Read time: 4 mins
In this week’s issue, I want to talk about how to get more booked appointments with local small businesses completely on autopilot…
This method I’m about to share with you isn’t 100% perfect by any means.
However, by implementing this method, you’re not wasting your time with local small businesses who are not interested in your help.
Let’s dive in.
Local Small Business Client Prospecting Methods
Before I get into exactly what I want to share with you this week…
I thought it would be a good idea to review some local small business client prospecting methods.
So I decided to reach into the archives and pulled this gem out from a couple weeks ago in The Local Marketing Minute where I talked about the “age-old secret” to getting local small business clients…
And in that issue I specifically mentioned…
“How You Can Get Local Small Business Clients”
Under that sub-heading I said…
“If you’ve been a Local Small Business Consultant for any length of time…
Then you know there are a variety of methods to prospect for local small business clients.
But just in case you don’t know…
Here’s a list of ways to prospect for local small businesses:
- Cold Calling
- Cold Emailing
- Content Marketing
- Networking
- Advertising
- Referrals
Most people shy away from cold calling as it’s the most intimidating prospecting method for most Local Small Business Consultants.
With that being said, the most popular client prospecting method on the list is probably cold emailing.
A fan favorite is none other than referrals…
As it’s the easiest way to get a local small business client that requires little to no work.”
While all of those methods work…
The one I want to focus on today is advertising.
Advertising Your Digital Marketing Services to Local Small Businesses
Unfortunately, advertising can be hit or miss and usually requires constant tweaking and testing.
Meaning, most of the time it can be very difficult to do where you’re getting a positive ROI (return on investment) before you want to pull your hair out and give up on it.
Let’s be honest…
This is especially true if you’re not getting any tangible results from your ad spend.
Most of the time we (being Local Small Business Consultants or Digital Marketing Agency Owners), don’t have a proper advertising budget…
This is likely due to the fact that it’s an afterthought, so there isn’t enough money being set aside for “marketing purposes”, including advertising.
Thus making it nearly impossible to advertise effectively…
More specifically, having the patience to actually get a result from our advertising efforts before panic sets in and we want to pull the plug so to speak by turning the ad campaign off prematurely…
Without really knowing whether the advertisement(s) actually work or not.
Get More Bang For Your Buck By “Double Dipping” With Your Advertising
As you know I am always tinkering with Facebook Ads…
And most recently I started to focus more heavily on lead form ad campaigns again.
As a result of that…
I’ve been experimenting with adding a solid call to action on page 4 of the Facebook lead form…
Where in the past, the lead would typically never click the blue button after submitting their information.
However, with the right messaging now I’m getting way more “clicks” than I ever have before…
And those clicks have resulted in booked appointments with prospective local small business clients.
So not only am I getting the prospective local small business client’s information (name and email address)…
To follow up with them via my email automations…
But I’m also getting about half of them to book an appointment with me directly from the ad itself!
Why It’s So Important To Get Appointments NOT Just Leads
This may be obvious for some if not most of you, but I think it’s important to discuss it anyway.
See, when you get prospective local small business clients to book an appointment with you…
Not only are they HOT leads who are seeking you out…
But you’re able to save your precious time by not wasting it on local small businesses who are NOT interested in your digital marketing services. (at least at that particular moment)
And that’s not to say that those who DON’T book an appointment never will…
They very well might in the future.
Whether that be in a day, a week, a month, or even a year from now.
And that’s where the power of email marketing follow-up comes into play.
Keeping Your Pipeline Full Of Prospective Local Small Business Clients
First things first…
You need to allocate 7-10% of your gross revenue per month for advertising at a bare minimum.
Here are a few examples:
- $2,500 monthly revenue = $175 – $250 allocated for ad spend
- $5,000 monthly revenue = $350 – $500 allocated for ad spend
- $7,500 monthly revenue = $525 – $750 allocated for ad spend
- $10,000 monthly revenue = $700 – $1,000 allocated for ad spend
Then you need to calculate how much that breaks down per day.
Here are a few examples of ad spend per day:
- $175 – $250 ad spend per month = $5.83 – $8.33 ad spend per day
- $350 – $500 ad spend per month = $11.67 – $16.67 ad spend per day
- $525 – $750 ad spend per month = $17.50 – $25 ad spend per day
- $700 – $1,000 ad spend per month = $23.33 – $33.33 ad spend per day
Once you have your advertising budget calculated and you know exactly how much you can afford to spend per day and per month…
Then you’ll want to get your first lead form ad campaign setup with a strong call to action on the final page of the lead form…
Letting your prospective local small business client know that they need to book an appointment with you.
And of course you’ll also need to have your email follow-up automation(s) setup and ready to go to encourage the leads who don’t book immediately, book eventually.
By implementing this particular local small business client prospecting method…
You should be able to not only get new leads on your email list…
But also about 50% of them booking an appointment with you from the get go! (and eventually getting the other half sold as well either by appointment or otherwise)
Good luck!
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