Want to start freelancing this year? If you’re looking for a career change or recently lost your job, freelancing is an attractive option.
Attractive but scary. Starting a freelance business can be a scary time for anyone to do. You’re going to start running your own business where you’re 100% responsible for leads, sales, finances, and everything else.
There are many pros and cons to freelancing for you to consider. Make sure that you’re 100% dedicated before you begin
IPSE records 2.2 million people in the UK are stating that their main occupation is a freelancer. With the 2020 pandemic, more people chose to start freelancing.
Should You Start Freelancing?
Anyone can start freelancing, but should you? There are many pros and cons to freelancing, but in the end, it all comes down to if you want to be an employee or a freelancer.
A common misconception people have before they embark on their freelancing journey is that you need skills and money, to begin with. But in reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Do You Have Skills To Make It As A Freelancer?
Any good at customer services, sales, graphic design, writing, or a piece of technology? Then you’ve got a skill to monetize.
Just work out how you can package the skill up and sell it.
Don’t have any skills? If you’ve had a real look at your experience and can’t pick a skill you’re good at then you have another option. Another option is to pick a target market that you’re passionate about helping. Helping with a specific problem and deciding what skill they need.
Make money as a freelancer by getting the skills you need with this set of 9 workshops. Click the button in the image below to learn more.
3 Important Skills You Need As A Freelancer
Other skills that you need as a freelancer is
- Resilience
- Networking
- Self motivation
These other skills are rarely spoken about to someone considering freelancing. But they’re so important if you’re going to make it as a freelancer. Make it as a freelancer with these skills so you can get in front of your ideal client and be resilient to any knockback.
It’s not just the knockback, it’s also having to learn to deal with clients. But hey you don’t learn these skills, just take a look at your life skills and learn from those experiences.
Learn from any times when you’ve had to be resilient, chatting on social media to get something, even pitching parents for something you want. We’ve all got life skills. Embrace those life skills and use them to your advantage to make your money.
How I Started Freelancing With No Money
Back in the beginning, I started with nothing but a dream, some skills and a passion. 10 years later, I have no desire to look back and go back into employment.
You too can start with no money and build a freelance business. Of course, money can help but it’s not needed. Just take a look at all the resources you’ve got right now.
Look at how you can use the tools you’ve already got and use these for your freelance business. There are countless amounts of free YouTube videos and podcasts to help you learn the skills to start freelancing. Don’t forget the subscriptions to tools that give you a free trial or even a free forever account.
Free forever accounts such as GetResponse and Tailwind to begin with. Just take a look around at the tools and what free offers they give.
If you’re ready to start your freelancing business, here’s a simple strategy so you can get started in 30 days.
Ultimate Guide To Start Freelancing | Make Your First £1K Online
Choosing A Niche For Your Online Business
Before we begin looking at how to choose a niche or find your niche, we need to be clear on what a niche is.
Accoring to business news daily; a niche is a specialized or focused area of a broader market that businesses can serve to differentiate themselves from the competition.
a niche is a specialized or focused area of a broader market that businesses can serve to differentiate themselves from the competition
business news daily
For your freelancing business, you need to get clarity on your niche, who you’re selling to, and why you’re different. Choosing a niche for your online business can either start with the service you want to offer or the people you want to help. This all starts with breaking down what your niche is.
Breaking Down Your Niche
To start freelancing, yiou need to know what service is it that you can offer the world. Can you offer your copywriting, graphic design, or maybe even digital marketing skills? Whatever skills you can offer the world, you can choose what your freelancing niche is from there. Niche down by deciding who you want to work with and what their needs are.
For example, you do graphic design work. People you talk to online are female life coaches. In this instance, female life coaches would be your niche. Narrow it down further and can offer specific graphic design skills:
- Book designs
- Web design
- Social media designs
This is choosing your niche based on what skill you already have. What if you have the problem the other way around. You know who you want to help but don’t have any skills. What do you do then?
