Trouble with marketing business- any suggestions?

My advice would be to create a lead magnet that solves a problem in your industry. It doesn't have to be fancy it can be video training. Create a 2 step funnel in Clickfunnels or Leadpages and build your email list. Using this you can have people signup for your free training and acquire emails from people that are interested in your training. 

NOW!! This is the tricky part. How to get the emails for free with a $0 advertising budget. 

Step 1: Assuming you have a good funnel up and running and ready to collect emails. You can now join Facebook groups that you know your customers are hanging out at and join a total of 1 million people. What I mean it can be 10 groups of 100K people in each one or 20 of 50k in each. 

Step 2: Post a VALUE post. Do not SPAM. The best way to make this work is by either asking a question in the group or delivering free information. 

e.i. Anyone here wants to check out my free training on How to make money online with $0 ad spend? If yes Private Message me and I'll send you the link. 

Then people will PM you and then you send them the link and have them opt-in to your list and then upsell then in the funnel once they watch the training to a super training for $47 or whatever to another video training.

It's really that simple. I do this for a living and sell this formula to coaches for $2k except they get faster results because they have a budget for ads. 

You do this for 1 hour a day every day to all the groups and switch it around you will make money. Check out my funnel for free traffic on Google. You can replicate the process yourself.

https://bit.ly/35YD1iq

It is a little hard when you have no budget for advertising, I would look up a list of my prime customers and start calling them!

A lot of these ideas are good. But it sounds like you need customers today and you can't wait...

If you have zero dollars to spend, then you need to spend more of your time. 

And you need to start by really figuring out what your business does for people. 

"I help people with MS Excel and other spreadsheet programs to do complex formulas, or rearrange data, or even automate certain data entry tasks" is okay, but how can we make it better? Simpler?

Think about the person you'd be working with... what kind of problems do they have?

Personally, as a business owner (BO) who uses excel to track my business expenses, I get frustrated when I'm setting everything up. Having to add in all the formatting... having to double-triple check that I got my formulas right (and most times I'm still seeing errors.)

That entire process is a pain in the ass. And it's something that I would pay money to solve. 

And that's me as someone who's pretty good with computers -- I'm not a hacker, but I get by. 

And when you think about it, creating these spreadsheets requires a lot of technical knowledge. I'd say a lot more technical knowledge than most BOs have... 

The BOs who kept up with technology are easier to sell and work with because they appreciate what you do and have an idea of the work that's involved. 

But I'd say most BOs don't understand what it takes to make these spreadsheets. They just see the spreadsheet and want to know why they should care.

Take what you do and make it so simple that there's no way a person wouldn't know what your business does:

"I make customizable spreadsheets for businesses so they can keep track of their most important data.  I make the spreadsheets entirely from the ground up so my customers never have to worry about the set-up process. I design the look of the spreadsheet. I add in all the equations you need to track your expenses. And I adjust the formatting so that everything's organized and the most important things stand out. All you have to do is plug in the numbers and the spreadsheet will do the rest."

I'd say that's a little simpler. A little easier to understand than the original. But it's not great. How can you make it better?

You'll want to do the same thing for complex formulas and rearranging data. Explain why it's important. Remember, most business owners don't understand the technical aspects behind it. So you need to keep it simple. 

What problem does a complex formula solve? Same goes for rearranging data. Why should I as a business owner care? How do those things help me? 

Once you figure out why a BO needs complex formulas and his data rearranged, you've got another hook.

Hindsight's 20/20 when it comes to Avatars -- maybe it could have helped you avoid this problem because then you'd know more about your customers and it would be easier to sell to them. But you should have a good foundation for an avatar after this, so you're all right...

You should definitely focus on a main problem. My example was a real problem that I have as a business owner. A problem that I would pay to solve. That's something that would hook my attention and business owners like me who have a similar problem...

Cold calling's a good option when you've got no money and a lot time. Especially since a lot of businesses are still adjusting to the lockdown regulations. 

But if you can, I'd say try to set up a meet face-to-face. I don't know a better way to win a potential client than with a face-to-face meet.

If the thought of talking to someone about your business scares you, or if you're the type of person who doesn't like to "sell" yourself. There are some workarounds. 

That would be like calling on the phone. Sending an email. Writing a handwritten letter and dropping it off... (Hey, you got to do what you got to do. When you've got zero dollars to spend, you've got to get resourceful.) 

A few suggestions say things about paid advertising. It works but you don't have cashflow right now, so wouldn't worry about that yet... 

Jan had a few good hooks: "Can't tell if your business is making money?" "Need help getting ready for tax season?"...

Ada made some good points. So did Art... 

And I'm with Raul. We can only help so much until we have the specifics. 

Your business isn't too obscure. It just needs a little more thought. 

You got this. 

Your business should solve a bigger problem. What you are doing is fine but it's very hard to market a very specific skill. What you want to do is first identify WHO your perfect customer "avatar" is. Write that down and even give that person a name. What business do they have? What kind of income do they have? What are their biggest business problems? Then pick a problem to solve. I'm betting that your specific skill is part of the solution for a particular problem but you have to work deductively, meaning large problem first (for the marketing) then work on the small things after they become as client. If you try to market that specific skill it won't go anywhere as you have seen.

You can find customers for any business. The problem is that you either need to have the budget to hire someone who is excellent on the phone or in B2B sales or you need to develop those skills yourself until you can afford to hire someone. When I first started this agency I couldn't afford a website or any marketing materials so I went out and sold over $5,000 in services the first week just talking to business owners who needed what I had to offer. If you have the right personality this always works.

There are lots of things that you can do that don't cost money. Do you have a FB or LI business page? 

Ask your best clients if they will write a recommendation. Run some promotion - what is your business - Are you an authority in what you do? 

You could have zoom classes helping others ... You could even start a mastermind referral group where everyone in the group, using word-of-mouth marketing,  to help each other and refer each other (as long as your group is non-competitive)..

I'd be happy to give you an hour free on a zoom call to brainstorm things you can do. I would also be happy to connect with you. 

You never have a $0 advertising budget because time is money and money is time. So change your approach to how you invest in your future, and everything will change. The question I would ask you is who do you want to work with? Do you know 1-5 people who could value your work? Approach them and try a couple projects with them. Then from there build your client list and take 10% from what you make to invest in marketing for reaching more of those types of people. 

That is hard and very common. As with all business elements, when you don't have money then you have to use your time. Then when you get busy then you slowly increase money and decrease your time on that element.

We are in a similar situation with our new marketing agency. I am spending most all my day on prospecting. It is frustrating and sometimes feels hopeless. BUT doing the right things consistently will get the ball rolling. We are slowly seeing more responses.

Send me a message with your website and I will make a FREE video for you explaining the best marketing things you should spend your time doing and ideas on what you can do for free to bring in clients. Or you can email me at [email address]

We hear from businesses all the time that they feel like nothing is working to gain new business. You are not alone. We recommended creating brand messaging guidelines and a sales funnel. We are offering a free website audit now: https://sourcebrandsolutions.c... Feel free to email to set up a time to discuss more at [email address].

Marketing is all about making proper connection points to those who need your product or service.  To do that, it requires you to create a presence where your market exists and where they go to seek solutions.  For you, this means determining who the likely buyer is, where they can be found, and the most logical ways to connect with them.  In all likelihood, you will find that a more targeted approach is necessary.  Start by looking at your existing client base - - who are they, how did you secure their business, what were their pain points, etc.  If you can leverage them for referral business, you should pursue that pronto.  Taking this approach will help you create a more defined market which will also reveal what tools are necessary to make those connecting points work your business.  I hope this helps!