How to Get Freelance Clients with Your Website – 7 Ways
The marketing plan of many freelancers today is selling their services on freelance websites such as Upwork and Fiverr. Yes, they indeed earn proposals and contracts from trusted clients on such websites consistently. So if you’re going to follow their method, you’ll definitely meet clients regularly. However, sometimes it’s good to try things differently to stand out. What we meant by that previous sentence is to use your website as a means to attract clients.
How to Get Freelance Clients with Your Website – 7 Ways
Your website can open doors of opportunity to expand your clientele faster than the averaged freelancer. You probably just didn’t realize it up until now. So if you’re willing to take action, we’ll show you seven ways how you can get clients using your website.
Publish Blogs
For many businesses wishing to establish a strong online reputation, blogging is always a part of their operations. The contents of their blogs aren’t direct selling, but rather informative and helpful to their target audience. However, the topics of their blogs are still related to the type of product or service they’re offering. For example, a software company that sells anti-virus programs wants to gather attention among its target market. The company’s marketers do so by publishing numerous blogs about computer security and data protection. When their audience reads their blogs and deems them helpful, they could build trust towards the software company and might consider availing their services.
As you can see, blogs can help you establish a connection with people through your website. They’ll be acquainted with your manner of thinking as a freelancer. If your audience likes how you show useful information, they could become your clients in time. Make sure to publish blogs that are relevant to your niche.
Post Vlogs
Vlogs are just like blogs but in video rather than in written form. They’ll cost you more money, but if you have the budget and the tools to create presentable vlogs, go for it. Vlogs are more interactive and engaging compared to blogs, especially for audiences who aren’t into reading. However, vlogs are more challenging to create. You need to spend time reading your script and practicing your lines. Plus, you have to show your jolly personality during shooting to keep your audience hooked. And, you also need to feature authentic materials if your vlogs are more on tutorial or instructional.
The edge that vlogging has over blogging is that it allows you to have a stronger connection with your audience. Your interaction with your audience is more real and genuine, like two people having a casual conversation. That’s the reason why Youtubers with quality video content are garnering thousands and millions of subscribers. So, we strongly encourage you to make vlogging a part of your game plan.
Display Your Portfolio
Without your portfolio, your website isn’t a website that emphasizes your status as a freelancer. The visitors to your site will want to see a preview of your productivity to know your skill level. So, if you haven’t made your portfolio yet, start gathering your previous freelance work and compile them as one.
Among the functions of your website is boosting the promotion of your service, which requires a portfolio. Make sure to showcase only your best works, those that hit every criterion of a client’s checklist of expectations. Other than that, your portfolio will make your website an interesting place to visit. Prospective clients could come flocking into your site’s traffic to view your portfolio and consider hiring you. Receiving emails from clients offering you a job is the next thing that could happen.
Include other important info on your portfolio as well, such as quotation estimates of your services and short descriptions of your past work.
Link Your Site to Your Social Media Pages
Aside from freelance websites like Upwork and Fiverr, clients are also tracking for available freelancers using social media platforms. Well, in that case, you should link your website to your social media accounts. That’s one good way to direct them into your website. And for every blog, vlog, or any publication you’ll post, feature a sneak peek of them on your social media timeline along with their links. With the help of social media, your website can reach out to a broader audience, or it could even reach global levels. Always remember that having a social media presence is one of the tips for freelance workers.
Offer Freebies
As a freelancer, part of your goals is either to earn a decent income, earn a steady income, and increase your income, which is as expected. After all, having an income is every person’s motivation to do work. Now, offering freebies on your site might seem to hinder your goal of maximizing your income, but it doesn’t.
Yes, freebies are an additional cost, but it helps in attracting more clients. Offering freebies is a way of winning the trust of the people. For example, if you’re a freelance technical writer, you can offer a simple template document you’ve written as free to download. Creating sample products as your freebies can be more work on your busy schedule. But, the many clients they’ll attract will be worth your time.
Use SEO Techniques
An analysis report from FitSmallBusiness.com states that search engines bring more than 50% of traffic for websites. That said, search engines such as Google will play a role in bringing visitors to your site. However, you have to do your part by using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. SEO is a broad topic with many branches.
Using SEO techniques will help improve the ranking of your website on search engines. Potentially, your site could make it on the first page of many search results if you can execute them well enough. We all know fact that people rarely go to the second or third pages of search results. So, as much as possible, making it on the first page should be the goal.
To learn more about SEO, you can research all about it or enroll in an online course. Or, you can consult with an SEO specialist to help your website’s ranking.
Enhance the Look of Your Site
Of course, for your website to give you clients, it has to look good aesthetically. If your website looks dull, it’s uninteresting to visit, and it won’t seem legitimate. If a visitor happens to visit your lifeless-looking website, he or she will undoubtedly close it after a few seconds of browsing. So, make sure to bring some vibrance and personality to your site. Add some designs, color schemes, quality background images, and artistic font styles. You can use website templates for this matter, or you can hire a web designer.
The freelancing population is growing fast and showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. With that in mind, the race among freelancers to obtain clients is becoming more competitive. You can outpace all of them by optimizing and utilizing your website’s full capability. In the long run, you’ll enjoy the many benefits of freelancer jobs sooner rather than later.