15 Minute Freelance - Ep 1 - 7 ways to find freelance clients

Welcome to 15 Minute Freelancer, your snack-sized guide to being your own boss and building a business and life you love. I'm your host Louise Shanahan. My LinkedIn bio says I'm a freelance health copywriter. But for the next 15 minutes I'll be tickling your ears with practical strategies behind the scenes stories and nuggets of wisdom so you can create freelance business that works for you. Whether you're just starting out or you've been self-employed for a while, I'll be right here with you to help me navigate the ups and downs of freelancing life. So grab a coffee relax and join me for 15 minutes of freelancing fun. Don't forget to hit subscribe. 

Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of 15 Minute Freelancer. I'm your host, Louise Shanahan, and I’m a freelance health copywriter. And I'm so grateful that you're joining me today. I'm really hoping that you can't hear the builders outside my window, but we'll see how it goes. If you've been in the freelancing game for a while, or you're just thinking about making the leap to self-employment and the wonderful world of being your own boss, welcome, this podcast is for you. I hope!

If I've managed to hook up my intro properly, then you should have heard the lowdown on what this is about. Basically, my somewhat ambitious plan is to give you everything you need to build a sustainable freelance business you love, in weekly snack-sized bites. I'll be sharing my own experiences as a freelance copywriter, the lessons I've learned along the way and some I have stolen from freelance friends. And I'll be working through some of the questions that I'm facing now as I grow my business (hashtag build in public), which hopefully will be useful for you too. 

If you enjoy this, which I really hope that you will, please leave a review, subscribe, share, Tweet at me, stalk me on Instagram, send me questions on LinkedIn, I'm basically everywhere. Except Clubhouse, but who cares about that? 

I'll do an episode on my freelance origin story another time. I don't know about you, but I'm always really curious about how people got into this game. But today, I want to get straight down to business. And I think the number one thing that you need as a freelancer is clients. Preferably, they will be clients who pay you well, who have exciting and challenging projects for you to work on, who are fun to work with, and who email you regularly to tell you that they love your work. I always like those emails. But if you're just starting out, then finding clients is usually the biggest stress. 

I remember when I was first starting. That was definitely the biggest question – how am I going to find clients? Where are they? Everyone else seems to just have them piling into their inboxes. And when you do find your first client, maybe it feels like it was just luck. And you're not really sure if you'll find another. Even if you've been doing this a while there might be dry spells where an existing client changes their plan and maybe ends their contract with you. Or for some reason, things have maybe just gone a bit quiet in your inbox. It can be a little bit frustrating sometimes if you see other people popping up in Slack groups and Facebook groups and posting about how they've got all these great leads, but they're just too busy to take them on. Or maybe you see someone Tweeting about being booked up for the next six months and you're like, how does that actually work? How do you book up freelancing clients for months and months on end? That was definitely something that I wondered about when I was first starting. And honestly now sometimes! 

Or maybe that was you in the past and for some reason (hello 2020, 2021) it's just gone a bit quiet. So, it's that feast and famine thing, isn't it? You're either snowed under or your inboxes like a frozen tundra. I don't know if tundras… tundra. Is that the right word? Are there any freelance geologists listening? You can let me know. And so yeah, I know this last year has been especially tough for a lot of small businesses. I thought the question of how and where to find clients and how to keep a steady flow of leads coming in would be a good one for us to kick off with. Clients really are the bedrock of your business, aren't they? I'm getting into the geology theme today. 

Today, in this first episode of 15 Minute Freelancer (check me sneaking in the name there), I'm going to share seven easy-ish ways to find clients even in a pandemic. These are all things that I've done myself too, so I can vouch for the fact that they work. I might touch on a couple of other things that I know other people do. But really, I want to keep this podcast to things that I actually do myself, so you can trust what I'm saying. 

