If I offered to Review your Business reputation at No Charge, Would you Oblige?

[Paul Ayobami]

I work at a Digital Marketing Firm, We offer a couple of services to local businesses.
I also run a local business so I can relate with a level of skepticism. One thing we offer businesses is a review of how they are doing online and practical steps they can take with or without us to get to their goals.

Although it sounds like what every business owner should know at their fingertip, we don't usually know enough. I was surprised by the things I discovered about my own local business in deep analytical research.
If I approached you physically or sent you a message via LinkedIn to offer you this assessment and next steps prescription at no charge or obligation for 30 minutes of your time. Would you take it and why?

Thanks

 

[Newchodge]

I work at a Digital Marketing Firm, We offer a couple of services to local businesses.
I also run a local business so I can relate with a level of skepticism. One thing we offer businesses is a review of how they are doing online and practical steps they can take with or without us to get to their goals.

Although it sounds like what every business owner should know at their fingertip, we don't usually know enough. I was surprised by the things I discovered about my own local business in deep analytical research.
If I approached you physically or sent you a message via LinkedIn to offer you this assessment and next steps prescription at no charge or obligation for 30 minutes of your time. Would you take it and why?

Thanks

No. Thank you.

 

[fisicx]

Probably not.

And that's because I get dozens of emails every day offering this and similar services. I have no idea who you are so have no reason to trust you. If I wanted a business review I'd find someone to do it.

 

[AlanJ1]

I work at a Digital Marketing Firm, We offer a couple of services to local businesses.
I also run a local business so I can relate with a level of skepticism. One thing we offer businesses is a review of how they are doing online and practical steps they can take with or without us to get to their goals.

Although it sounds like what every business owner should know at their fingertip, we don't usually know enough. I was surprised by the things I discovered about my own local business in deep analytical research.
If I approached you physically or sent you a message via LinkedIn to offer you this assessment and next steps prescription at no charge or obligation for 30 minutes of your time. Would you take it and why?

Thanks

I get 5-10 emails / linkedin messages like this a week.

 

[cjd]

Absolutely not, far too spammy.

 

[Ozzy]

If I approached you physically or sent you a message via LinkedIn to offer you this assessment and next steps prescription at no charge or obligation for 30 minutes of your time. Would you take it and why?

I'm afraid, as you may have already picked up from above, you are swimming in a sea of a million other fish all hitting us with daily messages on LinkedIn (and in my case via DM on X and Instagram also) selling the same thing. So much so that if there ever was a chance in the past that I would have been receptive to such an approach, I've now become dismissive and block/spam them all now.

As the business owner I feel I know where we lack in this area, and I would seek out a recommendation if and when we felt we needed to call in someone to help in that area. Ironically, I'd ask on here for a recommendation or approach an active member directly who provided such service.

 

[NickGrogan]

30 minutes of your time might be free, 30 minutes of my time is not. If I'm listening to you, then I'm not doing something more productive.

You need to convince me/any customer that talking to you is the most valuable thing I could be doing.

What do you mean by business reputation, from a digital marketing point of view? Even that's not really clear.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'd reflect the responses above.

Anyone with business experience knows that free always comes with a catch or a hidden price tag.

Presumably the 'catch' here is that you know will find problem to fix? Fine, but personally, if I was interested I'd rather pay for a genuinely impartial review

 

[Paul Ayobami]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Those were the reasons I didn't send anyone any of those messages.

What I did was write a short book instead to demonstrate marketing problems most small businesses face, primarily on Google (GMB, Local SEO, Reviews and PPC Campaigns) + 3 other Bonuses including resources and checklists (All for Free).

If then you want to expert advice you can book a 1:1 session.

Is that something you might consider if it crossed your Feed (not cold outreach)?

 

[fisicx]

Still no.

How do I know you are an expert? Your free book could be junk or written by some AI tool.

Don't give me your free book. Just publish everything on your website. If you are as good as you suggest you will be top of a whole bunch of Google searches.

