Transcription
If you're still relying on social media posts to generate leads for your business, if you are praying for referrals or just hoping that somebody finds or discovers your website in 2025, that just won't cut it. But don't worry, these are free tried and tested strategies that are working for business owners today. Business owners that need clients without spending money on ads.
If you're new here, I'm Christine. I take service providers from stuck and confused to consistently landing high-paying clients with personalized messaging and a simple, repeatable outreach system. So, if you are just launching for the first time or relaunching your business, these three strategies I'm going to share today will help you land these premium high-value clients without paid ads, without an audience, or without spending more time stuck trying to perfect your brand before you start selling.
So, the first place that a lot of business owners start is creating content. That's sort of our default these days. Either that or they start just tweaking their website hoping somebody is going to notice. These things that as service providers help us to feel busy. But content on its own isn't a client acquisition strategy. Yes, it's visibility, but we need more than that. So, what actually drives results? Direct outreach and real conversations. It has already been proven by many stats that personalized outreach and human connection outperforms any mass marketing campaign. Yet, as service-based businesses that don't even have the budget for those mass marketing campaigns, we tend to imitate or emulate these large businesses that are doing that in their strategies. As service providers, we have the advantage of knowing our ideal customers really well and connecting with them. So, why aren't we leveraging that? If you take nothing else from this point, people respond to people, not passive content that may or may not even resonate with them.
So, here's what this would look like in action. Find three to five people per week. It could be former colleagues, warm leads, friendly connections that you have in the business space or just people you know and personalize your outreach to their goals or their industry. So, my freelance template playbook has outreach templates and response templates for every situation you can encounter when you are dealing with clients. And I just want to share one of the templates from the playbook to give you an idea of what this message would look like. Like this is an example of a message as a freelance writer I could send to maybe like an enterprise B2B company that I'm pitching. And I'm basically saying like, hey, I just wrapped up this project for this company and since I know that your target audience is this and your goals are XYZ, I thought that this would be helpful for you as well. Does it make sense for us to talk? So it's basically saying like here's what I do for other companies that are similar to you. Here's my proven track record. Would love to add to your current strategy because I'm somebody who has experience delivering that service. This is so much different from the spray and prey approaches of like mass templated outreach messages that are sent by an automation tool and the person receiving the pitch can feel it.
So, strategy number two is digging into and expanding your current network. If you've ever heard of that six degrees of separation theory, it is more relevant today than ever. Leveraging people you already know, which by the way, don't jump ahead. I know what you're saying. Oh, I don't know anybody in this industry. Trust me, there is a way to leverage your existing network, even if you think there's nobody that you know that can help you build your business and get clients. So, six degrees of separation basically means that you are just a few connections from anybody you want to reach. Yet, most service providers, and I'm so guilty of this myself because I'm introverted, they don't talk to people and tell them what they're doing and what they're up to. They don't ask for referrals or even just bring up casual conversations with people that, which, you know, some of the time they could be a client, but most of the time they know somebody who will.
So, one of my coaching students, her name is Suzanne, she quit her full-time job as an educator, and she was wanting to pursue marketing and copywriting services for sustainable fashion companies. And through working with me, we basically widened her scope, explored the possibility of her writing for anybody in the DTC e-commerce space. Instead of just focusing on fashion, it could also be like luxury products, cosmetics, beauty, the umbrella industry. because I got her thinking in a different way. She went to an aesthetician appointment to get probably some type of facial service and she was chatting up the woman who owned the business and just let her know nonchalantly conversationally what she did. At that time, the business owner was like, "Yeah, that's actually something I'm interested in, but I'm going with an agency to deliver that service." Fast forward, the business owner went and got a proposal from the agency. it turned out to be super overwhelming and not tailored to her as a person and just didn't work out. She came back to my coaching client Suzanne and was like, "Do you still have availability for me? I need someone to help me with my email marketing and to promote my business." That turned out to be Suzanne's first client just because she thought outside of the box and had conversations with real people, not with an end goal necessarily in mind, but just spreading the word about her business and that turned into a client. But even if it didn't, she could have known another business owner that could use her as well.
So if you want to start doing this, first thing, just reconnect with old clients, old colleagues, anybody you've collaborated with in the past. Let's say you're like me, copywriting. I've worked with graphic designers on projects with other clients. It's like, can I connect with those graphic designers and build a relationship with them? Because graphic designers and website developers, website builders tend to be connected with people who also need copywriting services. This could be posting an update to your LinkedIn network or to your email contacts and just saying, "Hey, I'm opening three spots this month for these coaching students or these contract assignments. If you know anybody looking for that, let me know." Something as basic as that. And you want to make it really easy for them to refer you by providing them with a blurb, giving the links, just not asking that other person to do the work, right? we want to do it for them because no one's going to talk as eloquently and diligently about our business and what we do than us. I'm going to give you an example of the templates from my freelance template playbook that show you how you can reach out to people and tell them the best way to refer you. There's definitely a specific way you want to go about it and you're always going to want to follow up as well.
