Podium resumed fundraising on November 15, 2021, adding $201 million to its accounts at a $3 billion valuation (post-money). It is worth noting that the Utah-based company, which provides software services to small and medium-sized businesses such as communications and payment tools, raised $125 million in April 2020.
Podium's software provides small businesses with messaging tools. The company's revenue has increased rapidly, allowing it to both attract capital and expand its offerings. In addition, the company has expanded into payments, allowing its SMB-leaning customer base to accept payment for goods and services more quickly. Its payment transaction volume has been rapidly increasing.
- Summary of the startup's payment revenue as reported by TechCruch:
- $12 million ARR around the time of its $32 million May 2017 Series A.
- $30 million ARR around the end of 2017.
- $50 million ARR around the time of its $60 million November 2018 Series B.
- Expected to reach $60 million ARR by the end of 2018 (unclear if it met that timetable).
- $100 million ARR around the end of 2019.
What Can You Learn from Podium to Earn a Lot of Money?
Podium performs local searches by assisting businesses in increasing their visibility on Google maps. It assists business owners in obtaining more reviews, conducting SMS campaigns, and ultimately obtaining more leads and sales through improved positioning.
SEO for Local Businesses
We conducted a quick search for "Best dentists in Miami" on Google.
In the above search result, Google displayed local dentists identified by its algorithm as the best in Miami. In the search result for the phrase "Best in ...", Google's algorithm returns only reviews with a rating of 4.0 or higher. Any business with fewer than 4.0 stars or fewer reviews will not appear in the search results. Google isn't going out there to solicit feedback; the only thing its algorithm relies on are the reviews. A business which does not receive a lot of positive feedback will not appear for the keyword "Best [Insert Service Name] [Insert Location]".
Why Is It a Huge Opportunity?
It's all about Free Organic Search, and the benefits are enormous if businesses can take advantage of it. Local businesses should optimise their businesses to rank on search engines, particularly Google, in order to receive free targeted organic traffic that will eventually increase the number of visitors to their websites.
The services of Podium include automated messages, appointment calendars, scheduling, appointment confirmation, and a contact profile database.
A payment portal:
Reviews section:
The goal is to get as many contacts to post reviews on Google as possible.
How Can You Cut Your Cake from the Pie
When you're just getting started, you don't need to go far and build a complex system like Podium. Your primary goal is to rank businesses high on Google's search map, and all that is required is the knowledge of Local SEO Optimization and Google Map Citation.
Please keep in mind that the technical aspect of local SEO is beyond the scope of this article, but there are plenty of resources to learn about it that you can get online. In this article, we'll look at how to acquire customers who are interested in this service from a business standpoint.
- Focus On Companies with Low Reviews
The best way to go about it is to look for low-ranking companies that can benefit from increased visibility. The goal is for them to appear on Google's first page.
How Do You Go About it?
Google is your Friend, but this time around, do not use "Best ..." in your search keywords. For example, you can use "Dentists in Miami" as shown below.
You should target businesses like the one indicated by the red arrow with 54 reviews and a rating of 3. Your mission is to find a way to improve its ranking, but you must exercise caution when selecting companies to approach so you don't choose a bad company with poor services or products. As a result, you may want to include another set of companies that will be easier to work with. Let us look at another set of clinics in the search result.
If you check the screenshot above very well, all of the businesses have a rating of at least 4.0. In fact, one has a 5.0 rating; however, they all lack a sufficient number of reviews. You might want to take a look at these type of businesses because there is a possibility they provide high-quality services. However, you should be cautious once more, as they may have already begun working on the local SEO optimization. In any case, you can keep them in mind as potential clients.
What Next?
Look through the websites of the potential clients you've just discovered and find their contact information. You can contact them via email or phone. It's your job to get their attention. Just like how I took the screenshot above, you should make yours and send it to them. Let them know you can help them increase their visibility and move them to the first page.
An Example of a Company We Can Increase Its Google Ranking
Let us check out Brickell Bove Dental Studio.
We investigated this website and discovered that it consists of only one page. This is your chance to add more value to this website. Your job is to convince the owner that the website needs to be upgraded. The next step is to contact the owners, and your message could look like this:
"I was looking through the results for dental offices in Miami when I noticed that your site is not optimised. It is only a one-page website. Also, the rating is low, which needs to be improved. I can design a system to increase the number of reviews you receive and help you rank higher in search engines which will increase visitors on your website, and eventually increase sales. I would be delighted to assist you for free in achieving an initial boost in order to rank your site higher."