The first tip is a mindset one. I see so many people holding back from promoting their business because they feel icky about selling. And that is so common and so normal. But the problem is, clients aren't going to know why or how to hire you unless you tell them. So, if you feel awkward about selling, or you just really don't want to put yourself out there – I'm afraid this is time for the tough talk – you really need to get over that. You don't need to be making any big sales pitches, but you do need to be confident and believe in what you're offering and be able to talk about it confidently. 

The best thing about being your own boss, which is what you're doing when you're freelancing is that you get to decide how you do the things in your business. But you do need clients, you can't really get around that fact you do need to be able to sell so whether that's in person, or on a call or in emails, or whatever it is, you do need to have a way to talk about your offering feel confident about selling it. So have a system have a script if you need to make it a game if you need to. Have an alter ego, if that makes it easier. Anything that helps you get over the awkwardness and get into that selling mindset. If you feel awkward about coming across as salesy, just remember that you're offering a service that people need. 

What helps me to do this is just to remove all emotion or judgement from the process. It's just part of the job. Here's what I can offer, take it or leave it. No offence taken, no assumptions about why someone might have failed to reply or why someone said no, or they think I'm too expensive or whatever. Just on to the next one, we're not a good fit, that's fine. Maybe we'll come back and future. It's fine. On to the next one. Like I say, you get to decide which activities you want to do to generate leads, but you do have to do it in some way or another. It's maybe worth me mentioning Tom Albrighton, who's a brilliant copywriter has a book called freelancing for introverts, I think that's the title. So that might be a good resource to check out if you just really do not feel comfortable putting yourself out there. It's packed with ideas. I'll put a note in the in the show notes. 

Okay, so second tip: tell people you're available. It’s kind of linked to that first one. And people aren't going to know that they can hire you unless you make it obvious. I got my very first client on Facebook, back in the days when we still liked Facebook. I'd previously done a really quick article for someone for 50 quid or something, which I'm sure lots of people start out with. And that was obviously not going to be much of a business plan for me. So, I just posted on Facebook that I was starting this business, like, “Hi, I'm going to be doing copywriting for health brands...” And I just, I felt so awkward about putting it out there. I was like, “Oh, this is so embarrassing. What are my friends gonna think? What are my distant relatives gonna think? As if that matters! And an old school friend got in touch. It turned out that she worked at a marketing agency. I know, what a coincidence. She said they were looking for a writer. And interestingly, she said, “I'm so sorry. Unfortunately, we have a really small budget, we can only pay £300 per article. “And I was like, “Oh, okay, that's how this works.” 

Obviously, people charge all sorts of prices for articles. But compared to £50, I was like, “Okay, I can do this, this is a possibility.” So, I signed a retainer with them, and was on my way. The moral of that story, if you like, is really just to post everywhere. Tell your family and friends, mention it in passing, you just never know who might need someone who provides your service or might know anyone else who might need your service. You have to make it clear that you're open to referrals. 

Make sure that your offer is clear as well. Make it obvious how you can help people and how they can get in touch with you. People want to help you. I think that's the nicest thing. You might worry that some people will scoff at you or something if you post that you're looking for work, but really most people want to help you. Anyone who doesn't, I mean, you need to unfriend them. 

Okay, so tip three is word of mouth. I get most of my clients who word of mouth, which in my opinion, is really the ideal way because it's far less work. But it doesn't happen by accident. Obviously, you have to be doing a great job for your clients, you have to deliver for them. You have to be reliable, and you know, nice and friendly to work with, all of that. But you can nudge along by asking for referrals. It might happen naturally. But mention to them that if they happen to know anyone else who might need your help, then you're open to that. 

It's a great way to get referrals because those new clients will trust what your existing clients are saying. It's that social proof thing. And it's a win for your clients too. It's a huge win for them. They get to feel good about being helpful. They get to be the one in the know with their peers recommending this amazing copywriter, or designer, or photographer or whatever it is you do, and that cost them nothing. It's a really easy way for them to do something positive. 

