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You need to build an audience on the internet to get a steady pipeline of leads. It sounds counterintuitive, but, share everything you know on the internet for
by pembrook 6y ago
You need to build an audience on the internet to get a steady pipeline of leads.
It sounds counterintuitive, but, share everything you know on the internet for free (Blog for SEO), and then collect emails at the bottom of each post promising further valuable information.
You’ve now got a list of leads who think of you as an expert and specifically need help with your niche area. You need to email them regularly with further valuable information to keep them engaged. Occasionally sell your services to this list, while keeping it mostly informative so people don’t unsubscribe. This will become the “inbound” portion of your sales funnel.
Next, you need to create the “outbound” portion. Using your email list, send out a survey and find out what type of people are looking for consultants in your specific niche.
Once you have a good target profile, troll LinkedIn and create a contact list that fits the profile, and systematically reach out to each of them. You also should share some of your content posts that you think would be relevant to them (and that have proven to be popular) to both establish trust, and also potentially get them on the email list (not everybody needs help right now but will later).
Once you have an inbound and outbound process that’s working and you can calculate what percentage of leads eventually convert, scale it up. Hire virtual assistants to automate and dabble with ads.
Now you have more work than you can handle and have the beginnings of an agency where you can sell other people’s time for even more profit.
- edem 6y agoThis is a great idea. I already have some bits and pieces there (a blog for example) but this somehow never occurred to me.
- aklemm 6y agoIs this your actual experience? Can you provide more specifics? I can’t imagine too many people hiring consultants from pure Internet marketing.
- pembrook 6y agoYep, but you don't have to take my word for it. Google for information on pretty much any business niche area. It has to be niche. It can't be broad like "web development" or "web design." More like web development for automotive suppliers who use Magento for large B2B orders. Doesn't have to be tech related. For example; M&A tax issues, defending age discrimination lawsuits as a small business, investment advice for American expats in Europe, increasing crop yield for soybean production, etc. etc. If you don't see blog posts from a consultant or company who sells to that niche, look up the google search traffic for the specific phrase you used, and if its significant, then you've discovered a business idea. You can bet in the next 10-20 years every single one of those niches is eventually going to be filled and the competition is only going to get worse. The best time to start is now.
- lpasselin 6y agoThis is what the typical hacker News poster says. It is a lot of work and will take a lot of time. An other way is to get in touch with your contacts working in companies that have problems you can solve.