etc. Really decent network of offers available but I just found the dashboard clunky, that does not mean the program stinks. Very much worth your time to join and start promoting sales offers.

eBay Partner Network

If you’re already familiar with Amazon’s affiliate network platform, adding eBay’s affiliate program into the mix should be fairly easy to do. With 1.2 billion listings on eBay, there is certainly a wide array of options to choose from, and potential to make money. For Australians eBay is the choice to buy online before Amazon.

On the flip side, eBay’s payment structure could be a deterrent, as the percentage commission in comparison to other programs is smaller (50 to 70 percent), and partners are only paid monthly. This is part of why the platform doesnt have my undying support. I would say use it more but the payouts and structures are not enticing enough for me to focus efforts on here.

This is best for those who liked Amazon associates program. Very similar experience and offerings.

Ive used this damage report before and I have a feeling that 2020 will be the year that I absolutely wear the colour out of this image. Every week its like getting a speeding fine when driving on the freeway. 

Avangate

I like promoting digital info products and downloadables. This is where Avangate comes in to play, a very simple to utilise platform that removes a lot of cumbersome fiddling with settings and crap you just dont need to be doing.

They have a decent sized database roughly 22,000 software products available. They pay pretty good commission rates and have a pretty extensive network of partners. This wont be the best fit for people selling physical products.

 

Shareasale

Shareasale has been around for 18 years and works with more than 4,000 merchants across a wide range of product categories. I like this platform for the range of options it provides. Ive made a lot of money with Shareasale and find them a solid platform for affiliates.

The actual support team are legends they actually take time to help you and keep it real. No slick sales or anyone pulling te ewool over your eyes, the typical internet marketer and affiliate manager stereotype. I give them props for doing a great job consitantly.

Great for beginners to advanced.

GiddyUp

Billed as an “exclusive performance marketing agency,” GiddyUp works with “innovative and disruptive brands” around the world. This site is particularly attractive for affiliates who are working in more obscure or highly specific niches.

Their GiddyUp Publisher program allows affiliates to get weekly Net 5 payments on every offer, and all campaigns are tested and optimized before they go live.

JVZoo

JVZoo is a software as a service (SaaS) company that focuses mostly on online or digital products. It is free to sign up and use JVZoo, and their “newbie-friendly” site design and signup process help facilitate and teach those who might be fairly new to affiliate marketing how to really get going without a lot of risk.

Some of the benefits of using JVZoo are up to 100 percent instant commissions one of the only platforms where you will be getting 100% of the sale. Dashboards show real time tracking of your commissions and alerts on purchase notifications.

This platform gets a bad wrap because a lot of vendors are sharks, they create software thats not complete so that it can be resold in 6-12 months rebranded for another cash grab. Ive lost count of software Ive purchased through JVZoo where Ive had to contact the vendor about support or functional assistance because the domain is down or the logins not working or the entire screen of the dashboard is messed up. All fun with JVZoo.

This network is a headache but it also does have some sweet deals available. You just need to know how to spot the sharks from the actual marketers.

This is for beginners and advanced marketers. Please check your vendor and offer before putting your name behind it as a suggested action from me.

Avantlink

Avantlink is all about data, customization, and better understanding the relationship between the products you promote, how you go about marketing them, and making adjustments so as to better reap the benefits of your work. The Avantlink network is connected with hundreds of merchant partners to work with across different fields, so many different kinds of affiliate marketers may find options there.

With dedicated international affiliate networks, product-level tools, and custom tracking links, you can make sure you are being focused with your time and efforts.

FlexOffers

FlexOffers connects you with more than 12,500 affiliate programs and lists just on 5,000 premo advertisers. You can find a host of categories to promote using FlexOffers.

Apart from its partners, FlexOffers also has a sleek interface for tracking your account, as well as on-call support for publishers.

 

skimlinks affiliate program

Skimlinks

Similar to Sovrn, Skimlinks will create affiliate links in your content automatically for you. For content that’s created without your involvement (like a forum), this might be a good option.

You can also insert links manually as well. They currently have over 24,000 merchants they work with, so I recommend you signup for this one as well. They have a wide range of niche markets.

