If you wanted to make an extra $100 next week, what would you have to do?
For 95% of people reading this, the answer is probably something like “Pick up an extra shift at work.” Or “Try to get some overtime.”
Well, what if you wanted to double your salary in the next 60 days? Or what if you wanted to create $10,000+ of monthly recurring revenue?
What would you have to do to accomplish that?
It’s obvious that when you work for a paycheck, you quickly run into a problem. There’s a point where there aren’t enough hours in a day, and there aren’t enough shifts in a week, to scale above a certain income level.
This is where the famous phrase comes in: “If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.” If you want to scale up to $10k/mo in monthly recurring revenue, you can’t do it by selling your time.
Unless you have a highly-specialized skill or you’re willing to go to college for a decade, a day job just isn’t going to get you there. You have to find a product or service to sell.
That’s why I’m going to show you my favorite service that I’ve used to create $10k/mo income streams… several times, and in multiple niches.
You absolutely can do this too, and today I’m going to show you exactly how.
Think back to the last time you were looking for a new service.
Maybe you had never been to a chiropractor before and your back started hurting. Or maybe you just moved to a new town and you were looking for a good dentist.
What did you do?
You probably got onto Facebook and posted “Can anyone recommend a good chiropractor/dentists/etc?”
Or maybe you googled “Best chiropractors in my town.” But the next thing you did is look up the businesses on Facebook to see what people are saying about them.
The point is, Facebook (and social media in general) is becoming an enormous part of how we decide who to do business with. It’s human nature. We want to learn about the people behind the business. We want to see their personalities. We want to find out if we can know, like, and trust them.
Despite this, it’s CRAZY how many businesses still haven’t caught on to how important it is.
More often than not you go to a business’s Facebook page and their last post was from months ago. If not years ago.
And even if they are posting regularly, the content is often sporadic and inconsistent. It looks like every so often they go “Oh yeah, we should probably post something” and just throw up anything they can think of.
When you see facebook pages like this, it gives the impression that the business isn’t on top of things. There are loose ends. They’re letting things fall through the cracks.
You start to wonder… if they’re not professional about their social media, what else aren’t they professional about? Do they not have time to post more often because they’re too busy… or because they’re too unorganized?
Maybe this is unfair. But like it or not, these are the conclusions that we all subconsciously jump to.
And this is precisely why you have a huge opportunity in front of you.
You can go to businesses like these and say “When you open your office in the morning, what do you do? You turn on the ‘open’ sign, you flick on the lights, you sweep off the front step… you show signs of life that let people know you’re open and ready to take care of them.”
“Well, why don’t you do the same thing on the internet? Your clients check facebook several times a day. So why aren’t you showing signs of life on your social media accounts?”
“It’s because you’re too busy. So for only $99 – $300 per month, I’ll post twice a day for you. That’s probably only the cost of 2-3 patient visits. It’s a small price to pay for making your business look professional and welcoming online.”
Here’s how we do it:
We create 180 images to post on social media that are informational and trust-building. We use software to automatically schedule two posts every day. Then at the end of 3 months, the software automatically starts reposting the images in a new random order.
This way we do 2-3 hours of setup work for a new client, they get great content posted daily at an affordable rate, and we get paid month after month indefinitely.
And that’s the service in a nutshell.
A lot of skeptics will say “The Facebook algorithm has changed, and now your posts won’t even show up in many of your followers’ feeds anymore.”
True, but that’s not the point of social posting.
The point is, is when someone checks out your business because they’re looking to spend their hard-earned cash, why are they going to pick you over someone else? What advantages do you have?
If you can make it look like you’re on top of things, that you go the extra mile, that you’re sharing your knowledge on social media and giving away your expertise for free… those are all things that are going to put you light years ahead of the competition.
The goal isn’t to make more sales to your existing followers (although that is a welcome byproduct). The goal is to show potential customers that your business is knowledgeable and professional.
And that’s exactly what you’re going to do for your clients with your social posting service.
This isn’t an overly-complicated service, but the genius is in the details. And this is what most people miss.
The biggest problem I see with people trying to start service businesses is they say yes to everyone. They’ll take on any project just to get a paycheck.
