Are you just hoping and praying that clients will find one of your freelancing profiles, like what you do and will give you a chance…or are you making a deliberate case that working with you is best for their business? It can be difficult for even experienced freelancers to be their own best advocate, but it doesn’t have to be hard.
If you genuinely want to earn more and make a serious living with your freelance work, you’d better be making your case, and that’s why I want to give you 5 points that add up to moving a client from just knowing who you are to wanting to pay you to help them with their needs.
Curate Great Content
While keeping a content presence (usually a blog) doesn’t have to be time consuming (or even on your site…hello LinkedIn), it does need to demonstrate that you understand your industry. One of the best ways to do this is to collect and share the best news and information that your customers care about.
Once you know your ideal customer, it’s just a matter of figuring out the information they might be interested in, following the right people, and sharing it on your site and social media.
Share Your Opinion
Your clients like to know that you’re thinking about their problems, so offering your informed opinion on news, trends, and changes in your field goes a long way to communicating the fact that you not only understand your service, but also the area they’re operating in.
Present Your Portfolio
Your portfolio doesn’t have to be a ton of work to be its best, but it does have to exist and be accessible. Make sure that examples of your work are available on your site and anywhere else prospective clients might be finding out about your existence (LinkedIn now has a portfolio option and freelancing sites like Upwork and Elance almost always do.)
Answer questions
In working with clients you probably answer more questions than you realize. Providing answers to those questions up front can help make them feel comfortable working with you before they even start. Some of the best questions to answer are:
- What’s it like to work with you?
- What kind of price ranges do you charge? (don’t quote set numbers)
- What kind of clients do you work with?
- Do you do all your work or outsource components?
- What’s your experience in my industry?
You can answer these questions on your About page, your Services page, or even an FAQ if you’ve been freelancing long enough to have come up with a consistent list of questions and answers.
State Your Unique Value
If you build websites, don’t just tell them why a professional web site is important, tell people why the websites you create are different than the other options they have.
You want to convey value (what they’ll receive) and uniqueness (why they should choose you over other services) if you want them to have a reason to go with you over the cheapest option they can find.
Freelancing is a discovery process, and learning what sales process works best for you can take time, so if you want to join other Black freelancers for help and support, come try a month of membership free.
Great suggestions for making your case. As an early mentor once told me, no one can make the case for you … like you.