Note from Jennifer: Thank you so much to everyone who participate in the Find a New Niche Challenge, both posting their own niches and giving others ideas. John Morell is the lucky winner of the $25 Amazon Gift Card. Even though the drawing is over, we still have a great discussion going on and it’s not too late to give or get ideas. 

I knew that as soon as I scheduled a mid-December vacation that I would get a flurry of new potential clients as I was trying to wrap up for the year. Because that’s always how it goes as a freelancer. You have too much work or too little, almost never the perfect amount. I know I am not alone in this strange and unnerving phenomenon.

Over the past two years, I have finally achieved what I consider to be the goal of being a freelancer: getting to a point where the majority of your work comes to me instead of constantly searching for work. But I realized that phrasing it this way makes it sound like I am not marketing myself. In actuality, even though I’m not actively sending out 50 Letters of Introductions like I used to do when I got started or like I did last year when things got slow in the dreaded month of January, I do many small marketing activities all the time that contribute to clients seeking me out and contacting me with offers of work.

It’s hard to explain or quantify it, since I really don’t think about it anymore, it’s just second nature – which is also the goal. So today, I thought I would illustrate how the last five clients found me in hopes that it will help you get to the point where work comes to you. It’s easy to think that the pinnacle of freelancing is achieving a certain income goal or writing for top-tier publications, but I think that the real bar of success is developing such a good reputation and marketing program that clients seek you out.

Some of these clients I am currently working with, others I’m still talking with and another I turned down because of the pay rate. But it is a lot less time-consuming to weed through the people contacting you to find the great gigs than to spend hours searching for markets and clients.

Here are five potential new clients that recently found me:

1. An agency saw my work on a high-profile brand blog. Earlier this fall, I got an email offering me a $1 per word gig that has turned into ongoing work. Once I got on the phone with the potential client, I asked how he found me and he said he saw my work on HPE Matter, an online magazine produced by a brand with over 700,000 unique visitors a month.This has happened to me several times and almost always results in a great new client. Many people looking for writers will check out similar publications and brands, and then contact writers whose work they like.

Takeaway: While you shouldn’t take a really low-paying gig, sometimes it is worth taking an average or slightly below-average-paying gig for a high-profile brand or publication that you think may lead to more work.

2. A business followed up on our meeting between sessions at Content Marketing World with a project. After I went to Content Marketing World, I sent LinkedIn requests to everyone I met and pretty much everyone accepted them. Out of the blue, one of the people I met contacted me about potential ongoing work, and we are going to talk next week.

Takeaway: Leave your house occasionally for in-person networking opportunities, and to attend industry conferences in your niche, association meetings, meetups where potential clients may be and writer conferences that have editors attending. Although there is so much virtual technology, there really is no substitute for talking with someone face-to-face.

3. A current client remembered me mentioning that I also wrote about finance and offered me a gig with another of its clients. I always try to tell my agency clients about other niches that they may not even know that I have experience in, and I let them know that I am interested in other projects because I like working with them so much. Getting work on other projects with agencies that I am currently working with has been my most successful tactic for getting new gigs and ongoing work. I assumed that since my other niches are listed on my website and LinkedIn that my current clients already knew my other areas of expertise, but I’ve learned that this is not true.

Takeaway: Let current agency clients know about your other niches and remind them every so often that you are open to work. This is always my first step if I need more work quickly – asking current agency clients if they have other projects that are a fit for my skills.

4. A content marketing manager sent me a DM on Twitter after I followed him. Over the past year, I have really focused on being less lame on Twitter and have grown my followers from around 750 to over 5,000. Several clients have commented that one of the reasons they hired me was a solid social media following, and I earned $3,000 this fall through an agency that contacted me after seeing a tweet of mine. I work hard to share information about content marketing that I think is useful as well as sharing my own posts occasionally. Every week, I follow content marketing managers who may be looking for writers now or in the future. One of the people I followed two weeks ago sent me a DM last week asking to set up a time to talk about their freelance needs.

Takeaway: Follow people on Twitter who are likely to be the same people who would hire you, and make sure you share content that shows your expertise in this area.

5. I followed up with an editor after I noticed that she viewed my LinkedIn profile. Every time I do this I feel a bit like a stalker, but honestly it is very effective. I did this last week and the editor immediately got back in touch with me to set up a call. On the phone, she told me she really appreciated me following up and that she was interested in me. She added that she probably wouldn’t have initially contacted me because she thought I would not want the gig – it was for a trade publication instead of content marketing.

Takeaway: Follow this step-by-step post on using the Who’s Viewed Your Profile feature on LinkedIn.

 

How do clients find you? Are clients coming to you or are you always finding them? What tactics have worked to help clients find you?