[00:00:00] Kylie Kelly: I see so many business owners putting so much time and energy into getting new clients, and then the second the work is done, they move on. No follow up, no referral, no rebooking strategy, Which means they’re constantly starting from scratch every single month.

[00:00:14] And honestly, it’s one of the biggest reasons people feel that their business is harder than it needs to be. So today I’m bringing on Colie James, who is so good at this to talk about how to actually turn your existing clients into your best source of sales,

[00:00:28] Colie James: I feel like all service providers deliver the goods and then their clients are dead to them.

[00:00:33] Kylie Kelly: are you a female business owner frustrated with battling the algorithm and looking for growth strategies that don’t involve awkwardly pointing or dancing online or throwing cash at paid ads? Welcome to the email growth show. I’m your host, Kylie Kelly, visibility and email marketing strategist. I grew my email list from zero to almost 10,000 subscribers in less than two years, and the same is possible for YouTube.

[00:00:57] Are you ready to build your email list and start [00:01:00] making more money in your online business? Let’s head into today’s episode.

[00:01:06] Colie, welcome to the email growth show. I’m so excited to have you on the podcast, 

[00:01:10] Colie James: Kylie. I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. 

[00:01:13] Kylie Kelly: Of course, I can’t believe that this is the first time we are getting you on the show because we’ve been in each other’s worlds now for quite a while.

[00:01:20] But I’m excited to talk about the way that you do case studies and testimonials, and you just get some really great. Feedback and gold and just amazing things from your existing clients. So I’m excited. Before we jump into that, let’s share with our listeners who you are so that, if anybody doesn’t know, we can educate them on the world of Collie James.

[00:01:40] Colie James: Thank you so much Kylie. So everyone, I’m Coley James. I am a client experience system strategist. I’m a Dodo certified specialist and I used to like use that, but more recently I have become absolutely obsessed. With everything, client experience, communication, and so, I mean, I don’t wanna call myself like an email [00:02:00] copywriter, but there’s definitely some like new little thing that I need to start calling myself because client communication is where it’s at.

[00:02:06] It drives everything in your business, including the workflows that we are all obsessed with creating inside of our CR. 

[00:02:13] Kylie Kelly: I think as well, like there’s so much focus on getting new clients, right? Like a lot of business coaching, education, everything that’s out there is always focused on selling and launching and getting new clients in.

[00:02:23] But I think there’s a real missed opportunity when they’re onboarding, when the client experience, when all of that is the afterthought. so I love that you specialize in that. What do you think like the biggest missed opportunity is for people when they start to think about client experience? 

[00:02:36] Colie James: I feel like all service providers deliver the goods and then their clients are dead to them.

[00:02:41] did you ask for a feedback, a review? And they’re like, no, I didn’t wanna bother them. I’m like, okay, did you ask them for a referral? And they’re like, well, no. I mean, you know, again, I don’t wanna bother them. And then this is me. Okay. did you invite them to rebook your services? they’re like, no.

[00:02:55] When they’re ready, they’ll come back. And that is literally why in the last few months. I have been trying to [00:03:00] shout the three Rs rave reviews, referrals, and re bookings from like the mountaintops. Because in your off-boarding process, yes, you finish strong. Yes, you deliver an amazing, you know, product to your clients.

[00:03:14] But then you have to turn around and try to get the three Rs because that is where the money is. And like you said, I don’t wanna be on Instagram constantly chasing new clients over and over again when it’s much easier to get the people who have already paid me to pay me more money. That is what I want for everybody.

[00:03:30] Kylie Kelly: Oh my goodness. I love that. I love that. ’cause you’re right, everyone listening. I know that there are so many business owners that give such an incredible product or service, and yet then we move on, right? What’s the next thing? What else are we doing? so let’s go through the three Rs together that, so let’s talk about rave reviews first.

[00:03:45] So what does that look like in your business? Like, what do you teach when it comes to getting a rave review from an existing client? 

[00:03:51] Colie James: Well, I feel like a lot of people wait until the service is completely delivered to ask for a review if they ever ask for a review.