Finding Your Niche With No Skills
Although you may feel like you’ve got no skills to start freelancing, you’re wrong. You do have skills or knowledge to offer your audience. Dig deep to find your knowledge and skills. Without a doubt, you’ve got a passion. A passion for doing something. Or you enjoy doing something in your free time.
For example, you create and edit videos for social media or YouTube. You’ve already got a niche there as a video editor. Now whenever you see videos that could do with your help, pitch them and show examples of the videos you’ve already done. Find the high-paying freelance niches in your specialism by looking at other freelancers and how much they’re charging.
Use Your Previous Experience To Find Your Niche
You’re a social butterfly whether online or offline and have created a network. Your network is made up of similar people. Even if the only thing in common is that they have a small business, they still have a common trait. Listen to your network.
What’s the common struggle they are all dealing with right now? Use this knowledge of their common struggle to guide you in what freelancing skills to learn, package and sell.
5 Best Tools For Freelancers To Kickstart Their Online Business
Freelancers need tools and systems. Systems help freelancers to stay on track of getting clients and working with clients. Using a system you’ll be able to stay productive whilst you’re working in your freelance business.
To help you decide what systems you need, you’ve got to work out how you’re going to get freelance work. Will you be using
- Agencies
- Freelance sites
- Cold pitching directly to the client
These different types of models require different things for you to consider. How will you get clients and get paidn when you start freelancing.
Which Freelancing Site Will You Get Work From?
Will you need to send out invoices yourself or is there a system already in place for the platform of your choice? What marketing method do you need to attract and get clients? Everyone has a different preference for how they get freelance clients. For me, I prefer to use freelance websites as it gives me the security I’ll get paid.
To get freelance clients, I use social media platforms and position myself as an expert. Then in the social media bio is the opportunity to work with me. Also, I use social media to pitch potential clients and if they want to work with me go to my profile on the freelancing marketplace.
What platforms and systems do you want to use to attract and get clients?
What Tools Will You Need To Support Your Freelance Business?
Freelancers need tech to support their freelance business. Tech to help with
- Getting clients
- Marketing
- Finances
Tech is important in starting a freelance business as without tech, you’re not moving with the times. Businesses that you’re working with are moving with the times and how they reach customers. Therefore, you need to embrace tech and move with the times so you don’t get stuck in the dark ages.
Here are 5 of the tech tools out there you need to start a freelancing business.
PipeDrive
Pipedrive is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that helps you to track your relationship with your leads. From freezing cold lead to a red hot buyer. Not only that, but it helps you to improve your sales and scale-up.
Acuity
Acuity is an appointment scheduler that allows potential clients to book consultations with you. You give a link on your social media, website, or email. Then the potential client clicks the link and is shown your schedule. Clients can then choose a time that suits both you the freelancer and the client.
Zoom
Zoom existed long before 2020 and the demand for video calling people just shot up due to the pandemic. Freelancers have been using Zoom to talk to prospective clients and close sales. Create a free Zoom account and invite prospective clients about how you can help them. Talking to them in this way will give you an edge above your competitors.
Ask these 4 questions to your prospective clients.
Tide Business Account
Having a separate bank account for your freelance business is always advisable. Tide business account is a perfect choice for freelancers. Perfect choice as they have a low volume of transactions.
PayPal
If clients don’t want to pay straight to a bank account, offering to accept payments via PayPal is always a great alternative. Additionally, you can add PayPal buttons to your invoices, email, or website so clients can pay directly. If clients do prefer to pay you via PayPal, then you can link your Tide business account to this so that you can retrieve your earnings.
5 Pricing Techniques That Attracts Clients (Not Scare Them Away)
What’s your pricing technique for your service based business? Do you have a pricing strategy or do you just pull numbers out of thin air when talking to clients? If you’re someone who is stuggling with creating a pricing plan, this is for you so you can start your freelancing business.
Freelancers can at times struggle with creating a pricing model however long they’ve been freelancing. Pricing techniques is all about deciding your strategy. Strategy for deciding what and how you’re going to charge your clients. The pricing techniques that you decide to use will depend on how long you’ve been freelancing and your confidence in showing your pricing.