Now, part three is having an actual outreach ecosystem. So, the final strategy is building an actual outreach system. Heavy emphasis on system. Most service providers when it comes to marketing their business, generating leads, they're truly throwing spaghetti at the wall and everything feels random. And I know I am guilty of this because we have a lot of freedom and autonomy and unless we kind of wrangle that and put some consistency in our own schedule and hold ourselves to certain metrics and KPIs, it very quickly gets out of control where we feel like we're working non-stop, but we don't know if what we're doing is actually getting us any closer to the end goal, which is getting more clients and making money. So, this usually looks like posting here and there, posting randomly, half-hearted DMs, and maybe it's just like a checkbox item, and you're not even really looking at the person's profile to see if you want to work with them or if they'd be a good fit or how you can personalize your message or some type of outreach process that you're just not following. What you need is a repeatable system and process that's easy to use that you can do 5 days a week or however many days per week you want to be consistent with this. and it needs to build visibility, trust, and connection. I'm going to walk you through the outreach system and kind of the core pillars that I help my clients achieve. It's what I have in my own business, and I believe every service-based business needs to have this. When I meet with service providers for coaching, when I build out strategies for them, one of these pillars is inevitably somewhat off, and it tends to be the reason why they're not generating leads consistently.
The first pillar is your website or as I like to call it your digital business card, your home base. Your website is not just a page. It should not just be an afterthought. It is where your brand narrative lives. All other marketing and sales efforts should be stemming from your home base. Your brand narrative, the core of who you are, what makes you unique, and what you offer. It's where people go to find out who you are, why they should hire you. It's where they do their own research on you. And if you look at how we're doing business today, no matter how low-price the product even is, we are taking the time to do our own research, read reviews, and find out more about whatever it is we're going to buy. So, we're in that habit already for low-priced items. How much more important is having an online presence built up to really have your website portray who you are and why they should work with you in a very persuasive manner? something that's just sitting on the internet doing that work for you. It's what's going to make all of your outreach efforts, all of your marketing efforts, regardless of what that is, whether it's in-person networking, posting on social media, if they can't come back to a website that cohesively tells your story and sells them on you further, you're really missing out on that low-hanging fruit. That website should be doing the heavy lifting for when you can't be in the room or when you can't overcome an objection in your sales process.
So, an effective website for a service-based business is going to make it very clear who you help, right? Getting clear on your ideal customer avatar and having a singular focus. I know this is so hard. Personally, I have two ideal customer avatars and of course, I want to speak to both of those people and their exact situations, but I have to narrow it down to one because that is the most effective way to market my message and build a brand. It has to show what you offer and not just a menu of services. It has to include services and the actual benefits and outcomes and why they should care and want your services. It should portray why your approach is different. Because as service providers, yes, we are one of probably hundreds of people who are doing the same thing, delivering the same service, whether we're accountants, bookkeepers, web designers, detailing cars, hair stylists, makeup artists, we are one of many people who can deliver that service. But there is something unique about the way you do it, how you do it, how you learn to do it, why you're doing it. And that's what I specialize in when I work with clients is pulling that unique narrative, what makes somebody special and uniquely positioned. It's really hard as a business owner to pull out the experiences of your clients and what you're actually good at and what makes you unique. It's really hard when we're very close to the business. That's why I specialize in helping my clients flesh that out and write the copy, either craft their message with them or for them. It's also going to house your reviews, your testimonials and client wins, maybe case studies. And then it's also going to constantly call that person to action and show them how to work with you. And you always want to make working with you or the process of getting started with you seem very simple and streamlined. Even though your process and what you do is complex, that's for you to know. that's why you charge a lot of money, but it should not seem complicated to them or people will get overwhelmed and click off of the page. So, we want to make that just seem like a one, two, three process. Hey, here's how to get started.
So, if the website is like your baseline, your home base, that's just the foundation. Then, we want to talk about the three pillars that are actually going to drive traffic to your website and help you generate leads. So, number one is what I like to call a pedestal or one-way platform. Basically, it is a place for you to broadcast out. Although you can have two-way conversations and elicit conversations on these platforms, it's basically your space to get your message out to the masses. So, it's one to many. Whereas, let's say like you're cold pitching and you're sending a message to one person. This is going to be one message that goes out to many people at once. So that could be an email list, starting a YouTube channel, guest podcasting, either creating your own podcast, but even better is to pitch yourself to get on other people's podcast so you can leverage OPA, other people's audiences, or a blog, which I would say compared to these other strategies is kind of dwindling in terms of how to generate traffic in a short period of time. But not trying to say blogs are totally dead. I'm just saying put a pause on them because the algorithm because as of now the algorithm is like going through crazy transitions and has not yet stabilized because of AI. So the power of this one-way platform is number one it builds authority. I know we're living in a time where it feels like everybody can get behind a microphone and say anything but truly you can become the expert or the thought leader in your specific industry if you just get on a platform and start talking about what you're interested in and what you know about. People are always looking for content to listen to and you could be that person. So don't underestimate the fact that you have something to say and something to contribute. The benefit or the pro of having your own email list is incredible because you own that. It is truly not rented land. Just like your website where you own that domain, you pay for it. You collect, gather, and own email addresses. And even if there's algorithm changes or traffic takes a huge dip, like recently a lot of companies have been seeing traffic to their website plummet because of algorithm changes and AI. Well, your email is still going to go directly into people's inboxes. Also, we know that to give our email address to somebody is way higher of a trust indicator and a commitment versus just hitting follow or subscribe to somebody on social media. And that's why the dollar amount per subscriber is so much higher than a quote-unquote follower for social media. And then if you have something like a podcast or YouTube, the benefit is discoverability and ranking. So if people are searching for answers to something and your video pops up, it builds a lot of trust instantly and you become known as the authority, the person who answers that question.
