List of services

So I got this email from a restaurant consulting student asking "what other online services should I be offering besides building their website..." What a great question!

There are almost two dozen hot services currently being sold in the offline space, specifically for business 2 business. 

Here's a rundown of a handful of my favorites. Many of these can be sold together, separately and/or layered, making this list a tremendous value you can provide to a single client that you can just rinse and repeat for others:

SEO Audit

Take a look at the client's visibility in search engines, and compare them to their direct competition. Look at the technical compliance and content quality, too. There is a fair amount of competition out there for this, but you can make decent money (~$750 per project minimum) and performing the service is very easy. You provide a report of the issues and on-line position, and then sell the fixes.

Keyword Audit

Have a good look at the keywords and phrases that a client would need to rank and bag search customers. Discover and eliminate useless keywords in their copy/content. Compare their keyword usage to those of competitors and recommend methods for improving their position. Slightly more difficult than SEO Audit as you have to do more research, however, it's a great foot in the door service you can do for a reasonable fee ($500-$750)

Email Marketing & Optimization

According to iContact, roughly 50% of businesses use email marketing. The other half do not. For the right B2C client, there will be a high probably your lead doesn't have and will need email marketing services. Even more so, those who are using email marketing services will likely be stuck with old-school methods (bad habits ) and would be ripe for optimization and testing. 

Performing this service will require some basic email and technical web skills. Authoring marketing messages will require good copy writing skills. 

There isn't much competition in this space, and even less people doing it the right way. The most heavily marketed email service is list hosting and delivery. That means you can swoop in and make a pretty penny growing and expanding the email ATM machine for biz owners. Believe me you he'll pay you a percentage on top of a flat fee ($500 to $1000 per campaign) if you can get him customers each time an email is sent.

Content Marketing Strategy

Many business struggle with a content plan. They simply don't know what to write about, how to approach the challenge, and also struggle to create believable stories, characters, and voices to use in their content. They also struggle with consistency and fail to stick to a regular editorial schedule. If you have a copy knack or can develop this skill, writing for biz owners can bring in windfall profits (four to five figures per project.) And even if you can't write your way out of a wet paper bag, you can still outsource strategy and content easily and markup 50 to 100%. There are tons of writers out there that can be had for cheap, and there are also innumerable B2B and B2C businesses who need this service.

Mobile Audit

As you know, google's mobile slap is lethal to page rank. Websites that might have been doing OK without a mobile site, are now doing terrible. There's a rush to scoop up this business business among agencies and consultants, and there are still no shortage of clients to be had. Now, we do have a goodly amount of businesses who are taking action and adding mobile sites; however, it doesn't stop there. Even those who have mobile sites will need an optimizations similar to the SEO and Keyword Audits. The prospects I've spoken to have not been approached with either service (audit/design) so I'm going out on a limb here and assuming competition is low, especially in local circles. It's a good chance you can find 10 local clients who will need a mobile site, optimization, mobile content, and the other monthly services we're discussing in this thread. That makes a business. :)

Social Analysis

This is a fun one because you can simply setup a few dozen Google Search Alerts for negative and positive phrases about the business, and let them compile to a gmail account. Then you summarize them in a report and do this once a month, providing indicators and recommendations. Will require some research to setup and a knowledge of the business' universe, terms, and products will be essential. Charge a $97 setup fee, and $197 a month for this service and sell it 20 times for great residual income. There's opportunity to specialize in niches and become an asset information source for a specific industry.

Reputation Management

This is an extension of the Social Analysis service. Instead of a passively observing, you take an active role in responding to customers OR guiding the business' response. The value of this kind of customer care is difficult to measure since you are being both an advocate for the client and his/her customers. There are many firms that offer this exact service and they charge 4 to 5 figures a month to do it. You can perform the same service and add a more personal touch with better fees than some of the bigger boys, so there's an opportunity to work with a few small businesses and build yourself a significant source of income with just a handful of clients.