Freelancers new or seasoned can sometimes get scared by the thought of telling clients our pricing. Start shifting this mindset block as it’s doing nothing but harming your freelancing business.
Early into my freelancing career, I was watching a webinar presented by someone from the UK. Anyway she said
You’re earning money not just so you can live, but so you can also pay taxes that helps out the local and national economy.
At a time of the pandemic, this was even more powerful as we are desiring to help people where and when we can. Part of what needs help is the national and local economy. If the idea of asking for payment is hard to do, think of how that money helps.
You’re earning money by working with clients. This money is then put back into the economy through taxes. Even if it’s just VAT on your shopping, this money is going back into the economy and the shopkeeper.
If you’re struggling, use these 5 pricing techniques for freelancers that attract clients to your freelancing business.
Present The Price At The Right Time
When your clients are making a buying decision, the first thing that influences that decision-making process is their emotions. In fact, 56% of the final decision is based on emotional factors. As part of your pricing technique, you need to present your pricing at the right time.
How do you know when the client is at the right point and needs to buy your services? Answering this quetion is vital when you start a freelancing business.
You build a relationship with the client first and build the know, like, and trust factor. Building the know, like, and trust factor starts with when you generate awareness around your freelance business.
From the start of generating awareness of your freelance business, you want to be storytelling. Storytelling results you bring your clients. Also, throughout awareness you want to show why potential clients need your services too. Potential clients cannot always know that the services you provide is what they need to achieve a specific result.
After you’ve created this awareness and the potential client has started to show interest in you by engaging with your posts, it’s time to build on the relationship. Build on the relationship by looking at the potential clients business, ask about their future projects, and take a real interest in them.
This is when you can really start to build the trust, you’re going to do something now that will get you one step through the door. As you’ve investigated the clients business and there future plans, offer free advice or a low cost service. It may sound counterintuitive, especially if you’re trying to get high ticket sales, but it works.
This pricing strategy works as
- Client trusts that you have some real expertise in your area
- Can deliver the results you promised.
Project Pricing
When you’ve been freelancing for awhile or are completely confident about everything you can deliver, then it’s time to create packages.
Packages are a collection of services that will deliver a specific result for a client.
For example, if you offer sales funnel services and can create a complete sales funnel for a client within a specific amount of time, you can charge a project rate.
As with a sales funnel project, you would have a whole package of different services that has to be included such as
- Marketing automation
- Copywriting
- Graphic design
- Facebook Ads campaign
- Google Ads campaign
With this bundle of services you’re charging a specific price. This price doesn’t change if you get it done quicker in the time or it takes a bit longer than expected. To work out how you should price your project really depends on the amount of work needing to be done.
Although ultimately, project pricing is more about what value you’re bringing to the client.
What To Do When The Client Wants To Know The Price Immediately
There are many times when you are trying to talk to a client about your services, yet all they are interested in is the price. We’ve all been there. Delay answering this question as much as you can. You need to present the value that you are giving them in your services first before sharing your prices with clients.
In the clients’ mind, they’re thinking they know what they want. What the client doesn’t know is the value that you can really bring them and their business. Before you answer the question about how much you cost, you need to share what value you’ll be bringing the client by hiring your services.
Now you’re probably wondering how on earth do you convey the value of your freelancing services. It’s really quite simple really, you just need to find 2 or 3 case studies of previous clients you’ve worked with who wanted the same or similar services as the current client.
In your case study, really convey where the client was when you met them and the results that they desired. Create a picture of the journey as to how you helped them and then the end results. Use power words in your case studies and use visuals (if you can) to really show the client how you’ve helped previous clients.
If you’ve not had any previous clients and this really is your first client, showing your results can sound very tricky to do. Overcome this problem by getting creative and create samples. Create samples by using dummy clients or your own freelance business.
Does the work, get the desired results? Use this as proof for the clients. Always get visual evidence. Visuals such as screenshots and any graphics that were used in creating the sample.
