finding clients

[findtim]

i'm experimenting with how to find more clients, so "thmbs up" or "thumbs down" on this method ?

i found a horrible website, probably made 8 years ago but its a medium sized company, so i just sent them this email..... i wonder what will happen? PS: all lowercase was on purpose.
-----------

hello, my name is tim connell and i am a web designer with 15 years experience, i live in melbourne and i was doing some research for another client when i came across your website.

it is looking old and is not responsive to mobile phones and ipads,

your company sounds like it has a great business, large range, multiple manufacturers that you represent but you don't seem to be projecting that via your website.

sorry but there is no ZING with your online presence.

if you would like an up to date website that you can also change yourself, add pages and information, one that makes you look like a LEADER in your market then please give me a call, i'll phone you straight back on my office phone and we can have a chat about what i can do for you.

my client base is australia wide so you being in sydney will not be a problem.

thankyou for your time and i hope i can redo your website one day, if not now but maybe in the future, get 3 quotes but please make me one of them

tim connell
0439 ******

 

[Data Glasses]

Would it have been worth contacting the marketing/business manager directly in case it was dismissed before reaching the best person for the decision, 'Hello i would like to correspond with the marketing manager ....etc'

 

[findtim]

i do that as well, most times you get the "secretary nazi"

LOL, once that person was sooooo bad i asked when she goes to lunch ? she asked WHY, i said because thats when i am going to phone back !!!!

i wonder if she went to lunch that day.

tim

 

[helloworld]

I don;t recommend sending general emails. It just looks like spam. Set asidse time to make calls to potential clients.

Getting past the gatekeeper can be hard. My advice is to try obtain the name of the person you need to contact first. That might be the owner, director or marketing manager etc. You can do this by simply calling and asking to update you contacts. This is pretty standard and you're not being asked to be put through.

If you want to avoid the gate keeper, you need to call before 9pm and after 6pm. Owners almost always pick up at these times a they are still there long after the secretary has gone home.

A standard call of mine will go like this:

Hello, this is hello world from lorum ipsum. We are a web development firm that specialise in [insert specialty] i will be in your area [dubbo] on [day and date] and i was wondering if I could meet with you to discuss some improvements to your website.

They will inevitably reply with a variation of the following:

We already have a web person/agency who does [specialty]

My reply is:

That's great. I have found from working with [related companies, industry that they will know] that our service/product can actually complement what you are doing now. How is 12pm for you?

You normally get 1-3 in 10 of these appointments using this technique.

The first meeting should be just that a meet and great and establishing their vision while giving them a brief but enthusiastic overview of what you do. The main point of this meeting is to get a better understanding of their product/service AND to arrange your SECOND appointment.


Second appointment you will have had time to make a proposal and you should have an understanding of their budget by this time. Sometimes less is more. You can always upsell once the relationship has been formed.

 

[findtim]

good method, i rarely visit my clients, @ 90% now i have NEVER met.

i found giving them all that LOVE/mate mate was costing me time so now i give them nothing but phone/email/skype

i agree with the spam concept, thats why i got straight into my name, where i was and purposely typed it so it looked personal.

tim

 

[FirstPageResults]

Interested as to why you thought that would be a good strategy?

No mention of the business name, URL and all lowercase.. Great way to get your legit email flagged as spam! (I'd definitely flag it in Gmail)

 

[findtim]

i kept the business name out of it on dnt for obvious reasons, lowercase was to be informal, i sent it to helena and it didn't go to her spam/junk mail

so far nobody likes it, so it will be interesting if i get a reply.

tim

 

[BenWalker]

Maybe I'm just a snob. But I would have ignored that email straight away.

Why...
I receive on average minimum 3 emails per day from Indian Companies. Here is an example below.

========

Hi,

I am Hazel. I was surfing through your website and realized that despite having a good design, it was not ranking on any of the search engines for most of the keywords pertaining to your domain. I was wondering if you would be interested in getting the SEO done for your website. There is a simple equation that is applicable to the online world.

Ethical SEO -> Better Traffic -> Higher Sales

We are an ISO Certified, SEMPO registered Online Marketing firm and have over 8+ years of working experience. All the techniques used are ethical and proprietary. In case you require any additional information, it shall be our pleasure to furnish the same.

Do let me know if you are interested, then I can send you our past work details, testimonials, affordable quotation with best offer.

You can get more information. I look forward to your mail.

Hazel Ryder

Business Development Manager

 

[FirstPageResults]

I'm not saying it would go to junk automatically, but I certainly would go out of my way to flag the email as spam (as I dutifully do to around a dozen emails every day). Incase you are not aware if enough people flag emails as spam it has a negative effect on that email and/or domain/IP address.

Also to me informal is adding "Cheers" rather than "Kind Regards" when signing off.

If you automate these and send out 1,000 you might get one response

Good luck though.

 

[duncan22]

How about targeting these companies, spending a few hours designing a new homepage for them, keeping the structure and content much the same and sending it to them as an example of work you could do. I would say you'll get a 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 response if your design is a decent start and theres is terrible. It will definitely stand out from all the other spam they receive.

 

[FirstPageResults]

How about targeting these companies, spending a few hours designing a new homepage for them, keeping the structure and content much the same and sending it to them as an example of work you could do. I would say you'll get a 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 response if your design is a decent start and theres is terrible. It will definitely stand out from all the other spam they receive.

Don't know about you, but I certainly don't have 3 hours of spare time to donate to a company that may or may not then allow me to quote for a job!

There are often very good reasons companies have bad websites. Having no money and not seeing the value are two that rank highly on the list, followed closely by having a friend that "knows IT".

