Brilliant Ideas

#14: Lead Attraction Secrets to Scaling Your Business with Dr. Annie Cole

• Alyssa Bellisario • Season 1 • Episode 14

Share episode

Dr. Annie Cole shares invaluable insights on lead generation and client retention, particularly for solopreneurs. With powerful strategies on funnel navigation, the importance of giving value, and building lasting relationships, listeners will find clear guidance on transforming their approach to business growth.

• Importance of understanding the sales funnel 
• Strategies for building brand awareness and engagement 
• Dr. Cole's experience with increasing web traffic 
• Advantages of diversifying marketing channels 
• Significance of repurposing content across platforms 
• Value in offering free consultations 
• Creating raving fans through exceptional service 
• Leveraging referrals for sustainable business growth

Connect with Dr. Annie Cole:

Send me a text if you loved this episode!

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts

Your feedback helps me reach more solopreneurs like you.

It’s super easy—just click here, scroll to the bottom, tap those five stars, and hit “Write a Review.” I’d love to know what resonated most with you in this episode!

And don’t forget to hit that follow button if you haven’t already! There’s plenty more coming your way—practical tips, inspiring stories, and tools to help you grow a business that makes a real difference. You won’t want to miss out!

Let's Connect on Instagram
alyssabellisario.com
Search your favorite episodes HERE

This podcast is produced, mixed, and edited by Cardinal Studio. For more
information about how to start your own podcast, please visit www.cardinalstudio.co
or e-mail mike@cardinalstudio.co

Alyssa:

Giving away value. It's the foundation of marketing sales and keeping clients happy. Welcome to Brilliant Ideas, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of some of the most inspiring digital products created by solopreneurs just like you. I'm your host, alyssa, a digital product strategist who helps subject matter experts grow their business with online courses, memberships, coaching programs and eBooks. If you're a solopreneur with dreams of packaging your expertise into a profitable digital product, then this is the podcast for you.

Alyssa:

Expect honest conversations of how they started, the obstacles they overcame, lessons learned the hard way, and who face the same fears, doubts and challenges you're experiencing, from unexpected surprises to breakthrough moments and everything in between. Tune in, get inspired and let's spark your next big, brilliant idea. Today's guest, dr Annie Cole, knows this better than anyone. As the founder of Money Essentials for Women, she's here to share her expertise on creating businesses that attract clients and keep them coming back. If you don't have a steady stream of clients in your business right now, this episode is going to help so much. Welcome to the show, annie. So happy you're here.

Annie:

Thank you so much for having me.

Alyssa:

Of course, and I'm so looking forward to our conversation, because you are the go-to resource when it comes to generating leads and for many businesses, I feel like getting leads can feel like one of the most hardest parts of running a business. It's honestly exhausting at times when you're putting yourself out there, you're trying different strategies, spending time on social media and even tweaking your website like a thousand times, and yet the steady flow of clients is just it's not happening for you and, honestly, it can really leave people feeling like what are they missing? Or even if they're on the right track. So I know that you've worked with many business owners who've been in this exact spot. So for those listeners who feel stuck when it comes to bringing in clients, what tips do you have to help them get kind of unstuck and start generating leads more efficiently?

Annie:

So many, so many tips. So one thing we were just talking about. I run this eight-week program where I walk people through how to generate leads and specifically helping online business owners and coaches, and one of the things we just talked about last night was this idea of your funnel and where to focus your efforts, based on where you're at in business and what kind of leads you need to generate. So we all want to get leads, we all want to make sales, but that in itself is not always going to lead you in the right direction. You need more information. So if you think about the top of the funnel, that's a brand new business owner or someone who has very little exposure that person needs to build broad awareness. They want to get in front of as many eyes as possible. They want to start building connections. They just want to start being seen.

Annie:

Further down the funnel, let's say you have a LinkedIn or an Instagram profile. You have followers. At that point, you want people to then start engaging. So your focus is always still going to be bringing more awareness, getting more people in front of you. But now you have people engaged, so how do you get them to like your content, be interested, want to actually have a conversation with you and check out your products.

