If you want to know how to get leads as a solo marketer, stop asking how many messages to send and start asking where each lead is stuck. Map your pipeline as a series of stages, one for every step a stranger takes before they become a client. Then you can see which step is leaking and fix that step instead of sending more volume.
That is the idea Andy Milligan landed on at the end of a Friday outreach session in this video. Andy runs MMG Design, a web and SEO studio for healthcare, hosts the Marketing by Design podcast, and founded the Columbus Marketing Organization. On his channel he says he has made over $378,500 as a solo marketer in Columbus, Ohio.
This session shows a small slice of the daily work behind that: checking the pipeline, sending video outreach, and then stepping back to think about why some leads move and others stall. If you are earlier in the process, start with Andy's guide on how to get your first client.
"When you have high conviction, all you got to do is keep shooting." Andy Milligan
How to get leads: map the stages first
After about an hour of outreach, Andy pulled up a blank canvas and sketched what he called his cold lead pipeline. It has eight stages:
- LinkedIn connection request. You send a connection request to someone who fits your ideal client.
- Accepted. They accept.
- Intro message. You send a short opener.
- Two or more replies. A real conversation starts.
- Video DM. You send a short, personalized video, usually by email.
- Response. They reply to the video.
- Booked call. You get on a call.
- Proposal, then closed won. You send a proposal and the deal closes.
He then added a half step between five and six: video opened. "Logically that makes more sense to me," he said, because an unopened video and an ignored video are two different problems.
The map also shows which channel owns each stage. The first four happen on LinkedIn, the video and response happen over email, and the last stages happen on a call. Seeing it laid out made one thing obvious to him: "I think I should do a better job of qualifying leads." A messy diagram turned a vague feeling about the pipeline into a specific to-do.
Why stage tracking beats more volume
Buyers punish outreach that is not relevant to them. In a June 2025 Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers, 73% said they actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach. Sending more of the same message to more people makes that problem worse, not better.
Deals also stall after the first conversation. Forrester's State of Business Buying, 2024 found that 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process. If you only count messages sent, you never see where your own deals stall. A stage map shows you whether the drop happens at the connection, the reply, the video, or the call.
What the best-performing message had in common
Andy's video outreach in this session was part of an experiment. By the end of the session, his three new videos brought the experiment's total to 30. Looking back at the results so far, one pattern stood out. The message that earned the best response rate mentioned that he and the prospect were already connected on LinkedIn.
He calls this a dual route conversation: start the relationship on LinkedIn, have a real chat, then reference that chat in the email that carries the video. He said the approach "makes logical sense to me," and described it this way: "If you're connected with someone on LinkedIn, having a chat, and then referencing them, referencing that chat in the cold email that you send to them." The email is no longer cold in the way a buyer experiences it, because it builds on a conversation they remember.
This matches how buyers decide whom to trust. In a March 2026 SurveyMonkey and Reddit study of 1,202 U.S. business decision-makers, peer recommendations were the most trusted source when evaluating vendors, cited by 73%. A prior connection is not a referral, but it moves you closer to known than to stranger.
Keep shooting on the leads you believe in
Not every video gets opened right away. Andy's three videos from the day before had not been opened, and neither had his recent follow-ups. He did not change the plan.
He named three prospects he had high conviction about and kept sending. Stage tracking is what makes that patience reasonable: when you can see that a lead is waiting at "video opened," you know the next move is a follow-up, not a new pitch.
It also keeps the month in perspective. Andy was honest that this month looked down, with revenue closing at a little over $12,000, but he expected two new retainer clients to start the following month and add about $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue. That is what a pipeline you can see buys you: a slow month that does not feel like a crisis.
Put it to work this week
If you are figuring out how to get marketing clients without burning out on volume, try this lead generation for freelancers exercise:
- Draw your stages. Write down every step from first touch to signed deal, using Andy's eight stages as a starting point.
- Label the channel for each stage. Note whether it happens on LinkedIn, by cold email, by video, or on a call.
- Count where leads stop. For the last 20 people you contacted, mark the furthest stage each one reached.
- Fix one stage. Improve the single step with the biggest drop before you send more outreach.
For the full daily routine behind this session, read Andy's playbook on doing lead generation one hour a day, and see how he uses a numbers target in his take on the Rule of 100.