Show Results Not Features
Clients ultimately care about the results a freelancer can give them. Yes, they may have a budget in mind, but is it a budget created without any knowledge of the true cost of the freelancing services they require. This is when you come in and show the client the results.
Showing your results to potential clients is powerful. What’s even more powerful is using visuals in showing potential clients your results. Create a portfolio, case studies, or testimonials from previous clients. Having a portfolio or other visuals will give the clients the wow factor and warm them up to buying your services.
When creating a portfolio that will wow your clients, focus on what your ideal clients want. Focus on the industry your client is in and the services they need to help them in their own business.
Before you start creating your own online portfolio, here are 5 mistakes many freelancers are making and you want to avoid at all costs.
This final strategy in these 5 pricing techniques is probably the most powerful that you’ll ever use in your freelancing business. Powerful because it’s when you’re talking to what the client really does desire. Utilize this time in your pricing negotiation and show off your results when you start freelancing.
3 Steps To A Winning Freelancing Portfolio That Gets Clients
Number one question asked by aspiring freelancers who want to start freelancing is how do I build a freelance portfolio even if I have no work experience. As a freelancer myself I know what it’s like to start from scratch and build a portfolio in hopes of getting new clients.
When getting started I didn’t have any examples at all to put in a portfolio. Didn’t know where to start in getting my own freelance clients and starting from scratch.You’re reading this and probably in a similar position.
If you’re just getting into freelancing for the first time.and
- Pivoting from something else
- Not have a lot of experience
- Zero experience to build an online portfolio
In this blog post, I’ve given you a 3 step roadmap on how you can actually build your portfolio.
Work For Free
Working for free may sound counterintuitive, but it helps. Stick with me here and learn how to turn free work into opportunities for creating a winning freelance portfolio. There are 2 places that you can go to in finding quality free work opportunities.
- Facebook Groups
- Voluntary Organizations
Narrow it down to just 3 opportunities. Keep your list to opportunities that will help you wneh you start freelancing and your freelancing career and really shows what you can do for others in your niche.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups is what really helped to propel my freelancing career. I’ve got both paid work and free work from Facebook groups. Though as you’re at the stage of getting high quality samples to put in your portfolio, this is how you get samples from Facebook groups.
Join Facebook groups that have your target market in. Get yourself known in the group by being active and commenting on posts. Next steps is to leave a post stating that your a new freelance website designer. Place what your willing to do for free and leave a comment or send a message if you’re interested.
The most important part of your Facebook post is to state that it’s in exchange for a testimonial. Remember a testimonial, especially a great one is worth its weight in gold. You can’t buy a great testimonial.
Though try and keep it down to 1 or 2 free pieces of free work. You don’t want to get known as someone who always does free work.
Voluntary Organizations
Another way to get a testimonial for your work is to do some voluntary work. Doing voluntary work for a national charity or a local charity all adds up. Just make sure that it is voluntary work in what you actually want to be doing and not get off track.
If you don’t know how to go about starting to find specific work for not-for-profit organizations, Do-it.org is a fantastic database of voluntary opportunities across the UK.
Get started with Do-it.org by creating an account with them. After creating an account, search for opportunities in your area in the field you want to volunteer in. Use these 3 samples of free work you’ve done for the next step in your roadmap to creating a winning freelance portfolio.
Utilize LinkedIn
LinkedIn has always been seen as a place for job hunters seeking employment. For freelancers, LinkedIn is a place where you can network with decision-makers and gatekeepers in the niches you’re trying to get clients from.
Once you unlock how to use LinkedIn to get clients and grow your freelance portfolio, you’ll be asking yourself why you didn’t start there in the first place. Although, you might be tempted to start with LinkedIn, you held back for a reason. Typically, because you don’t have any samples. Create 3 simple samples and start getting clients.
Put these 3 samples in your LinkedIn profile and really talk about the projects. Talk about the results you gave your clients. When you talk passionately and about the results you give your clients, you start to attracting high-paying clients.