Well, what happens if you have one dentist client, one chiropractor client, and one lawyer client?
Now you have to create 180 posts for each of them. And creating the posts is the most time-consuming part of the entire process. So your hourly rate just plummeted through the floor.
But what if you decided to focus on only one industry? For example, let’s say you chose to work exclusively with dentists. You could create the posts once and sell them to all of your clients.
Now instead of spending your time on graphic design, you can spend your time making sales, closing customers, and getting revenue coming in the door. Now you can grow a real business.
Just imagine having 10 clients paying you $300/month. And then 20 clients, and 30 clients. Soon you’ll be making $3k/month, $6k/month, $9k/month… and all you have to do is 2-3 hours of setup work for each one.
(It’s actually not hard to imagine, because we have students that do this all the time.)
The key is looking for industries that provide what we call “blanket services.”
Think about restaurants. They all have unique dishes and cuisines. It would be impossible to make Facebook posts that would work for all restaurants because Italian restaurants want pictures of Italian food, and Mexican restaurants want pictures of Mexican food.
But think about oil change shops. Nearly everyone in the country performs basically the same service. And the educational information they would like to share with their customers is the same.
Think about gyms and personal trainers. Maybe the style of workouts are different (Crossfit, bodybuilding, interval training, etc.) but the principles of fitness and weight loss and human biology are the same. That means you could easily create informative posts that would apply to all gyms.
So start thinking about industries that provide blanket services, and start narrowing your list down to industries that you’re interested in or you have special experience or knowledge in. This is your target niche.
Once you’ve picked your niche, it’s time to start finding clients.
The easiest way to start is just by searching on Google and Facebook for [Your Niche] + [Your City]. You’ll instantly start finding a ton of results.
There are a few criteria I use to filter through the candidates and decide who to focus my energy on:
1.) They need to have been in business for at least 3-5 years. This gives them enough time to work out all the kinks. Now they’ve got the time and budget to focus on digital marketing.
2.) They have a website. This shows they have at least a base level of understanding in internet marketing.
3.) They’re a chamber of commerce member. (I explain in this article how the chamber of commerce is one of my favorite ways to get clients.)
4.) They have a facebook page. If they don’t they’re not going to be receptive to our offer. It’s always an uphill battle trying to sell digital services to people who don’t see the value in it.
A good rule of thumb is to approach businesses that are trying. If they haven’t posted on facebook in 2 years, they’re not going to be a good fit for us. But if they post once or twice a week, that tells me they want to publish regularly on Facebook but they just don’t have time to keep up with it.
I especially love seeing businesses that repost a lot of content from other places. It’s a good sign that they want to post, but they don’t have the time or ideas to create their own content.
Another good indicator is if businesses are paying to advertise on Yelp. It shows that they understand the value of digital marketing and are willing to spend a little money to invest in it.
Keep these criteria in mind and soon you’ll have a list of potential clients that will be a perfect fit for your service.
Now that you have your list of prospects, it’s time to start reaching out.
There are a lot of ways to do this. In my own agency, we’ve had success with webinars, trade shows, civic organizations, live events, and even partnering with charities. But there is one strategy that has worked better than anything else, and this is what I teach all of my students…
Donut Drops.
When I first started targeting the chiropractic niche with the social posting service, I would pick out ten chiropractors in a neighboring town. I’d go to a donut shop at 9 AM and I’d buy 10 boxes of donuts. And I would also print ten notes that said something like:
“Hi, we started a digital agency and we’re just trying to get to know people. We wanted to bring you a box of donuts and say hello.”
I’d spend the morning driving to all of the chiropractors, I’d walk in and introduce myself to the receptionist, hand her the donuts… and then I’d leave.
That’s it. Give the donuts, exchange names with the receptionist, zero pitch whatsoever, and then get the heck out of there.
Here’s what happens. The donuts are going to get put in the break room, and any time a staff member sees the box they’re going to light up and say “Oh my gosh, who brought the donuts?!” Trust me, it’s a big deal in any office.
Now without even realizing it, the receptionist is going to be your secret ambassador. She’s going to say “Some nice guy named Ben dropped them off and said he’s new in town and just wanted to introduce himself.” (You want to make sure you have a great interaction with her because she’s going to radiate that same “vibe” to all of the employees in the office.)