Bonus Affiliate Marketing Tactic

Another strategy I’ve used is to contact individual companies and ask about their affiliate programs. Not every company will have an affiliate program but if you can explain the benefits to them you can often twist their arm and get them setup with a program.

Some companies run in-house affiliate programs, which means they have a select few affiliates that they work with. Such companies can be quite profitable to work with as you’ll be competing with way less affiliates.

reaching out to these companies to set up a private affiliate deal with them. These can often be worth far more than going with an affiliate network’s offer, as the payouts can be higher.

If they don’t have an affiliate program, you can offer to set one up for them using a tool like http://reversion.com/

Diversifying Your Affiliate Networks Matters

Being in the online business world, you probably already know that things change pretty quickly and that having flexibility is key to success. When it comes to affiliate marketing, that remains true.

If you haven’t already, expanding your potential profit by diversifying your affiliate networks is a great way to build in additional revenue streams for your business. Before diving into any one in particular, make sure to do some research on the program or network to confirm its legitimacy, potential for profit, and alignment with the types of products and services highlighted on your website.

 

Despite the affiliate program you use you should have a niche where you have the knowledge and advantage to produce great content that you can layer monetization opportunities over that content to make you money. Your business goals can bend a little to accommodate the alternative affiliate marketing network that you have added. This will be a new opportunity to try new things and it might just be the wake up call that you needed. Thanks Jeff.

The learning from this move by Amazon remains the same as I say again and again diversify your revenue streams, and do not forget to diversify your traffic channels. This works for using several affiliate networks to make money from yoru website because if one (Amazon) goes down you will still have 2 or 3 programs making you money until you can replace the one that went down.

This is a smart lesson for website owners and online marketers to be more involved in your asset management. Take more control of your asset to keep it future proof against thrid party interference.

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10 Steps To Get New PPC Clients

by | Apr 13, 2020 | Business, Guides, Paid Ads

Today I’ll share some tips for thoise readers who are looking for new pay per click clients. There is always a way to find new clients and the breakdown today will cover 10 steps to get them signedup.

How Does PPC Work?

For beginners: Pay Per Click PPC, SEM Search Engine Marketing is a method of paying for advertising space hence the name pay per click. Go to Google right now and search buy new car and you will the first 4 or so results will be little PPC ads. This is where businesses pay Google to have their ad show up at the top or bottom os search results. 

This is extremely valuable for businesses especially if they make sales from it. It is also a not so straight forward advertising process, businesses get it wrong so many times. It takes a good online marketer to help them get up and running and making sales.

When I am on the hunt for new clients at the agency I work with I use a tool called ScopeLeads ( no longer for sale) that scrapes Google for companies paying for ads and calculates the position, industry and gives me a list of contacts and data for each results that I can then use to help these businesses get better results.

But today no cheating Ill do it the manual way.

 Quick Note: You can use this 10 step system to get new clients in ANY industry (not just PPC), you’ll just need to alter the steps slightly.

Step 1: Pick a Niche

I dont suggest going broad and searching for anything this will be a huge waste of your time. You should pick a niche and stick with it.

What industry are you going to target?

  • Get an idea by typing some keywords into Google
  • Get ideas by looking at businesses advertising in your area
  • Look at offline options like magazines, mailout papers and newspaper adverts
  • What niches do you already have insider knowledge of?
  • What niches are making money and have high customer value?

Step 2: Find businesses advertising with Google Ads already

If you are going to get clients for this service its a good idea to start with prospects that already understand what it is you will be selling. Not everyone understands online. Don’t try to educate them on something new, instead help them with something they’re already doing.

Look at how they are running their ads and what they doing right but more importantly what they are doing wrong. Now you know exactly what you can do to help them. You just need to exlain to them.

  • Determine best suited relevant keywords from chosen niche
  • Search Google for those keywords and review the results (take notes)
  • Search SEMRush or SpyFu Ad data for those keywords
  • Note down any niche competition so you can use them in your pitch

Step 3: Pre-Qualify Your Prospects

You want to find opportunities where there is some good money to be made. Don’t waste your time with low dollar time suckers. One example is lawters they are very competitive because the money is good when they sign a new client. Think about industries that have high  charges to clients, those are the best for pay per click services.

