“Soooo, quick question: how do I get quality leads in the door, stat? Inquiries are slow as molasses and I don’t have minutes to spend waiting eons for IG and SEO to hit right?”
Heya, Reader!
We're jumpin' right into the promisedinvisible → visible convo.
This time last year, I was in the room with three people I madly admire - call ‘em biz woman crushes or just people I aspire to be more like. Whenever that happens, I like to have some hard-hitting questions in the queue to ask them.
☝️ Numero uno on the list this time was how to cure slow inquiries and leads without going viral OR waiting months for the SEO and social engagement fires to catch with a buildup of content.
Their advice?
Get in new rooms (digital + IRL) because it’s likely an 👀 prob, not an offer prob.
Patience. It’s not a flashy virtue but we HAVE to cultivate it for endurance 🏃♀️ and to see if an offer/audience/method is worthwhile.
Experiment, test, and try new things to see what sticks and what drives inquiries and conversions. You don’t know what you don’t know.
🕵🏼♀️ Time to put on that critical thinking cap, sherlock, and let’s extract some nuggets from that first point that you could steal and try on.
👀 If it’s an Eyeballs Prob, Let’s Get You in New Rooms
Collaborations - get together, yeah yeah yeah
If 2024 becomes the year of the collab, I’m here for it 👏🏻. Leveraging someone else’s audience is such a skimmed-over shortcut for getting in front of new, qualified people.
The “qualified” part matters the most here.Be picky when you team up with someone. Make sure the audience you’re getting in front of could be someone who’d buy from you AND that their brand is something you want to align your brand with.
Ideas, please.
IG makes it real easy, pick a friend and do a collaborative carousel or reel together. Maybe even hop on live. My gal Kathy and I did both last fall, and the carousel is still gaining traction from the explore page.
Going a bit bigger? Host a live webinar, open a Zoom room for a Q&A or panel, or throw together a blog post. TONIC has done this really well lately with Showit and names like KT Merry.
Networking, Conferences... just get in a real room
Idk ‘bout you, but putting a screen in front of my face can turn my brain into that colorful, spinning wheel of death — buffering and processing without much output.
I’m loads more confident when I’m crafting genuine connectionsand conversations with real humans in front of me. 3/5 discovery calls I’ve had for brand photos in the last 2 weeks came from the last conference I attended.
☞ Get in the room with real humans, full stop.
Referrals - Turn those past clients into mini-marketers
If you had a client you loved working with, don’t be afraid to ask “umm hey, do you know of anyone who’d also need or be in the market for [your service/product]?” It helps their friend by shortcutting the process of finding a solution AND [almost] guarantees another customer/client in your pipeline that is like your IDC.
How?
Add a similar question to your end-of-experience survey. Paste something like: Would you be willing to share with friends or colleagues who might also find value in [insert your service/product/experience]?Feel free to share their names here! Or if you wouldn't mind, introduce us in an email thread!
Send a voice memo in Instagram DMs or a kindly worded email. Suggest they send you the names directly OR if they want to go the extra mile, ask them if they'll initiate for you in an email thread.
Pitch Yourself - put yourself out there
Pitching isn’t selfish, it’s a service (lesson I learned in 2023). Do you know how many creatives have “get new brand photos” on their list of to-dos? SO MANY. And when I send them an email introducing myself, genuinely complimentingthe brand they’ve built, and proposing a collab to give them photos that match it, it SAVES them time.
☞ Don’t be afraid to make the first move.
*channel this level of suave*
K, now → 🎬 ACTION: Pick one of the four ways to get visible and try it out this week.
📩 Reply here. Lemme know and I'll check back in next Friday to see how it went!
You got this, compadre 👏🏻 Cheerin' you on over here!
See you next week!
From The Learning Logbook
🎥 Seth Godin on Market Positioning - I've rewatched 4x, at least → "Narrowing down the choices for someone is true market positioning." You do that by taking a stand, being who you are and keeping your promises. Send the same message, everywhere. Go watch it, he says it better.
✍🏻 Scribbled this quote down SO FAST this week:
“Productivity isn’t about being a workhorse or burning the midnight oil. It’s about priorities, planning, and fiercely protecting your time.”
- Margarita Tarakovsky
♺ Need to reframe anything else for yourself on this Saturday morn? The other slides in this IG thread are worth a skim:
How We Can Work Together
🗓️ 1:1 coaching spots on the calendar have debuted. 🎉 There are 3 available in February → CLICK HERE to claim your spot.