And then there's two-way platforms. These are going to be your traditional social media platforms where you have the ability, yes, to post your own content, but it's really going to be seen as your messaging vehicle. And the reason I love platforms like Facebook, Instagram, specifically LinkedIn for service providers is that it doesn't require you to know somebody's personal email address, which can be hard to discover and come by. You can find their profile and message them. because it's a platform that has a profile attached to it, it's much more compelling and trust building and I guess easier to trust someone who's cold messaging you because they can see your profile and who you are versus a wall of text via cold emailing. So really, this is where clients are actually acquired because you can really connect with them, have a two-way conversation with them. I know for me when people have been confused on whether or not they should buy my digital products, we could have a back and forth on Instagram and I could voice note them and it just is an expedited personalized process that helps people do business with you.
And then the third part is an actual outreach habit that you will stick to per week. So I'll give you a prime example. A weekly system could look like, okay, three cold outreach conversations per day. That could be pitching somebody on LinkedIn, sending cold emails, follow-ups on one day per week. Maybe on Friday is when you reach back out to that person that you pitch to be on their podcast. You follow up on a proposal you submitted. You go through your inbox and see who have I not responded to, right? And then there's one referral or networking nudge per week. Can you get somebody to have a coffee chat with you? Get somebody on a Zoom call. I track all of these activities in Asana. And I'm going to link to a video above that has a custom GPT system where basically you're feeding ChatGPT your weekly activities to see which of those activities moved you closer to revenue. You don't have to use my exact system, but you really at the very basic level should be tracking what did I do this week. You know, you want to be plugging all of that into a project management software and you want a system to be able to grade. Did that move me closer toward getting clients? Because as service providers who, you know, we're responsible for bringing in clients, marketing our business, selling ourselves, and then delivering on the actual thing that we sold, you know, providing the service. We can feel very busy, very stressed out, like we're doing a million things and we don't have time. Then we look back at our week. Are we actually doing what we need to be doing to move the needle forward in our business? And if you're not making money, you don't have a business. So before you kind of put marketing and sales and lead generation on the sideline, you have to realize that you're not going to be in business for long if you're not consistently bringing in clients. And you're not going to break through those revenue plateaus if you're not bringing in new people and elevating your marketing so that people will actually pay premium rates to work with you.
Okay. Okay, so I'm going to outline two ways that I could help you put all of this into action. Number one, I have an accountability coaching program called Clients on Command where I will work with you one-on-one. If you're still figuring all of this out, trying to determine what service you want to offer, how to position yourself, you're not sure exactly how to establish yourself before you start reaching out to clients, or maybe you have started those initial steps and you've worked with clients, but you're trying to understand how to scale that up. I'm going to work with you for five weeks straight one-on-one and we are going to build your messaging, your offers, your outreach systems together and you will get weekly support. You will get my custom GPTs to speed up all these processes. You're going to get my templates. But most importantly, you're going to get my feedback so that we can iterate because there's only so much you can do with online courses, custom GPTs, but you have to be able to pressure test whether or not it's working and you're on the right track. And that's where I come in. What I will help you with and Clients on Command is actually showing up consistently, booking clients, and feeling like you're on the right track, finally gaining that clarity.
And the second way that I help service-based businesses is done for you messaging and website copy. So, if you are already doing the thing, you are clear on your services, but you don't feel that your website or your brand presence is clearly communicating that and that your value and why you're good at what you do and why you're unique isn't shining through. I can help you with that. This is ideal for service providers who are pivoting or rebranding. If you are raising your rates, trying to bring in higher paying clients and graduate from the work that you're currently doing so you can make a better living. Or if your site needs to just finally portray the value of what you do so you can start bringing in premium leads. If you're not sure which way of working with me is best, just send me a message support@carine.com and I will point you in the right direction either way. Whether it's working with me, whether it's working with someone else, or just giving you a free resource that will help you get to the level of being ready to work with somebody, I will help you. No pressure, just clarity. I'll see you in next.