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Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the freelance business industry has received tremendous positive attention, fostering its growth and expansion. Additionally, starting and running a freelance job is easy – a home office provides almost all you need. Unfortunately, these factors have created a disproportionate industry, with many more freelancers than clients.
Therefore, you must learn how to attract and retain clients to build a successful freelance business. Veteran freelancers agree that a good and sustainable client base is the foundation for a successful and sustainable freelance career.
However, with such intense competition for limited clients in every niche, you can’t rely on luck for client attraction. Proven methods exist to help you find and keep your client to build sustainable business growth. Therefore, this article discusses 18 strategies to attract and retain your clients and grow your business. Keep reading to learn the ropes!
Understanding the Freelance Business Landscape
The freelance marketing landscape is dynamic yet easy to understand and master. Basically, this industry operates on a performance-based model instead of the loyalty-based model of traditional businesses. That means clients will only hire and keep you for what you can do.
As a result, this encourages a feeble relationship between employers and employees. Freelance employees expect more autonomy and flexibility, while employers want faster and more cost-effective results. Moreover, both parties are usually bound by time-bound contracts, with renewal dependent on the satisfaction of both parties.
Additionally, freelancing is an open-entry industry where anyone can participate freely. Further, freelancing models, like the interim and fractional models, allow traditional employees to participate in the industry.
Therefore, with loyalty gone and more freelancers available than clients, freelancing is now one of the most competitive industries. Nevertheless, you can still succeed, even if you’re just starting your freelance journey. The client attraction and retention strategies discussed in this article will help you build a successful freelance business.
Strategies To Help Freelancers Attract New Clients
Attracting clients is not a passive activity but an active one. You can’t wait for clients to contact you in the competitive freelance industry. Instead, you must make them contact you. There are several ways to make your freelance business attractive and win clients. Let’s explore eight marketing strategies in this section.
1. Leverage Your Network of Personal and Professional Contacts
Charity begins at home, and sometimes, so does business. Your next client can come from your current contact, personal or professional. So, discuss your freelance business and advertise your brand to your physical or online contacts.
Also, quickly offer your service to anyone you think will benefit from it. Even if they don’t require your service now, implore them to reach out when needed and recommend your business to their friends and contacts.
2. Optimize Your Online Presence To Improve Your Visibility
You can only attract clients who can see you, so it is important to improve your visibility. One way to achieve this is by optimizing your online presence. If your business has a website, observe SEO rules and guidelines to stay at the top of all search results.
You can also optimize your online presence with your social networking handles. Create a professional profile on all social platforms and engage with potential clients. Then, advertise your business while promoting your skills and expertise. If you leverage social media properly, it can become a source of client lead generation.
3. Win Freelance Business Clients With Persuasive Proposals
You’ll encounter many opportunities to pitch your service when searching for freelance clients, especially on job boards and freelance markets. You can leverage these opportunities to attract clients with a persuasive pitch or proposal.
A persuasive pitch details the service you offer and why it is unique. Convince the potential client that you’re the best fit for his project. A rich, confident, and detailed proposal can convince any client to partner with your freelance business.
4. Use Cold Emails To Attract New Clients
Sometimes, people who need your services are outside your contact list. However, you can reach them via mail and introduce your service to them. While this may seem like a bold move, it is an effective way to attract new clients when done right.
Your cold email will more likely produce the desired result when you personalize your message. Additionally, highlight the needs of the individual or business and demonstrate how your business can satisfy that need.
When seeking freelancers to partner with, clients always look for the best. Sometimes, it’s insufficient to sell yourself as the best; you need others to back up your claim. That is where social proof comes in.
Positive reviews and recognition from previous clients count towards your social proof. This proof attracts new clients to your business to enjoy the same positive experience. So, keep gathering social proof from social media and freelance platforms. Publish them on your professional profiles and use them in proposals to attract new clients.
6. Offer Competitive Pricing for Client Attraction
All clients want the best value for their money. Plus, the freelance pool is flooded with several alternatives to choose from. So, when offering your service, offer competitive pricing, especially at the beginning.
A competitive price for your service must be balanced. It should not be too low to suggest inferiority, and it should not be too high to discourage potential clients. Therefore, set a price range that instills confidence in potential clients and encourages them to hire you. Where appropriate, publish your price on your profile or in proposals to accompany your service offering.
7. Sell Your Service on Freelance Platforms
Freelance platforms constitute the highest buyer base for freelancers today. These platforms unite clients and freelancers and ensure smooth transactions for both parties. Freelance platform eliminates the stress of finding clients, allowing you to focus on attracting and impressing the delivered client.
With many platforms and markets to enjoy, you’ll benefit most from an industry-specific platform. So, create a profile on a good platform and attract clients today!
8. Promote Your Freelance Business With a Unique Selling Proposition
Clients should see what you offer from a distance, which should not be common. Find something that sets you apart and puts you ahead of other freelancers in your niche. Then, publish this on your profile or website portfolio.
In this increasingly competitive freelance industry, it helps to develop specialized skills and expertise. Such skills will strengthen your unique selling proposition and branding, attracting clients at first glance.
