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Marketing for test customers?

RobertGRobertG subscriber Posts: 3
edited August 2016 in Marketing
I've just started a new consulting business where I help startups hire a web/mobile/software developer online. I advise startup and small business owners on what kind of developers to hire and I do screening interviews with the candidates so that the client gets the best person for the job.

My problem is that before I can start charging anyone, I need to build up a reputation for quality, and I need feedback from customers. So what I want to do is work for some clients for free. The problem is, I'm not sure how to market myself on this kind of trial basis. I haven't got my website up yet since I don't want to put up a big online presence before I have references from satisfied customers and so forth. That makes online advertising hard to do. How can I attract these free customers? I've got a good value prop since I'm helping people with their IT hiring for free, but I'm not sure what the best way is to get the word out. Any advice would be really helpful. Thanks.
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    msgin015msgin015 subscriber Posts: 5 Member
    Joining Start-up nation is a first step, now go and join other similar sites for small or start up business forums, engage with the people, and let them know, you have a limited offer of providing free services for web set up, add a 'testimonial and permission form to publicize'. You can add this to your website to build your 'brand'. Post your free offer in a FB group, Craigs list, LinkdIn.
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    PhillipsPhillips subscriber Posts: 68 Bronze Level Member
    Hi there,
    I think you have taken the right step by joining the Start-Up Nation. You can also engage in other social media platforms. However, you are only halfway done. I suggest you building your own website first as it will allow you to build your brand name faster. And of course indulge yourself in email marketing as from my experience I can say that is the best marketing channel. It will help you in building your brand name in no time as you'll be able to reach a mass of people within a click and also it will not incur a lot of expense on your part.
    There was a time when our company was also a startup and we had to build our brand name. The thing that we focused on was creating our own website and then for building our brand name we started with email marketing. However, we started our email marketing using a hybrid email marketing solution called EasySendy Pro. It has really helped our marketing team in building the name. It helped our marketing team in reaching the mass quickly by improving the email deliverability rate, open rate and click through rate. Also, it is one of the most cost effective email marketing solution compared to other email marketing solutions. They allow us to send 30,000 emails to 2000 subscribers for free every month.
    Therefore, my suggestion would be first building your own website and then starting email marketing using email marketing tool (preferably hybrid email marketing tool) to build your brand name.
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