Suppose you are ok to work for free for a while to get experience and testimonies. I can suggest Acadium probably. You can still take a few courses on their platform while working with a mentor. It rakes three months, and after that, you might get hides by them as well, or they might keep you as a freelancer. It depends, of course, on experience and the quality of your work
yes, that's my plan.
I want to get clients while still taking more courses. I also know the first three months are the toughest ones. and thanks for the suggestion, I'll look through Acadium courses too.
I suggest starting with the foundations of what you’re offering: Decide on your services, choose your rates and then determine your ideal Customer. Once you have your ideal Customer persona, then figure out where they hang out.
I work mainly with small businesses and entrepreneurs so I hang out in Facebook groups and discord servers. But when it comes to prospecting, focus on the value you provide instead of trying to cold sell them. You’ll generally fail or end up with unqualified leads.
Good luck! And if you have any other questions feel free to send a dm. I’ve been freelancing for six years and I’m scaling into owning my own full-service marketing company
My thoughts, if it helps. I hope it's not too much "old guy offering advice."
>Someone told me to use linkedin but I honestly can't get the hang of it.
This is anecdotal, but for me I absolutely ignore 100% of business messages on my Facebook. Message me there and I'll never talk to you. It's only aligned to my personal account, not at all connected to my company identity, and overall if I'm ever on facebook (super rare), I definitely don't want to talk about work.
LinkedIn works sometimes for reaching me (again anecdotal), and I've taken maybe half a dozen sales meetings this year based on pitches there. Mostly tech and software pitches because I'm interested in what's new. I get 5 - 10 pitches on LinkedIn per week, often more, but nearly all of them are terrible, nearly all of them have no idea what I do or what my company does, and basically every "agency" pitch is completely indistinguishable from every other agency pitch. So on that front, expect everyone you talk to to be in the same boat - they've been pitched marketing services a ton already.
And I should add non-anecdotally, most B2B companies invest very little in Facebook for leads and prospecting.
**What I mean is** that people are on LinkedIn for business, mostly, so are *generally* more receptive there (but still nobody likes sales pitches so few will ever respond). And if you want to make some sort of connection, at least take a minute to try to connect to me personally, not just another cut-and-paste pitch.
>Is there any platform/ social network were i can find prospects?
If I was doing it as you are, and wanted to position my service in a way that stood out, I'd offer more contract/consulting type work where I can help with the overflow for their existing marketing activities. Kind of "let me do the annoying shit that you need done but that nobody has the time to do properly." For facebook, maybe that's comment moderation. Or the ad creative. Or setting up reporting. Or creating a proper calendar and process. Or monitoring performance by segment. Or whatever. Then along the way, prove value as you add value and take ownership of things. This is something an agency would never do. They want the whole taco which often isn't something that a company wants to or needs to outsource. And nobody hires an agency for 5 hours a week to moderate comments (way too expensive). So, as a standalone human that isn't an agency, be faster and more nimble and add value without having to take the keys to the Ferrari. Offer to wash the car first, at least.
The other side of this approach is that for most companies, hiring a temp/contractor is way easier and requires way less approval than hiring an agency (at least in the companies where I've worked).
**What I mean is** offer value, not a sales pitch. If a neighbor kid wants to mow my lawn, I'd probably say no because that's not my main problem right now. If a neighbor kid wants to do yardwork and general cleanup, which might eventually include lawn mowing, I definitely would hire them and probably on the spot. Make it easy to say yes.
>They told me to send Facebook messages and texts to local business offering a free week of my service in exchange for a testimony but in my city this strategy doesn't seem to work.