Annie:

So that engagement piece is really important in the middle and then further down, we have our actual sales process. So if someone Now they trust you, they like you, you've built credibility, you've engaged with them, the sales process if you're falling short at that point where people are coming into your world but not buying, you might have a few things going on. So it might be a product issue. Maybe the product is not actually what people need. It might be a sales messaging issue. So either you're not asking for the sale, your messaging is off, your landing page isn't convincing people to buy, you don't have testimonials, things like that. So I just like to remind people of that, because there's all these different pieces that you could be working on. That could be the gap where someone is not coming into your world to buy your product. So we want to get leads but we need to move them through the whole thing, not just we find someone and we suddenly try to sell them something.

Alyssa:

You know I love that. That's such great advice and I love and I think a lot of listeners right now they're just nodding along thinking about how they're able to tweak their own approach. Yeah, because it is a complicated. There's so many complex issues at every stage of the funnel and yeah, so I want to kind of shift gears for a moment, because I know that you've had some pretty impressive wins in your own business.

Alyssa:

You were telling me about your web traffic that skyrocketed from 500 to 5,000, which, by the way, is amazing, thank you and I can just imagine waking up to that see, that kind of jump with website numbers. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to check your analytics twice because you want to. Just, is this actually real? So I just want to know about that. What things sparked that dramatic shift? Like, was it a specific strategy? You implemented a viral moment, because when you're thinking about the website, that that would be the top of the funnel, that's like awareness. So what do you think was that shift in? Maybe a strategy that you implemented? Maybe it was something else entirely? Like what? How did you, why, yeah, explain that jump that happened?

Annie:

Sure, I think that, looking back on it, I think there were actually two things that were happening. So number one I reached this kind of critical mass with my marketing efforts. So I share this a lot when I'm working with clients that if you are marketing on one channel, you are missing out on so many other opportunities because you don't know how many other people might be on a different channel. And it's actually very easy, for example, to turn a LinkedIn post into an Instagram post, into a blog post. You suddenly have three, and that's just three. I mean you could go and post it on YouTube and do a million other things. So I started really expanding. At first I just started on Instagram. I started expanding to post on other channels and then I tapped into two other things that were huge. One was podcast guesting, like we're doing today.

Annie:

Second was media features, and I will say media features are so good for web traffic. So that's when you get yourself, your name and your business featured in an article at a major outlet like Forbes or Business Insider. Because I'm in the finance space, I got a lot of features that Nerd Wallet, gobankingrates, things like that and they will link to your site and especially if you get big publicity, you can expect to have 50,000 people viewing those articles. So that level of exposure you think about that, compared to an Instagram reel where you'd have to go viral, maybe get a million people to view and click on your link. This is just the norm of how many people might come see a CNN or a CNBC article just because people are scrolling. Like if you open your phone, you scroll, you're going to see a bunch of articles by Yahoo Finance, those kinds of things every single day. So I think media features is often overlooked and people don't realize how much publicity you can get and how much traffic you can generate.

Alyssa:

Wow, that's really inspiring and it's funny because the gurus online they mentioned that we should only be sticking to one channel, growing that one channel, and so I think there was this idea that if you're going to be on Instagram, just stick to Instagram, don't go and do TikTok or go YouTube, or. But at the same time, I just feel like more channels make sense because it's more diversity, more different people are on different channels. So you're saying that you know, diversify yourself, which is different than the norm.

Annie:

I would say it with a caveat. So I've actually seen that advice too. I know there's Probably I don't know Majority of people will say stick to one channel. I've heard a few people say go on multiple channels. I am definitely in the camp of reusing content and that's the caveat.

Annie:

So do not try to post something unique on LinkedIn, something unique on YouTube and something unique on Instagram. If you do that, then you're probably watering down your message. You're going to burn yourself out. It's not sustainable. But if you are coming up with a concentrated, irresistible message directly for your dream client and you just happen to post that on three different channels, of course that's going to get you more exposure. That's a no-brainer. So I think that's what the caveat is. You just have to get the messaging right and repurpose, reuse, do not reinvent the wheel.