  • Is your chosen niche spending a decent amount on Google Ads?
    • If not, then move on to another niche
    • Find with SpyFu or SEMRush
  • Gather list of prospects with estimated ad spend > $1,000
  • Gather list of prospects with estimated ad spend > $20,000
  • Remember the low dollar clients are a lower return on your time spent on them
  • Focus on the higher dollar clients as much as possible

Step 4: Complete Mico Ad Audit

You know what they are doing wrong now you need to convey that in your micro audit. This will be used to get you in front of the decision maker. Find the pain and agitate it. The more problems you find the bigger the opportunity.

  • Find problems with their website and ads
  • Does the website load properly?
  • Are they split testing Ad copy?
  • Are they using a call to action in their ads?
  • Are the Display URLs optimised?
  • Do the top three ads contain Ad Extensions (Sitelinks, Call, Location)
  • Mobile optimised website?
  • Are competitors beating them?
  • Are competitors bidding on their brand terms?

Step 5: Engage Prospect Contact

It’s time to reach out to let them know, “You are misisng out on a lot more sales revenue” or ” Your competitor XYZ is getting 5x more than you unless you fix this” type lines will get you responses.

  • Research business to learn of contact info and personnel
  • You wnat to find a decision maker not a receptionist
  • Contact the prospect
  • Start with email and then follow up with phone
  • Always convey that you have more than wha you have told them so that they know you have more to offer but wont give it up unless you get a face to face
  • Get past the gate keeper
    • Did I catch you at a bad time?
    • Who is the best person to speak to about some issues with the Google Ads account?
    • I’m calling/emailing about your Google Ads account and glaring issues that are costing you money
  • Conversion action is a second appointment

Key Takeaway

Prospecting is easy the real struggle is getting in front of the prospect and being given that 3-5 minute window to pitch your professional insights to the right person. You must have confidence in your data and your pitch to get the message across. You want them to sign you as their marketing company.

Step 6: Position Yourself &  Qualify the Prospect

Part I is positioning. Positioning is key to you being the right choice for their business or just some one man band with not many clients. Portray confidence, you did the research you know they are not getting a good return on ad spend.

Part II of this step is letting them know you have other options, even if you dont make it look likk eyou have options. You’re busy and can’t work with everyone, so make sure they’re a good fit.

  • Once they are hooked let them know you can’t work with everyone
  • Tell them you need to ask them a couple further questions to make sure they qualify
  • Verify how much they are spending per month with Google
  • Verify they have access to the Google Ads account (some agencies like ReachLocal don’t allow client access to their account)
  • Set second appointment to review your findings

Step 7: The Meeting

I shouldnt have to give this advice but dress the part. Look confident, smell confident and present like you are the guy that they need to fix their problem. Know your pitch inside out, be sure you know what slide everything important is on and how you will be presenting. Their device or your device and what you need to present on your device.

It’s time to show them what they’re doing wrong.

  • Show up early
  • Dress for the job you want
  • Be prepared with business card, notepad, pad and paper
  • First tell them a little about you and your company
  • Present your mini-audit findings
  • Integrate trial closes throughout the meeting
    • Does this make sense?
    • Do you see why this is important?
    • Did you learn something today?

Step 8: Close the Deal

You’ve demonstrated they could be doing better and you have the knowledge and the team to fix what’s wrong.

  • After you’ve presented your findings sit quite for a moment
  • Give them a chance to speak up
  • With any luck THEY ask YOU “what’s next?”
  • If they don’t speak up, simply ask, “do you want some help fixing these things?”
  • If they want your help, you sell them the full-audit
    • Internal look into the account instead of external like the mini-audit
    • You are going to need to do this work anyways, so you might as well get paid
    • Gives them another hoop to jump through before the big commitment
    • If they want you to jump in right away and start fixing then, include cost of full-audit in the setup fee

Step 9: What Should You Be  Charging?