You should not ask for a monetary reward at this point because you need to first get the owner's attention. Adding values for free works flawlessly, and we guarantee that you will receive a response. The response could be:
"Sure, what's the catch?" Or, more specifically, "how does it work?".
Always start your conversation with "Adding Values" to your potential clients. Following your initial success, you can then introduce your pricing.
Let us look at Podium's Pricing.
The above screen shows their annual subscription offers, and below are their monthly.
Podium costs $189 per month if paid monthly, and $149 per month if paid annually. Customers find it extremely difficult to stop paying Podium for this type of service because this system generates a large number of leads and sales. As a result, Podium's generates a lot of income.
If you want to generate recurring revenue from this business model, you should replicate Podium's business model. We recommend that you aim for at least ten businesses to sign up with you to generate a reasonable income. You should set your pricing at the same level as Podium, or a little bit higher. At the very least, the companies with whom you are in contact are unaware of Podium's existence, so there is no risk of losing out due to a slightly higher price for your service. With just ten customers using Podium pricing, you should be able to make $1 890 per month for a monthly subscription, or $17 880 per year if they all choose to pay for a year.
Find a Niche
We recommend that you find a market niche for this business. Do not go out there and try to acquire businesses from various industries. When you first start out, you should pick a niche and focus on it. For example, you should focus on working with dentists only instead of working with many professionals in different areas of specialty. You can conduct searches in as many cities as possible throughout the region in which you operate. For instance, "dentists in Miami," "dentists in Orlando," "dentists in Jacksonville," and so on.
Did you notice what is common in these keywords? Miami, Orlando, and Jacksonville are cities in Florida. Now, consider the total number of cities in Florida and try to visualise the number of opportunities available to you in the dentists niche alone.
A Big Hurdle You Will Have to Jump Over
One of the most important questions you'll have to answer from these small business owners is:
"Why should we work with you?", or
"Why should we rely on you to do this for us?"
The best way to answer these type of question is to say:
"I only work in this market, so you can put your trust in me as an expert in the field of dental marketing. And I only work with dentists.. "
The goal here is to establish yourself as an expert in the field you have chosen to work so that prospective clients can easily believe you are the best person for the job. Therefore, they will want to try to trust you because they feel you understand the unique challenges of their industry. This is how you should find your first set of customers.
Scaling Upward
You should also go out there and market your business, rather than relying solely on the methods described above. So, what are you going to do? After you've made a few sales, try hacking Podium's marketing channels.
Hacking Podium's Facebook Ads
Google the following keywords: "Facebook ads library", and click the result the red arrow below points to.
Fill the page exactly like below.
Here you will find all of Podium's Facebook ads, which you can copy and edit to suit your needs.
You could also look for successful advertisers in your chosen niche and hack their Google search ads as well as their social media ads. You can also check our article on how to hack Google Search ads.
Look for and focus on ads that have been added for a long time because such ads are most likely among their best performing ones. We can't be certain, but there's a good chance they're winning ads.
Differentiating Yourself From Podium and other Competitors
Concentrating on a specific niche as explained earlier is a very good method of differentiating yourself because you are an expert in your chosen niche. You have the ability to serve your niche better than anyone else, even better than Podium. As a result, as your business grows, you will be able to charge higher prices than bigger competitors and you can command more authority in your niche.
Outsource Local SEO Optimizing Process
You can easily find gurus in this field on Fiverr, and you can outsource it there for $200 per month.
Summary of Estimated Revenue
- Daily Ads Budget — $100
- Monthly Ads Expense — $3 000
- Monthly Google Map Citation Expense — $200
- Total Monthly Expense — $3 200
- Total Annual expense — $38 400
- With $100 daily ads and a good marketing strategy, you should be able to get at least 100 customers willing to pay $200 for your service in a year.
- Estimated Monthly Sales for 100 customers — $20 000
- Estimated Annual Sales for 100 customers — $240 000
- Estimated Annual Profit — $201 600
Conclusion
Most businesses in developed nations can comfortably pay $200 for the following services:
- Management of their reviews
- Ranking their websites higher on Google Local Search Engine
- Optimizing their websites and landing pages (one-time payment)
- Getting them leads
- Increasing their sales
If you can leverage on a successful ad campaign and increase your customer base to 100 in a year, you will be able to create a very good long-term business for yourself that can make you more money. You can even expand your business and make more profit if you increase your daily ad budget and target more cities around the world.
