The worst part about freelancing is to always be looking for clients. There is almost always a period when you have no work when one project finishes and you are able to find another client.
This is not only stressful, but it can be a huge barrier to financial stability and will limit your growth. The only way to get past this is to have a system so you never have to look for clients anymore. Instead, you should have them find you!
The secret is inbound marketing and creating a funnel that attracts potential clients, turns them into leads, and finally happy customers. When your potential clients are finding you, you can concentrate on other parts of being a freelancer. You can create systems that will help you grow as a solopreneur and go beyond what you thought possible as a freelancer.
In this article, I will describe the process of creating a funnel so you never have to hunt down clients again!
1. Have an attractive landing page
Think of the funnel as a journey for the client. They arrive on your landing page and can either click out or try to learn more about their problem. After all, as a freelancer, you are in the business of solving problems.
As they dive deeper to get more information, they are going further into the funnel and going through a sales process. The ideal is for them to come out of the narrow end of the funnel as loyal customers.
The landing page should be simple and to the point in which you are trying to get the potential client to take action. Namely to give you their email address. Then you can start the funnel process to convert them into a lead.
2. Email marketing strategy
The potential client needs a reason to give up their email address to you. So you have to sweeten the deal by giving them something in return. Let’s assume you are a graphic designer. People coming onto your landing page may be looking for some tips on what kind of logo works best for branding.
Your sweetener is called a lead magnet and maybe a guide for them to use themselves on color schemes that work well together for their website or other materials for their business. Now they give up their email and you send them a downloadable guide that provides some value for them and answers their questions.
Now you have them in your funnel.
3. Provide value
The trick is to send your lead emails on a regular basis that are helpful and offer some value to them. They will stay subscribed as long as they see value here. Send them weekly tips on the idea behind branding and why it’s important to be done correctly.
After a certain amount of emails, you can then send one that promotes your logo design service. Once you have built up trust through your campaign they should plainly see the reasons they should hire you to design it for them.
And once everything was set up it all happened on its own while you work with the clients that keep coming in!