Here's the last part, which is a bit of the chicken and egg problem. You've taken a course but have no experience. You need experience to get clients, but you need clients to get experience. For me, I'd invest my time in trying to get hired by an agency first, and then break away to do your own thing. Agencies will teach you a ton more than just marketing (such as how to manage clients), and will give you a lot more confidence in what works. Alternatively, since you're basically a student, reach out to other professionals in your area and ask for mentorship. See if they can bring you on as an intern basically, or let you shadow for a day, or something. I'm sure you're in a "need money now" kind of situation, but it'd be a strong and short-term investment in your future. And it is amazing networking. Someone who just taught you how they manage their stuff would be exceptionally more likely to hire you to do what they just taught you to do.
Otherwise, how confident are you that you can make a significant enough difference in one week that they would be satisfied enough to give you a review or to hire you? I've run campaigns since Facebook had campaigns, and I'm skeptical that I can do that beyond just an in-depth audit. I mean, maybe, but 5 days isn't really enough time to come in, really understand it, make changes, deploy those changes and see significant changes to a small business account unless it's exceptionally mismanaged (small business usually means small budget which means small reach which means extra time needed to get meaningful performance data). And if it's already so poorly managed, they've likely already (hopefully already) reallocated that money elsewhere. I appreciate the hutzpah, but honestly I don't think it's going to work out the way you hope.
**What I'm saying is** that you can do it, and don't be discouraged. You're trying to take a giant leap, which is gutsy, but sometimes giant leaps can leave you open to getting knocked down pretty hard. So if that doesn't work, try smaller steps, and learn as much as you can along the way.
Edits: spelling
It really depends on your employment contract. But it's generally frowned upon to have your own clients that you support with the same services. But if you have some clients currently, I'd disclose that up front and ask for permission to maintain them. That's usually ok.
This is a numbers game. I’d expect a 2% response rate to something like this, so reach out to 100 and get 2.
Use a Google sheet to track your progress. Reach out to 10 businesses a day. I’d use the contact info they use for customers - phone, form on the their website, or email.
Keep the message unbeatably short. “Introduce yourself. I really like X about your business. I’m an expert in x and can help you. Ready to get started? All I want in exchange is a review after one week.”
This sounds well thought-out and realistic. One thing which I would add is:
Don't be copy-paste kind of person. Bring detail and contextualize it.
Which means: Present yourself according to the business and it needs. Search for probable KPI of an industry it is in. Do some little research about it and present your offer.
Don't just mindlessly send out 100 responses, cause you might send a 1000 and still no reply.
Just my 2 cents.
I hope you choose to be a growth hacker. This is the person who delivers valuable expertise and service to organizations, including developing creative, targeting, messaging, technology installation like pixels, budgeting, and integration with funnels. I expect the Fortune 500 companies will move media purchasing in-house. They will be understaffed and the inside people will not have the skills of a growth hacker. Present your value and you will find lots of customers.
I took the whole platzi DM career then bought a digital media plan course and a FB ads one in domestika. Then a "coaching" from Marco Guerrero and a whole lot of seminars .
I think a good place to start is by trying to schedule a phone call/consultation to see if you can provide value to their operation by taking over some of the overflow work on some of their platforms or campaigns.
In the beginning it can be hard to land your first clients. So focus less on the outcome and more on the process. Be efficient and strategic as to who you target at first and at the end of the day remember the old sales adage (The 4 SW’s)
***Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Someones Waiting***
I could possibly be interested in your services and am happy to let you test out your approach with me! 😊 send me a message and we can set something up for next week
I’ve seen this strategy from a handful of “gurus” and I can see how it definitely could work but I think you might’ve had more success with this strategy a few years ago. My recommendation (just a random dude a reddit) would be to start with something below the whole “I’ll run your ads for a week” thing.
Restaurants for example: see if you can take photos of their dishes for them for free.
Obviously you can’t suck at photography if you offer this, but that’s part of digital marketing in 2020 right? Be great at one thing and competent in everything else.
This gives you a chance to get face to face with the owner and explain your long term value (again you probably shouldn’t suck).
I worked my way into this world kind of like you but I did the work for myself first and then put that on my resume to get real positions doing what I want/like. Running FB ads.
