The Elusive Inbound Lead: 3 Ways to Help Freelance Clients Find You
Because finding new clients as a freelance writer is a neverending task!
Because finding new clients as a freelance writer is a neverending task!
Not marketing yourself as a “freelance writer” when you have enough leads is one of the biggest mistakes I made as a new writer.
This was a hard lesson for me to learn when two of my long-term clients pulled it out within weeks of one other.
It served as a wake-up call because I didn’t have any new clients at the time.
Also, my monthly income had suddenly dropped by over 60%. I was at a loss as to how I will pay my bills and pay for my other expenses.
This gets me to the reason why I chose to write this post about how you can market yourself and help freelance writing clients find you. In it, I’ve talked about three low-effort, long-term techniques you may start applying straight away to make it simpler for freelancing clients to locate you.
1. Build Social Proof
As a freelance writer, your social media profiles are the wisest investment you can make in yourself. Here are five strategies for increasing your social presence to help clients find you more easily.
1. Post about your niche
Keep talking and writing about the themes you’ve worked on and the ones you’d like to work on in the future. Twitter is a really strong platform where you may develop a strong personal brand by blogging about topics that you are really passionate about.
2. Document your journey and learnings
Talk about learnings from your failures and celebrate your successes with great pomp.
Document the experiences you gained as a freelance writer so that new writers can value from them and remember to avoid the mistakes you made.
This may not directly bring in clients, but it will help you build a close-knit community of devout followers. And networking with other freelance writers is always a good idea. You never know who among your contacts will lead you to the next high-paying job.
3. Use relevant hashtags
Do some research on the most recent and trendy hashtags in your niche, and then liberally apply them whenever you post. This will increase the reach of your postings and allow you to make valuable contacts that will help you persist through tough times.
4. Engage with your audience
Respond to Tweets and comments with valuable insights. Also, make it a point to reply to every comment you get on your posts.
Don’t just try to grow your follower count, instead cultivate valuable connections. Talk to people, inquire about their problems, share your own experiences, and expand your network.
5. Bonus step
Mastering any one social media platform is a great way to help you establish a reputation as a freelancer. When you pitch to a client, and you have a large number of followers, it always establishes you as an authoritative figure in the client’s eyes.
This can be an unexpected perk, but if the client intends to utilize that specific social media site for their content strategy, you may use all of your skills on the platform to help them develop their business, earning yourself a lot of goodwill.
2. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
It’s pointless to post on social media if your profile is not properly optimized. If a quick glance at your profile page does not provide the user with a clear picture of who you are and what you do, even if you manage to gain tens of thousands of followers, it’d be absolutely worthless.
Here there are three tips you can use to optimize your social media profiles:
1. Use your own name
Instead of a fancy username, use your actual name.
This not only makes it easy for individuals to remember you as a unique person on the internet but also contributes significantly to the development of a strong personal brand for oneself.
2. Flaunt the word; “Freelance Writer” in your bio
I’ve met many folks who feel uncomfortable and ashamed about revealing that they work as a freelancer.
But this has to change.
Simply by using the phrase “Freelancer” in your profile, it gives a clear message to potential clients that you are open to working with them.
3. Make generous use of calls to action
Include a link to your portfolio in your bio so that anyone seeking a writer may browse your published work. Make sure your portfolio also features a ‘work with me’ link to avoid losing a potential client.
3. Double Down on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has proven to be the most beneficial platform for finding clients all throughout my time as a freelance writer. I’ve had so many inbound leads on LinkedIn simply by being active on a daily basis. I believe words fall short when I try to convey how helpful the site has been for me so far.
If you are a freelance writer, you should be aware that LinkedIn is one of the best resources for acquiring clients.
Here are a few tips on how you can leverage LinkedIn to market yourself as a freelance writer.
1. Build a kick-ass “About Section”
This should showcase all of your skills as well as the topics about which you’d want to write. A well-written “About” section will attract the right kind of clients consumers while also adding the right keywords to your profile.
2. Make your portfolio link highly visible
Whether you add it to your “About” section or your “Experience” section, make sure the portfolio link is one of the first things a person sees when they click on your profile.
An interesting but underrated way to do this is to design a beautiful cover image, and then add the link to your website on the cover image. This not only makes it highly visible but also conveys the message that you are a professional who has taken the time to enhance your profile to the best of your ability.
3. Have a professional profile picture
Use a professional-looking headshot with a clear background as your profile picture. Don’t use selfies, cropped images, or blurred pictures because this showcases that you’ve been half-hearted in building your LinkedIn profile.
And no one wants to work with those who just put forth half-hearted attempts.
4. Get recommendations
Ask all your previous clients and colleagues to drop feedback about the services that you provided.
In the beginning, I was hesitant to ask for recommendations, and this cost several great prospective referrals. As of today, if a customer compliments my work, I ask them to write a reference for me on LinkedIn.
You’d be shocked how many people are eager to submit a recommendation for you. All you have to do is request one!
5. Build your experience section
This can be achieved by adding any relevant experience you have.
Include the work you’ve done with prior customers, as well as any current projects you’re working on. Use the appropriate tags in your experience area. Make sure to include the words “freelance writer” or “content developer” in all of the positions you’ve held over the years to increase the visibility of your profile in LinkedIn searches.
If you’re confused about how to get started on the platform, here’s a checklist on how you can dominate LinkedIn.
Closing Thoughts
One of the never-ending tasks of a freelance writer is finding new clients. Even if your schedule is already packed to max capacity, marketing yourself to reach additional potential clients is never a bad idea.
If you get inbound leads that you currently don’t have the bandwidth for, you can still turn them into meaningful connections later on. Send them a message when you’re free again and see whether they’re available to work with you.
Summarizing this post, here are three ways you may market yourself as a freelance writer to help potential clients find easily.
- Pick a social media platform, build a strong posting strategy and establish yourself as an expert there.
- Optimize your social media profiles to make it easy for anyone who’s looking at your page to understand who you are and persuade them to speak to you.
- Optimize your profile and then maximize the usage of LinkedIn as a platform to connect with potential clients.
I hope you enjoyed reading this piece and that it added some value to your life. If you’ve utilized any other measures to enhance inbound leads as a freelance writer, please share them with us in the comments below.
Want to be a successful freelancer but struggling to find good clients? Check out my 90-day guide to finding your first high-paying freelance client. You’ll find 5 pitching secrets, 2 email templates, and a solid framework to get your freelancing career started.
