Did you sit down at your desk today ready to find new clients but aren’t sure where to start? You aren’t alone. I’ve been in your shoes not that long ago when I realized I had no work on the calendar last September. I’ve learned a lot things the hard way over the past 15 years of freelancing, most of it by doing it the wrong way at first.

To help you save time and stress, I created a five-week plan that gives you the road map to design a business that works for you and then create a roadmap to build that business. You can use this five-week plan to kick off the new year or at any time that you want to ramp up your marketing. Long time blog readers might recognize this post from years past. But I’ve revamped the plan significantly based on the three pillars of finding new clients that I shared yesterday.

The first week focuses on setting your goals and creating a plan Then the next three weeks you will tackle inbound marketing, outbound marketing and work on building your referral network. And during the last week, I will help you create systems to help you keep your efforts going throughout the year.

Week 1: Setting Your Goals 

Before you start contacting potential clients and drumming up work, it’s important to take some time to determine where you want to go and how to best get there.

• Set your goals. Start by setting an income goal for the year and then figure out how much you need to earn each month and each week. Check out this post for a step-by-step guide on how to set your goal. You should also set a goal for your personal writing, work-life balance goals, and a career bucket list goal.
• Decide what your best year ever looks like. Having your best year ever means more than making a crap ton of money. Now that you have your goals, it’s time to figure out your ideal freelance business. This post walks you through designing your best year ever. Don’t skip this step. You are not really successful if you make a lot of money but are miserable.
• Think about your perfect client. You don’t just need new clients; you need clients who are going to provide you with regular work and with whom you enjoy working. I think that one of the biggest keys to success is only working with clients that are a match for you. Use this post to help you determine your perfect client and then look for clients that match this profile during your marketing efforts.
• Consider adding a new niche. Based on a survey I conducted a few years ago, pay varies pretty dramatically based on niche, so your income potential is tied partially to your niche. So consider adding a higher-paying niche to earn more. Find a new niche in your clips, on your resume, or from one of your hobbies. Or add a technology or B2B focus to an existing niche – odds are that you already have some clips that will work.
• Send out emails to your current clients and past clients letting them know you have availability. Yes, this is technically marketing. But checking in is always my first step when I launch a marketing campaign so I decided to add it to Week 1. Be sure to let them know about any new niches or experience you’ve gained since you last worked together. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a lot of work from these emails. Most businesses are planning for the new year and digging out from the holiday vacation. But the point is to be on their minds and in their inbox before work hits their desk. Go back as far as two or three years. Check out this post for a template to use.

Week 2: Inbound Marketing

Before you begin reaching out, you want your marketing to be as up-to-date and polished as possible. The last thing you want is for you to send a great LOI to your dream client and then decide not to hire you after looking at your outdated website. By setting up your inbound marketing to appeal to clients likely to hire you, you also make it easy for clients that you don’t know are looking for writers to find you.

• Update your website. Spend some time updating your website so that potential clients have the best first impression and know why they should hire you from the site. Check out your About Me page to make sure it is accurate and compelling. Be sure to also add new clips to your portfolio and organize them by niche if you have multiple. And if the overall design is either out of date or no longer represents your business, make a plan to hire a website designer this year for a redesign. My website has gotten out of data and I plan on a total overall this year.
• Refresh your LinkedIn profile. Look at your LinkedIn profile to make sure that it includes all of your niches and past clients. If you have a primary niche, add your niche to your title, such as B2B Technology Freelance Content Writer. Check out this post for other ways to help clients find you on LinkedIn.
• Update portfolio sites. If you have portfolios on sites such as Skyword and Contently, take a few minutes to add any new clips and niches to your sites.

Week 3: Outbound Marketing

Now that you’ve gotten your inbound marketing ready for prime time, you are ready to begin reaching out to new potential clients. Unless all of your work already comes to you through referrals and clients finding you online then you will likely need to reach out to potential clients through email or LinkedIn, which is referred to as outbound marketing.

• Look for ways to outsource creating a contact list. Finding contact information and companies to target is time-consuming. If you have a VA or are the parent of a college or high school kid, creating a contact list is a great task to outsource. And then you can focus on your outreach not finding companies or agencies in your niche as well as contact information.
• Make a list of content marketing agencies to contact. Start with local agencies and agencies specializing in your niche. Check out this post for lists to use to start your search.
• Use the Audience First method to create a list of direct businesses to contact. Read this post and actually take the time to make the lists. Every writer who goes through this exercise comes up with new client ideas that they had never considered. It really is worth the time and effort.
• Write an LOI (Letter of Introduction) for each niche. Many writers mistakenly write LOIs that are much too long. Or they spend 30 to 45 minutes on each LOI making it impossible to send out a high volume. Start by using my 5(ish) sentence LOI to create a base template and then customize your LOI for each niche. Because you will not hear back from many of the LOIs I do not recommend personalizing each LOI. However, if you do hear back from an LOI that is when it makes sense to spend extra time researching the company and personalizing the LOI to their specific needs.
• Begin sending out your weekly allotment of LOIs. Get into a routine for days of the week and time of day. The more you turn sending LOIs into a habit, the easier it will be. Check out this post for a step-by-step approach.