Annie:

One of my colleagues was actually just telling me last night that Martha Stewart used to talk about this and that she would say I have one idea and that one idea she would turn into an apron and a recipe and something like she would use it, and that Oprah also did this. Every month of the year she would use the same topics. So if you looked at January of one year and January of the next year. It was the same topics. Reuse your content guys. Post it on multiple channels. Don't try to be unique every single time, especially if it's the right message. The right message is going to land, no matter where you post it. Oh, I love that advice.

Alyssa:

I love that Repurposing is so important. I remember in my early stages of my business I thought that I had to create 365 pieces of content on social media because that's what I guess you know. I wanted to be unique and have a unique story, and so I had to be different and what I realized was that I burnt out after about 20 or 30 posts, uh, trying to schedule it out. So I was really ambitious back then. I was, I thought I was going to be like you know, at the end of the year I'm going to have all of this scheduled, and then I didn't even make it past like two months of scheduling. I was like I'm out, like this is not sustainable.

Alyssa:

And for a lot of, you know, for a lot of our listeners who are also maybe in their early stages of their journey, where most likely they're on a roller coaster, they're experiencing kind of the highs and lows of their business and income related as well, I can think that so many of us can relate to those moments of trial and error like me, like I will never do that again. Repurpose and reuse yes, that is the main message here, but there are trying to figure out the sweet spot of consistent income. Now I want to go back to your early days. What were some of the things that you tried when you first started your business, and then kind of what worked and what ended up being those lesson learned moments, like you know, like 365 pieces of content.

Annie:

Yeah, I think a few things I tried early on. Um, one thing that I remember learning in well, I guess I'll back up I paid to take a coaching course very early on in my business, specifically to learn how to master Instagram, because I had not used Instagram before to ever post anything. I actually am very. Nowadays. I'm on all the social media channels as a business owner, but I wasn't really that much. I wasn't using social media as an individual. So I took a course.

Annie:

I learned some specific techniques on how to engage a new person every time they followed, how to reach out to people in the DMs, how to offer people freebies and build a funnel, how to offer to collaborate with people and do cold outreach to start to build connections. That course changed my life and I learned and there's lots of courses out there that will teach you those things. So focus on whatever area you need, but that was a game changer because it just accelerated my learning. That would have taken me months to a year to learn and then in the beginning I definitely made a lot of intentional connections when my audience was small. So anytime someone followed me, I would reach out to them and just say welcome to my community. If there's anything I can help you with.

Annie:

Here's my website, here's all my resources, and I got quite a few people communicating with me that way, and then, if they started to show engagement, I would ask if they wanted to do a free consultation, and so I've heard this a lot. It can be hard for folks to give things away for free in the beginning, but I definitely did to try to build up my experience, so I would give away free consultations. Some of those turned into paid opportunities where they would either pay for coaching or pay for a course of mine or something else. That made a huge difference. And then I started to get some testimonials under my belt. So I would always ask anyone that worked with me for a testimonial, and then I use those on my book that I ended up publishing, use them on my website, use them on my sales page, and that's again just going to start building your credibility. So you're not just showing that you're starting from scratch.

Alyssa:

I love that. There's so many great lessons in there, especially, you know, not being afraid to give away value and free consults. You know, I think that there is this, this whole thing about, oh, we shouldn't be giving away you know so much because then what is left for the paid and it's like, but you're not, when they're paying for your services, they're getting the premium experience. The free consult is really just a preview. It's, it's like that little appetizer before they actually order the big entree, you know, and so, um, don't be afraid of that, you know, and there's a lot of ways that you can give away value. It doesn't have to be in a free consult, but it could be, you know, a, you know a lead magnet. It could be like a low ticket item just to get them in your world and I think their you know their audiences will really I really appreciate that, um, to have some have some kind of low ticket item before they actually go and purchase bigger packages and retainers and things like that. And so I feel like there's a lot of things here that our listeners can take away from this, and everything you kind of used to share today was so helpful.