[00:03:59] of the things [00:04:00] that I try to coach people on throughout your client experience is that at different touch points, you should be asking your clients how they feel and how the service is going for them. So immediately after they’ve hired you. In your onboarding or intake form, if you do one, you should be asking them how they found you and why they hired you.

[00:04:19] Because if your service doesn’t happen for four months, they may forget the specific details of how they found you on Google and what it was about your process that made them say yes. So I’m not telling you to like do an entire feedback form right after they hire you. Most of us are already sending some kind of questionnaire and it’s super easy for you to just slip in two to three questions asking them about how the inquiry and the booking process was so that you can have that information before you actually get into the service.

[00:04:50] Kylie Kelly: Oh, I love that. And I guess as well, and I know we’re gonna talk about case studies in a minute, but when you are wanting to like really capture that before. Somebody before they start working with you, it’s, it’s freshest in [00:05:00] their mind before they started working with you at, at that point. So I guess even getting that kind of information then would be helpful.

[00:05:05] Colie James: Yeah. For me, I mean, I do client experience systems. I do them in mostly Dodo and HoneyBook. I ask them to rate their confidence in using Dodo and using automated workflows. How do they feel about the client emails that they’re sending? I wanna get a baseline. when we’re in the process of doing it, and I ask ’em those same kind of questions in a slightly different way, and then when we get to the other side of the service and they’ve actually implemented all these assets, asking them how they feel about being in their business, if their clients have noticed any changes, you have the before, the during, and then the after to kind of make one of those full case studies that really brings people to you and makes them want to hire you.

[00:05:43] Kylie Kelly: Oh my goodness. Now for everyone listening, there is a website page on Col case studies and I crush over it every time I see it. And I’ll put the link in the show notes so you can go and have a look. But this is exactly then what to do with the case studies afterwards. ’cause I feel like, you know, I used to have, okay, full [00:06:00] confession.

[00:06:00] I used to have a Google Drive folder called testimonials and it was screenshots, randomized screenshots from all over the place. I didn’t do anything with them. I, I, I then have to like go, like digging when I was doing a sales page to find the testimonials that actually applied to that particular service or offer.

[00:06:13] And then they weren’t complete. They were like, you know, Kylie is great and this was great, it wasn’t like the before. You’re laughing the before, during, and after. Right. So for anyone listening, that’s a bit of a hot mess like I was. You’re not alone. Like I feel like this is something that we don’t even know we need to work on until we’re like, oh, that makes so much sense.

[00:06:30] Colie James: I mean, I a hundred percent agree. And I also feel like confession. I wasn’t really drilling this into my own clients until like the last two years. I mean, this is not something that I’ve been doing the entire 13 years that I’ve been in business like none of that.

[00:06:44] But I feel like once I really started getting into. Writing better client experience emails. And once I started kind of coaching my clients through, including social proof to combat objections, show people why the service that you offer is so great, it became really [00:07:00] apparent that everybody needed some coaching on how to actually ask their clients how they felt about the service.

[00:07:05] so originally I was doing that one kind of longish questionnaire at the end, and it wasn’t until like the last year. That I’ve really been telling my people, no, like you need to be collecting data through the whole process, even if it isn’t in like a questionnaire form. I will admit, I love to get people on video whenever I can, I tape all of my client calls, and it’s not just for feedback.

[00:07:28] I mean, it’s part of the process Now. I use, you know, AI transcription to get everything But like one thing that I have noticed about my clients when we hop on our weekly 30 minute call is they get on the call and they’re like, Hey Colie, I just have to tell you about this thing that happened last week, and they are giving me like the best results that I could ever get.

[00:07:48] And so the one thing that I would tell people if I can’t convince you to send, you know these questionnaires at multiple times during your client experience, I just encourage you to. Talk to your [00:08:00] clients at least once during the service and record it because clients just start dropping gold and they often say things about you and your process and your offer that don’t really, come to mind when you ask ’em to sit down and write a testimonial.

[00:08:15] It’s like everybody’s mind goes blank when you’re like, can you give me a testimonial? That’s when you get that shitty ass. Oh, working with Kylie was great. 