My rules are to always start high, it makes you look more valuable and you can always offer a discount. Remember do not undervalue your knowledge they obviously need help and thats why you picked them out because you know the details. Charge what you are worth.

If you have to give them something to seal the deal, use a loss leader thats a low cost now but can be a higher cost to them once you have their full trust and support.

  • Mini-Audit – Free
  • Full-Audit – $1,000 or more (roughly 5 – 10% of ad spend)
  • Monthly Management – depends on ad spend but roughly 15 – 20% of monthly ad spend
  • Cost should depend on work that needs to be performed
  • Account setup
    • E-commerce site MORE depending on number of products
    • Lead gen site LESS than e-commerce, cost depends on number of services
  • Don’t forget to charge for setting up the stats tracking
    • Google Analytics goal tracking
    • Google AdWords conversion tracking
    • Call tracking
    • Google Analytics E-Commerce tracking
  • Increase value instead of decreasing price
  • Discount for payment in advance (this works great towards the end of year)
  • Don’t be afraid to push back

Step 10: Contract/Agreement

Don’t forget this step, it’s one of the most important. The agreements especially in this COVID crisis these terms and agreements sheets will be a revenue saver but also can help you to defer payments now in way of giving a couple of free months to pay due to COVID or what ever your agreement covers. 

You need to have an airtight contract or agreement in place to cover yourself and your work. Imagine you have just busted a hump putting together a 10 ad group Google search campaign build for a new client and they decide that the leads are too slow. They then decide that you stalled and dont know how to manage the account, they want to leave and they take all your setup and ad copy and bail on you. These agreements cover your butt.

  • 12 month term with 90 day out if not happy
  • Auto renewal if not cancelled
  • Assignable
  • Mostly boilerplate except for Statement of Work
  • Statement of Work shows what you’re going to do
  • Set expectations of meeting times, mediums (in-person, phone, email, skype) and frequency
  • Show example of monthly reporting template

This is not the exact process you should use but its a great starting point that you can add or subtract and really make your own.

The goal is to get you more paying clients and thats what this framework will do for you. Prospecting is half teh battle, picking those higher paying niches can pay off if you can sign them. Good luck and sign them all up.

Business minded marketer with a keen interest in online behaviour and Ecommerce.

Shen Zu

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How To Hold Yourself Accountable

How To Hold Yourself Accountable

by | Apr 4, 2020 | Business, Guides, Lifestyle

How many times have you planned to build that affiliate site in that awesome opportunity niche but you didnt?

How many times did you plan that masterpeice content hub article but didnt?

If you are like me and have a stream of new ideas at every second of the day and take time out to capture those thoughts and plans then this is for you. I also and it is a weakness I know I have, is I do not have enough time in the day or the week to take action on every idea.

This has stalled my growth more often than helped to grow my businesses. As opposite as that sounds but having all these new ideas forces me to take my eye off the prize. I get distracted by these new thoughts and by the time I plan out the last new idea I already had three more new ideas and Ive mnoved on to those.

This was the thorn in my achilles heel when I started out online. I would move from thought to thought and not give the last idea enough attention to get the momentum rolling.

What I did was join an accountability group. This was a group of new and intermediate marketers that I had never met. A friend had suggested I join a forum about internet marketing and web development and taking that advice I joined a forum.

Join a Group and Hold Others Accountable

This was very easy to take action advice. Ill be very transparent that this was one of the biggest success factors that I found working online. Having the power to hold my peers accountable made me appreciate my own workload and to do list.

The rules of the group were pretty simple, we had to meet up online every Tuesday night (for me it was Wednesday morning Im from the future) and present our weekly target list and if we had completed last weeks target list. I got a few comments in my first three meetings for not taking it serious and for not doing the work.

I will say when you get into the routine and prep before hand it is really entertaining to hear how people are doing and the success they are having. It all fell on two things.

1 Planning your week

2 Doing the work

Its that simple, the accountability group members that planned ahead of time were the most successful. The group members that were doing what they had planned were also the same ones who were planning ahead and seeing amazing results.

I’m still in touch to this day with 5 of the 15 from the group. They all have very successful bsuinesses and our timezones are a little more accommodating for the 5 of us.