Client Retention Strategies for Your Freelance Business
Attracting clients to partner with is insufficient to ensure success and sustainability for a freelance business. Freelance contracts encourage satisfaction-based relationships that could dissolve at any time. Therefore, it depends wholly on you to ensure client retention after attracting a desirable client. Fortunately, this section shares ten strategies to help you achieve this.
9. Always Deliver Beyond Expectation
Freelance clients will only renew their contracts with you when you deliver good quality work. However, considering industry competition, it helps to even exceed the expectations where possible. Your delivery should show commitment not just to the contract but to your client’s business.
This exceptional delivery will foster loyalty in your clients, ensuring client retention. However, this commitment level should not end with your first task. Instead, consider every project a new opportunity to impress your client and reinforce their loyalty.
10. Communicate Clearly and Regularly To Build Trust
Clear and frequent communication is a key strategy that ensures customer loyalty. When you communicate clearly and regularly, you build your client’s confidence and trust. In the beginning, outline your deliverable and set a reasonable timeline.
During the project, send regular updates, however simple. Such frequent communication reveals your dedication and commitment to the project, endearing your client to you. Most clients reciprocate such dedication with loyalty as they grow to trust you.
11. Request and Act on Clients’ Feedback
Invite your clients to criticize your work and share feedback for improvement during and after the project. Many clients appreciate a willingness to be taught and corrected. That will convince them of your humility and flexibility in working together to achieve the target goals.
You’ll immediately earn their trust when you implement shared feedback. Such an attitude can encourage a client to convert a one-off contract into a permanent one.
12. Build a Freelance Business That Offers a Positive Client Experience
When considering retention, clients don’t just look at the end product but factor in the entire process. That includes your communication, attitudes, and availability, all contributing to their experience with your business.
So, you can ensure client retention by providing a satisfactory experience for them. Clients will more readily keep working with you when you offer them a smooth, rich, and exciting experience.
13. Develop Personal Relationships With Your Clients
Where accepted, build a personal relationship with your client. Try to learn about their interests and preferences. Further, ask about their personal life and discuss topics of interest outside the project.
Showing personal interest endears many clients and builds strong bonds beyond a business relationship. If you balance your display of personal interest with outstanding project delivery, clients will consider you an efficient work friend.
14. Provide Value-Added Services for Your Clients
You’ll impress all clients when you deliver what your contract stipulates. However, try to provide more for client satisfaction and retention. Value-added services are simple extra tasks beyond a project’s scope. It could even be as simple as suggesting alternative solutions or providing more insight.
These tasks showcase your expertise and commitment to the project and your client’s business. Consistently delivering more value impresses clients and encourages them to retain freelancers.
15. Upsell and Cross-Sell Your Freelance Business Services
Some freelance clients genuinely need your service for a one-time project. However, you can retain them by cross-selling other services you offer that they need. For example, if you’re a content writer with SEO expertise, you can recommend optimization for your client and offer your services.
With proven quality and timeliness records, clients will not hesitate to retain you for other projects within your expertise.
16. Respect and Adhere to Deadlines
Always remember that many other freelancers can do the job, maybe even as well as you. However, it is the little details, like your timeliness, that encourage client retention. The client will reward you with trust and loyalty if you consistently meet the assigned deadlines.
17. Offer Loyalty Packages to Your Clients
Clients are to freelancers, what customers are to commercial businesses. To retain customers, businesses offer loyalty packages to reward them for choosing their brand. This strategy also works with freelance clients.
To encourage retention, you can offer loyalty packages to your clients. Your package can include a free task, an exclusive offer, or a discount for a project. Some clients are more impressed with your thoughtfulness than your offer and will reward you with loyalty.
18. Improve Your Availability to Your Client
Many clients prioritize reliability and dependability during a project. You can show that you possess these qualities by improving your availability. Ensure your client can reach you anytime to communicate new instructions and adjustments. If they can rely on you, they’ll be encouraged to keep working with you on more projects.
Tools and Resources To Support These Strategies for Your Freelance Business
The 18 methods discussed above are proven strategies for ensuring client attraction and retention. It helps to apply as many of these as possible, if not all. Nevertheless, some tools help facilitate their implementation. This section lists some examples for you under three categories.
7 Best Customer Relationship Management Tools for a Freelance Business
Below are seven CRM tools to implement the client satisfaction and retention strategies above:
- Zoho CRM
- FreelanceMate CRM
- HubSpot CRM
- SoloFlow CRM
- Agile CRM
- HoneyBook
- OnePage CRM
5 Exciting Project Management Tools for Freelancers
Here are five project management tools you can use to improve your work and client relationships as a freelancer:
- Asana
- ClickUp
- Hive
- Teamwork
- Trello
Top 5 Communication Tools for Every Freelance Business
The following are five popular tools freelance businesses and clients use for effective communication:
- Slack
- Google Meet
- Microsoft Teams
- Zoom
- Skype
Common Challenges to Customer Attraction and Retention and Possible Solutions
The freelance industry has a reputation for being difficult. New or old freelancers sometimes find it difficult to succeed in the industry. If you’re in this category, do not fret. This section discusses some common challenges impeding client attraction and retention. You’ll also find plausible solutions to overcome these challenges.
