Finding Clients

Introduction

Finding freelance clients can be quite tricky because where do you start. You might try cold-calling people, but this takes quite a lot of determination and to be a good salesperson.

Freelance Clients

For most freelancers, freeing up the budget for advertising can be quite costly. Even something with Pay-Per-Click advertising on something like Google Ads can become pricey. Competitive phrases like “web developer” are being targeted by companies much bigger than yours. If you can find a niche, then this becomes a bit easier but, for most freelancers, advertising on Google Ads is tough to get into.

You can get free traffic from search engines by ensuring your website is search engine optimized. You should already be doing that as a good front-end developer, but it’s worth remembering to make sure your site has keywords, good descriptions and titles. One idea is to focus on local businesses and to target a phrase like “Web developer in XXX town/city”. This narrows the people you’re trying to advertise to.

But you don’t need to just be constrained to the local market. If you are active in online communities, you could find work through these areas. Things like guest blogging or writing an article on a topic that interests you and that prospective clients would find useful, is a good way to make clients see you as the right person to go to. Webinars and workshops can also be good tools for finding clients as well as reminding existing clients of your skills and expertise.

Repeat Business

Attracting new customers can be a costly process (time and advertising-wise), and so it’s very important to nurture your past clients. Repeat business is crucial to success as it’s much easier to convince someone to work with you if they already have had a positive experience. For the client, the risk becomes lower as they already trust you to do a good job.

To get repeat business it’s useful to try and stay in the client’s mind. They might not always be needing your services, but when they do, you should be the first person they think of.

You can set up mailing lists where you send clients articles and ideas that would interest them and show you as an expert in the field. They should find it valuable, so make sure you have something good to say.

Leveraging past clients to gain new clients by offering gifts for referrals can work, but don’t over-ask for referrals. If they liked your service, they are probably already going to refer you when the opportunity comes up.

Sending specific past customers a short email asking if there is anything they need help with can be a good way to re-energize them. Keep the email as simple as possible and see what they come back with.

Another option is up-selling them to greater functionalities for their business. If they originally paid for a base service, you might be able to show them the value in upgrading their website.

Networking

Networking can sound quite daunting as you imagine standing in a room of strangers with name badges on. It can sound quite impersonal and even a bit manipulative, and that’s because it can be, but really should not be.

Rather than trying to put on a façade and pretend to be someone you’re not, try to find events that actually interest you and go to those. If you’re actually interested in the event, you’ll be more open to meeting like-minded people and show the passion you have for the subject.

Events on platforms like Meetup.com are a good way to get to know fellow developers and share ideas and expertise. Try going regularly and slowly become more involved, helping out where you can. These events offer longer time to get to know people and their personalities.

You might also consider going to a Hackathon where you work with other developers on a project at a big gathering. This is a great way of doing practical work while meeting new people and can be a fun way of finding connections.

As you develop your connections, it’s a good idea to try and meet people with different skillsets and backgrounds as they might have unique perspectives that you don’t have.

You should also be using the connections you make in your studies as you enter the workplace. Although you might all be entering the job market at a similar time, keeping in touch can be very useful as you go your separate ways to work on different projects.

Whatever methods you use to build connections, they can be really useful for sharing your passion for front-end development as well as bouncing ideas around or working on a project. Your network can also help you find a job or share freelance work, although this shouldn’t be the primary motivation for creating a network.

Lesson Task

Goal

To find communities and platforms to become involved in.

Level 1

• Search on platforms like Meetup.com to see if there are any developer events happening in your area.

• If there aren’t events happening in your area, there might be some happening online. Try find a community where you can contribute and build up a network of like-minded people.