Once I was on the spot in front of the groupo saying I had 3 thing sto do that would literally take me all of 20 minutes to complete it was clear to everyone I was not planning ahead and just rocking up hoping for it all to work. The advice and telling off I got from the group was great and look no one wants to be told they are slacking off but it was so true I was.

The moment I would prep my week or month in advance and track it using teh tools and standard operating procedures or SOP’s I would see gains on earnings, rankings and visitors on my sites.

Find an accountability group and stick it out. Even if you only take away the behaviours of those getting the results that should be enough to light a fire under your chair and get you working smarter and getting the results you want to change your lifestyle for the better.

 

What Tools Helped Me Stay On Top Of My ToDo List

I had notebooks and notebooks of ideas, plans, processes and diagrams that I could never find or organise. I knew that I had to take the ideas out of my head and to put them online and for years I bounced between Asana and Trello and also notekeeping with Notion and evernote without finding the one todo tool to rule them all.

The Tools

  1. Asana
  2. Trello
  3. Notion
  4. More recently ClickUp

I want to say that its important that you dont get caught up in the tools. These are just tools and not going to do the work for you.

Special mention to ClickUp this tool has changed the game for me with its amazing feature set. Ive moved over to it in January 2020 and its saved me HOURS!

Image Source: @officialCopHumor

Know your Strengths and Weaknesses

Ive always been very self aware and thats been a big strength for me working in teams or alone I knew my limits and my absolute strengths. I know that accountability and doing everything I said that I would was one area I was slipping. Not in my personal life just my own affiliate marketing work, I would buy these domains with the intention to domainate a market and I would get as far as buying teh domain name before I would move on to something else.

 

 How Accountability Helps You Get Success:

It gives you a heads up on the bumps in the road ahead, especially if your networking with others in similar positions or journeys. You can learn from their mistakes to optimise your time and productivity.

It drives the resources you’ll require because of the shared knowledge. One really cool thing that I got from my accountability group was sharing resources with some other group memmbers. We pooled our budgets that we had set aside for virtual assistants and would use the same VA for our work meaning we would all pay a third of his day rate cost. This saved us money and allowed us to collaborate across projects.

We would share other tools later in our online journeys making the group a real valuable asset for me to really learn and absorb from everyone who was involved. 

You come up against a lot of challenges in the online space. Technical or skill related and they can stall your growth until you figure them out. But having a accountability group also doubled as a knowledge share group as well. It was very clear who the operator’s were in that group and how they behaved when problem solving changed my view of the word “I Can’t”. I would listen to those guys talk about overcoming challenges and be in absolute awe. They became my motivators because I didnt want to be that guy in our group who couldnt figure out how to set up his website. I wanted to be an operator. 


How do you figure it out for yourself?

You could try and guess or think that you already know and commit to what you already know.

I would scratch your own self assesment and create a little sheet to assess yourself.

  • First up list out everything that you love doing
  • List down the thing that makes you the happiest in thsi line of work
  • What gives you headaches?
  • What do you really hate doing?
  • Does money motivate you?
  • Does accomplishment motivate you?
  • How do you work alone?
  • How do you work in teams?
  • What do you do when you make a mistake?
  • What do you do when a team mate messes up?
  • What do you do when you encounter a problem?
  • What do you do when a team mate has a problem and asks for help?
  • Ask a friend if you need to (thats cool as well)

You should have a list of things you like doing and really enjoy and a list of things you dont really enjoy and some of your own characteristics.

Take the time to do this before you decide to woerk in a team if you have never worked with a remote team before, and also if you are starting a new business or affiliate business work out your style and how you work best.

This is one of the biggest factors in helping me get over a earning limit because I could be held accountable. 

How To Sell Products While In Lockdown

How To Sell Products While In Lockdown

by | Apr 3, 2020 | Affiliate, Business, Ecommerce, Marketing

Being in lockdown is tough the isolation and confinment can get to you. That good news is that everyone else is feeling just like you. Theres all these people stuck at home with nowhere to be and noo where to go.

My focus for the last 7 days has been to jump on opportunity.