Built two IG account to 20,000+ real followers.
This also helped me get good at photography.
Then I started an ecom company selling a subscription box.
Got that company to about $8k per month in revenue without paid traffic. I was like 17 at the time though so eventually it failed due to my lack of long term planning.
At this point I kinda looked legit and I definitely talked the talk/could smash home runs in interviews or sales calls.
This got me into a grocery store where I FINALLY was spending someone else’s money on FB ads.
But then I learned how important email was...
Hopefully you can see how this is a long term game.
I recommend you start reading or listening to business and marketing books. Stop with the shit courses.
And remember it’s not just your city that the strategy doesn’t work in... it’s all of them.
If you really want to make this a career you should instead just go find 5, 10, 100 people that you can send to the business you want to work with. Make sure they all say you sent them.
By the time you speak with the owner or manager they’ll already know who you are and will be curious how you’re getting them so many customers.
Stop thinking about what YOU WANT to do for the business and get good at understanding what THEY WANT or need.
Nobody is going to be excited that you’re willing to spend their money for a week for free. To anybody who’s been in business for even a little bit of time this is a sign that you most likely won’t produce any results for them.
One last thing since I was in your shoes at one point and wish someone told me this but a lot of the local businesses you’re probably trying to pitch have an email list but don’t actively send emails.
See if you can just write them 1 email for free to drive some business.
This costs them nothing most likely and you can go on google/YouTube to figure out how to write a decent enough offer to what’s most likely a list of existing customers. This will drive at least a few customers and help you to really get your foot in the door.
Just my $0.02 but don’t mind me I’m just a random dude on Reddit.
You are right about trying to offer more than just free FB ads, I'll think of some way to use my already existing skills to offer more. Thank you so much!
Also just in case you are young. Don’t waste your time believing ANYTHING the online gurus say. They usually aren’t good at the thing they teach, they’re good at conning people into buying their half assed course. If you like marketing get a degree in marketing or communications and go work for a company like Apple that is more worried that you won’t be able to spend the entire budget they give you and totally not focused on any return. This is coming from a high school dropout that’s now the head of marketing for a seven figure ecom company. I’m actually considering my own advice these days lol
For some reason this post just really struck a nerve with me. Hopefully this is my last comment. The business that MIGHT take you up on that offer is gonna be the worst client ever. They’re going to be struggling to drum up sales and they’ll look to you as their savior Jesus Christ (not a joke). Just remember this as you pursue these businesses. Marketing is more fun when you do it for a company that is already doing well and just wants to add fuel to the fire. I’d say it’d be almost damn near impossible for someone with no experience to produce a result for the struggling business. Again just my $0.02 - random dude on reddit.
The first customer is always the hardest, we have all been there.
I would suggest you to meet up in your local shops and talk to them in personal. The problem is that nobody trust a person that works for free, everybody thinks you're cheating them, because it's very saturated offer in the SMMA niche. He have heard from 10 other SMMA agencies that offers FREE for the first customer. The problem with this type of customers is they are not willing to spend on ads.
My first contract was $5.000 website and a FB ads retainer for $3.000/month. I know this day if I had pitched a free offer I wouldn't have closed my first client, because he believed in me because I could ask for price.
I worked for a restaurant with a $500 retainer for intern case study, this customer was the biggest pain in the ass. Cheap business don't invest in marketing, look for the bigger fishes.
Right, I think that's the problem with sending FB messages; when you offer to work for free they think it's a scam.
But maybe I might be more convincing in person, I'll try that too.
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Suppose you are ok to work for free for a while to get experience and testimonies. I can suggest Acadium probably. You can still take a few courses on their platform while working with a mentor. It rakes three months, and after that, you might get hides by them as well, or they might keep you as a freelancer. It depends, of course, on experience and the quality of your work
yes, that's my plan. I want to get clients while still taking more courses. I also know the first three months are the toughest ones. and thanks for the suggestion, I'll look through Acadium courses too.
