This works in most any niche and for most any business, not just plumbers. But I’m going to use plumbing as an example for a couple of reasons:
First, odds are, like me, you know little to nothing about plumbing.
Second, if you can do this in a niche you know nothing about, you can do it in any niche.
Let’s say you create a flyer or report, explaining to businesses why they need to generate leads with their website. If they don’t, their competition will, and customers they should have had will go to someone else.
Or something along those lines – you know the drill.
Let your business owners (plumbers, in this case) know that when a prospect goes to their website, it’s super smart to capture their email address. They can send out an email every week or two with a plumbing tip or coupon.
When that person needs a plumber, who are they going to call? The plumber whose name they know, who sends them good advice and tips, that’s who.
You sell the plumber on the idea of capturing leads and sending them an email now and again to keep in touch and stay in the forefront of their customers’ minds.
But what does the plumber offer in exchange for the email address?
They could offer a discount, but for a service business, that can raise problems. After all, ‘15% off’ doesn’t mean anything if the customer can’t compare prices with other plumbers. Maybe this plumber charges 50% MORE than other plumbers, so sure, they can afford to give 15% off.
But how about a “how to” report from the expert himself or herself, on how to do something?
Maybe it’s how to diagnose where a leak is coming from, maybe it’s how to empty that trap thingee under the sink, maybe it’s to finally reveal to a customer what a plumber looks for when they come into a home to solve a problem.
Whatever it is, you’re going to write the report for the plumber.
“What?! But I don’t know anything about plumbing!”
And that’s the beauty, because you don’t have to know anything. Just go to YouTube and find a video that explains exactly what you’re going to teach in the report.
Download the video and send it off to someone on Fiverr or Upwork to transcribe it for you.
Then completely rewrite it in your own words. Get some images to illustrate what you’re talking about. And run it by the plumber. She’ll be able to tell you if you missed anything or got anything wrong. And you’re done!
This took you a few minutes to find the video, the cost to get it transcribed, and the time you took to rewrite it and add pictures.
Sell the usage rights to the plumber, and add their name, logo, and information to the report. Add the autoresponder form to their website and get everything ready to start capturing new subscribers.
You can charge what you like to do this… I would suggest a minimum of $500 or more.
And you can charge a monthly fee for maintaining the list and sending out emails, too. How much work you do versus the client on writing the emails is worked out between the two of you. Likely it will be a collaboration, and most likely it won’t take you more than an hour or two per month to do everything needed. Charge $250 a month, give or take.
Rinse and repeat. You’ve done this for one plumbing client, why not do it for others? Personally, I would get one client per city in each niche, to avoid any duplication.
Remember to personalize the report to each business, too.
And then branch out into other niches. Any business that can profit by staying in touch with prospects and clients (which is just about all of them) can benefit from this service.