“My team and I have been researching products and marketplaces that you can “buy low, sell high.”

I’ve spent the last week scanning the usual suspects trying to understand market demand for this current moment. It was a painstaking task but very important.

My Research Grounds:

  • Marketplaces
  • Amazon
  • Ebay
  • AliExpress
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Empire Flippers
  • Flippa
  • Gumtree
  • Other domain sales platforms

My research produced some really good results and I want to share some of what I found with you here today. Ive found a lot of business categories where you can buy businesses at an all time low. I know this may sound like the behaviour of a vulture but its just business.

I’ve been pretty keen to shift non essential tasks and projects to the side so that I could dig my teeth into the shift in the market. Theres something unusual and almost once in a lifetime happening right now. I know Ive not been through any other world changing event to the scale of this corona virus.

My thoughts originally were to use this for my own portfoilios benefiet but then its better to share so we all get a slice of that cheese. I know a lot of people are in struggletown with businesses collappsing and money running dry.

>> See post about building a resilient business.

There is a huge shift in how people are using online search now and the daily habits of each user. This is new territory for all of us especially online marketers. Ive seen some crazy stuff growing in popularity and search interest thanks to Google trends. At times like this its important to keep your head on the swivel.

 Below I will list what Ive seen and what you can use to sell more while isolated at home.

If you are looking for something to do in quarantine that can make you online money…

Or if you are stuck inside looking for a new side hustle that will make you teh money you want for your next project this is for you…

Or like millions of people and my girlfriend you just got laid off and you need something right now to keep the lights on…

Then I can help you with a strategy thats stood the test of time the “buy low, sell high” tactic will give you some ideas that start you on your online journey.

Here are 3 things that people are flipping right now for fun and profit:

1. Trading Cards.

In my younger years collecting and trading NBA basketball cards was my addiction. Collecting all the rookie cards of the big players took most of my after hours time when I wasnt actually playing ball.

But the unique situation we are in is that all major sports leagues are in exile sadly. So what type of trading cards can be used in this corona virus time? Suprisingly still sporting cards and battle cards.

Most sporting team cards are still growing in popularity the weird thing is with the seasons suspended these leagues are still growing in populaity. There are millions of people at home and what do you think the TV networks are doing? they are showing replays and sports from the past. This is what is helping propell the rising interest in these trading cards.

>> Buy Michael Jordans 20k pointc club card on Ebay.

Michael Jordans rookie basketball card

Ive never been a magic cards collecter guy, Ive got friends who are huge dungeons and dragons nerds, White Dwarf and Magic The Gathering card collectors. These card collections are exploding right now so how can you pivot to include trading cards in yoru product sales? can you make a set of cards on your industry.

I’m seeing huge popularity spikes in this niche. Think of all the dads stuck at home and the lack of live sport on TV, and then think what is one really great way for parents to bond with their kids? sports of course. With the parents and kids at home trading cards with popular sporting stars is one sure fire way to strengthen a bond by using sports trading cards. Kids also love those battle cards and using pwoerups and level up type cards, this is like old school pokemon but with cards.

PLUS… due to the economic slowdown, a lot of collectors are strapped for cash, which means that you can “buy low” right now. This is a perfect product for our buy low sell high strategy.

Proof is in the search results:

NBA trading cards

Just look at those prices for a basketball card. Crazy money for a trading card.

Trading card money is made in two ways:

This niche is one for collectors so finding and collecting full sets is a valuable focus and also finding those rare cards, limited print cards and the big stars rookie cards.

Another tactic is a little more of a gamble but buying stars that are about to rise as as valuable or popular players. This can be a little harder in oru current now because the players are sidelined. But there is big money in flipping these cards much like stocks the players tsock value rises and falls as their performance reflects on impact.

2. Designer hand bags & Perfume.

Weirdly as we are all self isolating and social distancing so why would someone need a designer handbag it boggles the mind. I’m not a fancy guy I really enjoy thrifty shopping and functionality of clothing and accessories. My girlfriend HATES when I buy clothing and accessories based on functionality 😆.