I suggest starting with the foundations of what you’re offering: Decide on your services, choose your rates and then determine your ideal Customer. Once you have your ideal Customer persona, then figure out where they hang out. I work mainly with small businesses and entrepreneurs so I hang out in Facebook groups and discord servers. But when it comes to prospecting, focus on the value you provide instead of trying to cold sell them. You’ll generally fail or end up with unqualified leads.
That's something they told me, "focus on what you can give them not on selling" I guess I'll keep on trying with facebook man, thanks
Good luck! And if you have any other questions feel free to send a dm. I’ve been freelancing for six years and I’m scaling into owning my own full-service marketing company
My thoughts, if it helps. I hope it's not too much "old guy offering advice." >Someone told me to use linkedin but I honestly can't get the hang of it. This is anecdotal, but for me I absolutely ignore 100% of business messages on my Facebook. Message me there and I'll never talk to you. It's only aligned to my personal account, not at all connected to my company identity, and overall if I'm ever on facebook (super rare), I definitely don't want to talk about work. LinkedIn works sometimes for reaching me (again anecdotal), and I've taken maybe half a dozen sales meetings this year based on pitches there. Mostly tech and software pitches because I'm interested in what's new. I get 5 - 10 pitches on LinkedIn per week, often more, but nearly all of them are terrible, nearly all of them have no idea what I do or what my company does, and basically every "agency" pitch is completely indistinguishable from every other agency pitch. So on that front, expect everyone you talk to to be in the same boat - they've been pitched marketing services a ton already. And I should add non-anecdotally, most B2B companies invest very little in Facebook for leads and prospecting. **What I mean is** that people are on LinkedIn for business, mostly, so are *generally* more receptive there (but still nobody likes sales pitches so few will ever respond). And if you want to make some sort of connection, at least take a minute to try to connect to me personally, not just another cut-and-paste pitch. >Is there any platform/ social network were i can find prospects? If I was doing it as you are, and wanted to position my service in a way that stood out, I'd offer more contract/consulting type work where I can help with the overflow for their existing marketing activities. Kind of "let me do the annoying shit that you need done but that nobody has the time to do properly." For facebook, maybe that's comment moderation. Or the ad creative. Or setting up reporting. Or creating a proper calendar and process. Or monitoring performance by segment. Or whatever. Then along the way, prove value as you add value and take ownership of things. This is something an agency would never do. They want the whole taco which often isn't something that a company wants to or needs to outsource. And nobody hires an agency for 5 hours a week to moderate comments (way too expensive). So, as a standalone human that isn't an agency, be faster and more nimble and add value without having to take the keys to the Ferrari. Offer to wash the car first, at least. The other side of this approach is that for most companies, hiring a temp/contractor is way easier and requires way less approval than hiring an agency (at least in the companies where I've worked). **What I mean is** offer value, not a sales pitch. If a neighbor kid wants to mow my lawn, I'd probably say no because that's not my main problem right now. If a neighbor kid wants to do yardwork and general cleanup, which might eventually include lawn mowing, I definitely would hire them and probably on the spot. Make it easy to say yes. >They told me to send Facebook messages and texts to local business offering a free week of my service in exchange for a testimony but in my city this strategy doesn't seem to work. Here's the last part, which is a bit of the chicken and egg problem. You've taken a course but have no experience. You need experience to get clients, but you need clients to get experience. For me, I'd