Learn how to get leads with people doing the same work
Columbus Marketing Organization is a peer community for marketers, freelancers, and service providers in Columbus, Ohio, founded by Andy Milligan. Members share leads, introductions, and job opportunities, including the weekly Columbus Marketing Jobs newsletter.
Learning how to get leads is easier when you can compare your pipeline with people a step ahead of you. Meet them at an upcoming Columbus marketing event, or join the Columbus Marketing Organization community on Skool to share what is working between events.
When you have high conviction, all you got to do is keep shooting.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to learn how to get leads as a freelancer?
Start by mapping your pipeline. List every stage from first contact to signed deal, then mark where your last 20 prospects stopped. Andy Milligan's version runs from LinkedIn connection to intro message, replies, video DM, response, booked call, proposal, and closed won. The biggest drop shows you what to fix first.
Should I send more outreach if leads are not responding?
Not until you know where they stall. Gartner's 2025 survey found 73% of B2B buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach, so more volume of the wrong message can hurt. Check whether leads stop at the connection, the reply, the video, or the call, and improve that stage first.
Does mentioning a LinkedIn connection in a cold email help?
In Andy Milligan's video outreach experiment, the message with the best response rate mentioned that he and the prospect were already connected on LinkedIn. He calls it a dual route conversation: chat on LinkedIn first, then reference that chat in the email, so the outreach builds on something the buyer remembers.
How long does it take for a lead pipeline to pay off?
Expect weeks, not days, between first touch and revenue. In this session Andy expected a slower month, closing at a little over $12,000, while two retainer clients starting the following month would add about $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue. A visible pipeline helps you plan through uneven months.
Read the video transcript
Kind: captions Language: en Hey, I'm Andy. This is my daily marketing channel where I teach you how I've made over $378,500 as a solo marketer here in Columbus, Ohio. This is your guys' first time here. I have three different businesses. Uh the first one is my design studio called MMG Design. We do web and SEO for healthcare. The second is the CMO, which is the Columbus Marketing Organization. My in-person mastermind networking and job board here for Columbus Marketers. And the third is my podcast which has had over 175 episodes interviewing healthcare marketers and people in B2B and beyond. So this is the daily structure we usually follow on this channel. I've got a few things that I want to do with you guys today. First, we're going to do some live lead genen. We're going to take a look at my pipeline, the things I'm currently doing to move the business forward, all three of them. Second, we're going to build and strategize in public. We're going to talk about the things that I'm doing, things that I've implemented this week in particular. It's a Friday that's going to move the business forward. Kind of doing a light little recap. And then we're going to do some updates and growth stats across YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and my products. So, I have a handy little dashboard that I've built here that uh I'm going to hide these names here. Whoa. Put it in retro mode. Uh some of the things that I'm doing in my brand stats to grow the business. And it's still not calibrating to the way I would like for some reason. So, we'll go and get the satisfying update when we go ahead and do all of these. So, first thing we're going to start out with, it's almost 5:00 on a Friday, and I was really procrastinating doing this, but all we got to do is rip an energy drink and get right into it. So, we went ahead and did that. And I was having a huge issue with teles, which is my screen recorder, getting it to load properly, which I finally did. And I've also got a handy mouse that I use as well. So, first thing we're going to assess is our current pipeline. And I've been really grinding on this. I'm really proud of where we're at. We've got some forecasted pipeline, big projects starting next month, which is always a big relief off. Our current clients are being serviced well. And I am in the market for a web flow developer. So our team is growing. We flow developer and an account manager. Um I need to take some more stuff off my plate. Also putting together our next mastermind for the marketing org. Uh here's a little recap of our last event and it went remarkably well. So this in and of itself has been a huge building this page has been in and of itself a huge social proof asset to get new and exciting guests. And I actually met with two today that are going to be coming to our next event. So I'm absolutely absolutely thrilled. But I want to check in real quick on our video outreach. So I sent three yesterday kind of assessing our pipeline. The three that we sent yesterday have not been opened yet, unfortunately, which is okay. Um, but if we look at some of our past, uh, none of our follow-ups from yesterday have been opened. I know for a fact that I want Adam to This one is a really warm one. This one is a very warm one as well, and so is this one. So, we do have three really good ones that I really, really have high conviction for. So, um, when you have high conviction, all you got to do is keep shooting. So, we're going to send a few more outreaches today as well. So, yeah, what I'll do is I'll do a time lapse of the outreaches that I do send because I'm using tell to record this video as it is. But I will keep you guys posted. And wow, look at that. 194. Wow, dude. TA is awesome. This is so cool to see the um this is amazing to see how many views that the uh Wow. So, this is the video that we put on the website for the Columbus Marketing Organization. 