The road to 100k/year

Here’s where we’re at so far, and how we got here.

Landed 1st client on September 23, 2020.

My cut is currently $1,380 for the month of Oct.

Here’s how it went down.

DETAILED THREAD

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.

Anyway, that's where we're at.

I'll keep you updated in tweets.

Feel free to follow along.

The good, the bad, and the ugly coming' at ya!

Retweet the first tweet of this thread to help newbies get started :)

And, I'd really appreciate it.

Here it is https://twitter.com/thesimplestud/status/1319797072631984128?s=20