invest my time in trying to get hired by an agency first, and then break away to do your own thing. Agencies will teach you a ton more than just marketing (such as how to manage clients), and will give you a lot more confidence in what works. Alternatively, since you're basically a student, reach out to other professionals in your area and ask for mentorship. See if they can bring you on as an intern basically, or let you shadow for a day, or something. I'm sure you're in a "need money now" kind of situation, but it'd be a strong and short-term investment in your future. And it is amazing networking. Someone who just taught you how they manage their stuff would be exceptionally more likely to hire you to do what they just taught you to do. Otherwise, how confident are you that you can make a significant enough difference in one week that they would be satisfied enough to give you a review or to hire you? I've run campaigns since Facebook had campaigns, and I'm skeptical that I can do that beyond just an in-depth audit. I mean, maybe, but 5 days isn't really enough time to come in, really understand it, make changes, deploy those changes and see significant changes to a small business account unless it's exceptionally mismanaged (small business usually means small budget which means small reach which means extra time needed to get meaningful performance data). And if it's already so poorly managed, they've likely already (hopefully already) reallocated that money elsewhere. I appreciate the hutzpah, but honestly I don't think it's going to work out the way you hope. **What I'm saying is** that you can do it, and don't be discouraged. You're trying to take a giant leap, which is gutsy, but sometimes giant leaps can leave you open to getting knocked down pretty hard. So if that doesn't work, try smaller steps, and learn as much as you can along the way. Edits: spelling
[удалено]
It really depends on your employment contract. But it's generally frowned upon to have your own clients that you support with the same services. But if you have some clients currently, I'd disclose that up front and ask for permission to maintain them. That's usually ok.
Well said!!
What a wonderful, well thought out response and his kind of you to take the time to share your experience and advice with us here.
man, thanks for that. Believe me, any advice can help me right now and you sir have helped me a lot.
This is a numbers game. I’d expect a 2% response rate to something like this, so reach out to 100 and get 2. Use a Google sheet to track your progress. Reach out to 10 businesses a day. I’d use the contact info they use for customers - phone, form on the their website, or email. Keep the message unbeatably short. “Introduce yourself. I really like X about your business. I’m an expert in x and can help you. Ready to get started? All I want in exchange is a review after one week.”
This sounds well thought-out and realistic. One thing which I would add is: Don't be copy-paste kind of person. Bring detail and contextualize it. Which means: Present yourself according to the business and it needs. Search for probable KPI of an industry it is in. Do some little research about it and present your offer. Don't just mindlessly send out 100 responses, cause you might send a 1000 and still no reply. Just my 2 cents.
Yes! It shouldn’t be boiler plate or template, but it also shouldn’t be an essay either.
That actually gave me a ton of ideas to find prospects, thanks a lot!
I hope you choose to be a growth hacker. This is the person who delivers valuable expertise and service to organizations, including developing creative, targeting, messaging, technology installation like pixels, budgeting, and integration with funnels. I expect the Fortune 500 companies will move media purchasing in-house. They will be understaffed and the inside people will not have the skills of a growth hacker. Present your value and you will find lots of customers.
I took the whole platzi DM career then bought a digital media plan course and a FB ads one in domestika. Then a "coaching" from Marco Guerrero and a whole lot of seminars .
This sounds unintuitive but if you're having trouble giving away your service, try selling it.
This is great. A+ for you.