[00:08:22] Kylie Kelly: That’s so true. That’s so true. I am wondering for the case studies that you get through that are like, oh my gosh, I need to do a video interview with this student, with this client.

[00:08:30] what do you do with them then, so that they go on your case study page? Do you do anything else? Like, do you send them out to your email list? Do you do anything else with those video testimonials? 

[00:08:38] Colie James: I mean, full confession. I now have two main signature offers, which, you know, one is a smaller done with you email communication program, and the other one is my full system set up.

[00:08:48] Done with you. Almost every single client when they finish, gets invited to do a podcast interview and they know it’s coming because the reason that they hired me in the first place was because they heard at least one [00:09:00] case study testimonial on my podcast. when I talk about this, a lot of people are like, okay, but co I don’t have a podcast.

[00:09:05] Yeah. You don’t have to have a podcast to interview your clients. You could totally interview them and. Slap it up on YouTube and then, you know, send it to your email list so that you can show them what it’s like to work with you. You can put it on YouTube and then embed it on your sales page to kind of let people know what other people say about the service that they are interested in.

[00:09:25] here’s all the ways that I use case studies first. I do update that one case studies page, and it actually has, testimonials and results from like, people who have worked with me in.

[00:09:37] All of the capacities, my DIY courses that I no longer do my done for you services that I no longer do. And I also wanna say my case studies page isn’t full case study after full case study, after full case study, which can get exhausting for people to read and consume. And so I have like shorter testimonials.

[00:09:56] I have some of those screenshots that you mentioned. And [00:10:00] then I have some medium to large-ish case studies. So they live on the case studies page. Almost all of them that are related to an offer end up on that specific sales page, either in like a mini case testimonial, canvas, or, you know, something longer if it’s like a super juicy one and I know that it’s gonna help me convert those clients.

[00:10:19] And then where else I use case study testimonials is on the proposal. When I am sending it to people to book the services. Now that isn’t a longer case study. That is more of like the really juicy testimonials, but I would argue that by the time someone gets to the proposal. They’ve probably seen case studies on my website.

[00:10:39] We’ve had a conversation to, you know, make sure that my offer is a good fit for them, and the proposal is just the final push to get them to book. then, since this podcast is about email, I email. In all the ways. So first, if it’s a podcast episode, there is a full email dedicated to that episode when it goes live.

[00:10:59] [00:11:00] And then in subsequent evergreen emails, I might put a little snippet with a hey, just in case you’re interested in hearing more. This was a full case study on my podcast. Here’s a link to go listen, and then often I will have like a footer on some of my emails. That also gives like some social proof, and so I will sprinkle in some case study information there too.

[00:11:20] Kylie Kelly: Oh my goodness. Okay, so I hope everybody was just taking notes. If not, go back and rewind. Know that just starting with one is better than nothing, but that is just A masterclass on what to do with them. I, I love that. can I say as well, this is the start of 2026. This is going live all through last year and going into this year.

[00:11:37] We know people need more trust, right? Like we’re trying to build more trust, especially in the online space with ai, with the way that the landscape’s changing. So this is like the easiest way. If you were giving your clients really great results, which I’m sure most of you are, this is a really great way to start to even build more trust in yourself as the business owner.

[00:11:55] Oh my gosh. So I love this. I love this so much. How do you figure out Collie, like when you’re coming [00:12:00] up with the questions to ask at each point, can you share with somebody if they’re like, yes, I wanna do this, I wanna do it. Throughout the customer journey, what? Just a couple of things that they could do to figure out what questions to ask and when to ask them.

[00:12:10] Colie James: So one of the things that I try to do when I’m doing like a case study interview is I try to find the hook, or specifically what is different about the way that I worked with them versus other people. So for example, I have a case study that’s going live the week that we are recording this interview, and she happens to be a personal organiz.

[00:12:29] Which is very different than most of my other clients who are photographers. And so I made sure to ask her questions. That kind of led into the fact that my systems in session offer is not just for photographers. that was one thing. The second thing was Megan didn’t even have a contact form on her website because she didn’t want anybody to inquire about her services when she didn’t have systems on the backend to kind of move them through the process.

