Five Things To Do Before Paying for Traffic

Kasim [00:00:11] If you're good with a hammer, you think everything's a nail

Kasim [00:00:13] You talk to a Google Ads guy about whether or not you should run Google

Kasim [00:00:15] ads, you're gonna say, yes, of course

Kasim [00:00:16] Gee golly

Kasim [00:00:17] Before you talk to somebody like me or somebody who looks like me,

Kasim [00:00:21] or somebody that is in an industry that is in endeavoring to get you

Kasim [00:00:25] to do one very specific strategy for customer acquisition do

Kasim [00:00:30] These things, foist

Kasim [00:00:32] The first and most important, and my favorite is become your customer

Kasim [00:00:35] And people don't take this advice, by the way

Kasim [00:00:37] it's lip service

Kasim [00:00:38] It happens in, business schools and trade shows, and all these folks talk

Kasim [00:00:41] from stage about becoming a customer, but that nobody ever actually does

Kasim [00:00:44] if you're selling car seats, go shop for car seats, go spend weeks

Kasim [00:00:48] Driving around

Kasim [00:00:49] Go to every retail location you can, every specialty store that you

Kasim [00:00:51] can, every goodwill every savers

Kasim [00:00:54] Go to different cities and walk into a store and look at the

Kasim [00:00:58] car seat buying experience

Kasim [00:00:59] I love the story about the Airbnb guy

Kasim [00:01:01] Brian Chesky, he just floated around staying with different Airbnb hosts

Kasim [00:01:07] He actually wasn't able to really get any traction with Airbnb

Kasim [00:01:10] Airbnb was a small little startup outta New York and Brian's in Silicon Valley

Kasim [00:01:14] trying to raise money, and he ends up meeting with a guy who goes, dude, you

Kasim [00:01:17] know very little about your own business

Kasim [00:01:18] You need to go to school on this

Kasim [00:01:19] And Brian took that to heart

Kasim [00:01:20] And so he starts floating around couch surfing with various Airbnb hosts

Kasim [00:01:24] And while he's doing that, he's just listening he's hearing their,

Kasim [00:01:27] positives, but really their complaints and their, growth opportunities

Kasim [00:01:29] And then he took that to heart, become your customer

Kasim [00:01:32] Interestingly, I learn so much all the time about helping people

Kasim [00:01:37] with Google Ads every single time

Kasim [00:01:39] My company has an issue with Google Ads

Kasim [00:01:41] I'll be slacking my business partner, John, and I'm like, lead

Kasim [00:01:43] flow is down and we don't know why

Kasim [00:01:44] Get on it

Kasim [00:01:45] You know, like, why, why is the lead?

Kasim [00:01:46] And it's so funny because I know all of these things in intellectual

Kasim [00:01:49] I talk about 'em all the time on, YouTube videos, but then when it happens to me,

Kasim [00:01:52] I instantly become the worst customer

Kasim [00:01:54] And I, turn into, everybody that I lecture against, but I always learn something

Kasim [00:01:57] As soon as I become my customer, I learn something

Kasim [00:01:59] It's nerve wracking to spend money for 90 days and not know what's going to happen

Kasim [00:02:02] but now that I know that, and now that I've felt that I can speak to it

Kasim [00:02:06] And I can manage those expectations properly

Kasim [00:02:08] Become your customer

Kasim [00:02:09] If you're gonna open a daycare, go shop for daycares

Kasim [00:02:12] Even if you don't have kids, that's a little creepy

Kasim [00:02:13] That one's careful with that one, but you know what I'm saying

Kasim [00:02:16] Become your customer first and foremost before you run

Kasim [00:02:18] traffic, become your customer

Kasim [00:02:19] Number two, direct outreach

Kasim [00:02:21] This is one that is repellent to everybody, but it's so important

Kasim [00:02:25] Pound the pavement

Kasim [00:02:26] Call people, cold call

Kasim [00:02:27] Imagine that

Kasim [00:02:28] I remember I got to hear Jesse Itzler speak a couple of times

Kasim [00:02:30] He spoke most recently to an event I was at at Costa Rica

Kasim [00:02:33] Amazing dude

Kasim [00:02:34] Really interesting

Kasim [00:02:35] he's been ultra successful in like five completely different endeavors

Kasim [00:02:40] Just really, really phenomenal human being

Kasim [00:02:42] And he talks about how

Kasim [00:02:44] So much of a success

Kasim [00:02:45] he's really animated

Kasim [00:02:46] He's an old school rapper, so he does this thing, but he's like, just pick up the

