The road to 100k/year Here’s where we’re at so far, and ho…

Originally, I had a little website that sold an info product.

My favorite part of that business was writing the emails.

So I started learning everything I could about email marketing.

Read some books … *fast forward* …

Took some courses … *fast forward* …

🔽

Thus, email marketing will be my skill of choice to reach 100k/year.

I knew how to write.

I knew how to sell via email.

(I did it with my own list)

But I’d never done it for anyone else before.

I had to find a client.

I’d always heard that the first client is the hardest to land.

The truth?

This wasn’t the case for me.

I sent *one* cold message via linkedin.
And that recipient became my first client.

But it wasn’t exactly an accident.

Here’s how I did it.

When looking for my first client, I knew I wanted 2 things:

A market I knew well or belonged to
A product that I *wanted* to sell

I chose three markets to research:

Men’s Fashion
Music
Health and Fitness.

Men’s fashion was cool.

But I wasn’t keen on creating designer emails.

I like writing copy-based emails.

So I ruled that out.

I ruled out music because it’s not a pain point — it’s a luxury.

That left me with health and fitness.

Luckily for me, I’m a professional athlete.

Not only do I know the fitness industry inside and out…

I AM THE MARKET.

All of these products and services are literally trying to sell to ME.

I know the pain points, the luxuries, the needs, the desires…everything.

So there it is… 🔽

Email Marketing for a health and fitness brand…

That had a product I *wanted* to sell.

(Skill and niche selected)

But here’s the thing…

Peloton wasn’t going to hire me.

Peloton is a HUGE company.

They’re not going to hire a first time email marketer.

So I needed a way to find smaller companies.

Long story short: I used facebook.

I looked for pages/companies with 10,000 likes or less.

I scoured pages.

Lots of them.

Like I said, the *one* cold message wasn’t an accident.

I needed the *right* prospect.

Eventually, I found him.

Scouting report:

Health and fitness industry

~ 1,000 likes on facebook

Cool/unique product

Awesome website

5-star reviews across the board

CNN/Men’s Health/Wired features

But when I signed up for the email list, no welcome series.

Hm, I can help!

I found the owner’s name by typing

{Company} “founder” on google

Went to his linkedin page.

Messaging was open (not locked)

SCORE

Used @blackhatwizardd cold email strategies to write the message

Here’s what I said.

“Hey {name}, {Personalized line complimenting him}

My name’s Jack. I recently generated $1500 in 3 days via email marketing to a small list of a few hundred people for a company in the sporting industry.”

…

“I use a performance-based structure — increase last month’s email revenue by 10% in the first thirty days after we implement your campaigns, or you don’t pay me.

Any interest in hopping on a quick 15-minute phone call?

Jack”

Here’s why I did this.

It was a risk to say I could increase his email revenue by 10%

But I viewed it like this

If we did increase rev by 10% — awesome!

If we didn’t, I still get experience.

Win-win.

And, I currently get paid for performing in high pressure situations.

This was no different.

Most people have to work for free to get their first client.

I viewed a performance-based structure as an upgrade from that model.

Here’s what he said in response:

…

“Hi Jack — I’m intrigued. We really haven’t done much by email at all. Curious how you could help us out given that. {Name}”

SCORE.

I was feeling pretty dang good at this point.

Now, we had to close the sale on the call.

I wasn’t too nervous about the call.

I like talking to people.

On the other hand, I’d never done this before.

Should be interesting!

Here’s what happened.

We got on the phone, and I wasted no time.

“Hey {Name}, how are you?”

Him: “Good Jack, how are you?”

“I’m good, thank you! I know our time is valuable, so tell me a little bit about your business.”

He talked for 5-10 min about his business.

I asked some clarification questions throughout.

Eventually, it was my turn.

I turned on “expert” mode.

Here’s how I approached it.

I didn’t sell him on what I could do for him

I told him what he *should be* doing via email. (using “we” language)

I dropped a couple jargon words — and then explained them.

