Thread by @tom_hirst

How to get freelance clients and keep them.

Everything I've learned.

A thread.

Find your own individual place on the market.

Becoming a copy of someone else will get you some work.

Becoming an expert with specific skills and differentiators will get you quality work.

To get clients, do these things:

1. Scope down your service offering
2. Identify people you want to work with
3. Make yourself known by being obviously outwardly skilled
4. Appear as a consistent quality presence in your industry & forge genuine connections off the back of this

Millions of people are freelancing and competing for clients.

Your goal is to stand out.

Pick a single service type to sell and become the best at it.

"But if I only offer one type of service I'll cut out so many people!?"

Exactly.

Pick something you can do for a long time.

The longer you're visible in a sector, the more valuable you become.

Show sticking power.

Do well yourself what you say you'll do well for others.

Be your first client.

Show proof of quality work.

You can show proof of quality work without having had a client before:

- Create a saleable product
- Write articles that make your expertise obvious
- Self-initiate side-projects and document the skills that you used

When you target everyone with your freelancing services, you target no one.

If you offer multiple widely different services, is it plausibly perceivable that you're an expert in them all?

Perhaps you are (you're probably not),

But it doesn't matter what you think.

It's what someone looking to hire you thinks.

Narrowing down the services you sell is a short-cut to efficiency, the fast-track to charging more and a magnet for attracting quality clients.

And by quality clients, I mean those that are willing to spend money to get things done right.

When you consistently execute tasks within a similar context,

You get better at being quicker,

And you get quicker and being better.

If you can people from A to B, they'll hire you.

If you make the journey painless, they'll hire you again.

When you hold a narrow position, marketing becomes manageable.

Your ideal clients will have many similarities.

This makes going after them easier, cheaper and less time-consuming.

By "going after" clients, I don't mean cold calling people from the phone book.

Although you may get a hit after 100 tries, that's a lot of effort for an often low-quality lead.

If you're going to do outreach, prefer email.

Leverage software to do it quicker.

Use your time to create evergreen assets that prove, increase and retain your value.

This doesn't start and end with your portfolio.

Write about everything that you do.

Favour acts of creating scaleable good-will over time-consuming favours.

Go after the people you'd like to work with by getting your name on their radar tactfully.

Show your relevant skills to be amazing beyond doubt by consistently drip-feeding proof in their channels.

Much of the time, they won't even know that you had a strategy.

Your core capabilities are just one way to stand out.

Make use of other differentiators to attract work:

- Your story
- Your soft skills
- Your personality
- Your style of working
- Your standing in the community

People buy from people.

Build authentic friendships through what you do.

- People you'd like to work with
- Those doing the same thing
- Those in front of you in their careers
- Those behind you in their careers
- Those you admire
- Your competitors

It's good for the soul and it's good for business.

Tell people who you already know about what you do.

You'll be surprised how many viable business connections, and connections of those connections, that you already have.

Talk about your skills openly and with confidence.

Make yourself available.

If you never tell people that you're freelancing, how will they know?

Don't discount your existing social media audiences.

That awkward feeling that using "marketing language" gives you.

Get over it.

Quick.

Freelance job sites can get you a start but prepare for the race to the bottom.

Commit to building your own audience of prospects.

You'll thank yourself for it in the years to come.

Identify your ideal clients.

Find out where they hang out online.

Get your name in their mind through proof of quality work.

Solve specific problems for specific people and the work starts coming to you.

To keep clients, do these things:

1. A good job

Do.
A.
Good.
Job.

Do a job so good that they can't wait to hire you again.

Do a job so good that they can't wait to tell other people about you.

Repay trust tenfold in value.

Doing a good job is the most underused marketing tactic in freelancing.

There are millions of freelancers in the world, but far fewer doing good jobs.

Use this to your advantage.

If you show up prepared and on time, every time, you're in front of many other freelancers.

Do a good job:

- Get done what you said you'd do when you said you'd do it
- Use constructive criticism to improve project outcomes
- Communicate regularly
- Ask clear questions
- Find smart solutions
- Minimise risk
- Provide value

Make your client's life easier, never harder.

Where you can provide big added value for a small fraction of your time:

Do it.

- Show integrity
- Gain credibility
- Raise value

Become irreplaceable.

Proof of quality work is how you get freelance clients.

Proof of quality service is how you keep them.