Kasim [00:02:50] phone and man, there's something to that

Kasim [00:02:52] It's shocking how accessible people are, especially if you

Kasim [00:02:54] approach 'em the right way

Kasim [00:02:55] You've done some research, you're respectful, but picking up the phone

Kasim [00:02:58] and pick up the phone as a metaphor here too

Kasim [00:03:00] Pick up the phone, do LinkedIn outreach, send people an email, fill out a form,

Kasim [00:03:04] reach out to your prospects personally and directly make a one-on-one connection

Kasim [00:03:08] I started an agency or tried to start an agency that was

Kasim [00:03:11] targeting cosmetic dentists

Kasim [00:03:12] Me and my business partner had this really, really high performing

Kasim [00:03:15] cosmetic dentistry campaign

Kasim [00:03:16] the doctor we were working with was putting two grand out, getting or

Kasim [00:03:18] two grand in, getting 50 grand out

Kasim [00:03:20] It was amazing

Kasim [00:03:20] so I'm like, all right, let's go build a little niche agency around this

Kasim [00:03:23] First thing I do start cold calling

Kasim [00:03:25] It's a Saturday, by the way, which I've, noticed is actually a really good

Kasim [00:03:28] time to get entrepreneurs on the phone because they're at work playing catch up

Kasim [00:03:31] Cold call Dentist on a Saturday

Kasim [00:03:33] Gentleman answers the phone older gentleman who is less

Kasim [00:03:36] than polite, but more than kind

Kasim [00:03:38] If that makes sense

Kasim [00:03:39] He was annoyed that I was calling, which you'll get, but you know, I'm kind of

Kasim [00:03:42] upbeat and chirpy and I can get over that

Kasim [00:03:44] And the guy ends up giving me phenomenal advice

Kasim [00:03:46] He goes he's like, dude, do you have any idea how many people are

Kasim [00:03:50] coming at me every single day?

Kasim [00:03:53] Dentists

Kasim [00:03:54] And he used the, this term that I've used in, I've adopted it since as my own

Kasim [00:03:58] He said, dentists are prey animals

Kasim [00:04:00] I get salespeople calling, walking in, sending letters for

Kasim [00:04:06] And then he, started to name it

Kasim [00:04:08] He's like, people are trying to sell me

Kasim [00:04:09] It's not just marketing

Kasim [00:04:10] He's like, I mean, you're a drop in the hat

Kasim [00:04:12] I'll get 30 of you a month

Kasim [00:04:13] it's marketing, it's financial planning

Kasim [00:04:15] It's medical devices and equipment

Kasim [00:04:17] It's office furniture

Kasim [00:04:18] I guess

Kasim [00:04:19] Dentists are, , spend a lot on office furniture, like specialized, whatever

Kasim [00:04:21] those chairs are in the cabinetry

Kasim [00:04:23] It's continued education

Kasim [00:04:25] partnership offers referral requests

Kasim [00:04:28] He's like, I am a prey animal

Kasim [00:04:29] And what was really interesting about it is I, thought to myself, probably

Kasim [00:04:33] could be successful in this industry long term, but I'd rather go somewhere

Kasim [00:04:35] that isn't quite as saturated and target a prospect that's not quite as hunted

Kasim [00:04:39] It was so helpful

Kasim [00:04:41] It was so helpful

Kasim [00:04:42] This one conversation gave me what I needed to make a decision

Kasim [00:04:45] Now you might say, never give up, never surrender

Kasim [00:04:47] You should go after it

Kasim [00:04:47] Fine

Kasim [00:04:48] That's probably true, especially if you have a deep, deep, deep love

Kasim [00:04:50] for dentists and you really feel like you're onto something short

Kasim [00:04:52] I've got 200 clients, in 150 different industries

Kasim [00:04:55] I have more than enough industries to go find low hanging fruit,

Kasim [00:04:57] which is what I've done

Kasim [00:04:58] find niches that are underserved and dentistry is not underserved

Kasim [00:05:01] So direct outreach

Kasim [00:05:02] Before you run paid traffic, reach out to whoever it is that

Kasim [00:05:05] might be buying your stuff

Kasim [00:05:06] One pro tip for you is go check Craigslist

Kasim [00:05:09] There are people asking for, searching for things on Craigslist

Kasim [00:05:12] Reach out to these people and figure out, how does this conversation go?