 

[NickGrogan]

I can write a book about anything with the internet, its even easier with chatgpt. Grab a bunch of blog posts, change the author name and you're done. Or get chatgpt to do the whole thing.

 

[WaveJumper]

Think the road forward here is more info about yourself, your book, what you have done in the past, who with, results achieved etc etc and gain some credibility and then maybe it will break the ice

 

[cjd]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Those were the reasons I didn't send anyone any of those messages.

What I did was write a short book instead to demonstrate marketing problems most small businesses face, primarily on Google (GMB, Local SEO, Reviews and PPC Campaigns) + 3 other Bonuses including resources and checklists (All for Free).

If then you want to expert advice you can book a 1:1 session.

Is that something you might consider if it crossed your Feed (not cold outreach)?

I doubt it would interest anyone with any existing knowledge of the subject or that has been in business for a few years and seen it all before, but it might find enough newbies to keep you in business and give you a start.

 

[fisicx]

@Paul Ayobami which of the many, many Maker Minds are you? A google search for that name returns a whole slew of matches.

 

[fisicx]

I doubt it would interest anyone with any existing knowledge of the subject or that has been in business for a few years and seen it all before, but it might find enough newbies to keep you in business and give you a start.

Except of course startups these days don't want to read a book. They do things via TikToc or whatever the social flavour of the month is. I was talking to a couple the other day and if the message can't be communicated in a couple of minutes they move on.

 

[Mark T Jones]

It's important to understand that 'Free' really doesn't work in B2B environments - though it can in B2C.

It comes laden with cynicism.

A good friend of mine worked for a captive finance company, owned by a large computer company - He always said that the hardest sell was interest free credit. Prospects would spend more time looking for the catch that discussing the deal itself. There genuinely was no catch, they just wanted to push kit out of the door.

A book may or may not mark you as an 'expert' (depending on both content & presentation), but as mentioned, you will get more value by giving that information online, ideally in a focused manner.

 

[Paul Ayobami]

Thanks to you all.

I knew there was scepticism but you have helped me understand how heightened it is. And Yes, I'm writing from experience because I own a local business.

I'm not giving the book to random people, particularly not cold outreach. I have a landing page aside from the company website, soon to be published. And there are accompanying bonuses for those who ask for the book. My aim is for people to receive value first before asking for their trust.

 

[fisicx]

Or you just publish the book for everyone to read and give the bonuses to those who ask for help.

Your idea will be seen as a marketing ploy to capture email addresses. It’s a common tactic and one that is viewed with skepticism.

What is your end game? Is it to just offer help to small businesses or is there a financial gain?

 

[ethical PR]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Those were the reasons I didn't send anyone any of those messages.

What I did was write a short book instead to demonstrate marketing problems most small businesses face, primarily on Google (GMB, Local SEO, Reviews and PPC Campaigns) + 3 other Bonuses including resources and checklists (All for Free).

If then you want to expert advice you can book a 1:1 session.

Is that something you might consider if it crossed your Feed (not cold outreach)?

No you mix up reputation management, marketing and digital marketing for a start so clearly have already demonstrated your lack of understanding /expertise in the field .

 

[Sean Lee-Amies]

Thanks to you all.

I knew there was scepticism but you have helped me understand how heightened it is. And Yes, I'm writing from experience because I own a local business.

I'm not giving the book to random people, particularly not cold outreach. I have a landing page aside from the company website, soon to be published. And there are accompanying bonuses for those who ask for the book. My aim is for people to receive value first before asking for their trust.

It comes across a little bit like in the first breath you accept the learnings provided by others, but then in the next you contradict yourself a little by sort of implying that although you've come here asking for help, and a lot has been given, you don't need it because you know what you're doing.

Drip feeding more and more of your sequence/strategy after each round of feedback/criticism isn't massively helping your case. Like, it just seems a bit odd that you ask "what if I did this" and then later on say "well those are the reasons I never did it", only to reveal the next stage, which everyone is coming back to tell you also isn't going to work.