I know some people use referral programmes, where you may offer people a percentage of the rate, if they refer you on to someone. I've never actually done that, so I'm not going to tell you to do it. But it might be something worth looking into if you want something that's a little bit more structured. 

I'll just drop in here that one of the things that I do to ask people for those referrals is, at the end of each project, I send a little thank you video. It's a really basic template that I made in Biteable, and I tailor it to the client. And it's just a really cute little message saying, “thank you for working with me, it was great fun, I hope that you have great success as a result” and all this kind of thing. And then it says, “if you know anyone else who needs a copywriter, then do let me know, do pass my name on or whatever.” There's a free template on Biteable – they actually turned it into a template ­– so I can post a link to that, and you're very welcome to steal it and use it for yourself.

Number four is networking. Building relationships, again. Building on this idea of word of mouth and putting yourself out there. This is really the best way to find work. It's the network effect. If you are known for a service, and especially if you have a niche within your industry, you become the go-to for that. So that was really one of the reasons why I positioned myself as a health copywriter rather than a generalist. Anybody else who gets leads for a health-related project that they can’t take on, could send it to any of their generalist copywriting friends, and I'm sure they do an amazing job. But hopefully, I will stick in their mind as the health copywriter. They associate my name with that, and they come to me first. That's the plan anyway, and it has worked really well up to now. 

So, I would encourage you to network, be known for something and befriend these busy people in your network. It could be other small businesses in your area. Or it could be other freelancers who are doing the same kind of work as you so that when they have too many leads, they might come your way. 

You could even consider partnering with someone who has a complimentary service. I've done this in the past where, as a website copywriter, I have teamed up with brand designers and website designers so that we can offer clients a kind of package deal. And that way you're capitalising on the leads and the networks that they have too so networking, building relationships, joining groups is really the number one way to get clients. 

Number five is be consistently visible and helpful on social media. And I know some people probably have mixed feelings about social media and I get that, but really, you are your brand. You need to be out there, you need to be visible. So, you need to position yourself as an expert and the go-to person for questions about whatever your area of expertise is.

I always think it's good to lead with value first. You don't need to overthink it. Value doesn't have to be like ‘five actionable tips’ all the time. And it's kind of funny because that's sort of what I'm doing here. But it doesn't always have to be these actionable tips. Just something that's useful, entertaining, be funny, or amplifying other people, curating information... There are loads of ways to provide value to people. What you're trying to do is partly about building relationships again, but really about being visible, and being helpful, and being known for something. 

Don't overthink it. Don't worry too much about a complicated content marketing strategy. Just hit send and go. Engage with people. Press publish. Don't think about it, just get it done. And the more that you do it, the more comfortable you will be. 

If you're writing blog posts, if you have case studies, if you have a portfolio of your work, you really can't share it enough. Honestly, just keep posting on social media whenever you have the opportunity. You always want to just be top of mind for when someone is thinking that they might need to hire someone like you. 

Number six. We're getting through these quickly. I'm really conscious of trying to do this within 15 minutes. Okay, so number six is reaching out to previous clients. This is one that I think people forget about quite a bit. Don't wait for your previous clients to get in touch. Just because you did a project together and it finished doesn't mean that that's the end of it. There's so much value in just checking in now and then to say hello. You can refer back to the work that you did together and remind them of what that was like. Show them an opportunity to reuse that work or build on it now. Maybe you might see something in the media or you see something come up where you think, “Oh, this thing that we worked on together would work really well in this situation.” Or maybe you want to give them a suggestion for a way to reuse something that you worked on together, help them get more out of the work that you've done together already. Remind them that you're there that basically, that's what it comes down to. You'll be surprised how many people suddenly remember that the need your services, when they see your name pop back up in their inbox. 

And again, like I always say, ask for referrals. Say to them, “Hey, we had a great time working on your project together last year…”, maybe drop in a few points about what that was like or mention the successes that they had with it, and just say, “oh, by the way, I'm open to new work, I've got some space coming up over the next few months if you know anyone who’d likes something similar, do pass on my name.” That's all you have to do. It's that simple. And you never know, they might need you again themselves. So that's definitely a great way to get more clients. 