Kasim [00:05:15] Is this a human being that I could stomach being around on a recurring basis?

Kasim [00:05:19] Number three, before you run paid traffic, make sure you make your mistakes

Kasim [00:05:24] in a safe and secure environment

Kasim [00:05:26] here's what I mean by that

Kasim [00:05:27] Paid traffic is an open forum

Kasim [00:05:28] And people are mean in the comments you just read

Kasim [00:05:31] My YouTube comments are actually pretty nice, but my Instagram comments like, oh

Kasim [00:05:33] my goodness, I can't read 'em anymore

Kasim [00:05:35] They upset me so much

Kasim [00:05:36] Cause I have such a fragile ego

Kasim [00:05:37] But before you make an offer, for instance develop a narrative before

Kasim [00:05:42] you try to sell something, it's really helpful to have your core group of

Kasim [00:05:47] You can't even call 'em clients, but like trusted advisors, trusted prospects,

Kasim [00:05:50] let's say they need to be the people, the type of people that you sell to

Kasim [00:05:53] But you know, what we do is I always like to go to the five or 10 clients

Kasim [00:05:56] that I'm closest with and say, Hey, if we offered, remarketing only as

Kasim [00:05:59] a service, would this be valuable?

Kasim [00:06:01] And would you pay x?

Kasim [00:06:02] I never say, what would you pay?

Kasim [00:06:03] Cuz nobody's ever gonna give you a good answer to that

Kasim [00:06:05] it's, would you pay X?

Kasim [00:06:06] Would you pay $500 a month?

Kasim [00:06:07] Whatever

Kasim [00:06:08] And what's really helpful is the feedback you get before you go to market

Kasim [00:06:12] Make your mistakes in a safe and secure environment

Kasim [00:06:13] This is really hard to do if you don't already have clients, but if you don't

Kasim [00:06:16] already have clients, I question whether or not you should be running paid traffic

Kasim [00:06:20] I think paid traffic is a horrible way to earn your first

Kasim [00:06:23] Handful of clients

Kasim [00:06:23] If you can't earn them organically, how are you gonna earn 'em with paid traffic?

Kasim [00:06:26] Paid traffic is the worst traffic

Kasim [00:06:28] It's fickle

Kasim [00:06:28] It's brittle, it's mean, it's cold, it's, you know, like they don't trust you

Kasim [00:06:32] So try to get your first handful of clients first

Kasim [00:06:34] That way you can make mistakes in a safe and secure environment

Kasim [00:06:37] and once you've done that, you have to understand your target market

Kasim [00:06:39] Now this is different than understanding the individual

Kasim [00:06:42] That one dentist I was on the phone with was a person

Kasim [00:06:44] He's not a market

Kasim [00:06:45] In order to expand, let's say that I really wanted to

Kasim [00:06:47] niche down into dentistry

Kasim [00:06:49] I needed to go to school on the market

Kasim [00:06:51] are the directories?

Kasim [00:06:52] What are the publications?

Kasim [00:06:53] What type of education do these, cosmetic dentists need?

Kasim [00:06:56] Who are the thought leaders that they pay attention to?

Kasim [00:06:58] What's the legislation surrounding dentistry?

Kasim [00:07:01] Specifically, what do I know about HIPAA compliance?

Kasim [00:07:04] what type of licensing is required?

Kasim [00:07:05] What's the before and after requirements of this particular it was all on

Kasim [00:07:09] four was the name of the procedure

Kasim [00:07:11] Go to school and understand inside out, upside down the fright and

Kasim [00:07:15] center, understand it enough to do it

Kasim [00:07:17] I should be able to perform this procedure before I'm really marketing

Kasim [00:07:21] to it, and I'm being facetious obviously, but understand the market

Kasim [00:07:24] And then number five, and probably my most important is you have to have a scalable

Kasim [00:07:29] model that can support paid traffic

Kasim [00:07:30] Paid traffic is a scaling system

Kasim [00:07:33] this happens to me to this day and there's only so many fixes for it, but

Kasim [00:07:36] I can't tell you how many times clients call us and they're like, turn it off

Kasim [00:07:38] there's, we can't handle the leads

Kasim [00:07:40] And you think like, oh, what a good problem to have

Kasim [00:07:41] No, it's not

Kasim [00:07:41] You kill your campaign nine times outta 10 cuz all those starts and stops

Kasim [00:07:46] Google goes, all right, why would I invest in you who can't buy all this inventory