[00:12:55] And so I talked about what it was like to build a business and have all these [00:13:00] ideas, but you were actually too afraid to let somebody try to hire you before you had the systems in place that you wanted. And so. You know, these are your clients, you know the specific results that they’ve gotten.

[00:13:11] You know what makes them different than your other clients, you know, if they have said something that would specifically address objections that you get when people are considering hiring you. So anything that you can do to kind of keep notes on your clients and ask them those kinds of very specific questions is absolute testimonial Gold in addition to the really general.

[00:13:33] What made you hire me? Where were your systems? Emails, website? Like where was it before we worked together? How was the process of the service?

[00:13:44] You don’t have to asking every single person the exact same questions because that’s how you get case studies that are just one after the other, saying the exact same thing over and over again. 

[00:13:54] Kylie Kelly: Oh, I’m so glad you brought that up.

[00:13:55] ’cause I know myself, so I have a Seja plugin thing for testimonials, [00:14:00] which I actually really enjoy, like gamifies it and I get stacks of them coming back. But again, it’s the same question over and over and over again. So this is even a really good reminder for me to actually add that personality, that personal layer as well.

[00:14:12] Colie James: so I will say, and I was hoping that you were gonna bring up your Senja, because some people are like, oh, Colie, like interviewing my client sounds really great, but like I don’t have time for that. That’s okay. If you do something like Seja, it is a one way interaction where your clients can record a video and they send it to you and you have it to use on your website, your email marketing, all of those things.

[00:14:32] You could also use something like video ask, and so I will say when I was still doing Done For You system setup, I was using that ’cause this is way before I had a podcast, but there were basically three different videos. In this funnel where the first one was like, Hey, I’m so happy that your systems are created.

[00:14:49] and then I would ask a question and then they could send me a video response, and then they would be shown a different video. Now. It could be that it was just videos, A, B, C for everyone, [00:15:00] but you could also put a little bit of conditional logic in it so that if you asked them a question, you could actually steer them to a different video with a different question to get variety.

[00:15:09] the point that I want to get across is that just because you don’t have time. To set up an interview with your clients doesn’t mean that there aren’t alternative ways for you to kind of simulate this in an asynchronous manner. I mean, you love Voxer. go back and forth with your clients to do an interview in Voxer instead of getting on a video call to do it, you know, synchronously.

[00:15:30] Kylie Kelly: Oh my goodness. I just thought of that as we were talking. I was like, oh my gosh, Vox would be great for this. ’cause the time zone is often the struggle for me. So it’s like, okay, if you did something like that, you are still being able to really personalize it to their experience em chatting without it having to be on Zoom.

[00:15:42] Colie James: And I do wanna add one thing. There is nothing prohibiting you from asking a follow-up question. I feel like people think whatever they get is what they get and they don’t wanna bother anyone. they say something in their, like, you know, very generic answers to your standard questions that sparks your [00:16:00] interest, send them an email and ask a follow up question.

[00:16:03] Send them a voice note on Voxer or you know, on Instagram. Don’t let the conversation end if you still have additional questions. No one is going to be bothered if you follow up and ask a few additional things if the goal is to improve the case study or if they’re giving you feedback that are gonna help you actually improve your offer.

[00:16:22] Kylie Kelly: Oh, I love that Colie. ’cause yeah, I feel like often we are, we’re like, okay, thank you. We’ll stop. 

[00:16:27] Colie James: It’s that weird polite. Okay. and I, I wanna admit this out loud. Sometimes I have an interview where I ask questions that I think I know the answers to and it goes off track. Like that’s not what I thought they were gonna say.

[00:16:40] And yes, I finished the interview, but then I often will like sit. When this happens and like think about it, and then I will go back to them and ask one or two more questions because that is going to make sure that, again, I don’t end up creating five or six case studies. That could have been, any of my clients.

