So I'm starting a basic business of consulting for web, mobile, desktop, games development. I have seen some business website around my neighborhood that really need rework or upgrade, so i was thinking of contacting them directly through email and tell them that I provide some services that could help them pay less and a better presentation for their customers.
Is this too pushy or a wrong way to do it? And if not, can you provide me an example?
Thanks.
Have you ever, for any reason, answered a marketing/sales email from a sender you did not personally recognize?
I get about 6-10 of the, "Hi, I'm a web developer that can improve your site" emails every single day. Some better crafted than others...
If you think such a campaign will be fruitful, I'd reconsider. If there were to be any chance of hitting someone actually willing to respond, one would need to send hundreds, if not thousands, of emails in hopes of a 0.01% response rate. The more "internet aware" the targets, the lower the response rate will be.
Perhaps it is merely my opinion, but I find such campaigns nothing but a waste of time - both on the part of the seller and for the prospective client.
"Spam" or unsolicited sales emails really only work when there is product to be sold which may gain the target's interest, or the target is already familiar with the seller - i.e. Amazon sending spam about latest deals.
If you really can create something and then sell it, and you need to convince others that you can do it well, it's much better to really create something and show the world what you've got. No need to talk about what you can, you need to show what you have done.
The website of some company looks bad to you? You can make it better? Great! Make your own version of the site on a free domain. Show them. Offer to give it to them for free or for a symbolic amount. And if your offer is accepted, this site will be the first element of your portfolio.
And this portfolio will worth a lot more than any emails about how good you are.
Believe me.
Cold calling is hard work. I have had some success emailing potential clients by:
For example, there was an interesting hack on Joomla 1.5 websites a couple of years ago that defaced pages by adding a specific text string to the top of the affected pages. This made it very easy to find affected websites using a search engine.
I sent the following email to locally affected clients and my success rate was about 1 new client for every 30 emails I sent:
Subject: Sorry to say, your website has been hacked
Based on the ";} /B6D1B1EE/ ?>" text in the top left hand corner of the website, it appears that your website at http://www.???????????.com.au has been hacked. See https://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?t=933020 for details.
I am a local (Tasmanian) Joomla website security expert e.g. see http://joomla.stackexchange.com/a/180/120 and can help with cleaning and updating the website to make it safe from hackers.
I estimate that it will take up to 2 hours @ $88/hr (inc. GST) to re-secure the website.
Assuming you don't already have this in hand, please let me know if you'd like my help by replying to this email.
My turn around on fixing hacked Joomla websites is usually one or two business days.
All the best and I look forward to hearing back from you.
