Freelancer Mini Series: Finding & Attracting Your Dream Client
If you missed the first post in this series, you can read it here: Identifying Your Dream Client.
Once you've identified who your dream client is (the kind of client that just "gets you"), we can start thinking about how we will start attracting them to partner up with you. In order to attract more dream clients, we need to create more focus around what your dream clients are searching for, and tailor our message to pulling them in and engaging them. Here's a few tips on how to start finding and attracting your kind of people:
Be Yourself
Many people are able to decipher between "being sold to" and authentic, genuine people, even from looking at your website or during an initial phone call. I know this sounds clichè, but you have to learn to strike a balance between being professional and competent, and authentic and fun.
If someone has reached out to you, as a freelancer, it's highly likely that they wanted to work directly one-on-one with someone for their project through a more personable approach. They likely didn't hire you to be a robot. Projects are much more enjoyable when you're able to act, speak and think like yourself, rather than who you want to be perceived as. Genuine relationships lead to trust, collaboration and better communication between both parties.
Smart Communication & Copy
Look back at your list of attributes you value in your dream clients. This is going to be important in the next step of finding and attracting your dream clients. Your messaging and personal brand is extremely important when it comes to aligning with what your dream client is searching for. How do you want your dream client to feel when they see your website? What message are you trying to get across?
- Summarize your dream client in 3-4 words. When we start tailoring your services and offerings to your dream client in the next section, this makes it easier to remember exactly who you are trying to appeal to. Here's a few examples to get you started:
- eg. stay-at-home mom's with a side business, eco-conscious entrepreneurs, charity related start ups, health professionals, yoga studio owners, spiritual business owners, struggling restaurant owner, etc.
- How can you become visible to your dream clients? There's a group/website/forum for every industry you can imagine. You want to do some research on where these dream clients are hanging out online and offline.
- For example, if we used the "struggling restaurant owner" as our ideal client, where would "struggling restaurant owners" hang out online? A surprising way to find great feedback from your target audience is to look at reviews on Amazon. This book falls under what your potential dream client might be reading. Read through the reviews and see if there are any patterns in pain points or solutions that the book provided for them. This technique can be applied to any industry.
- For example, if we used the "struggling restaurant owner" as our ideal client, where would "struggling restaurant owners" hang out online? A surprising way to find great feedback from your target audience is to look at reviews on Amazon. This book falls under what your potential dream client might be reading. Read through the reviews and see if there are any patterns in pain points or solutions that the book provided for them. This technique can be applied to any industry.
- What is their biggest problem or pain point? What is stopping your dream client from achieving their goals? What things don't they understand that you can help them with? What keeps them up at night?
- Continuing on from our example above, our "struggling restaurant owner" might be having problems with marketing his restaurant online, setting up online order delivery, getting enough people in at lunch-time or attracting repeat business.
- Continuing on from our example above, our "struggling restaurant owner" might be having problems with marketing his restaurant online, setting up online order delivery, getting enough people in at lunch-time or attracting repeat business.
- What are some actionable tasks you can do every week to attract your dream client? There are many things you can start offering to your dream client to entice them to work with you. One of the easiest things you can do is write, blog and educate them on how you can solve their problems. This will help establish you as an expert in the subject.
- For example, write a blog post about "The 5 Things Struggling Restaurant Owners Are Doing Wrong With Their Website." This is a sure-fire way to gain attention and engage your dream client.
- For example, write a blog post about "The 5 Things Struggling Restaurant Owners Are Doing Wrong With Their Website." This is a sure-fire way to gain attention and engage your dream client.
- Tailor your services & offerings. Now that you're laser-focused on what your ideal client is searching for, you can start to adjust your offerings to attract them.
- For example, maybe you can create a separate landing page or "custom package" that is specifically tailored to restaurant owners.
Replicate Success and Learn From Your Mistakes
Many freelancers who are able to constantly attract their dream clients have a couple things in common:
- They have a creative process they stick to. If you have a creative process that works well, you'll begin to notice patterns in problems that your dream clients come to you with. Good freelancers recognize this and replicate successful solutions they implemented on previous projects.
- They are likeable people who are willing and enthusiastic to share. Whether you are giving your knowledge away for free in a blog post or packaging and selling your content, the more willing you are to share with the world, the more likely you are of repelling bad clients and attracting good ones.