If you are a freelancer, you must have thought at least a thousand of times “How can I find clients by myself?” It is easier than it looks, you just need to have more perseverance with your efforts and you will start to get your clients if you know the right thing to do.
Whilst working my previous full-time job at the front office of an advertising company, someone reached out and asked for simple customizations to her Part time venture.She was my first freelance client. I felt I have talent that is beyond this office wall.
Introduction
Well, the answer to this riddle is, let yourself known in your niche. Build a strong presence through a website or some other open platforms such as Behance, dribble or others which works for your niche. Use social media to reach more people. By the time you would expand your audience base through which you can get a lot of clients. If you want to speed it up you can use marketing & advertisement to promote yourself more. If you want to know how you can do all this in detail, then keep on reading and I will explain to you in detail.
My advice to be successful on a certain platform is to build more reach with time and keep on uploading your work regularly. Being regular with your content uploading is the key to be successful on a platform. With time you will have a bigger following and more people would notice you.
A website is not necessary if you want to work alone with Instagram or Facebook, you do have the chance of huge success. A lot of people on just Instagram do get clients due to their excellent work. Trust me, there are a lot of clients who are willing to pay you a decent amount if you can work and help them. This industry and any industry are based on the value that you can provide.
I have made a list of such steps to help you. The exact steps that you can follow to get your clients will be. It is divided into two –
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How to get beginner Clients
Get a platform to be curated
The first step to prep up to be a freelancer, you need to curate your work and showcase it most effectively. So, my first advice to you would be to find a platform where you can showcase your work and use as a portfolio.
Do not just find any platform where you can upload it. But find a platform which is used by most of the people in your space. You can get inspired, learn more, grow yourself by getting influenced by the people who are doing great work. And get a thing or two by seeing what those people are doing good which makes them successful.
No matter what level you are, you can influence people who are below your level. You can also give direction to them, you can always give back to your community.
Everyone tells you to do client research — and that’s because it’s such an important step. As a freelancer, your service provides value to someone.
Let yourself known
Get known in your community, and out there. The amount of clients that you have right now directly depends on the fact that how much you are known. It depends how many people are exposed to you. If you are known by no one, it is hard to seem credible and for clients to approach you directly. The more people you will get known to, the better would be the chances for you to get new clients. Think of it as a long term goal. If you do amazing work for every client, you will have a chance to get referred to new clients through them, start where you are.
I know sometimes it becomes too overwhelming to think how would people reach you.
Start today, do bit by bit and by the time you will know of a lot more people that you have never imagined. Just try to find ways how can people get to know who you are and what you do. By giving value you will make sure that it will happen!
Networking events
I know what you’re thinking: Networking events SUCK. But that’s because people typically go to them looking for clients.
Don’t be that creeper at the networking event. Instead, go to networking events to find CONNECTORS. These are people who may not turn out to be a client, but can help introduce you to potential clients.
Be sure to check out event boards like the following for great opportunities for networking events.
- Meetup.com. One of the biggest sites for friendly meetups and networking events.
- Eventbrite.com. This site aggregates many different types of events happening near you. It also has a “networking” events filter in its search function.
- Facebook. No matter what your industry, there’s a group of like-minded freelancers on Facebook for you. Many times, these groups will notify you of upcoming events you can hit up.
How to get higher value Clients
Expand your Reach
You can speed up the process of people knowing you by expanding your reach. You can choose different ways like social media, blog writing, vlogging, get leverage through advertising. Trust me every little thing will give rise to a snowball effect. You will realise that it will give back ten folds. Just stay at it, be lucrative and keep on doing what works best and discarding what does not.
Once you find the clients you need to know the best way to retain them. Because in a business a big part of that business comes from the retained clients. Learn the best way to present your work – How to present logos to clients?
Read a little about my story and learn how you can land your first client through my experience – Land your first client.
When you are talking to clients it will happen more often in the beginning that they will just come and get information, but never learn how you can make them buy – Read my blog on closing clients
Share Testimonials and Client Feedback
Clients and Testimonials help others visualize what it is like to work with you. You can use these to paint the picture of your client experience!
Start the project by asking for client permission to share the project on social media or freelance websites during or after the project. With this permission, you can post quick photos of your behind-the-scenes.
After the project, send a feedback form asking why the clients hired you. Ask them what stood out to them about the service. And yes who they would recommend working with you in the future.
This has been just a small post to tell you briefly what a person should do when he or she is starting. If you want to know about it in detail, then you must read this informative blog. The one which dives into too much detail about the things that you should do.
Keep other, industry-relevant social media accounts up to date
These days, there are social media sites catering to a variety of specific industries, especially freelance-oriented fields. Depending on your expertise, there most likely is a platform for you.
To name a few:
– For developers – GitHub
– For designers – Dribbble and Behance
– For photographers – Flickr and Photo Critique
– For videographers – Vimeo
Like with LinkedIn, maintain an updated profile with relevant work samples.
Network online
Nowadays you don’t have to be face-to-face to network. You can now attend conferences virtually.
For instance:
– For developers – hack.summit
– For internet business folks – 1 Day Business Breakthrough
– For online creative business owners – Maker Mentors
More than online conferences or events, there are industry-specific forums you can partake in.
– Quora – a bunch of different questions you can answer, showing your knowledge on the topic
– Freelancers Union Hives – requires a membership with Freelancers Union, but is a great place to discuss the ins and outs of freelancing
– LinkedIn groups – for instance, Photography Business & Marketing or Freelance Graphic and Web Designers
– Relevant subreddits – like r/webdev or r/freelancewriters
– GrowthHackers – for the marketing-minded
– Relevant Facebook groups – like this WordPress one or this user experience group
Participate in forums that are relevant to you and your expertise. Offer insights, recommendations, and connect with others.
In the end, it’s all about relationship building
Landing new clients doesn’t have to be a daunting activity that eats up hours of precious time—and you don’t have to be pushy or spend money on advertising either.