Week 4: Build Your Referral Network

Your referral network is one of your biggest assets. But it takes time and effort to build and cultivate. While I’ve listed these tasks under this week, you should actually focus on each of these activities every week or two. However, your efforts should focus on helping people in your network not just getting work. By nurturing and growing your network throughout the year, you will soon find that work begins coming to you with very little effort.

• Ask for referrals from current clients. This is by far the most effective marketing strategy that I’ve used, tied with referrals from other freelancers. Check out this post for details on exactly how to ask for referrals. If you work for a lot of agencies and aren’t directly asking for work on other projects, then you are leaving money on the table. Because agencies often work in teams, other project managers may not be aware of my skills, but when asked my clients will send an email to the other teams letting them know about my availability. A single email often lands me tens of thousands of dollars worth of work on other projects with the same company.
• Find lost editors and reach out. Many times I’ve worked with an editor and then they moved to another company. But I’ve learned over the years that if they hired me at one company then they will likely hire me to work at their new job. Find the editor on LinkedIn and reach out to see if they use freelancers and if they aren’t hiring in their new role ask if they can introduce you. In the best cases, you keep the original client and gain a new one.
• Reach out to past professional connections. If you used to work full-time, you likely have many people that you previously worked with that now work at companies in your niche. Even if they don’t hire freelancers directly, they can introduce you to the right person. Look up their current position and reach out using LinkedIn. I typically send a short message letting them know I’m freelancing and asking if their company uses freelancers. Almost everyone has been happy to hear from me and even happier to help connect me to the right person.
• Attend events and conferences. Look for events, such as ASJA virtual conferences as well as American Marketing Associate events and marketing-related meetups. There really is no substitute for meeting someone face to face, either in person or on video. And if you are in ASJA, be sure to attend our weekly coffee chats to get to know other members. You have to put yourself out there to meet the people that you need in your network to grow your business. Not only will you meet people who will send work your way, but other freelancers are the only people who truly understand the ups and downs of this crazy life we’ve chosen.
• Find an accountability buddy or group. I am positive my career would nowhere be what it is without my accountability buddy (who is now one of my closest friends). The relationship can be whatever you need – daily, weekly or monthly check-ins. If you don’t have someone to ask, post in the Freelance Content Marketing Writer group on Facebook and odds are high you will find a match.
• Look for ways to refer work to other writers. The best way to build a referral network with other writers is to send work their way. If you know writers in your niche, offer to refer them to clients of yours that are hiring. You can also even just send writer friends links to job postings and calls for pitches that you run across. If you see a job posting on FB that is up their alley, tag them in the post to make sure that they see it. Next time that the writer sees a gig that might be a fit for you, they will be much more likely to return the favor and send the work your way.

Week 5: Pulling it All Together

You’ve done the hard part – you got started. But now you have to do the next step – continuing your efforts throughout the year. Marketing shouldn’t be something you do once in a while, but instead tasks that you do throughout the year without even thinking about it.

• Create a system and routine for following up. Since you are sending out LOIs daily or weekly, you need to also incorporate following up into your routine. Figure out what works for you and stick with it.
• Determine daily, weekly, and monthly marketing activities. There is no right or wrong answer, just what works for you. For example, you can decide to send out 25 LOIs every week, reach out to 5 personal connections each week, attend weekly accountability meetings with your new writer group and update your website with new clips every month. You want to continue this habit throughout the year. Keep adjusting until you get a schedule that works for you.
• Make changes as needed. As you move through the past few weeks, you’ve likely started to see that some marketing activities work better for you than others. You should focus on what is working for you. Each of us has different strengths, goals, and ideal clients so the type of marketing that works for me is going to be slightly different than you. By constantly re-evaluating what is working and not working, you will quickly begin seeing more positive results.

You’ve finished. Or actually you’ve just begun. But you’ve got the foundation you need for each of the three pillars of finding new clients to get you on the road to a higher income and less stress. The good thing about this five-week plan is that you can pull it out anytime in the year when you need a jump start and you have the roadmap you need to get back on track.

Which of the activities described in this plan work best? Do you have any questions about putting this roadmap into action?