Agencies, Funnels and Getting Clients

[PersonOfInterest]

Lately, the trend seems to be a LOT of people selling courses to get clients, start Facebook ad agencies and creating funnels to get clients.
Just wondering if any of this is actually working or making money for anyone (other than the course creators).
I have noticed a substantial decline in my web agency business, as business owners seem to either not care about ads and SEO, and are probably "ad blind" from being bombarded by all of these offers, day to day. A lot of people are pushing the "charge at least $10k for a website" schtick but I find it very difficult to get in with anyone who has large budgets like that, as they are already well connected with business partners, etc. and aren't going to waste time on some unknown peddling free website audits, etc.
I have approached 100's of attorneys and dentists with offers to conduct SEO and Facebook ads, but most of them are booked so far ahead already, it seems they don't need to mine new client leads.
I've been in this business for over 20 years and have seen a lot of promo trends come and go. To me, it seems harder than ever with all the noise being generated out there.
Anyway, I was just curious to hear from others and get your thoughts about all of this. Are you actually getting any results, quality clients, etc. or is just the course creators making money?
Maybe I'm wrong or perhaps feeling a bit jaded but despite a lot of hard work and effort, I'm just not getting the results that others claim to be getting. I'm in a bit more of a rural state but wondering if I should be targeting more urban areas such as Boston, NY, etc. But then again, I would assume those areas are even more saturated with offers in their own geographical area. What are your thoughts, suggestions, etc.?

[GetStuffDone]

Hey, the answer is the follwoing
1. You can´t reach ppl with money
2. The people you reach don´t need new clients

The logical solution to your problem
1. Define clients who can afford to invest more money in your services
2. Offer something that is not connected to getting clients.

For example

Get paid more by every client, Increase your profits, etc.

There´s a ton of ways to nail it.
It all depends on the path you want to follow.
There are hundrends of options to sell to your client besides getting new clients.

Heck, check How to Win friends and Influence people, Dale´s story might give you a hint, how much biz owners are intrested in other types of topics.

[NoJob]

@PersonOfInterest,
Since you've been at this for 20yrs I have to assume you know what you're doing. Sadly, the truth these days is that anyone can call themselves a "Digital Marketing Agency", without any credentials/experience/education. This makes it harder for people with actual skills and knowledge and it serves to increase skepticism among small business owners.

I think you need to be able to prove that what you do produces profits for your prospect. Do you have clients who you've got to the 1st page of Google? Did they double sales/profits? Will they provide a testimonial? Can you do a Case Study or a white paper?

One last thought/question: Have you read Bob Ross's report on Sparkers? It's available here on the forum and is well worth the read.
Looking forward to hearing more about your progress.
Cheers,
NoJob

[TreeMan]

What helped me was me changing my angle. I went from being a digital marketer to being someone who can get customers. That's a big difference in mindset.

[PersonOfInterest]

(10-07-2018 03:31 PM)NoJob Wrote:  @PersonOfInterest,
Since you've been at this for 20yrs I have to assume you know what you're doing. Sadly, the truth these days is that anyone can call themselves a "Digital Marketing Agency", without any credentials/experience/education. This makes it harder for people with actual skills and knowledge and it serves to increase skepticism among small business owners.

I think you need to be able to prove that what you do produces profits for your prospect. Do you have clients who you've got to the 1st page of Google? Did they double sales/profits? Will they provide a testimonial? Can you do a Case Study or a white paper?

One last thought/question: Have you read Bob Ross's report on Sparkers? It's available here on the forum and is well worth the read.
Looking forward to hearing more about your progress.
Cheers,
NoJob

Thanks for the info. Yes, I have done all of the above but the old ways of networking, cold calls and cold emails no longer seem to work. Also, as you say, there is a lot of new competition from people becoming overnight agencies offering very low costs. Even the local TV station and newspapers are selling digital marketing services as their businesses begin to tank. As a guess, I'd have to say the area I'm in is oversaturated as I've seen other long term agencies also doing FB ads, when they never did before.
Will check out the Sparkers resource mentioned above. Thanks again.

[WorldWarrior]

What you identified is an "evergreen" problem for want of a better phrase.

I happen to be one of the people you refer to as selling solutions to get better clients and I know it works.

I only teach what I know to people who want to know it.

I only focus on one type of customer and help them solve one big problem they know they have that it would be costly for them not to solve.

The truth is there are lots of business professionals who are doing well but there are also many, many others that can't seem to make ends meet.

I don't target either of those but go for the ones in the middle who are doing business but struggling and are motivated to scale up.

Again, even with this level of qualification not all struggling service professional wil either want to pay for someone like me or even be able to but it's not my job to convince them that they have to - That's where a lot of people with great things to offer fall over i.e. they try to sell things to people who don't want to solve the problems they have or who can't afford to solve the problems anyway.

I believe there's no shortage of business opportunities when you reposition the problem you solve and notice I've repeatedly mentioned the "problem" not a nice-to-have solution that might appeal to a business owner's ego.

That's a big difference and I hope this helped.

WW

[eyeinthesky]

For me I see it as an opportunity when people are pushing for a "Facebook Ads", Generating Leads. It means that the competition (old agency and new agency) is moving into that direction.

More and more people will be pushing that service and "Lazy" people will copy exactly and fail.

You have to remember that your client is a human being/person, they will buy from people they trust, so you just need to be creative and find an "Angle" where you can get their attention.

The consultancy model they are pushing works, no questions asked about that but if you tweaked it and find an "angle" to get your foot.

What they are teaching is what works for them and we have a different skillset, levels of expertise, connection and money to spend on marketing so again we just need to be creative enough to find an angle that is working for us..

There is an unlimited segment of niches, income level, business model, model.

One Example:
7-Figure agency would not normally target less than 5k month - 10k per month clients. Same goes with "zero client agencies" SHOULD not target big clients at the beginning.. get at least 3 - 5 or 10 case study or testimonials then slowly transition to higher paying clients.

There is no overnight success, you don't want to be a "Me too" and just copy what everyone else is doing. There's a lot of ways to do things

[WorldWarrior]

Great words.

Your whole write up resonates and shows you're a person of wisdom and experience.

What really started hitting things home and that people need to take notice of in what you said starts about here...

(10-11-2018 12:23 PM)eyeinthesky Wrote:  ...

There is an unlimited segment of niches, income level, business model, model.

One Example:
7-Figure agency would not normally target less than 5k month - 10k per month clients. Same goes with "zero client agencies" SHOULD not target big clients at the beginning.. get at least 3 - 5 or 10 case study or testimonials then slowly transition to higher paying clients.

There is no overnight success, you don't want to be a "Me too" and just copy what everyone else is doing. There's a lot of ways to do things

WW

[fr33 l_04d3R2]

The main culprit here is "THE EXCESS KNOWLEDGE" which is available over the net for free or for as low cost as $ 5.
Anybody these days can just finish one course and calls them a digital marketing agency.
Old marketing ways are at all time low. Digital marketing is the future.
This is a Fact everybody knows and understand which created lots of competition due to which good small business and freelancers are suffering.

[Lumos]

In addition to what has been said specifically above...
Outsourcing for cheap is now well known - even if those seeking it don't know about Fiverr.

Why hire a $1000 (minimum) in-country service when you could find, then try 10 others who charge $20 or even less from a foreign country where that is considered a good day's wages ??