How To Position as a Freelancer and Get Awesome Client

So finally you have taken the leap and decided to quit your full-time job to become a freelancer.

The plan of working independently, having your individual work schedule and doing what you enjoy most is something that lures every aspiring freelancers. You can start your Freelancing career along with your full-time / Day job making yourself work few extra hours, maybe, late nights. Many a times situation occurs that you need to take the final decision. Quitting your full-time job to become a freelancer looks like an exciting idea to many Freelancers at the beginning, but it is equally terrifying.

It is like venturing out into an entirely unknown land where one false move can wreck havoc in your life. There’s pride, a higher degree of challenge and a considerable amount of risk. However, the good news is the freelancing economy is booming which means there’s loads of opportunities and lots of money too.

If I’d scared you for a while, please excuse me for that 🙂

So there’s lots of work for freelancers and so tons of money in freelancing. To get the sweet taste, you need to do all is to acquire that awesome client who will give the required boost to your freelance career and enhance your portfolio for a lifetime.

 

How do you get that awesome client as Freelancer?

Remember: The most successful freelancers are NOT those with the best skills or even those with the best educational qualification or rich experience.

Ultimately, Successful freelancers are those who does the right marketing of his skill set and position as a freelancer effectively.

Today, we shall discuss how to position yourself as a freelancer and how to get an excellent client.

Before I help you with the tricks of getting prospective customers, I would like to give a small piece of advice to you and all of them who’s joined the rat race.

As a newbie freelancer, you may have fear and anxieties – fear of getting rejected or not being able to deliver as per client expectations. Trust me you are not alone to experience this. Every human has this fear. Even I had that fear when I made my first Cold Call, first follow-up call, or went to a client for the first time to meet him.

However, success comes to those who does not let those fears hold them back.

Let’s get back to business. For you being a Freelancer, it is important that you position yourself effectively. Using proper channels, you should properly market your skill sets. Practicing Social Media Marketing will get you an awesome client.

Here are few ways to do that.

# You are Unique – act like one!

Before anyone else does, you have to respect your credibilities. You have turned into a freelancer because you know you have an expertise. You have a specialized knowledge and with your expertise you can help your client in achieving her business goals.

Let your client know the value your services and what expertise you will bring to the table. Present yourself as a leader right from the time your prospect starts interacting with you.

Let everyone know what problems you solved for your previous clients. Share testimonials from former and existing customers.

One tip here – no matter what project you work in, do get client testimonial after completing the project. It is immensely beneficial in presenting your knowledge and skills letting the client know you are awesome!

Remember first impressions matter most. Do not make a mistake here. You are unique, and you know your craft well. Just position yourself as an expert freelancer. If you did this successfully, half the battle is won!

 

# Start Blogging to position yourself as an expert Freelancer

Only be being engrossed in your daily projects will not help you increase your client base. Yes, dedication and quality of work is necessary for the project but you will also have to be active on expanding your customer base. You have to take continuous steps to present your expertise in the market by spreading awareness and hence adding more clients.

The best method to showcase your expertise is to start writing your Blog. Starting your Blog will hardly cost you anything, and they are quite easy to set up.

After creating your blog, make sure that it is active. Write posts that highlights your expertise. Your post should help your reader with something that he/she may be searching for, as a solution to his problem. One of the best ways to select topics for your blog is to consider the typical questions/concerns in your field of knowledge; other bloggers often ignore that.

Provide a solution and expert tips in the posts and you will see your followers increasing. Once this is on track, you will be considered a professional freelancer having proven expertise in a particular field.

Once you have become familiar with maintaining your blog, try writing on other blogs that focus on your expertise.

Writing posts on other’s blog means to become a Guest Writer for the blog owner.

You need to start with writing comments on blogs of your target writers. Give expert tips and share knowledge. Select two to four such blogs and make it a point to comment on them on a regular basis.

It will help you establishing rapport with another blogger as well as you get an opportunity to become visible to the traffic/audience the other blogger has. Once there is a reasonable traction between you and the target blogger, ask him if he will be interested in considering you a guest blogger for their blog. Very soon, the audience will start interacting with you to take your further help.

