How do I attract the right clients for a freelance business?
I am an aspiring freelance writer from India. I currently have a few local and international clients, but not enough to support my target monthly income. I need to acquire more clients, but am not sure how to go about it. Any help would be very appreciated.
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Jan 16, 2018
1. Create a LinkedIn profile, if you haven't already, then send me an invitation to connect on that platform. Include the word "Kingsman" on your invitation note, so I don't delete it by mistake. I will then review your LinkedIn profile (no charge) and make suggestions for improvements to it.
2. Aim to connect with 1-2 potential customers per day on LinkedIn. Send connection requests to everyone you know first of all to build your network, but be careful not to send too many requests each day or your account could be suspended.
3. Post 3-5 times per week on LinkedIn, showing off your writing skills with anecdotes, stories, examples of your work.
4. Invite potential customers to consider your services.
5. Ask happy customers to provide you with referrals and to write a Recommendation for you on LinkedIn
5. Repeat. It will take a year or so, but if you follow these steps and do a good job for your clients, before you know it you will have more work than you can easily handle.
Jan 16, 2018
You can engage your clients in different ways.
1) Freelance platforms
Use different freelance platforms as Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour. It helps you to engage new clients.
Also, you can use an additional service for Upwork for searching jobs. The service finds the best freelance jobs for your profile. (periodix.net). It helps you to enlarge your hiring of jobs.
2) Social networks
You can use Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter for finding the right clients. Especially, Facebook Ads helps you to get a new audience for you. For example, to create a cool content for your audience as your blog, YouTube channel, e-learning course etc. (this article has some information about it https://goo.gl/JNoe1L)
3) Build strong relationships with your clients.
You should get references from them. It's important for your future career.
Have right clients! Good luck!
Dec 28, 2014
You have not written your topics. Anyway you first findout the principal hub for your topics to xpose in best place write us back in detail . we will suggest the techniques.
Jun 21, 2014
I have started freelancing when I was 16 and got my marketing clients from freelancing websites such us Odesk, Elance and discussion forums.
All the answers below are good ones how to attract the right clients for your freelancing, but the reality is you can't be great at anything. If you are passionate about writing then you should put all your efforts and time to improve your skills and the quality of your service.
What I would recommend you instead is to hire an affordable lead gen specialist for you who can present your services to all potential clients, polish your portfolio and think of some creative strategies on your behalf . If you have achieved something in your career then I think lots of specialists would agree also to work with you with commission based model.
This way it will allow you:
1. Still focus your time and efforts on what you love to do
2. Have a colleague (virtual colleague) who can share the same vision with you
3. Choose from multiple options and pick the right clients who can be long term clients from you
4. Fire those clients who are not beneficial for you to achieve all your long term or even monthly target goals
Hope this helps and let me know if you need any help to find the right partner for you to promote you freelance business!
Cheers,
Art
Jun 21, 2014
Ask for references form every client/prospect you meet
If the reference clicks then call the person back & thank them
If it doesn't, still call them back thank them & ask for not more two at a time
Jun 20, 2014
I had to sit down and explore different opportunities that could benefit you and your business. First, you have to advertise in places like newspapers, billboards, and internet. Other avenues are go just nhny to different business conferences and meetings where you can hand out business cards. Examine your webpage to see if it's appealing and make minor changes with it so that key skills are mentioned on page as well as a couple samples along with a few statements from a couple of satisfied customers. Also, benchmark a couple of similar businesses to see how they are successful with their advertising. After obtaining the information, you could use the information to create a great advertising plan to help you succeed in the freelance writing market.
Jun 19, 2014
What type of experience in writing you have. I.e.Technical (IT) or medical, or legal etc. This is important for comanies to get a clear picture.
BR. Jan-Pieter
Jun 19, 2014
I started my web/software development agency as a freelance business during my time spent in the military, so here are a few crucial aspects I adopted (sometimes after learning the hard way):
1. Make yourself relevant in the industry. Attend meetups, workshops, seminars, webinars, or anything else that will put you in the eyeline of other professionals in similar, complementary industries. You'd be surprised how often a seasoned veteran will recommend a younger professional to a client when they're booked or not interested in a given project.
2. Pro bono work will save you. I did my first five projects for free when I started freelancing, just so I could build my portfolio. Also, because your pro bono receipients will only have received benefit from you (they got your work for free, after all!) they will, by default, be avid evangelists of your skills. Leverage that evangelism as much as possible!