Designer Handbags and Perfume are spiking to all time highs right now. Ive seen post after post after post around these items being hunted online. I get that all the stores that sell these are closed except pharmacies or chemists but they sell knock off garbage perfumes not designer.

When shoppers cant get hold of products they want that product goes into high demand. There are still a lot of people who have excess money that they want to offload and dont forget about people pre corona virus who were excessive shoppers who now have to commit to getting their retail therapy online. 

With designer handbags and name brand perfumes being a huge interest all you need to do is know where to look to find these items at wholesale prices. There is so much fraud in the space that finding real, authentic fragrances can be a challenge so dont just go to AliExpress and get that channels perfume because its a knock off and can get you into all kinds of problems. This does present a real opportunity for selling the real brands and NOT cheap immitation handbags and fragrances.

My advice is to take 2 angles for this and present yourself as a wholesale buyer, liquidator and bulk buyer of goods and look for auctions, liquidations and wholesale places for opportunities. Most people who do this normally may be laid off or on leave.

The second angle is as a seller and store owner of a store that sells these things.

The overview of how this works:

  • Know where to look for these products
  • Know what brands are in demand
  • Buying at a low price
  • Know what marketplaces to be promoting that you have these products
  • Negotiating and promoting your webpages where you will sell these items
  • Sell product at a higher price than you paid for it

Some search terms you can optimise your web pages for:

  • Designer handbag
  • [name brand] handbag
  • Handbag [name brand]
  • [name brand] perfume
  • perfume [name brand]
  • buy [name brand] online

There are entire markets and buyer types to flip high end colognes, designer handbags and perfumes to. I am far from the target market so this niche was new for me to be diving into but the riches are in the niches and as far as I can tell this niche is ripe for the picking. There were so many people searching for and asking for these products that it would be hard not to make money if you have the actual products.

This right now presents a very rare opportunity for you to buy low priced items and sell high on your website to an already hungry to purchase audience.

THIS is a perfect product for our tactic of buying low and selling high. I hope you can start to see the shift in perspective of how Im looking at the markets now.

This bag is a Christian Dior designer handbag that retails for $6,462 see actual handbag here.

3. Buying Businesses and Websites.

I love domain flipping and business flips. These have been a huge part of my income over the last 3 years. In a nutshell I buy a website or business at a low investment price and perfrom some work to these websites using my onlien marketing skills to create a website that now functions as a high converting store or lead generating website.

>> If you want to work with me on a website or business you own contact me here.

This is the perfect time to start looking for investment opportunities. A lot of businesses have closed or are closing their business down. There are also a lot of websites that people who used to have employment that no longer do and c an not sustain teh fees for running and managing websites. This is a sad reality of what this virus has done to the economy. 

I would look at Flippa, Gumtree, Shopify Exchange or FE International and look for businesses for sale. The filters will help you navigate to the most relevant opportunities for you. I set filters ranging from $3,000-120,000 so I have a range of business types.

Now this is a longer play and not a buy today and flip tomorrow unless you work very fast. This takes me riughly 2-4 months to get my hands on teh new purchase and make some cosmetic edits and some backend changes to get that site healthy and looking good. I also like to track activity on teh front end of the website buy adding Google Analytics and reviewing any affiliate programs, ecommerce settings or existing CRM type sale systems.

My process revolves around taking something that is not working for someone else and refining what they have on the front end. It needs to look nice for people using the website. I like to then focus on backend adjustments to make sure the website is Google friendly and in good health. Once Ive done these two steps my entire focus on the UX and conversion rates of the website. 

When I am happy with the data I have and the visitor engagement is looking healthy I will start to get the site ready to flip for a much bigger payday.

This is my 3 tips for selling online while locked down and self isolating but still making money. I use the buy low and sell high method in dropshipping and site flipping all the time and its made me a lot of money 💰💰

I’m focused on businesses that are fun to build, regardless of what the economy is doing.

Ill be setting up a mini course on how I do this so people can see the step by step process to take control of their lifestyle and finances. Stay Tuned. If you want to do this on your own, you can totally do that too.

Take note take action and take advantage of the market. If you liked this drop a comment, share it or show me your results in a month or two ✌️.

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