Writing on other blogs will help you position yourself as an expert in your field.

In Business Labs, we also do offer exquisite freelancers to share their expertise in a way of writing a blog in Learning Rooms.

 

# Presentation is most important in any Freelance Business

First impressions are always important. How you present your credibilities and projects matters a lot. Instead of just displaying the image, URL and name of your last project, let the client know what’s unique about the project. Demonstrate the procedure and resources you used to complete the project. In short, you must showcase your expertise in executing and completing the project.

Create a website or blog and highlight your best works there. Select some 4-5 best projects of yours and write a case study out of these projects. Highlighting your vision of the projects, the expertise you applied in the project, the strategies you undertook, and the success the project had with the client’s business goals.

Make your portfolio stand out from others. Be professional – include just what is required. Your portfolio should not be about you but about your services that can help the readers. Make it brief yet something that speaks volume about your skills and achievements.

Do publish testimonials on your website/blog. They do wonder. Make sure you have implemented basic SEO on your site/blog, at the least.

Presenting your best work in the best manner will go a long way in positioning yourself a freelancer and get some awesome clients. Ensure the projects in your portfolio is a recent work.

 

# Be straight with what you have to say

While clients appreciate the depth of your work and abilities, they are busy people and would not like to spare an hour on understanding a freelancer’s ability and past experiences. Clients appreciate freelancers who are quick and smart in getting their points across. Information on who you are and details about your services should come out openly in your website or your proposal/email. Keep further details of your experiences and best projects for the next meeting.

If you are a web designer, say that right in the front or center of your web homepage. If you are sending a proposal, introduce yourself and give a two-line brief on your services right in the first paragraph of the proposal.

Also, practice these best practices proven to be helpful to get more clients.

 

# Share your and your clients’ success story.

Passive yet important step in positioning yourself as a freelancer to increase your customers.

Successful freelancers do not focus only on completing the project assigned but also find more ways to help the client in achieving his business goals. They also know how to market their success effectively.

Share some of your best achievements and successes in your website, on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Doing this will help you build your audience and help you establish yourself as an expert.

 

# Do not overlook Email signatures

The majority of people even professionals, neglect email signatures. Imagine you are using your smartphone for sending the first email to a client, explaining your services and how your expertise could benefit them. You have demonstrated your experience and achievements perfectly and gave the perfect pitch, and then you hit the send button, with the standard “sent from Blackberry Mobile” signature.

Generic email signatures are highly unprofessional and not expected from a freelancer aspiring to make a respectable career. Ensure you have activated email signature on all devices you use – desktop, smartphone, iPad, and in your email client like outlook. Do not make it look clumsy.

Your Name, Designation, Contact number and Skype ID will just be apt.

See the simple yet powerful e-mail signature, tried and observed with Rate of Response:

Joe Dane

Senior Business Manager

Business Labs

Contact number: +91-1234567890

Skype: joe.dane.buslab

You may also do an online research to look for some of the best email signatures.

 

Conclusion

While freelancing is primarily about doing what you love most, end of the day, it is also about finding the right client. Finding the perfect client is an everyday process. You should start finding your next client not after completing a project but when you are already working on it. Keep some time aside say an hour, to implement your growth strategies.

There are many ways to position yourself as a Freelancer that would help you to get excellent clients.

The trick is to act like experts because you are one of them!

Spreading awareness and word of mouth through various social media platforms also do wonder in establishing your credibility as a freelancer. Also, there are a lot of platforms to connect to position yourself effectively as a freelancer.

Have you benefited from using any of these methods?

Let me know in comments below, if you have other tricks on how to position oneself as a freelancer and attract those perfect clients that aspiring freelancers can adopt?

Also, if you think this article has helped you, please share it with your friends. Doing so, will help us all in expanding our knowledge.

Currently, the clan of Business Labs has 26 Freelancers onboard. If you want to Join Business Labs as a freelancer or an agency, applications are open.

Good Luck!