Hey, I’m Michael Culp, a business Master’s student, and today, I’m going to teach you 6 tips to generate leads for your freelance business.
Freelancing can be a dream for many. The opportunity to work for who you want, when you want, where you want, and how much you want sounds very appealing…
But the worry of having to hustle to find new clients every month, to be able to pay rent, can be an overwhelming process. So, if you want to improve your processes of generating new leads and getting new clients, keep reading!
1 – Freelance Websites
Freelance websites are the low-hanging fruit and the easiest way to start generating leads for your freelance business.
These platforms are indeed competitive and you’ll not be able to differentiate yourself much from the other freelancers. But you also get a lot of job offers on a silver plate, without having to do much work and build complicated processes.
If you’re just getting started, my advice is that you start here and move on to the next methods after you gain more experience.
To stand out from the crowd the first thing you need to do is to build a great profile. In your profile, you need to show authority and credibility. The best way to do this is by focusing on a particular type of service for a particular type of client.
Don’t try to be everything to everyone.
After building your profile, you’ll have access to a big job listing. My advice is that you focus on applying only to the jobs that you’re qualified for.
Take the time to carefully read the job requirements and craft a personal message to the solicitant, telling why you’re qualified for the job. You can even attach some of the work you’ve done before, that is similar to the job you’re applying for.
Sending a personalized message is very important and will make you stand out a lot. I hired some freelancers in the past, and in most of the pitches I got, I could see that they were copied and pasted messages, which made me reject them without even answering.
2 – Direct Outreach
Direct outreach is a great way for generating leads for your freelance business. Direct outreach involves a wide range of methods, such as phone calls, emails, LinkedIn or social media messages, and even in-person contacts.
The advantage of cold outreach is that it doesn’t cost you anything and you can send a lot of outreach messages and close a client in a matter of a few days. The disadvantage is that it is time-consuming.
To get the most out of your outreach campaign you need to lead with value. Don’t just simply outreach asking if they want to work if you.
Take a look at their business and see how you can offer value to them. Give some tips, teach them something, or identify things they are doing wrong. Show your value first and only then pitch your services.
It’s important to keep in mind that with direct outreach you’ll get rejected a lot. But don’t let that stop you. Keep in mind that it’s part of the process and direct outreach is just a numbers game.
3 – Email Marketing
Having an email list is a big asset. Just imagine the advantage you’d get if you have a big list of people to whom you can just send an email and get a new flow of clients…
To build your email list, the first thing you need is a lead magnet. A lead magnet is something that you offer to people in exchange for their email addresses. It can be a cheat sheet, a checklist, a step-by-step system, or anything that solves a problem for your audience.
After building your lead magnet you’ll need to start promoting it. You can use a website, social media, and even paid advertising.
To promote your leads via paid advertising, you’ll need to build a landing page, and to build a landing page you’ll need to subscribe to some software. There are a lot of options in the market such as GoHighLevel, Clickfunnels, Groovefunnels, and Builderall. I even made a review comparing Groovefunnels with builderall.
4 – Website
Creating a website is a great way to show authority and get traffic to your services. Creating a website with WordPress is extremely easy these days. There are a lot of plugins that allow you to build it just by dragging and dropping.
To get the most out of your website, you need to consistently publish articles on your blog. These articles will help you establish yourself as an expert in your field, and to get organic traffic.
To get organic traffic you need to pay attention to search engine optimization and optimize it for Google and other engines like Bing.
The first step is to use a Keyword tool of your choice to perform keyword research before writing your articles. This will allow you to find topics that have a good amount of searches per month and that are not difficult to rank for.
Then, you’ll need to build backlinks pointing to your articles, to build your website authority. Two great strategies for building backlinks are guest posting and HARO.
5 – LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great platform for direct outreach. This is particularly good if you are in the B2B niche. 73% of buyers are more likely to consider a brand if the salesperson reaches out via linkedIn.
So this appears as a great opportunity if you’re selling high-ticket services.
Your focus should not be on selling messages to everyone. You should focus on only sending messages to people who are your ideal clients.
When it comes to messaging your potential clients, don’t pitch them on the first message. The goal of the first message is just to get a reply and start a conversation.
After you engage in the conversation, always focus on adding value to the potential client. Your goal isn’t to sell the service in this LinkedIn conversation, but to pitch a free consultation call and get people to the phone. This makes me introduce the last tip…
6 – Offer a free consultation call
Especially if you’re selling high-ticket services, closing a client via email or via messaging, can be extremely difficult. So, my advice is to use all the channels that I showed you to pitch a free consultation call.
The goal of the free consultation call is to show potential clients what would be like to work with you. It’s a great way to demonstrate your knowledge, your expertise, and your authority.
In this call, you should focus on the client’s goals and how your services are going to help them achieve their goals. Build a step-by-step plan for the client that will get them to achieve their desired results. And at the end of the call, pitch your services as a way of implementing your step-by-step process.
Conclusion
Generating leads and finding new clients can be difficult. But your leads are the lifeblood of your business, and you always should focus your efforts on improving your lead generation processes. Today, you learned 6 essential tips for generating more leads:
- Freelance Websites
- Direct Outreach
- Email Marketing
- Website
- Offer a free consultation call