Now everyone in the office knows your name, they attach a ton of positivity and goodwill to you, and there’s an air of mystery around you.
The next day you’re going to follow up with a phone call. Say “My name is [Your Name] and I dropped off some donuts yesterday. I met [Receptionist’s Name] and she gave such incredible customer service! (Giving a compliment is huge, don’t skip this.) Can I get 10 minutes to talk about something I think could really help your business?”
Sometimes I’ll follow up via Facebook messenger, and often the person who reads my message is the same receptionist that I met the day before. This is where the compliment really makes an impression, and it almost guarantees that she’ll pass my note on to the owner.
This is exactly how I grew my own digital agency. I don’t always get a meeting, but you’d be amazed at how often I do. The conversion rate on doing this is insane.
When you tell your prospects about your offer, there are a few things I’ve discovered that will shoot your closing rate through the roof.
The first is to make the conversation about them and get them talking.
If you instantly start talking about YOUR service, YOUR business, and the results YOU offer, they’re going to be on the defensive. We’re all naturally resistant to being sold to. Even if it’s something we need.
Instead, start asking them questions. For example, “What is an obstacle you’re trying to overcome in your business? What is something you would love to accomplish in your business?”
Almost every time they’re going to say something about marketing. (Getting new clients is the biggest concern for most businesses.) But if they don’t, it’s easy to steer the conversation in that direction: “What kinds of things are you currently doing for marketing? Are you happy with the number of new clients you get, or could you handle more?”
Questions like these will help you learn more about their business and show them that you’re genuinely interested in helping. But more importantly, they’re going to start selling themselves on your service.
Here’s what I mean by that. They’re probably going to talk about how they’ve spent money on digital marketing but haven’t seen many results. Or the fact that they see other practices growing by leveraging the internet and they wish they could too, but they just don’t have the time and resources to focus on it.
When they mention these things, it’s like they’ve opened the door. Now, rather than make a hard sales pitch, all you have to say is “What if you could get those results, but all of the hard work was done for you?”
Or, “You’ve already said you want XYZ. Well what if you could hire someone at a low monthly rate and they delivered those results for you?”
There’s a famous saying in copywriting: people decide to buy with emotion, then they justify with logic.” So you get them to supply the emotion by asking questions and having a friendly conversation, then you supply the logic.
Here’s how I typically “supply the logic.” I almost always charge between $99 and $300 per month for this service. So I tell my prospect, when you factor in how much time this takes and all of the associated costs, you couldn’t hire an employee to do this cheaper than what we charge. Show them the math and it becomes a no-brainer.
Also, I like to compare the price to the value of an average customer. Ask them what a new client is worth to them, and then show them the math: “If you get just 3 new clients a month, this service pays for itself immediately. And since we don’t require yearly contracts, there’s zero risk to you.”
I also like telling prospects “It’s easy to see the value you get from this service. But what you can’t see is the value of lost customers. How many people have come to your facebook page and left because they didn’t see “signs of life?” How much would all of that business have been worth to you? Well for one low monthly fee, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Try these tactics and you’ll be shocked how easily you’ll start making sales.
Once you have your first paying customer, it’s time to start creating your Facebook posts.
You probably have a big red flag waving in your mind right now. “Wait a minute, don’t I need to have the content created before I make the sale?! How can I sell something that I haven’t even made yet?”
Here’s why it’s important to close your first sale before you create the posts… your client is going to help you make them.
You’re going to ask your client “What are some questions your customers ask you all the time? What is some advice you find yourself telling your clients over and over again? What are some things you like talking about that you’d like to include in your social media posts?”
Ask questions like these and not only will you uncover a gold mine of content, but you’ll create posts that your customer will absolutely love.
Once you have all of the content mapped out, you need to do the graphic design and create the actual posts. For this step, Canva.com is your best friend.
Canva is free (and still dirt cheap for the pro version) and makes it incredibly easy to make beautiful Facebook images. Give yourself an hour to play with it and learn how it works and you’ll be making amazing graphics in no time.
