I will tell you a success story of how I went from hoping that clients would find me, to working towards my craft and getting clients back-to-back.
Before now, my motto used to be, “I hope people would refer clients to me”, “I hope clients would look for me”. I mean, I am a great copywriter so my skill should speak for me. That was the foundation of my failure as a Copywriter. I thought it would be a walk in the park until fear and panic crept in. How will I pay my bills? I am not getting any job and I have bills to pay; it took this realization for my mindset to change. What changed and how this did realization help my career as a freelancer?
Firstly, I shifted my mindset. It is true that once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it. It all begins and ends in your mind because what you give power to has power over you. I had to ask myself this question, “How will you get clients if you are not constantly promoting yourself”? I learned quickly that the most important job in your life is to show up as your most authentic self and put yourself out there for people to recognize your abilities. The principle of consistency also applies to marketing your services. Also, I realized that selling is not cheap, the price you pay for is confidence. If you can sell yourself to your clients confidently, then you have sorted out the first challenge. Do not be afraid to promote your services online, create a portfolio deck, list out those you have worked for, send out cold emails and pitches. I did this and my client base grew significantly.
I went from zero clients to fully booked when I changed my strategies. There are strategies and there are actionable strategies, you need to know the difference when it comes to your career. As a freelancer, I understand that you have strategies but are they marketable? Are they actionable? Do these strategies sell your services to those who might need them? As a freelancer, reliability should be your important tool, and this should come from your marketing strategies. For instance, you could have a personal website where you upload your previous work and insert a contact list for potential clients to reach you.
Furthermore, I noticed that my client base grew when I started creating content that relates with my audience and this, I did during my free time. I started focusing on contents my potential clients needed rather than what I taught they wanted. I would explain subtly why they need this service and leave out how they can achieve it. The result is, they will come to me asking me for my services. Create high value content and let people know that they can trust you to handle their projects for them. If you do this, you will appeal to a larger audience.
Cold pitching was one of my best strategies. What is cold pitching? This is the process of sending emails to potential clients and pitching your services to them. This strategy is one of the best for freelancers and a major way to find clients. I looked for clients or companies who I feel might need my services and offer my help. You might want to consider cold pitching today, you just need to go all in, dedicate some hours to find clients and cold pitch. Set a goal for yourself and stick to it.
In six months, while following these processes duly and consistently, I got a larger client base and got to work on bigger projects. Want more for yourself as a freelancer, subscribe to these steps today.