If you’ve read my previous blog posts on setting up your virtual professional business, then you’re all set up and ready to go with your magnetic site and content to land new clients.
Let’s take a look at client-landing methods that are currently the most effective.
Check LinkedIn Daily to Land New Clients
LinkedIn will post actual job recommendations for you and do its best to tailor them to your keywords, groups and links you access. And you won’t just find traditional jobs – you’ll also find project-based recommendations.
The key to land new clients lies in:
- Optimizing your profile fully
- Changing your Public Profile URL to your actual name from the generic numerical link supplied by LinkedIn
- Following companies that are of close interest to you
- Joining and participating in at least 1-3 active Groups highly relevant to your ideal client
- Providing a professional headshot
- Using calls to action (especially presented as anchor text links) that send potential clients to your site (e.g. “Hire me for your next project”)
- Having a small section outlining your ideal client in your Summary
- Checking LinkedIn daily
All it takes is a ten minute per day commitment to land new clients!
Word-of-Mouth Recommendations to Land New Clients
Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth recommendations to land new clients for your virtual professional business: You will probably land more clients this way than with any other method.
You can speed things along and maximize the power of word-of-mouth, however, by seizing the opportunity to ask. When a client mentions how great your work is, thank her and add something like: “And if you know anyone else that would benefit from my services, please recommend me.”
And don’t be afraid of offending your client. If she has no more projects for you herself, she is often pleased to recommend you (it makes her look like a heroine to whoever she is referring you to). If she has more work for you, don’t be surprised if she says something like: “Oh, do you have a gap in your schedule? Because I have these three reports to get out by the twentieth…”.
Refine Your Targeting
Make sure that every word and graphic on your website and other content is speaking directly to your ideal client – not to anyone else.
It’s all about focus, focus, focus when you are attempting to reach a particular client. After all, you wouldn’t write a letter to your best friend, a ballet fanatic who also loves gymnastics and swimming on the side, and write her a long letter all about your 5.7 liter, 345 horsepower car engine which revs at 5,600 rpm, with 375 lb-ft of torque, would you?
Advertise!
This doesn’t mean taking out a glossy three-thousand dollar magazine ad. It does mean taking out cost-effective ads in the right place.
For example, create a Facebook ad, sending potential clients to the most relevant page on your website.
Or take out an ad on sites like HireMyMom, if your services are geared towards other business professionals.
Target Your Competitors
If you are a virtual assistant, you should be specializing – and there will be other VAs who specialize in different areas who may need your services.
These VAs may need your unique knowledge to boost their own business presence. (For example, if you are a VA who specializes in transcription, you could offer your services to VAs who create podcasts or webinars.)
The key to success lies in creating offers for tasks you can do so easily, you barely consider them tasks and can afford to price competitively, whereas your potential fellow-VA client may struggle with that same task and is willing to outsource it.
Include QR Codes in your Advertising or Literature
If you are creating an ad, brochure, flyer or sign-up incentive, why not create and include a QR code to land new clients?
Better yet, brand it with your business logo or head shot. This isn’t hard to do – simply upload your graphic or photo to a free QR code generator that allows you to do so.
Use Specialized Job Boards to Land New Clients
Don’t just bid on projects at generalized job boards like UpWork, visit more specialized job boards as well to land new clients.
For example, if you are a content writer, a great source of potential long-term clients can be found on the job board at ProBlogger.
Adds ProBlogger:
“Note: ads on this site are not endorsed by ProBlogger and are from third party advertisers. Those applying for jobs should do due diligence into advertisers as anyone applying for a job should do.”
And with the generalized job boards and directories, get to know them. You’ll soon begin to realize that even generalized boards become known for favouring one field over another. (For example, UpWork leans more towards content writers and virtual assistants, whereas Guru leans more towards web designers and coders.
Get Your Foot in the Door with Fiverr
Finally, if you’re really desperate to bring money in fast, try offering short tastes of your services on Fiverr. This social network/job board allows you to offer one service to potential clients in any category you choose for $5.00.
If you try this, make sure that:
- You pick some task you do quickly and consider routine that others might find utterly beyond them.
- You offer something you can do competently in fifteen minutes
- You let potential clients know that this is a SAMPLE only of your work; and that they should expect to pay full price for future commissions.
- You are as specific as possible in describing what you will do. “I will design you four 3 X 5 Logos using Adobe Illustrator for $5” is more limiting as to what the client can expect than “I will help you with WordPress for $5”. (Leave your offer vague and open-ended like the latter, and you will inevitably end up with someone who expects you to provide weeks of tutoring or else install and customize their entire WordPress blog.)
Create a Special Offer for Specialty Forums or Membership Sites
If you belong to a forum or membership site filled with potential clients – and it’s always a good idea to do so; if only to get a better handle on their problems and desires – create an Introductory Special Offer. Again, make sure they know this is only available as a taste of your services; and that future commissions will be at your regular rates.
(And do check the forum rules before uploading your Special Offer. These usually have to be run by an Administrator or Moderator first.)
You will find your own mix of places to put out the word to land new clients; and some may work better for you and some better for another virtual business person in your niche, but the most important strategy of all?
Get up, optimized for your ideal client, and running – and get the word out there!
Remember, no one else has your unique business, services and personality.
You just have to let the right clients know.
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