18 Simple Ways that will always get you more customers

Business goes hand in hand with client and customers’ relationship. The main idea of every business is to get customers and customers and more customers. You start a small business, the first question arise how to get customers, you gain few customers and the question arises how to gain more customers and the same question goes on repeating. It cannot be denied that behind every business the major idea is to bring customers and thus make profit. Now, profit will come when customer comes and thus bringing customers become the most important task of a business owner. It works the same way for freelancers. Freelancers are those who manage their own work and thus handle their freelancing business of their own. It is even more necessary for freelancers because unlike office staffs your work will not be offered in your desk, on the contrary after completion of every project you need to search for new clients and new work. Thus, getting clients and work is like the basic element of survival for freelancers. Clients are like customers who place an order of some work to freelancers and the freelancers need to complete it and satisfy the client with quality work. This is the winning mantra for freelancers but to do a quality work, first you need to gain customers. You cannot expect everyone to know about you and your work at the first hand. You have to speak about yourself loud enough to make everyone realize your presence. This article is based on certain techniques which you can follow to bring more customers and more work for yourself. Here are 18 simple yet very important ways following which you can bring in more clients and more work.

1. Posting profile in job search boards: As a freelancer you should always be updated with your profiles in job search boards. This is the simplest way where you put your profile and what you are fit for and you can get work that suits your capability. Create a proper profile including important things given below:

• Put your business name and qualification

• Mention your skills clearly

• Mention your specializations

• Mention your experiences of work

• Update all recent projects and so on.

Many job sites also offer you certain exams through which you can prove your skills and thus add a qualification for yourself. Try such online exams and make your profile look better and impressive. For a freelancer the best job sites are: www.odesk.com, www.freelancer.com, www.elance.com and so on.

2. Asking for a reference: When you are starting with freelancing one of the best ways you can approach clients is by asking for a reference. For starters one will find it difficult to trust you and give you a project. In such cases a reference that he or she knows or is familiar with will help as a sort of guarantee against you. Thus, references do help you get work.

3. Branding yourself: Branding yourself is a very important factor that you should achieve in order to become a successful freelancer. You have to create a brand ‘you’ and spread it so that customers know about your existence in the business. Branding is also about making yourself big and when you are big work will definitely flock to you. Thus, create a brand of your own and showcase your specialties. While branding the most important element is the name and therefore you should be very careful while creating a name. Below are few tips to create a good name.

• Create a good name that speaks about your business and skills

• Keep it short yet catchy

• Keep it unique

• Make it simple to pronounce

• Make it easy to memorize and so on.

Follow these tips and create a name and thereafter advertise your brand through referrals, advertising, blogging, networking and so on and brand yourself.

4. Stay in contact with past and current clients: It is very important to maintain a healthy relationship within a profession. You should be in good contact with your clients not just because it is a professional etiquette but also because it earns you work. Always be in touch with both your past and present contacts. Your work quality and caliber will be best known to them and therefore they will not hesitate to refer you to their friends at times. Also you should be in contact with your past clients so that everything the client has a work and it suits you, you earn the work. Thus, this helps two ways round: getting you new works and making referrals for you to their friends.

5. Organize a referral program: You can organize a referral program and gain traffic from that. You can set up a referral system on your registering page where your existing customers can make a reference to their friends and family. Give away some offers or discount along with each referrals and thus make your reference a tempting offer itself.

6. Maintain a website: One of the best ways to make yourself known to your clients and get yourself work is managing a website. Create a website based on your fields and start marketing it. Start giving away ‘tutorials’ and ‘how to’ which help and market your website well enough so that clients reach there, see your work and comes to you. Here are few tips to manage a good website:

• Create a short yet catchy name

• Put your domain name related to your business

• Create a striking logo

• Maintain a portfolio of yourself in your site

• Publish worthy articles

• Optimize you site well

• Market your site  

7. Writing articles and blogging: This is another simplest way of getting yourself more work. Start writing articles and blogging and share your knowledge and let the world know about your skills. If you know a client and that person owns a website try out posting informative articles on the “contribute article” section if there any. This will help the client know about you and your work better. Thus, writing article and blogging is an important way to get clients and earn work.

8. Emailing: You can gather clients by emailing to them and approaching through it about work. Talk about your skills and ask if there is any opportunity and also do mention your website, logo and phone number at your signature while emailing so that the client can know much about your work by following you.

9. Social and professional networking sites: Make profile in social and professional networking sites, manage it and improve your network. You can use www.linkdin.com, www.facebook.com, www.twitter.com and so on and be in touch with more people of your field. Be active and smart in using these sites to utilize it best for your professional earning.

10. Attend online and offline events: Make a habit of attending events both online and offline. This is the best way you can meet more people and make yourself known to others. Do not hesitate to share your ideas and opinions. Speak and listen well and thus improve contact by attending such events. You can maintain distributing business cards to the person you meet. Make sure your business cards reflect your name, contact and skills clearly.

11. Advertise yourself: Promoting or advertising is a cool way of getting more work. Few important tips of promoting is given below:

• List yourself in yellow pages

• Advertise in sites which are frequented by your clients

• Submit in online directories

• Use online magazine or local newspaper to advertise and so on.

12.  Make press-releases: You can make press-releases to let yourself and your work known to your clients. Include your skills and share important ideas and opinions about hot trends and make it catchy for readers.

13. Participate in discussions: Participate in online and offline debates and discussions based on your work field. Feel free to speak your mind yet being smart and put up your ideas and thus let others know about your bar of knowledge.

14. Organize an event: You can organize an event and invite clients to participate. Utilize the even well to exhibit your work quality and talents and showcase it before your clients.

15. Give away offers: You can try out giving away weekly or monthly offers for clients and thus convince them that they are earning a good work within lesser pay.

16. Use local services: Make use of local services for reference and offer them commission against your referrals. Establish yourself with larger agencies and thus enlarge your business group and be known to more people.

17. Expand your website: Make your site multi-lingual and approach foreign audience as well to widen your contact area and reach to more clients for more work.

18. Sponsor other websites: Sponsor other websites so that by following the other one you can reach out to more people and thus gain more work.

These are 18 simple ways that will always get you more customers and help you gain more work and keep you going in the run of success. Achieve these eighteen points and earn more works for yourself.