Sometimes when I google something, I'll click on the top AdWords result I get taken to a 404 or 500 error. So I'll then do a good deed for the day and email the webmaster to let them now they are paying $X CPC for a broken link. No sales pitch, and I can count on one hand the amount of times I received a thank you response.

Edit:

Just to clarify: It's not that I think targeting is a bad idea, but I just think you need to get the foot in the door with some networking before hand so that you have a contact person you know is willing to at least here you out.

 

[duncan22]

Don't know about you, but I certainly don't have 3 hours of spare time to donate to a company that may or may not then allow me to quote for a job!

There are often very good reasons companies have bad websites. Having no money and not seeing the value are two that rank highly on the list, followed closely by having a friend that "knows IT".

Sometimes when I google something, I'll click on the top AdWords result I get taken to a 404 or 500 error. So I'll then do a good deed for the day and email the webmaster to let them now they are paying $X CPC for a broken link. No sales pitch, and I can count on one hand the amount of times I received a thank you response.

Edit:

Just to clarify: It's not that I think targeting is a bad idea, but I just think you need to get the foot in the door with some networking before hand so that you have a contact person you know is willing to at least here you out.

Its definitely worked for me in the past. Suppose it all depends how much additional time it takes you to contact the 997 people to get a 1 in 1,000 response.

 

[findtim]

on cold calls my strike rate is 1 in 3

on cold emails my strike rate is 1 in 6

thats why i try different things.

i do agree with FPR on trash trash,

'll click on the top AdWords result I get taken to a 404 or 500 error

you could make a living out of that phone call " give me $20 and i will save you a $100 !!!! "

here is the site i sent the email to

howardexports.com

http://howardexports.com/industrial.htm

FPR: "automate" yeh i don't think so, i think if you actually bring up issues about colours or styling it shows you have actually BEEN to the site, i didn't do it in this email but will do for the next experiment eg: eg: your navigation rolover being red SUCKS ! , or words to that effect.

there are just soooo many crappy old websites out there that need redoing let alone the ones that haven't even begun !!!!

i got a new client this week, the website is sooooooooooooo horrible that i might have to only post it into private forum but it came from the same type of email........ your website sucks !!! and she rang me and agreed

tim

 

[CityEnd]

Maybe I'm just a snob. But I would have ignored that email straight away.

Why...
I receive on average minimum 3 emails per day from Indian Companies. Here is an example below.

========

Hi,

I am Hazel. I was surfing through your website and realized that despite having a good design, it was not ranking on any of the search engines for most of the keywords pertaining to your domain. I was wondering if you would be interested in getting the SEO done for your website. There is a simple equation that is applicable to the online world.

Ethical SEO -> Better Traffic -> Higher Sales

We are an ISO Certified, SEMPO registered Online Marketing firm and have over 8+ years of working experience. All the techniques used are ethical and proprietary. In case you require any additional information, it shall be our pleasure to furnish the same.

Do let me know if you are interested, then I can send you our past work details, testimonials, affordable quotation with best offer.

You can get more information. I look forward to your mail.

Hazel Ryder

Business Development Manager

I have to agree with Ben there, we get similar emails as well and they all go into the junk folder

Here's one that sounds like they are local, but doing a whois on the email address shows they are just another Indian company

Hey Guys, I hope you're well.

My name is Ryan I work for a local online marketing company in Melbourne. I was doing some research on some of your competitors when I came across your site.

I noticed while you have a decent looking website, you don’t appear in Google’s organic listings for a whole bunch of keywords pertaining to your industry.

The agency I work for could get you guys a lot more leads online. Whether that is through making sure you appear in the organic listing (where over 80% of people click) on Google, or

Just by making sure your website convert a lot more visitors into leads. Given your current landing page, I can only assume it's not converting anymore than 3% of people visiting your site. I hope you don't mind me emailing, I just find it a little less invasive from calling you up and interrupting what ever it is you are doing at this present moment

If this sounds like something of interest, or something you would like to explore further - simply reply with full contact details and I will give you a quick buzz.



Regards,

Ryan

 

[helloworld]

How about targeting these companies, spending a few hours designing a new homepage for them, keeping the structure and content much the same and sending it to them as an example of work you could do. I would say you'll get a 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 response if your design is a decent start and theres is terrible. It will definitely stand out from all the other spam they receive.

I don't think this is a bad recommendation. However I'd be inclined to suggest a case study using data from the sites you are targeting and then send it to them and how badly they are performing against their competitors all included

 

[James]

To be honest we do not really do any cold calls to get new business the main ways we drive new leads are the following:

1. Conference - talking at events seems to drive a few leads.
2. Networking events - meeting people at events seems to drive a few leads.
3. Content and Blogging - this seems to drive a few leads, you just need to invest plenty of time to do something GREAT!!
4. Having a reason to email some one - Find something wrong or just helping some one out this can drive new leads.
5. Friends of Friends and contacts - if you know the right people they can send leads your way.
6. Partnerships - if you build contacts in the market you can drive leads.
7. Random places - One of our largest clients at the moment actually came off Twitter, just via a conversation and helping out on of their in house developers with something they said come in for a meeting.
8. Random branding things - Sometimes we send out cupcakes or gifts to relevant business it is for fun example -

I guess in the end of the day you really just have to be everywhere possible which is relevant to drive leads.

 

[DamianLondon]

Cold calling is really hit and miss (more miss than hit); especially email based. I am sure the odds will be better focusing on marketing your own company and ensuring there is a "call to action" on your own website.

I played around with a web dev leads website for about three months earlier this year; with mixed results. I found that the work that I was attracting from marketing was pretty much low end.

Word of mouth, experience, building reputation and offering more than others do will give you an edge; but in most cases any company will still come down to choosing their web developers based on price.

 

[findtim]

nice ideas james

i like the cupcake idea

tim