Thinking about my own deficiencies and lessons learned the hard way whilst building my marketing and sales agency, learning to really, truly take on board feedback and properly consider alternative perspectives without fully/partially challenging/dismissing them was a tough one.

You'd get better feedback, faster, if you just explained your entire strategy/plan, all your ideas, and as @fisicx asked, your goals or end game - and then asked for help to piece it all together or make it better.

 

[playbookagency]

This thread has been incredibly insightful, and it is genuinely helpful to hear the collective feedback and consensus from experienced members of the community.

We are in the early stages of launching a new online marketing agency ourselves, and we had initially planned to offer a similar service. However, after reading through the responses here, we now have a great deal to consider and are rethinking our approach.

We would be very grateful for any advice or recommendations on how a business like ours might best get started and build trust and credibility, especially given the scepticism around free service offers, and the fact that we currently lack references, recommendations, or testimonials. We are also curious to know under what circumstances you might feel more comfortable working with a start-up like ours, and what approach you believe would be most effective in gaining the confidence of potential clients.

Please feel free to message us directly if you believe your response may be more sensitive or personal. We sincerely welcome all insights and appreciate your time. Thank you.

 

[Sean Lee-Amies]

I think it depends what you're really trying to achieve and specifically what stage you're at.

If your 12 month revenue goal is 5 figures, you'll need very different advice if that goal is 7 or 8 figures.

Most agencies start by exhaustively tapping either their personal network or relying on transition key accounts from their freelance network over to their new agency.

Most services companies will rely on word of mouth and referrals (warm inbound) first and foremost.

The closer people are to you the easier it will typically be to convert them into clients. Networking and building real world connections really works.

Most will try to grow prematurely and underestimate how much effort is involved in more sophisticated marketing/sales efforts that typically rely on trying to turn strangers (with no referral) into new clients.

I'd avoid this until you can delegate/outsource enough to free up at least 4-8 hours per week (every week) for business development.

Most service companies fail to identify market segments that fit with their criteria of an ideal client; they run marketing/sales activities with a "everyone's a customer!" mindset.

This results in spam or vague, generic content that targets everyone and appeals to no-one.

If you have a bunch of money waiting to be invested into fast growth, I'd avoid paid ads until you have really, thoroughly, fully gotten the hang of aligning a clearly defined audience with a specific offer and pitch. Otherwise it's the fastest way to lose money.

SEO is great but slow. Arguably, you could hyper focus on 1-2 local keywords e.g. marketing company <location> but it depends where you are. If it's a little village in arse end of nowhere, there probably isn't much demand. If it's London, you'll never beat the much more established companies without a bigger budget.

For the past 2 years we've been focused on B2B tech, it's become clear that many B2B service companies should be able to get warm inbound generating enough profit to invest at least £1k p/m into growth services without it feeling like you're losing a fortune.

There's a LOT of experimentation and internal brainstorming to do if you want to be able to reach out to specific audiences and consistently convert these cold leads into paying clients. The "marketing agency" space is also extremely saturated, which is why all this extra effort is needed to break through the noise.

Your content and offers should be relevant to a market segment (look into ABM if you don't already know it) and you should be focused on helping them to overcome specific pain points (like not being able to categorise different marketing agencies or understanding the pros and cons of each).

Level 1: Warm inbound (e.g. referrals) should be about making it as easy as possible for people to know that you actually want referrals, what type of companies you want to work for and how best to push leads your way.

Level 2: Finding ways to attract bigger clients from further afield - probably best to leave this for now.

 

[fisicx]

@playbookagency - are you any good at marketing? It's not a facetious question, if you are good at marketing then you should have no problem marketing yourselves. This could be via SEO, adverts, Social Media, email campaigns and so on.

If your marketing copy and calls to action are good you will get leads. You could offer discounts for early adopters but that can go against you.

But it all comes back to how good you are at marketing. Convince potential clients that you are worth a punt and they may well give you a call.

As an aside, you might want to reconsider the company name. There are loads and loads of companies ranking for Playbook + Marketing. Which means you will struggle from the get go.