You literally can be just spending 30 minutes a day on LinkedIn and still attract leads. It doesn’t take much time and effort. The only thing you really need for LinkedIn is a strategy. A strategy for LinkedIn to get noticed, start a conversation with potential clients, and generate leads that convert.
Utilizing LinkedIn, you can carve out your personal brand and your message that you want to send.
Develop a WordPress site
Freelancers who’re in the position of getting a few clients and have samples to show off then they’re ready to start building a WordPress site for their freelance portfolio.
WordPress Themes
WordPress themes are templates for your WordPress design. As it’s a template you can adjust it to fit your brand and it’s functionality. Some WordPress themes are free with an option to upgrade or you have to buy the theme.
Here are 9 popular WordPress themes for freelancers.
- Uncode
- Divi
- RyanCV
- Lobo
- Pillar
- Kalium
- Vangard
- Pitch
- Brando
When choosing a theme consider the functionality that you want to have and the future vision of your freelance business.
Navigation
Navigation on a website is simply making it easier for website visitors to visit specific pages and posts easier. By including navigation you reduce the bounce rate and increase the chances of converting the website visitor into a lead. You can add website navigation in 3 ways
- Main menu
- Side bar in your blog
- Footer
Plus, in your blog side bar you can make it even easier for your website visitors by adding a search function. The search function is where people type in a keyword of what they’re looking for, then the results will give them the best matching results for that keyword.
Lead Generation
The purpose of your website is to convert into leads and sales. Having a system to generate leads is vital to put on your website. But simply adding a few buttons here and there that say order here will just not be sufficient. Instead you need a more strategic way to generate leads from your website.
- Add forms
- Include a messenger bot
- Live chat service
After you get leads from your website you need a method to start converting the lead into a sale. To sufficiently convert leads, use a CRM software that enables you to close sales. Close sales by keeping track of the relationship that your building with your lead.
Pages To Include In A Website
Whatever type of freelancer you are, your site must include a
- Home page
- Services page
- About page
- Blog
What you want the pages to do is tell a story of who you are, how you can help your clients, what you offer, and how they can contact you. By adding a blog, you can showcase your expertise and give your website visitors quick help in solving a problem.
Consider a freelance SEO consultant, the consultant can create a blog on how to build backlinks. People reading the blog will learn how to do it successfully. By hiring the consultant (if they have the money), are confident that they’re getting a freelance SEO consultant that builds backlinks ethically.
5 Ways To Find Clients Online Fast
Marketing is essential to start a freelancing business. Without marketing your freelance business, how will anyone know about your freelance services?
Before you start posting on social media like you’re the next Kardashian or making viral videos for YouTube. You need to check out these 5 different options you have. I advise that you take a nice mix of different marketing channels. Each of these 5 marketing channels attracts potential clients differently.
Only doing one marketing method will really not widen your net to catch freelance clients.
Google Ads
Let’s get it over with, the marketing method you need to pay for with real money, not just time and effort.
Using Google Ads is a very effective tool, but you need to be driving traffic to a specific lead capture page to fill your CRM with leads to follow up with.
Additionally, you need to choose the right keyword. A keyword with a good volume of traffic and a cost per click (CPC) that fits your budget.
This is an expensive choice when you start freelancing, but if you’ve got the money to put behind a marketing campaign. It’ll be well worth the return on investment (ROI).
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups is a gret way to start freelancing, get your first clients and continue to do so. There are 3 different types of Facebook groups you should join
- Your target market
- Support group for people in your niche
- Job board for your niche
Whenever you join a Facebook group, you want to check that it’s not a spammy group but a fit for why you want to join it. After joining a Facebook group and you want to stay, make sure that you introduce yourself. Then turn on notifications for all posts and interact with them. This will make people notice you and want to get to know who you are.
To get clients from Facebook, they need to get to know you.Get to know you to become a client or collaborate with you to grow your freelance business.
Guest Posting
Utilize collaborations to start a freelancing business in these 3 different ways.