And you've already warmed them up. You've already got the relationship. You're not starting from scratch there: you know what it's like to work with them, you know that they pay, you don't need to worry like, “Are they going to be someone I need to be chasing up for invoices”. Probably one of the best ways to find new clients is your existing clients. 

Finally, number seven, kind of along similar lines, is to reach out to leads who went quiet, or who didn't quite make it to the dotted line. I know people have mixed feelings about this. You kind of know how it goes: someone comes into your inbox, and they're really excited about working with you and you say, “sounds great, let's set up a call” or whatever your process is. And then you hear nothing. They just go completely quiet. And I know a lot of people will think at that point, “well, if they were interested, they would get back in touch, and they haven't. So, I'm not wasting my time following up with them.” I actually disagree with that. 

I think for those new leads that come into your inbox, always keep following up. They were interested enough at one point to contact you. You already put in the work to build that relationship, whether that was through your networking or through your inbound marketing, and you're you know, posting on social media or wherever it was. You've already done the work to warm up those leads. So why spend time starting from scratch with new people. 

And, yes, you need to be discerning. Some of these might have tumbled into your archive folder for good reason. But sometimes the situation has changed. Maybe they've got the budget now, or they figured out their strategy, or they've got a new team member who's ready to get going. And maybe the only reason that they hadn't got back in touch with us just because they were busy or you know, there's a pandemic on. Everything's all over the place right now. 

So again, it's about not attaching any emotion or judgement to these things. Sure, if you think this is not a good lead for you, then that's fine. You know, if there are red flags, by all means, ignore, don't bother following up to death. But if it's someone who you felt like might have been a good project, and for whatever reason it didn't get going, why not get back in touch, ask them see what's up? Honestly, filling your day with clients and leads that you already know is the best way to build a sustainable freelance business. 

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned cold pitching or outreach. And that's because I haven't actually done this, thus proving that you don't have to. So, don't panic about it. If you don't want to do that, you don't have to. But I know it does work for a lot of people. And some people do really fun creative things with cold pitching, like sending fun gifts or whatever. And so it does work. 

It's really a numbers game, the more people you ask, the more likely someone will bite so you can think of it as collecting No’s: the more No’s you get, the closer you are to Yes. I hear people say this quite a lot. And I really like that idea. They don't know you though, so you do need to offer some value, maybe with a free consultation or a resource or something.

I believe Bree Weber has a brilliant Cold Pitch Workshop that breaks down how to draft outreach emails, so that might be a resource to have a look at. 

But as I say, it's not something that I really rely on. I prefer the inbound approach, because people are choosing to work with you. That's also why I haven't mentioned jobs sites. It can be a good way to find work, but it's not one that I tend to use. I'm not a huge fan of sites like Upwork or Fiverr, although many people do find good clients on there. You're just competing with so many other people and you don't have the same opportunity to shape the project as you do if you're using one of the more relationship-based approaches. Personally, I prefer inbound marketing because people are choosing us specifically, they're not just like, “Oh, I need someone to fix my website or take my photos.” They want you to do it. And I think that's where the real value is. 

So, there you have it! Seven ways to find freelance clients in 2021. And remember, this is about fixing the roof when the sun is shining. Even if you're a fully booked with clients right now, don't forget to keep your project pipeline flowing. My challenge to you this week is to set aside 15 minutes to do just one thing to keep those leads coming in and let me know how you get on. 

Well, that's episode one in the bag. Thank you so much for listening. I would love a review, or hit subscribe on whatever platform you're using. Do come and find me on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. I'm Louise Shanahan on all those, sometimes as an underscore, but you'll find me, and let me know how you're getting on. If you're curious about my freelance help copywriting business, you can have a Snoop at my website and sign up for the newsletter at thecopyprescription.com. Thank you and see you next time.