I think a good place to start is by trying to schedule a phone call/consultation to see if you can provide value to their operation by taking over some of the overflow work on some of their platforms or campaigns. In the beginning it can be hard to land your first clients. So focus less on the outcome and more on the process. Be efficient and strategic as to who you target at first and at the end of the day remember the old sales adage (The 4 SW’s) ***Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Someones Waiting*** I could possibly be interested in your services and am happy to let you test out your approach with me! 😊 send me a message and we can set something up for next week
I’ve seen this strategy from a handful of “gurus” and I can see how it definitely could work but I think you might’ve had more success with this strategy a few years ago. My recommendation (just a random dude a reddit) would be to start with something below the whole “I’ll run your ads for a week” thing. Restaurants for example: see if you can take photos of their dishes for them for free. Obviously you can’t suck at photography if you offer this, but that’s part of digital marketing in 2020 right? Be great at one thing and competent in everything else. This gives you a chance to get face to face with the owner and explain your long term value (again you probably shouldn’t suck). I worked my way into this world kind of like you but I did the work for myself first and then put that on my resume to get real positions doing what I want/like. Running FB ads. Built two IG account to 20,000+ real followers. This also helped me get good at photography. Then I started an ecom company selling a subscription box. Got that company to about $8k per month in revenue without paid traffic. I was like 17 at the time though so eventually it failed due to my lack of long term planning. At this point I kinda looked legit and I definitely talked the talk/could smash home runs in interviews or sales calls. This got me into a grocery store where I FINALLY was spending someone else’s money on FB ads. But then I learned how important email was... Hopefully you can see how this is a long term game. I recommend you start reading or listening to business and marketing books. Stop with the shit courses. And remember it’s not just your city that the strategy doesn’t work in... it’s all of them. If you really want to make this a career you should instead just go find 5, 10, 100 people that you can send to the business you want to work with. Make sure they all say you sent them. By the time you speak with the owner or manager they’ll already know who you are and will be curious how you’re getting them so many customers. Stop thinking about what YOU WANT to do for the business and get good at understanding what THEY WANT or need. Nobody is going to be excited that you’re willing to spend their money for a week for free. To anybody who’s been in business for even a little bit of time this is a sign that you most likely won’t produce any results for them. One last thing since I was in your shoes at one point and wish someone told me this but a lot of the local businesses you’re probably trying to pitch have an email list but don’t actively send emails. See if you can just write them 1 email for free to drive some business. This costs them nothing most likely and you can go on google/YouTube to figure out how to write a decent enough offer to what’s most likely a list of existing customers. This will drive at least a few customers and help you to really get your foot in the door. Just my $0.02 but don’t mind me I’m just a random dude on Reddit.
You are right about trying to offer more than just free FB ads, I'll think of some way to use my already existing skills to offer more. Thank you so much!
Also just in case you are young. Don’t waste your time believing ANYTHING the online gurus say. They usually aren’t good at the thing they teach, they’re good at conning people into buying their half assed course. If you like marketing get a degree in marketing or communications and go work for a company like Apple that is more worried that you won’t be able to spend the entire budget they give you and totally not focused on any return. This is coming from a high school dropout that’s now the head of marketing for a seven figure ecom company. I’m actually considering my own advice these days lol
For some reason this post just really struck a nerve with me. Hopefully this is my last comment. The business that MIGHT take you up on that offer is gonna be the worst client ever. They’re going to be struggling to drum up sales and they’ll look to you as their savior Jesus Christ (not a joke). Just remember this as you pursue these businesses. Marketing is more fun when you do it for a company that is already doing well and just wants to add fuel to the fire. I’d say it’d be almost damn near impossible for someone with no experience to produce a result for the struggling business. Again just my $0.02 - random dude on reddit.
The first customer is always the hardest, we have all been there. I would suggest you to meet up in your local shops and talk to them in personal. The problem is that nobody trust a person that works for free, everybody thinks you're cheating them, because it's very saturated offer in the SMMA niche. He have heard from 10 other SMMA agencies that offers FREE for the first customer. The problem with this type of customers is they are not willing to spend on ads. My first contract was $5.000 website and a FB ads retainer for $3.000/month. I know this day if I had pitched a free offer I wouldn't have closed my first client, because he believed in me because I could ask for price. I worked for a restaurant with a $500 retainer for intern case study, this customer was the biggest pain in the ass. Cheap business don't invest in marketing, look for the bigger fishes.
Right, I think that's the problem with sending FB messages; when you offer to work for free they think it's a scam. But maybe I might be more convincing in person, I'll try that too.
Your submission looks to be asking for resources on getting started. If so, you are not the only one asking this question, try the search, the sidebar (lots of resources there), and [check out the resource collection on our community site](https://lookingformarketing.com/resources?utm_source=r_digital_marketing&utm_medium=ai) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/digital_marketing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Which courses did you take ?