- Writing a guest blog
- Be a guest on a podcast
- Be a guest on a webinar or video training
By guest contributing in these ways can widen your audience and position you as an expert in your niche.
There are 2 myths we have to address about Pinterest before we go any further.
- Pinterest is a social media network
- Pinterest is just for beauty, home design, and fashion bloggers
Firstly, Pinterest is a search engine. Use it to benefit you by creating pins for keywords relevant to your niche and link it to your website or lead capture page.
Secondly, Pinterest is used by all sorts of businesses. Just take a look by typing into the search bar your niche. Then ask yourself
- What’s working for them?
- What do their pins look like?
Give Pinterest a shot. You might be surprised by the results. Learn here how I exploded my freelancing business with Pinterest.
LinkedIn is a fantastic way of getting to speak to the owner of a business that you want to work with. Always having an up and down relationship with LinkedIn, I’ve always found it useful in getting new leads and building more relationships.
If you’re going to be using social media at all to start a freelancing business, you need to lay the foundations. Lay the foundations with a social selling strategy.
3 Ideas To Upsell Your Freelancing Services
Freelancers who upsell their services are increasing their profits and those who don’t are left always trying to get the next client. Why? Because it’s harder to get new clients rather than retain them. Keep reading to learn the 3 steps you can take today and make more money from each client you’ve got already instead of chasing another one.
Freelancing is about building long-term relationships and sticking to the client. Not just do one project, then say bye. 65% of a company’s businesses come from existing clients. In fact, it costs you 5 times more to get a new client rather than to nurture your relationship with existing clients. Therefore, you’ve got more reason to learn how to upsell your existing client base.
What Is Upselling?
Upselling is defined as
“Online, upselling can be a powerful tactic for driving more revenue from a sale.”
E Consultancy
For freelancers, upselling is about offering your existing clients an offer to help them further achieve their goals. Start taking upselling seriously because when you upsell your clients, you’re getting them to buy another service from you. Including services, you offer at a higher pricing point.
More money for you which is always great to help you grow your freelance business. But you may have heard of cross-selling and thinking ‘isn’t that just the same thing?’. Cross-selling is about offering complementary products but in the same pricing bracket.
What’s The Difference Between Upselling And Cross Selling?
McDonald’s is fantastic at their upsells and cross-sells. Ever order a Big Mac from McDonald’s and then you get asked if you’d like fries and a drink with that? Then if you say yeah sure. They offer to upgrade your order to a meal. Accepting this offer, they ask you which size meal.
In this example, asking you if you’d like fries and then a drink with your burger is cross-selling. It’s cross-selling as they’re offering you products complimentary to your burger but at the same price range.
Upsells come when they’re asking if you want to upgrade your order to a meal. Meals are generally slightly more expensive, but this still works for the example. As upselling is about offering a product your clients would want but at a higher pricing bracket. As a freelancer, you can take a look at your products and consider the journey of your clients. When they’ve bought one service this solves one problem. But then clients find themselves in another problem.
Create a range of products that solve each stage of the customer journey until they get to their final goal. Use the 3 step strategy to upsell your freelance services and help your clients get to their ultimate goal.
Start Talking To Your Client And Understand Their Needs Better
How much do you talk to your clients? Do you just talk to them when they buy your service and then again when you deliver? This is a common theme among freelancers. But freelancers doing this are missing a trick that would help them to upsell their freelance services and make more money from that one client.
So what is it that you’re missing out on? Simply put, it’s just talking to your clients about their business. Your clients love to talk about their business and what’s even better they trust you to do a great job. Having these conversations is essential to complete the strategy to upsell your freelance services.
Take a look at your current list of clients, and or previous clients. Strike up a conversation with them to get to know their business better. Or take a look at their social media to learn about their future projects. Every bit of information you gather about your list of clients will help you to upsell your freelance services. Then talk to your client about your skills that can help them.
Don’t Run Away From The Problem, Become A Problem Solver
People love to hire problem solvers. As a freelancer, you find potential clients who are struggling right now. Then approach them with a solution to their problems. Potential clients never want an email saying ‘hey your website is down’. Instead, they much prefer an email saying ‘hey your website is down, here are two things we can do to fix it.’
