Are you a new freelancer? Looking for some guidance on how to land your first client?
Through my journey as a freelancer, I’ve experimented with different ways of gaining clients. This post contains 7 top tips I’ve discovered of how to land your first client.
Research Your Potential Client Base
In order to know if you are a good fit for your prospect, you’ll need to learn about what it is they do. Who is their audience? Carry out some market research about them and their audience before you approach them. This helps you decipher whether you can see yourself working with them.
This research could be through looking at their social media platforms, their website, their following, and more.
You should also think about their brand tone and how they position themselves. Is it something you can see yourself aligning with too?
Find Your Client’s Pain Points
When looking more into your prospect’s brand, note any areas that they could improve on and how you could help them with that. Do they need to post on social media more regularly? Does their website need an upgrade? Identify areas they are weak in and that you are skilled in, so that you can help them.
Also, be prepared to explain why you are the right fit for their team. This is another key step in how to land your first client. Convince them that you are the right person for the job.
Make Sure You Have A Website
Having your own self-hosted website with a domain shows you are taking your work seriously.
It shows you are willing to invest in your business.
Your website is a digital shopfront for your brand. It is the place where people can find out all they need to know about you and your business.
Investing in a self-hosted website is honestly a small price compared to the level of professionalism it signals and the many opportunities it can lead to. Free websites have the server name tagged at the end of your site name, e.g. like .wordpress.com which means you do not own the domain. But when you invest in a domain and self-hosted website, your website does not have that tag and only has your domain name.
Website Providers
I set up this blog self-hosting with Bluehost, purchased a domain and chose WordPress.org as a website builder.
From my experience, I think this was the perfect choice for me, especially as a blogger. WordPress was created for word-predominant platforms, rather than e-commerce. But it still does offer great eCommerce properties too. Feel free to browse my shop for example.
WordPress is honestly superb with the variety of plugins offered to customise as you desire and optimise to make it look more professional and help with ranking on Google (SEO).
YoastSEO is a plugin available on WordPress and is so brilliant! It essentially acts as a guide to optimising your posts for SEO as you write. I’ve written blogs on a few other website servers, and have not come across another one that offers a tool like YoastSEO.
If I’m using another website server other than WordPress for a client, I actually use YoastSEO from my WordPress website to write my post and then transfer the content to the client’s website server to post. That’s how valuable I deem this plugin to be and many other’s have also championed it. So I’m grateful to have access to this with WordPress!
Bluehost Set Up
I’ve found Bluehost to be a great website host, through their 24-hour customer service team that comes with the website package you buy. I’m BY NO MEANS a web developer, but thanks to Bluehost customer service team, and some YouTube tutorials, I’ve managed to set up this blog without hiring a web developer. And I’m still learning as I go along! There are still many things I can implement to improve the website and I will probably continue to do so as time goes on. But to be able to get even the basics done was made easier with assistance from customer service. Coding seemed daunting to me at first, but I’ve now gotten a bit more familiar with it thanks to them.
WordPress is the number one recommended website builder for Bluehost. They integrate very well together.
I would strongly encourage you to take advantage of this!
To sign up to Bluehost, click this link.
If you sign up using this link, I will receive a paid commission, at no extra cost to yourself. It’s just part of the referral sale, which helps me and the running of this blog.
Engage On Social Media
Although emailing is my first recommended route of officially approaching clients, you can also reach out to them briefly via social media for engagement. For example, commenting, liking posts, and maybe a simple DM directing them to your brand account.
However, as aforementioned, professional and detailed proposals should be left to emails. The more you comment, engage with their social media accounts, they’re more likely to notice you. This could then lead to building an online relationship with them even before you send them an official pitch via email. They’ll see that you’re a supporter of their business.
Join Networking Groups For Your Niche/ Brand
This has helped me so much in my freelancing journey!! I gained my first client through a Facebook group I was a member of which then spiraled into a range of other opportunities.
There are so many groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, I’ve noticed in particular, that have a variety of niche groups. Here you can learn more from a range of people about how to land your first client. Simply select the group option in the search bar and type in keywords associated with your niche. For example ‘Freelance Writer group’. For a list of groups I’ve joined and would recommend as a creative freelancer, sign up to my newsletter below:
Write A Professional Email
This is like the final send-off of how to land your first client. After completing all your research, take the major leap and draft up an email! Ideally, the email address you use should have your brand’s name tagged at the end. This helps add to the level of professionalism.
Once you’ve bought your domain and set up your website, you’ll have the option to create an email with your domain name. This usually requires you to pay a fee, monthly (which can be about £5), or you can choose to purchase annually. For example, mine is [email protected].
Writing a formal email to your prospect allows for length and an easy way for them to refer back to you in the future. Doing this becomes trickier if you send a full-length text to them via social media, for example. Make it easier for your prospect by sending them an email.
Follow up
If it’s been a few days or so and you haven’t received a response from them, chase it up. This has proven to be a game-changer from my experience.
I once emailed a client and received no response for a week, so I followed up and they replied explaining the previous email was sent to their junk!
They then expressed interest and it led to me successfully winning them as a client!
So don’t fret if you don’t receive a response right away. Instead, simply follow up until they respond definitely with a yes or no. The worst they can say is no and at least then you’ll have an answer rather than no response at all. I’d say as a guide, give it 3 days before following up to give them time if they haven’t yet seen the email.
Keep Going!
Highlighting a point I made earlier; persistence is key. Starting out as a freelancer is about testing the waters and trial and error, as you are your own boss. I hope Remi Reports can help you on this journey and give you some insight from what I’ve learned so far.
Persistence is what makes freelancers so unique. It’s a continuous journey to find clients. But with this, there is so much flexibility to choose what and who you want to work with.
As you build resilience in this, you’ll learn more not only about how to land your first client, but many others thereafter!
I hope this list of tips on how to land your first client serves as a useful guide to you as a freelance beginner. Please feel free to share with other freelancers you may think this would help.
For more hope during this season, check out this blog post.
Also, if you are at the start of your freelance journey looking for guidance on how to navigate this world, I offer a Beginner Freelancer E-course to help you with this.
