The freelancing life is a difficult one, no doubt about that. It’s a constant hustle to find new work, win new clients and manage your business effectively. Early on the dreams of working from home, sipping coffee and watching your inbox fill with requests were likely quashed.
Wouldn’t it be nice if clients came to you?
While we would never suggest stopping your pitches and queries to potentials altogether, there are some things you can do to make finding clients easier – by encouraging them to come to you.
Advertise regular rates/retainers
The best thing you can do is to find clients who need regular work. The less time you spend finding new clients, the more time you can spend actually doing client work and therefore earning money. Having regular work is ideal for this.
If applicable, ensure you make it clear on your website that you provide regular work assignments. When you’re quoting for one-off projects it might be useful to give a figure for regular work too, possibly with a special offer. They might not have even considered it otherwise.
Referrals
Stay in your clients’ good books and check in with them after you’ve completed work. You can ask for a testimonial to put on your website and also whether they have anyone they could refer to you. The more contacts you have, the better.
Even if you are dropped by client due to budget cuts, get in contact with them a few months later. You can see whether they require your services again or whether they know anyone else who might be interested.
While this isn’t exactly waiting for them to come to you, you could make this part of your usual process with minimal extra effort. Make a follow up email part of your typical process and ask for referrals and testimonials there.
Ensure your website is selling your best self
To make your website highly effective in converting clients we’d recommend including a solid, well-presented portfolio of work, testimonials from clients, an interesting blog and a clear way to contact you.
Your website is often where first impressions are formed so it’s important that it’s reflective of your professionalism and talent.
Boost your marketing efforts
Clients won’t come to you if they don’t know who you are. That’s why marketing and self-promotion is so important for those who work online. It’s really not something you can afford to neglect.
This means getting onto social media and interacting with people and brands. It may also mean setting up a blog where you write about your industry, work or give handy tips to readers. A blog can pull over traffic to your website from those potentially interested in your services. It can also boost your website in the search engine rankings because search engines like websites that are regularly updated with fresh content.
Interact with other freelancers
You may think that they’re the competition, but other freelancers can help your business. They may require your services themselves, they may know other clients who could benefit from your services or they could pass over recommendations on your behalf. Make sure you reciprocate and help them out too!
How do you win new clients? Do you go to them or do they come to you? Let us know your thoughts below.