This shows your value and you instantly become worth more. Although this is about getting a client to begin with. We’re looking at how you can upsell your existing clients. So what’s the difference? Not much really!
But you already have an established trusting relationship with the client, so they’re more likely to open up to you about their problems. When you deep dive into your client’s real problems and hopes, then you have an edge above your competitors. You have inside knowledge as to what the client really needs.
If you’re not great at people skills or know how to get this information from your existing clients, then here’s how you can become a fantastic problem-solver.
How You Can Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills
If you’re feeling out of your comfort zone trying to solve a potential problem and doubt your problem-solving ability. There are plenty of ways to improve your problem-solving approach:
- Focus on the solution
- Clearly define the problem
- Agree on a process
- Be sure to use active listening
Examples Of Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving skills help you determine the source of a problem and find an effective solution for your freelance clients. Although problem-solving is often identified as its own separate skill. Key problem-solving skills include
- Active listening
- Analysis
- Research
- Creativity
- Communication
- Decision making
As a result, when freelancers use problem-solving skills they can upsell their services. When you listen to your client about their business, hopes, and pain points then you’re in a great position.
A position where you can show clients another service you offer that’ll fix their problems and get their desired results. This takes you onto the final step of the strategy to upsell your freelance services, you need to sell the benefits.
Sell The Benefit, Not The Features, Features Are Boring To Clients
Lots of times freelance clients don’t know why they need something done. They just need something to be done. They may have heard of phrases like SEO being used among their professional network, but they don’t know why they need it. Maybe their competitors are doing it.
If a client says I want more visibility on Google. Then that brings in the client needing SEO. The problem now comes that they don’t understand SEO. I mean it is a huge topic and they don’t want to hear about it. Therefore, you need to sell them your SEO services. Sell them with the benefits and not the features. You know those features of how you’re going to do the SEO tasks.
What clients also don’t know is what value it’ll bring their business long-term. Or even that SEO services are a long-term solution. Your potential clients may just think it’s something you can add to their website and bang, you’re instantly on the top results. This is what you’ve got to get over. That the work you’ll be doing will bring them the results. Plus, to do SEO right, it can take 4-6 months of work. This shows the real value that you bring and your true worth.
Why Is It Better To Sell Benefits Than Features?
Features act as proof of your benefits. Helping potential clients to measure your freelance services against the competition. Without features, benefits are not as effective. A feature is what something is. A benefit is what something does and its result.
How Do I Turn Features Into Benefits?
The client may or may not understand, or even care about specific features of your freelance services. What they care about is what’s in it for them, or what benefit they will get from a particular feature.
For example, let’s say you’re a freelancer specializing in SEO services. Your potential clients don’t care about all of the techy stuff to do your SEO services. But what your potential clients do care about is ranking higher on Google search results. Also, they’re wanting to get more traffic to their website organically without a paid promotion.
Within the copy on your website, you would mention the techy features of these services. Though this is more glossing over it and not going in-depth with it. Instead, focus on the benefits of that you can get their website ranking higher on Google.
How Do You Write Benefits?
Now you get why you should focus your copy on the benefits of your freelance services and not the features. Here’s how you can start writing about the benefits of your freelance service, rather than the features.
- List your clients’ pain points
- Address how your freelance services solve those pain points
- Clarify your benefits clearly
In your web copy, give potential clients the feeling that there’s something in it for them. Make it clear that your freelance services are designed to solve their problems and make their lives easier. Do this by keeping your client avatar in mind as you write. Address the “what’s in it for me” question, and you’ll nudge them toward buying from you.
As you can see, selling the benefits of your freelance services in your website copy will attract more potential clients to your freelance business.
Conclusion
To start an online freelancing business is tough but well worth it. Though when you have a marketing strategy, tools, and a strong mindset you are on your way to start a freelance business. If you’re wanting more help to start a freelancing business, this course helps you kickstart you’re business.