Community Creation / CultivationCreate 

communities on social media for a business' specific consumers. This is a strong extension of content creation and scheduling and can be as simple as a blog with comments, fan pages, or as complex as a forum/membership. For basic stuff (not recommended) you can price setup and management low, and even use it as a gateway service. A complex setup/solution should be $5,000 to $10,000. Performing the management like technical expertise should be no less than $997 per month. Content campaigns are upwards of $2500 a month for the right client.

Metrics & Analytics

Data rules everything. Read it again. Data Rules Everything. If a business is making decisions solely on past experience, gut feelings, or chicken bones they are not optimized and are leaving money on the table. Sharp business owners know this, but many small biz don't have the in-house tech and strategy to do it effectively. Becoming a master at gathering and interpreting data will allow you to write your own ticket when you double conversions or triple a business' customer base with the optimizations you can bring to the table.

Landing Page Creation / Optimization

Creating and improving upon the pages of an existing marketing campaign is an easy service to sell, especially after you show a few case studies of success. Small biz might not be doing any conversion testing or optimization, and those who do are probably doing it without any guiding principles or termed goals. This is a service you run monthly, and charge fees to setup and manage. Also extends into content and metrics nicely, allowing you bundle services for high fees that have a direct correlation to increased revenue for the businesses that see success. It also isn't uncommon to seek a 10 to 15% commission on top of fees for generating this extra revenue. It will take some experience and experimentation to master the tools and tricks, but once you do, you'll be that valued marketing 'guru' that business owner tells his friends about.

Paid Advertising Campaigns

Probably the most difficult service I've listed today because it requires copywriting, data analysis, and media buying to perform correctly. Yet when you can master these disciplines, you can sell your clients products with cheap cold traffic and make you and him rich beyond measure. Think about that for a second. If you can turn a $1 lead into a $300 sale, how much of that $300 will the business owner share with you? These types of campaigns can be sold with a setup fee of $500 and funded by the biz owner with a $2000 monthly budget. You would also negotiate a commission on the sales you bring in (15 to 30%)

Social Media Campaigns

This service can be considered another extension of content, and even media buying if you're not interested in organic methods. You create custom campaigns for biz owner products and brand. These would include contests, discussions, and even direct response sales on social networks. When done effectively, you can tap into immeasurable amounts of traffic and open the door to new sources of revenue for the biz owner. It is for this reason that you can charge big money to create these campaigns. I'm talking $3,000 to $10,000 per month for the right client. It will take some skill and experience to master, but this service would be well worth the investment in time and energy to learn.

Media Relations

Do you get along with people you barely know, and can strike up a conversation at a drop of a hat with a complete stranger? Then you probably have the natural ability to relate to persons of influence. This is a valuable skill that owners pay big money for. You become the networker, connector, and nexus for owners who need to build the relationships you already have and can foster. This would loosely fall into the realm of business development as you venture to influence bloggers, celebrities, and popular fans of a business or brand. Typically you take a monthly fee between $500 and $1500 to conduct regular outreach to persons of influence. You also negotiate paid promotions with these parties where available.

Crisis Management Planning

Many business owners see only the surface threats to their business. In fact, we as humans tend to ignore the bad things that can happen to ourselves and all that hard work. "It could never happen to me..."
Well, unfortunately, shit happens, and it happens a lot. Many biz do not have a crisis plan for the most important elements of their company. What happens if the client database bursts into flames, and the hard drives melt? What do you do if a jilted customer goes on a personal vendetta to destroy your business' online reputation? Where do you setup a new shop if your current location is suddenly off limits due to acts of nature? How do you notify customers in the event of an emergency? Where do you get supplies if your chief supplier goes out of business? Answer these questions for a business owner and you can get paid four to five figures to study the biz owner's operation and come up with an action plan to minimize the damaging affects of shit hitting the fan.

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