94 unique viewers. Columbus, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio. This is amazing. Shout out to TA. Seriously killing it. I love this product so much. So cool to see all this. Amazing. So, yeah. Uh, views on our testimonial. Amazing. 194 views. I just put that up not even a week ago. That is amazing. Amazing, guys. Love it. So, yeah. Going on to it's just in the last 30 days, too. That's all I have access to. Uh anyway, so yeah, let's get on the rip on recording and I will check back in with you guys once we have three more sent Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Well, hey there. Just finished recording about an hour of outreach. sent three more videos which brings our total to 30 at least for this isolated experiment and I'll definitely be be sharing like I said the insights of this with you guys but yeah if you go to the playlist here we can see 30 outreaches and the pipeline and with all the stats on visibility few notes on packaging we discovered in the last one that the one that got the best response rate mentions that we're connected on LinkedIn pursues a dual route conversation so either I or ROA will be reaching out to them, engaging them on another platform. I think on LinkedIn too, that makes logical sense to me. If you're connected with someone on LinkedIn, having a chat, and then referencing them, referencing that chat in the cold email that you send to them, I think I should do a better job of qualifying weeds. That should be like the pipeline is, as I imagine it here, uh, let me ideate on this here, uh, is step one would be a LinkedIn LinkedIn connection. Then step two would be a accept. Three would be intro message. Step four would be replied. I would say just to group this say two plus replies. Then it would be video DM. Then six would be response. Seven why are you can't even Seven would be booked call. Eight would be proposed would be closed one. So, as I visualize this here, this is actually a lot of good insight we've managed to get. Uh, no, I don't want that to be that word. Let me please just draw. So, interesting enough. Interestingly enough, this takes place on LinkedIn and this takes place via email and oh, quick video. Got to save here. Boom. So, this uh takes place via email. E L I and this is call. So, this could be the full actually I'll be more broad here. Call it weed cold weed pipeline. Boom. And as messy as that is, I think this could be what we the kids call the method as I'm learning what's pushing people along. I might add another step here to include uh video opened cuz logically that makes more sense to me. Video opened at step five and a half. Uh like video watch, video opened. But yeah, so that's kind of me ideating on the pipeline. I want to do about some brand stats and do some tracking here if we can get anything to freaking load. But I'm projecting this month's revenue uh between retainer clients and all to be uh kind of a down month. So we'll close revenue this month at a little over 12K. Uh which isn't terrible, but next month should be a big one. like we'll have a second payment from Healthmap and or our enterprise clients and then we'll have two more retainer clients starting next month as well which will up our MR by about 5K. So prospecting wise looking pretty good. Uh let's head over and track brand stats as promised here. 60-day growth uh update YouTube I think was at four. You know really taxed our browser by opening up all these Instagram podcast downloads and the newsletter. Okay, YouTube. MMG, we're at 414. I think we actually lost one. Damn, brutal. Brutal market we're in, guys. Really brutal. Second YouTube channel. I think we're at 37 if I'm not mistaken. 37, which makes sense. Like, ideologically, I'm posting way more here than I am on the main channel. That's just cuz this is the uh this is our method for just getting volume out. But love to see that. Second channel, LinkedIn, we are at 7744. from X. I'm not going to check it. Beehive, I believe we should have added a few today. Roa was doing some outreach. Instagram 1856. Not bad there. Uh, that's adding one. And on the newsletter 178, so three sub growth here. Okay. So, not bad. Little bit of brand growth. Love to see that. Uh, make sure that that updates and refreshes. Fantastic. I think I'm going to end it there. Uh, obviously the video performance isn't doing crazy well here. So, uh, thank you guys for watching. Check out the link to the community below if you are a marketer trying to grow, connect with other high performers, and get more leads. Appreciate you guys watching. I'll see you next time. Five.