Starting your business is all fun and games until it’s finally time to start landing clients. Maybe you’re here because you want to learn how to land your first freelancing client or maybe you’ve been in the freelancing game for a while but the struggle is real when it comes to finding clients.
Whatever the case may be, I am so glad you are here. Today, I am sharing my top 7 tips for how to land more clients as a freelancer.
1. Become an expert in your niche
Instead of offering every service possible thinking this will land more clients, focus on becoming an expert in your niche. When you become known as the go-to person for X service, business owners will be knocking on your virtual door to work with you.
Share your expertise through social media, long form content like a blog, or by being a podcast guest. The more consistent you are, the better. Keep at it. Trust me, people are always watching.
2. Have a portfolio with testimonials and examples of your work
A portfolio is a great way to highlight your work plus share testimonials and case studies from past or current clients. Let’s be real…people LOVE to read reviews. Just look at Amazon! Before someone buys something, they typically read the reviews. If someone else raves about a product, a person is more likely to buy it. Same goes in the freelancing world.
Create a 4-6 page portfolio highlighting who you are, the services you offer, the packages you have available, examples of your work and some raving testimonials. Share your portfolio on IG, in FB groups, or when you are pitching potential clients.
3. Show up consistently
This ties in with tip #1. If you want to land more clients as a virtual assistant, you have to show up consistently. You can’t go hard marketing for 15 days and then drop off the face of the earth before giving it a go again a month later.
Showing up consistently doesn’t mean showing up in all the places. Pick where your ideal client is hanging out and stick with it. If that’s IG, plan out a schedule for when you will post and how often you will engage. If they are in FB groups, plan how often you will pop into FB groups whether that’s daily, every other day, or a few times a week.
4. Follow up
If you connected with a potential client and haven’t heard from them in a few days, follow up. Business owners are busy, you need to make it easy for them to sign with you.
After sending over your proposal, contract, and invoice, give a client 2-3 days and then send them an email. If you still don’t hear back, give them 2-3 more days and follow up one more time before seeing it as a dead lead.
You can create a follow up system using something like ClickUp or something as simple as Google Sheets.
5. Show up where your ideal client is hanging out
This connects back with tip #3. When you are looking to land more clients, it is super important that you hang out where your ideal client is hanging out rather than where you think you’re supposed to hang out.
If you want to work with coaches or course creators, Facebook groups are a great place to find them; whereas, spending your time on Linkedin probably isn’t going to serve you very well. If you want to work with parenting brands, IG is likely the place to be.
Trying to show up everywhere will lead you to burnout so be sure to get clear on where your people are at and give it your all in those places.
6. Try cold pitching
Cold pitching might be out of your comfort zone at first but this is a great way to land clients. Oftentimes business owners aren’t aware that they need your services or that someone like you even exists.
Try sending 10 cold pitch emails a week for a month straight and see how many discovery calls you are able to land. I bet you would be surprised with how well this works.
7. Make genuine connections
Set a goal to make 3-5 genuine connections a day expecting nothing to come from it. You can connect with others through FB groups, IG, local events and more. You never know what one connection could lead to.
Not only do you want to connect with your ideal audience but also connect with others that offer similar services or services that compliment what you offer. If you are a website designer, connecting with a copywriter who does website copy is a great way to build a referral system which could lead to new clients.
Interested in learning more about landing freelancing clients along with other top virtual assistant tips? Head over to the podcast to catch weekly episodes all about starting, growing, and scaling your freelancing business.