[00:16:57] I want each one of them to stand out for a [00:17:00] particular reason. sometimes you can’t get that in that exact moment. And so it’s okay to come back to them for an additional answer, especially if you are gonna be writing. Case study up. I mean, it would be weird if you did a video testimonial and you guys got back together and you were wearing different clothes.

[00:17:16] But if you’re writing it, no one is gonna know that you ask them things in like three different phases. 

[00:17:21] Kylie Kelly: Hmm. I love the intentionality you are putting behind this and the, almost like the angle. About each case study being so different, and I think that’s definitely a standout.

[00:17:30] I’ve never, I’ve never even heard people talking that way, so I love that you’ve brought this up. How do you then move to the next star, which is your referrals? So do you get the case study done before you ask for a referral, or what does that look like 

[00:17:43] Colie James: It totally depends. I know that I preach over and over again, you have to ask your clients for referrals, but I actually don’t have to ask most of my clients for referrals.

[00:17:51] They run off and just start, you know, sharing the gospel. I will say I’ve probably had at least half of the people inside of Systems In Session, [00:18:00] which at this point is a little bit more than 30 people. Half of them I can probably attribute to two or three referrals. And they really loved the service and they got such great results on the other side. And so I just think that the case study is one little bit, and if you’re doing it on a podcast or you’re sharing it on some public medium where your client can actually share it, please tag them on Instagram.

[00:18:23] Please, you know, make them a contributor on YouTube if they’re also on YouTube, because if you are bringing them into the process, they are more likely to share that case study with others. And again, I mean, yes, ask for a referral, but that’s a way to get them to share you to your audience. Without actually saying, Hey, go work with Colie in this capacity.

[00:18:42] Now, one of the other things that I just encourage every service provider to do is let people know how important referrals are to your business. And if you have a referral offer, just make you know what it is that they have to do in order to collect that referral fee. That affiliate, payout.

[00:18:59] Make it [00:19:00] clear. They have to do, like the person should list their name on the intake form because I have a lot of people that are like all in the same world, and so I have to be really strict on this person needs to list your name because often they’re listing more than one person name or they’re, saying one person, but also this other person influenced their decision too.

[00:19:19] So just whatever you decide to do, make sure that you are communicating it well. 

[00:19:24] Kylie Kelly: I love that. And again, it just goes to show how powerful Referrals can be in your business and then look at the way that you partner it with. So you’re getting your new clients in, then you’re getting your referral traffic in.

[00:19:34] and then this brings us perfectly to the last R about rebooking. Then you’re getting clients that you’ve worked with to rebook your services as well. So this is how you sell out. This is how you build a business that is sustainable without burning out on social media or running yourself into the ground trying to get new clients all the time.

[00:19:48] It’s like this beautiful approach. Also using the existing client relationships that you’ve built, how do you go about re-booking? Because people feel uncomfortable, right? Or awkward reaching out like, Hey, do you wanna work together? Like that feels awkward. So talk to me about how [00:20:00] you go about that.

[00:20:00] Colie James: I know it feels awkward, and that’s why like when I work with my clients and their client communication, we are planning that now. So that in six months after I stop working with you, Kylie and I send this email, it’s no longer awkward then because all the awkwardness happened six months ago when I was writing the initial iteration of that email.

[00:20:19] the whole point of the three Rs and putting it inside of your offboarding process is that if you take the time now to figure out how you want to ask for these referrals, what your referral offer is gonna be. What the timeline is that someone needs to come back to you and rebook you for either the same service or a complimentary service.

[00:20:39] We’ve done all the hard work now. We’ve written the emails, and while you may take one or two minutes to like personalize it before you send it. All of that awkwardness and oh my God, is this a thing? This happens now. And I give a gold star to anybody who decides to semi-automate this inside of their CRM because then you are not really asking them [00:21:00] to rebook you.

[00:21:00] It is part of the process. It is an automated thing that just happens. But I do wanna like plant this little seed right here. If you don’t know when your clients should come back and rebook you, they won’t know either. And so when it comes to the service that you’re offering, I need you to really think hard.