3 Common Obstacles Against Client Attraction
If you’ve been struggling to attract new clients to your freelance business without success, you’re facing one of the three challenges discussed below. Read on to find possible solutions to help overcome your obstacle to client attraction.
1. Low Visibility Due to High Industry Competition
High competition is a primary characteristic and challenge of the freelance industry. There are so many freelancers offering the same services as you do. So, it can be difficult for clients to see and even consider you, especially on freelance platforms and markets.
Solution: Optimize your online presence to improve your visibility. It also helps to earn badges and ranks on freelance platforms to increase your qualifications and appear in more searches.
2. Lack of Consideration for Beginners
In the freelance industry, the rich keep getting richer. That is because clients focus on hiring talents with proven records of excellence as freelancers. Consequently, you may find it hard to attract clients as a beginner, however talented you are.
Solution: Publish your unique value proposition for potential clients. You can also start working for an agency to build a portfolio and receive exposure to the freelance landscape. Then, publish your portfolio and social proof as you gain strength in the industry.
3. Unresponsive Clients
In trying to attract clients, you sometimes send proposals and pitch to clients. Unfortunately, many of these become unresponsive, even those who earlier sought your service, especially on freelance platforms. These unfruitful attempts could discourage you from attracting new clients.
Solutions: Research potential clients before sending proposals to ensure you pitch to someone who needs your service. Additionally, only apply for jobs that match your qualifications to increase your chances for success.
3 Common Challenges to Client Retention
Learning how to keep clients is important even after finding them. However, some obstacles challenge this important action. Consider three of these challenges below and find some solutions you can explore.
1. Working With Perpetually Dissatisfied Clients
You simply can’t satisfy some clients, however hard you try. Such clients find fault with whatever you do. It is a real challenge working with such clients. So, what can you do?
Solution: Always research a client before working with them. Freelance platforms allow you to read reviews from other freelancers who have worked for them. Leverage this feature to learn about clients before agreeing to work with them.
2. Clients Keep Changing the Contract Details
Working with a client who keeps changing your contract details and terms is usually challenging and discouraging. Without saying, you know that working with such a client will be short-lived. Again, this challenges client satisfaction and retention for you, so what’s the solution?
Solution: It’ll help clearly state your working principles before commencing a contract. You could even provide a limited number of changes you’ll accept during a project.
3. Poor Communication
Some clients will frustrate you by communicating poorly. They’ll either rely slowly or delay your instructions. Ultimately, they record an unsatisfactory experience, and you’ll lose out on retention even though it’s not your fault. Still, you can do something to overcome this challenge.
Solution: Find a more convenient communication tool or platform to interact with your client. That will greatly improve their communication and eliminate this challenge.
Learning From Dakota Robertson: A Case Study of a Successful Freelancer
On a straight line, Dakota Robertson started as a freelance ghostwriter but is now a content marketing expert with hundreds of clients. He also runs a personal brand and earns over $250,000 monthly! While many factors helped Dakota succeed, applying most of the client attraction and retention strategies discussed above contributed greatly. This section shows you how.
First, Dakota prioritized optimizing his online presence. He manages an SEO-optimized business website you can easily find on any search engine. Next, he successfully manages social media accounts across several platforms, such as X and LinkedIn.
He publishes social proof on these platforms and uses his unique value proposition to attract new clients. This branding approach earns him several new clients. Today, his freelance business boasts hundreds of satisfied clients. What’s more? Dakota continues to attract new clients by leveraging his online network.
Dakota maintains his large client base with effective client satisfaction retention strategies, most of which we have discussed. For example, he always delivers beyond expectations. Today, Dakota has trained over 117 successful content marketers.
As evident on his X page, Dakota frequently receives and applies feedback from his client. He also cross-sells his skills as a ghostwriter and content marketing expert to his clients. His clients also report that Dakota is always available to meet their needs.
The lesson here is simple – the client attraction and retention strategies discussed in this article are effective. Just as they worked for Dakota Robertson, they’ll also work for you if applied meticulously!
Conclusion
Running a successful and sustainable freelance business depends mainly on the sustainability of your client base. However, the freelance industry is highly competitive, with more freelancers than clients. Therefore, you need effective marketing strategies to attract and retain clients for sustainable business growth.
Fortunately, this article discussed 18 client attraction and retention strategies, from leveraging your network to offering loyalty packages to clients. It also outlined some communication and management tools for client satisfaction and retention. You’ve also seen the solutions to some common client attraction and retention challenges. Finally, Dakota’s success story with these strategies undoubtedly inspires you as a freelancer.
Therefore, why wait to get there? Evaluate your current strategy and start implementing these strategies today to win and keep clients and boost your freelance business! Follow these strategies systematically as outlined: first, attract, then keep your clients to ensure sustainable business growth.