The last piece of advice I have for creating your Facebook posts is to batch the work. 180 posts seems like a daunting amount of work… and it is if you let it be.
But you’re not going to let it! Just tell yourself that you’re going to get 60 posts done today. And 60 posts tomorrow. And 60 posts the day after.
I’m not going to lie… it’s probably going to suck! But once you do it one time you never have to do it again. That is, until you’ve already dominated your first niche to $10k – $20k per month and you decide to tackle your second niche.
As you’re creating these posts, just remember that the goal is to be educational and informative. We’re not trying to make sales pitches or be promotional. We just want people to look up these facebook pages and think “Wow, this business is really on top of their game. And they seem passionate about teaching valuable information to their audience. I could do business with them.”
If you’d like to see what the posts look like we create in my own digital agency, check out our site NicheGraphic.com. You can get tons of inspiration (and if you want to skip this entire step you can buy our done-for-you content packs).
There are two last pieces of software that you need to know about.
The first is Watermark.ws. With this amazing piece of software, you can upload a batch of images and it will automatically add your client’s logo to all of them. We talked earlier about how we’re going to reuse the 180 posts for each of our clients. Well, Watermark.ws allows us to custom-brand each image to their business. So in their eyes, it’s not generic content. It’s 100% personalized.
The second piece of software is PostPlanner.com. This is what we use to schedule all of our posts in advance. Just upload all of the content, tell the software what time you want to publish each day, and then PostPlanner will automatically post for you. And best of all, once you’ve cycled through all of the posts, it will automatically start over from the beginning and repost everything in a new randomized order.
Do you remember the Facebook posts you read 3 months ago? Neither do your clients’ followers. Plus, remember the goal isn’t to sell to the existing audience. The goal is to have fresh daily content that impresses new customers looking for someone to do business with.
You now have the exact roadmap for getting paying customers. Of course, the goal isn’t to get a few paying clients. We want to scale this up to $10k/month and beyond!
There are two main ways we do this:
Once you’ve gone through the process of identifying, pitching, and closing a client, you simply rinse and repeat. Do more donut drops. Make more phone calls. Attend more in-person events.
Personally, I make it a goal to reach out to at least 20 potential clients every week. Make this your goal too, that way you’ll always have a steady stream of leads coming into your business. And each week a percentage of those become recurring clients. Which means every week your monthly income gets a little bigger. It grows and grows and grows.
The easiest customers to sell to are your current customers. That’s because you’ve already done the hard work of getting their attention and building trust with them. If they’ve pulled out their wallet once before, it’s much easier to get them to do it again.
Plus, by this point, you know their business a little better. It’s easier to pitch services that solve other problems they have.
Is their website outdated?
Do they need to build their email list?
Do they need to generate more leads?
These are all things you can offer them, and by doing so you can turn $300/month into $500/month, and then $1,000/month, and $5,000/month, and beyond.
My favorite upsell service is done-for-you email newsletters. If you’re excited about this social posting idea, then you’re going to absolutely love the email newsletter strategy. They fit together perfectly, and it’s the easiest way to double your monthly income from each client. I walk you step-by-step through how to replace your day job income by writing email newsletters for local businesses taking action.
I never intended to start a digital agency. I just got good at marketing my chiropractic business, and soon my friends started coming to me for advice.
As a result, I didn’t treat what I was doing like a real agency. I just worked with anyone who needed help, because it was fun sharing my expertise and making a little money on the side.
But I quickly got burned out. Each time someone came to me from a new industry I would have to learn all about their business. And I would have to do all of the work from scratch to speak to their niche.
But once I stumbled across this idea of focusing on social posting for a single niche, my business went through the roof. Suddenly I went from sinking tons of time into my little side-business for little pay, to creating $10,000 per month in predictable recurring revenue. And the number only continued to climb from there.
What questions do you have?
I’d love to know what questions you have. Please leave a comment below and let me know if you have any sticking points, or if I can clarify anything.
I also really hope that you start taking action on this. So let’s start at the beginning… let me know what niche you’re thinking of targeting. Through our membership community I have experience and insights into tons of industries, so I’ll be happy to share whatever I can.
Thanks for reading!