[00:21:16] When is it appropriate for someone to come back for the exact same service? Or for example, if you are a website designer, it could be that they’re gonna come back for a sales page when they have a new offer, or that you’re going to revamp their website when they get new brand photography. It is up to you to tell them how they can work with you when any of these things occur, because websites are not set it and forget it.

[00:21:40] No one is spending $7,000 on a website and just letting it get old and crusty, you know, on the side of the road. It is something that you need to update as things change in your business, as your brand photos, come from a new session like all of these things, but again, your clients don’t know.

[00:21:57] What else it is that you offer if [00:22:00] you don’t tell them, especially for those of us that have these like back pocket offers that are only available to clients once they’ve worked with us in our signature offer. And so if you have any kind of services like that, things that you’re willing to do, things that you would love to do for your clients.

[00:22:16] Only after you’ve done this big main signature service first, you’ve gotta have a way to communicate that to them. Even if, in my case, it was just a website page that no one could find because it wasn’t indexed and I called it Backstage Pass. But you go back there and it had like. A half day audit that I would do, or a new VIP day, that was like four hours instead of the original eight hours that I did.

[00:22:39] But when you establish these offers, you have to communicate them to your client. And let me tell you, the first time that you get one of your clients to rebook you, based on one of this emails, you are gonna wonder why you didn’t do this before. Like you’re really gonna kick yourself at, oh my gosh, it was this easy.

[00:22:55] I could have gotten people to come back. On repeat. Hmm. versus, you know, thinking about it [00:23:00] and waiting for them to come back to you. 

[00:23:01] Kylie Kelly: Oh my goodness. Yes.

[00:23:02] Speaker 3: Now Colie as this podcast is all about email marketing. I would love for you to share with us a little bit about your sprint email. Like you mean it, can you tell us a little bit about what it includes, how it kind of works, and if there’s anybody listening that’s interested, we’ll be able to put the link in the show notes for them.

[00:23:19] Colie James: So email like you mean it is, an offer that will actually almost be exactly a year old when this episode comes out. But originally I created it as a DIY course, and what I realized is that no matter how well I explained to people to go sit down in a corner, basically get on your computer and map out your customer journey and write all these emails.

[00:23:40] People were not doing it. And I was honestly about to give up on the offer altogether until I did two case studies with two of my students in that course. And the results that they told me blew my mind so much. I was like, no, like I can’t let this go. email like you mean it is now a done with you.

[00:23:58] Five day [00:24:00] live client communication sprint. So in other words, if you guys are not familiar with me, I am the queen of accountability. I will be there with you every single day poking at you, making sure that you are doing the things that you need to do, so that at the end of five days you have a pre-plan.

[00:24:15] Pre-written client communication in most cases of more than 40 emails that you can put into your CRM and kind of take away the stress of thinking about what to say and when to say it when your client is waiting on your response. And you can get additional information@coleyjames.com slash email.

[00:24:34] Kylie Kelly: Oh my goodness. Amazing. So we’ll put the link in the show notes and just to make sure it’s super clear, this is not just for photographers, this is service providers. Anyone that uses email in their customer journey, which should be all of our listeners, 

[00:24:46] Colie James: it should be, and it’s also not just for people who use a particular CRM.

[00:24:50] I often have to say that your audience probably doesn’t know me well enough yet, but everybody’s always like, oh, Colie, I don’t use Dubsado and HoneyBook. Guys, this is the first offer that, I don’t care what CRM [00:25:00] you use, I don’t care where you send the emails from. You just need to be sending emails to your clients.

[00:25:05] Kylie Kelly: I love that. Okay. Colie, this has been so good. Thank you for sharing so much with us. All the links are in the show notes.

[00:25:10] Go and suss Colie out. I’ll also put the link to her website and her socials and all the things. go and dive into her world. You are going to fall in love with how easy she makes this.

[00:25:20] Speaker 2: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Email Growth Show. I hope you found valuable insights into the next steps you can take to grow your email list and boost your business without relying on social media or paid ads. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show and share it with others.

[00:25:37] Your feedback helps me reach more female entrepreneurs just like you, who are ready to say goodbye to social media and leverage email marketing to grow their business and make a bigger impact. Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.