Struggling With Getting Clients in Your Online Business?
Use These 4Helpful Pointers
I remember when I first started rendering my services as a freelancer, I’d go for days without any money because nobody was asking for my services.
I’d read blog posts of other bloggers and they’d be talking about their clients, invoices, income reports and so on. It was all strange to me.
I was reading interesting articles about freelancing, business ownership, client management, blah blah blah and they all seemed alien to me.
The story is different now, and I will share more about my journey one day. These pointers are some of the things I did to start getting clients. But this article is not about me, it’s about how you can go from client-less to fully-booked.
Make it Easy for Them to Contact You
When potential customers land on your website, through whatever means- either via Google search result page (SERP), via an ad, or whether they followed your link, chances are, they’d need your contact details if they liked what they saw.
Your contact details must be easy to spot. I remember when I first started seeing “Discovery Call” buttons on people’s websites, I didn’t know what it meant. So one day, I clicked on the link and saw that it took me to a contact platform. For some, it was a Whatsapp platform, for others, and Instagram DM and for others, an email.
See, people are busy, I don’t think they’ll want to spend 10 minutes fumbling through your website to contact you. They’ll move on as soon as they see that they cannot. But if you don’t have a website, you can use a one-page link-in-bio app. I use Mainstack and I love it. Check out how I designed my Mainstack page here.
Here’s another trick, put your email address on all your social media bios and anyone can reach out to you. Last month, I got an email from someone, who wanted to include me on their platform but couldn’t find my website URL. So she sent me an email to ask.
I replied that my website was offline at the moment and instead sent her a link to my portfolio on Canva. Imagine if my email address had not been there, she may or may not have sent a DM, because, you see, not everyone will send you a DM because they don’t know if you check your DMs or not. So be strategic about your contact online.
Have a Professional Email Address
I used to have a funky email address in those days, I can’t remember what it was, but it was so silly…and sexy (I think). I used it for a while until it was time for me to start sending out my resumes with applications. I struggled with coming up with one.
I wanted to create my personal brand around my name Fisayo Patrick, so first, I created a website with my name, my domain name was (still is) fisayopatrick.com. But because my email address reflected the same name, I left it as it was.
But my new plan is this, when I create my website, I’d have a domain email address like contact@fisayopatrick.com. I want all of my online platforms to scream professionalism.
So your email address should carry the name of your business name or your website domain name. If your website is cutegraphics.com, your email address should be along the lines of info@cutegraphics.com or contact@cutegraphics.com, etc. instead of cutegraphics@gmail.com.
How can you achieve this? When you buy a hosting and domain name for your website, especially if it’s from the same company, use their webmail option to secure an official email for yourself. Some hosting platforms support domain, while for others, you may need to add professional emails to your plan.
Communicate Like a Professional
In other words, communicate like a human being. I want you to take a look at the chats below:
1st Chat:
Prospect: Hello, I’d like to know your price range for copywriting
You: Hello, thank you for reaching out to us, we are not available right now but will be back shortly
Prospect: (5 hours later) Hello, are you back now?
You: Hello, thank you for reaching out to us, how may we help you?
Prospect: I’d like to know your price range for copywriting
You: 50k-70k
Prospect: Okay, can you break that down for me?
You: Pls visit our services page to learn more. For more information, kindly send your query to support@yourbusinessname.com.
2nd Chat:
Prospect: Hello, I’d like to know your price range for copywriting
You: Hello, thanks for reaching out, our prices go between 50k to 70k depending on the kind of project you have
Prospect: Okay, can you break that down for me?
You: Alright. For social media copies, we charge 53k for 3 posts, for email copies, we charge 50k per email, for web copy, we charge 75k. If you want to know more, pls check out this rate card here. Let us know what you think. Thank you.
Who do you think the client will go for?
Professionalism doesn’t mean sounding robotic. You have only one chance to make a first impression on your prospect, use it well and sound like a human being. I know brands use templates to answer queries, but templates can be humanized too, can’t they?
Show Up On Your Online Platforms Regularly
Sometimes, my social media platforms can go for weeks without any posts from me. This usually happens when I’m wrapped up with client work — coming up with content, designing, managing their social media platforms, setting up automations, developing their websites and so on.
These days, I try as much as possible to make sure that I show up online daily. Even if it’s to post just one content on my Instagram page, engage with other people’s tweets and so on.
The strategy that I use is Repurposing. First you come up with a long-form content, usually a blog. The blog post is the platform where other content stem from. Here’s my own method. I use Medium for my longform content because my website is not online at the moment.
I come up with a long-form content like this one on Medium. I then do a summary of the articles and the script them into talking points for YouTube. I then design them as Instagram carousels. I then create Twitter threads with them.
Since I don’t do any client work on weekends, I come up with the content that flows into all my other platforms. The researching, creation, repurposing, designing and scheduling happen during the weekends so that during the week I’ll have time to focus on client work.
Conclusion
Follow these pointers and you may start turning away clients because you’ve been over-booked.