Alyssa:

Now it's time for my favorite part of the show, which is the brilliant bite of the week. This is like a. I love this segment because this is the moment where we kind of leave our listeners with one actionable takeaway, something like a piece of advice, even an inspiration to spark their next brilliant ideas. So what is one piece of advice you'd love to share with our listeners today?

Annie:

This one is just coming to me because I just read it in a book and I've been chewing on it. If your marketing channels were to go away tomorrow and you could not post online anymore, you couldn't have a website, you truly couldn't do anything except get referrals from your next client how would you treat that client? What would you do with that client to make it so amazing and turn them into a raving fan that they went out and got you your next client by word of mouth? That, I think, and this was by Alex Hermosi and I can't remember which one of his books, but I've been reading his lead and his offers books.

Annie:

I think that is so, so critical, because oftentimes we're trying to do all these marketing efforts, we're bringing people in the door to an offer or a service that is good. Like we all are good, we have good intentions, but is it good enough that we're building raving fans that are going to go off and actually tell other people about it? Because you can build a mind blowing business if people are telling other people about it. Because you can build a mind blowing business if people are telling other people about it and I've worked for companies where that happens and word of mouth goes wild, so I would focus on that, and yeah, it's key.

Alyssa:

I love that, okay. So here's the thing is. So my business I find that most I would say 90% of my business is for referrals and word of mouth. Most, I would say 90% of my business is for referrals and word of mouth, like they're, and it's because I've laid the foundation of, you know, making connections. I mean, this is why part of why I started Brilliant Ideas is because I needed to.

Alyssa:

I want to talk to people and build those connections and learn about other people and what they do, and and not just hit the cold traffic, because what I find with social media is it's great, but they're cold traffic, so it takes them a long time to like get warmed up to me, my content, my messaging, and then and then. But when you actually have referrals or people who are you know, they speak about how amazing your service was, the, the next person it's like they trust you already and it's so easy. It's like, oh, I've already. It's like you skip that part of warming them up because the person who worked with you previously had said your work was great and then you just saved all of that time. So referrals, I think, are the hands down, the best way to build your business and to have a to really kind of increase not only just the connections but the longevity of your business as well. So it's not reliant a hundred percent on your social media.

Annie:

Yep, it's building again. It's like how can you do these efforts, that they work when you're not working? And that's why I love marketing features, podcasts, because they last forever, they're evergreen. Create more evergreen content, create lasting impressions in people and that will build your business while you're not working.

Alyssa:

Yes, I do agree with that as well. And even like, I actually recently just turned my blog into a podcast library because I was thinking to myself, like, really Like, it makes sense, right, if I have, if I wanted my podcast episodes to have, so when they go to my podcast episode, they go right to my website instead of, you know, like buzzsprout or anything, and I just found that that would increase my website viewers or my website visits, and so, um, thinking about ways to incorporate that. And and then also, yeah, like, podcast blogs are really good as well, like I, I mean, it still says blog on my website. I'm not sure what it should be called a podcast library, but you know I have to work on that name. But other than that, like it's been, you know, it's been really good. I've had an increase in website visits because I do, you know, I have a one page for every one of my episodes and it just helps so much. So, yeah, I love it.

Alyssa:

And so, um, yeah, I love it, and so I love all of the wisdom that you shared today, and so, for everyone listening, I hope you found so much value in this episode as I have. Um, if you are curious to learn more about Annie's work, or you want to connect with her directly? All the links are in the show notes, so make sure to check them out. Uh, you won't want to miss everything that she has to offer, and so thanks so much, uh, for coming on the show today and for my listeners tuning in today. As always, I'm so grateful to have you as part of my Brilliant Ideas community, and I will catch you next time on another Brilliant Idea.

Annie:

Thank, you so much, Alyssa.

Alyssa:

Thanks for tuning into this episode of Brilliant Ideas. If you love the show, be sure to leave a review and follow me on Instagram for even more insider tips and inspiration. Ready to bring your next big, brilliant idea to life? Visit AlyssaVelsercom for resources, guidance and everything you need to start creating something amazing.