Kasim [00:07:50] when, oh, here's your competitor over here and he just keeps B B B B B B

Kasim [00:07:54] So they're gonna get prioritized

Kasim [00:07:55] You're gonna get deprioritized and then your campaign's gonna start to stuffer

Kasim [00:07:58] You need to make sure that you can actually take the

Kasim [00:08:01] traffic you're asking for

Kasim [00:08:02] So that means that your sales pipeline, your onboarding process your fulfillment

Kasim [00:08:06] process, your inventory management, e-commerce stores that run outta

Kasim [00:08:10] product, like, oh, you're killing me

Kasim [00:08:12] You're killing me

Kasim [00:08:13] And then they're like, well, okay, just go sell the other thing

Kasim [00:08:14] And I'm like, oh, okay

Kasim [00:08:15] I just taught the trillion dollar hunting dog how to go hunt this thing

Kasim [00:08:18] But

Kasim [00:08:19] I'll just give a new sniff of something else, like, we've wasted all this money,

Kasim [00:08:22] this r and d, because we've ran out and I, you know, sometimes it's flippant

Kasim [00:08:26] for me to say, I understand that there's practical realities, especially with

Kasim [00:08:29] supply chain issues where you just can't get ahold of stuff fine, but that doesn't

Kasim [00:08:32] mean that it's easy to pivot away from it

Kasim [00:08:34] So before you run traffic, we have to do these five things

Kasim [00:08:36] Before you run traffic, become your customer

Kasim [00:08:38] First and foremost

Kasim [00:08:39] Know who they are

Kasim [00:08:40] Shop like them

Kasim [00:08:41] Get in their mind

Kasim [00:08:42] Be Daniel Day Lewis studying as a character

Kasim [00:08:44] Do direct outreach

Kasim [00:08:45] Pick up the phone, send an email, go to a networking event

Kasim [00:08:48] Go to one of their events

Kasim [00:08:49] You know, there's the, the Luxe Myth thing, association of America

Kasim [00:08:53] It's probably in Vegas, so you'll have some fun

Kasim [00:08:55] Go to the event, figure out who they are

Kasim [00:08:56] Have a controllable environment that you can make your mistakes in,

Kasim [00:08:59] understand your target market, really go to school on them, and then make

Kasim [00:09:02] sure that you're built to scale

Kasim [00:09:04] If you can't do those five things, you should not run paid traffic

Kasim [00:09:08] Says the paid traffic guy

Kasim [00:09:11] I have no, what?

Kasim [00:09:12] I can't even say I have no dog in this fight

Kasim [00:09:14] I have the opposite dog in this fight

Kasim [00:09:15] How do you say that?

Kasim [00:09:17] There's not a turn of phrase that comes to mind

Kasim [00:09:19] I'm speaking to you, counter to my own interests

Kasim [00:09:21] But actually, you know what, it's in my interest because you're gonna try to be

Kasim [00:09:24] my client otherwise, and I don't want you if you haven't done these things

Kasim [00:09:26] So do these things

Kasim [00:09:27] I know they'll help

Kasim [00:09:28] I know they'll help your business

Kasim [00:09:29] It doesn't matter how long you've been in business, by the way

Kasim [00:09:30] Do it right now

Kasim [00:09:31] Today

Kasim [00:09:31] Go cold, call somebody

Kasim [00:09:32] I still do this regularly

Kasim [00:09:34] I still like, if I'm interested in a specific

Kasim [00:09:36] Prospect or business or whatever

Kasim [00:09:37] I'll still do cold outreach regularly cuz I learned so much

Kasim [00:09:41] I think it's, there's these entrepreneurial I don't

Kasim [00:09:43] know what to call 'em

Kasim [00:09:44] It's like coaching devices that show like, oh, this is $10 an hour

Kasim [00:09:47] work, hundred hour an hour work

Kasim [00:09:48] Thousand an hour work, 10,000 hour work, you're only supposed

Kasim [00:09:50] to do 10,000 hour work

Kasim [00:09:51] Those cold calls in my mind, 10,000 an hour work

Kasim [00:09:54] Learning those prospects, that's nobody can do that for you cuz you're gonna

Kasim [00:09:57] hear things nobody else can hear

Kasim [00:09:58] You're gonna key in on conversations, ask questions, nobody else can do

Kasim [00:10:01] We can't outsource that type of thing

Kasim [00:10:02] Anyway, hope this is helpful