3. Portray yourself as an authority figure in the area. When you're first starting as a freelance professional, it's hard to break past the inevitable bouts of "imposter syndrome." This is the feeling you may get of "I'm not good enough for this client." Try your best to convince yourself otherwise and keep pressing forward with that client--the first time is hardest. Writing "How-To's," tutorials, and general guideline pieces can add to your reputability.
Hope this helps, Ram! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Best,
CG
Jun 19, 2014
Like most people I would like to know what you write about. Then it would be easier for me to help you in marketing your services.
Jun 19, 2014
Find your niche or your target client and create the solution to their problem, whether that may be copy writing, journalism, blogging be the solution and add value to your clients to increase your business.
Jun 19, 2014
Too broad a description - freelance writer? This implies that you write about anything - so do thousands of others. I think you need to pick a specific topic area and get a reputation for that specific area of interest. I am a freelance writer, too. However, I concentrate on branding for businesses and individuals - personal branding.
Jun 19, 2014
I would start a blog/newsletter exemplifying your capabilities focused on your target market's niches. Use sidebar to promo your services.
Once you have about 10-15 1k-2k articles, go to social media and start making friends with people in the target businesses. After being insightful/helpful with your observations of their sites etc. send them messages about how they can benefit from your expertise and let them contact you from their.
Jun 19, 2014
Ok... your question is broad, so I`m assuming that you have not done much strategic planning on how to build your BUSINESS as a freelance writer.
You want to be in the business of MARKETING your freelance writing services.
To your success,
Kevin Toney
``the Marketing Coach``
Jun 19, 2014
First, nobody cares if you meet your income needs or not. Not nobody, but only you.
Answer these questions for yourself:
1] Who would pay you for what you do?
2] What questions will they need answers to in order to determine if you can do what they want/need?
3] What is different, better, unique about you or what you do that separates you from your competition.
4] Who AND what is/are your competition?
5] If the person(s) that want what you do are looking for you, where are they looking (magazines, newspaper, websites, webinars, radio, posters, email, flyers, brochures, tradeshows, etc,)?
6] What would you need to do, say, show to get the prospect's attention (remember their busy with other stuff and probably not thinking about what you want top tell them)
Once you have all these answered there are 28 separate steps in the process of developing and implementing an effective marketing campaign. Don't like to market...better learn how to sell. Don't like to sell...better learn how hire a salesman.
Jun 19, 2014
Hello Ram , Many people are asking the same question ,How to get more clients , I like to say that No one in any organisation or any business think in the same way , Its not that way , the No of clients increase in any business due to product or commodity or service introduced by the organisation or business because of one of the following , good product OR good price OR good service , when ever buy product others people will ask From where did you buy it , How much , How much you paid , If they found it convincing they go to buy ,others do the same , So give your clients good services & others will come to you diffidently .
Jun 19, 2014
What do you write? Just a writer is really too common. You need to get a specialization and to write valuable articles in your area of competence. Ghost writing could be really profitable nowadays, but clients require content and you can not provide content unless you are familiar with the topic and the taste of your client's audience.
In brief, you need people to like what you write in order to have work. It is that simple :).
Jun 19, 2014
One possibility is through a shared resources and space entity such as the HUB in Seattle. For a nominal fee, you can rent access to the shared space, computer network, and different marketing and training events. It is a wonderful place for networking and a source of funding and assistance.
There are a lot of shared spaces, explore to find one that has more than just space.
Good Luck!
Jun 19, 2014
I recommend you do some pro bono writing to build up your portfolio. Second, what kind of industries or groups do you want to write for? What content excites you? I suggest you join several discussion / meeting groups in those areas. The stronger your relationships the better your client base.
Jun 19, 2014
Contact www.myprgenie.com , the are always looking for good writers
Also to increase your income, you can do business development and attract professional firms to www.pronited.com
Jun 19, 2014
This is advice from a friend of mine who writes for a living.
With writing it's volume, volume, volume, you're up against people who will charge very little for lot of work, it's the rules of supply & demand. Too much supply and the price drops. If you want to really earn money to have to position yourself in a smaller pool of competition where it's easier to get the work and more beneficial to the buyer to pay you more for your skills.
Her advice would be technical writing where the income can be over 10X as much as you would normally expect.
Primarily SEO related articles, blog posts, etc also product descriptions, reviews. Topics vary, and range from e cigarettes to pee alarms, almost about anything and everything.