Get Off the Referral Rollercoaster and Get Clients from Cold Traffic

A Simple Marketing Plan for Online Success

Many coaches and consultants build successful businesses offline through referrals and networking, but struggle to generate their own leads online. This can lead to a “feast or famine” situation, because referrals are not always consistent or reliable. This article provides a simple marketing plan to help you build a consistent and profitable online business by generating your own leads and building your audience.

The Shift from Generalist to Specialist

When building a business through referrals, it's common to be a generalist, helping a broad range of people with various issues. This approach works well in a referral-based model because you are selling through relationships. However, this approach does not translate to the online space. Online marketing requires you to target a specific type of person with a specific type of problem. People search online for specific solutions to their problems, and your marketing needs to speak to their particular needs, anxieties, and goals.

The Pitfalls of Relationship-Based Marketing

When relying on referrals, it's not your marketing that's making the sale, it's the relationship. The trust, authority, and rapport are often already established through the referring party. When you try to use the same strategies that work with your warm market, it won't work with a cold market. You need to make up for the missing relationship with your marketing. For example, a mindset coach who initially helped anyone struggling, found more success when they niched down to helping successful professionals find their soulmates.

Creating a Basic Marketing Plan

Once you’ve identified who you want to market to, and how you will help them, you can develop a marketing plan to move online and generate leads. Here is a basic plan:

• Choose One Platform: Select one social media platform to start with. Consider:
  • Which platforms are you comfortable using?
  • Which platforms are your target audience using?
• Consistency is Key: Create a daily or weekly method of operation. For example:
  • Post two stories a day on your chosen platform
  • Post one regular piece of content daily
  • Post three reels or short videos per week
  • Go live once a week to build the “know, like, and trust” factor
• Repurpose Content: Don't feel like you need to create unique content for every platform. Instead:
  • Create longer-form content (like a live video) and repurpose it into shorter clips, stories, and posts
  • Use tools such as Minvo or Opus Clip to help with repurposing
  • Thematically connect all of your content for a given week, making the content creation process more efficient
• Focus on Value, Not Just Pitching: Don’t be a “pitchfest”. Social media is about being social, engaging, and providing value. Share:
  • Tips, insights, and inspiration
  • Content that helps your audience believe they can achieve their goals
  • Focus on the "what to do" rather than the "how to do it"
• Customer Journey Awareness: Keep the customer journey in mind. In the top of the funnel, address what your ideal clients think their problems are, not what you know their problems to be. For example, a weight loss coach may need to address things like supplements or fasting schedules initially, even if the core issue is diet and exercise.

The Importance of a Lead Magnet

A key step in any marketing plan is to take people off of social media to a place you own, such as an email list. This is done with a lead magnet, a free offer in exchange for contact information. A good lead magnet provides genuine value, not just information available through a basic Google search. This is a freebie that someone would potentially pay for.

• Examples include: PDF downloads, audio files, or video training.
• Use a capture page to collect emails, names, and phone numbers
• This moves people from the top of the funnel to the middle, where you can nurture them further

Daily Method of Operation (DMO)

Once you have a basic funnel set up (content to opt-in to email list), make it part of your daily routine.

• Create content daily
• Drive traffic to your content
• Get people on your email list
• This is the "fuel" for your business

Adding Gas to Your Marketing

To accelerate your online presence beyond just organic reach:

• Paid Traffic: While ads won’t make people skip steps in the sales process, they can help build your audience faster. You can generate views for very cheap, moving faster without relying solely on algorithms
• Other methods: Collaborations, summits, podcast guesting, and networking

Understanding the Role of Ads

It is important to understand that when selling online courses, coaching programs, or agency offers, ads do not lead directly to sales. The purpose of ads is to build your audience faster. They help you get exposure to people more quickly but you will still need to build trust and rapport in order to make sales.

By making the shift from generalist to specialist, developing a solid content plan, creating a lead magnet, and engaging in consistent marketing activities, you can break free of the referral rollercoaster and build a successful online business. It is a good idea to remember that it is important to prioritize building trust with your audience as you provide value.