“Show you know the complex — but be able to make the complex, simple.”

I talked for 3-5 minutes.

When I was done he said, “Wow, that sounds amazing. How many companies have you worked with?”

Uh-oh.

Here comes the big fat ZERO answer and the harsh HANG UP.

But that’s not what happened.

I said,

“{Name}, to be honest, I’ve never done this for anyone else before.

I was profitable with my side business entirely through email marketing, and I feel confident that I can help other companies as well.”

And then I shut my mouth. <—- this is key

His response...

“Wow, really? It sounds like you’ve done this 100 times before.

No worries that you’re new to this. We’re a new company as well, so we can walk this early journey together.”

Okay, not gonna lie…

This was just about the best response I could have hoped for.

How it ended 🔽

I told him I’d write up a proposal for him, and if he liked it, we’d sign contracts and begin work.

The proposal was 2 pages — took me 45 minutes.

I know there are people who are going to say…

bUt YoU sHoUlD hAvE cLoSeD tHe dEaL oN tHe pHoNe

Shush, you.

At the bottom of the proposal, I gave him a soft offer.

“10% of email rev generated to write the emails, but not implement them into Klaviyo.”

15% “ “ to write the emails, and implement them into Klaviyo.”

Now, here’s why this offer is funny…

I’d never even opened Klaviyo before.

I knew how to write automated sequences.

And how to sell via email.

But I’d never pushed the buttons in this specific ESP.

And I just figured he would choose the cheaper option.

NOPE

He responded, “Awesome, we’re stretched pretty thin already…so we’ll do the 15% option.”

LOL

Well, I needed to learn Klaviyo FAST.

And I did.

In 24 hours.

I also found some random EM contract online, and whipped up a quick contract.

Used DocuSign’s free trial.

All of this happened in a 24 hour span.

I was exhiliarated and terrified.

But it all worked out.

He signed my contract.

I signed his NDA (which is why I’m not disclosing the brand).

Now, let’s talk about the work.

First thing we did was hop on a 2-hour deep dive call.

I asked him all about his business.

If you’re going to be a copywriter, you’d better learn to love research.

Finally, I had all the ammunition I needed.

It was time to write.

I wrote and implemented all of his automations.

He loved the emails, using all caps in his responses and lots of exclamation marks.

I then wrote the first campaign email.

A founder email with NO CTA.

Heresy, I know.

But I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve :)

That email, with NO CTA, made $378 (tracked by Klaviyo)

In September, this client made $0 with email marketing.

In August?

$164.

We just doubled his sales with *one* email that had NO CTA.

Lol

We were fired up.

A week into working together, I got an email from him.

He offered me a full time position.

Not even a retainer.

A full time position.

I was over the moon, but I politely declined.

I want to build my EM business.

I’ll spare you the unnecessary details…here’s where we’re at today, October 23rd.

Email Revenue for the month:

$9584

We’re in the middle of a product launch, so we should cross the 10k mark this month.

He’s ecstatic.

And I am, too.

Now, where to go from here…

I have a solid case study.

I have confidence.

I have momentum.

It’s time to get another client.

This is my sole focus for the next 2 weeks.

Land *one* more client.

AND…

I have a good lead.

One of my buddies is on the startup team at a brand in the food and drink industry.

(The FUN kind of food and drink)

I reached out to him, mentioned this case study, and he says he’s interested.

Performance-based structure again.

People will scoff at that.

But for newbies, it’s not a bad deal.

And he says they’re doing 3k a day right now.

I’m thinking I could bring in some serious dough.

*** Update ***

Here's where we're at now!

https://t.co/Jaz21TGuRW

Lots of you commented asking how I found the second client\u2026

SO HERE WE GO

First of all, I used @blackhatwizardd stuff.

From zero to two clients in one month, both paying thousands of dollars.

Get his course.

But how *exactly* did it go down?

CRAZY DETAILED THREAD \U0001f53d
— Jack | Email Marketing (@thesimplestud) November 4, 2020