The top question I am always asked when it comes to building a business is around how someone can market themselves online.
“Okay, I have a website, I have the skills, but how do I actually get clients? Especially more than just one or two clients?”
After all, there are now a million platforms and different ways to do so these days. (Almost too many options to pick from.)
"Do I have to dance on TikTok?" is often the second question, to which I say hell no. (Unless that's what fills your bucket, then by all means.)
Or, most people equate marketing to MLM's or people who send you 9729742 emails in a row about their "ENDING SOON OFFER!!!"
While, yes, some of that is marketing (bad marketing, but marketing nonetheless), it is not what YOU have to do in order to get clients. This is why so many people do not even try to learn marketing, because so many of the people out there give it a bad name.
Marketing is about getting in front of people who could use your skills/products. That's it.
Now, just because it sounds easy does not always mean it's a walk in the park or that you can do it overnight (no matter what that little 6-figure ~guru~ says you can do).
Create A Clear-Cut Offer
First of all, the main thing that people seem to skip, is that they don't really have something clear-cut to offer.
I see this so often with freelance writers. They offer a long, long menu of different options and then put it on the clients' shoulders to decide what they want.
"I can do SEO copywriting! And blogging! And your social media! And walk your dog!"
I get it, people want their clients to know that they have a diverse skillset, but that's not how you build a sustainable career. Sure, you CAN do multiple things for clients, but people like specific options at any given moment.
People like choice, but people don't like TOO much choice.
So, above all, you need to be the one doing the thinking for clients.
This does not always mean you need clean-cut little perfect packages, but when you get on the phone with a client you better be able to figure out their problems and give them one or two options to pick from for you to do.
Marketing, when done well, makes people EXCITED to pay you, work with you, hire you, and refer you to other people.
Do More Than The Bare Minimum
The second step, after you come up with a more-defined offer, is to find a way to make it WORTH working with you. Maybe you have a questionnaire or client onboarding that makes the whole process fun and exciting for your clients. Maybe you include some freebies to send to them when they pay your first deposit.
The way to be memorable is to make your whole process a fun one to go through for clients.
You will want to take the time to think about this and ways that it could be fun to work with you and understand how you view your craft.
Outside of paid advertising (which is a fine strategy), there are mainly two other ways to get clients: you go to clients or you have them come to you.
(For you marketing nerds out there, this is inbound vs outbound marketing strategies.)
Outbound marketing (aka finding clients)
Through all of my years of business building, I have always painfully enjoyed outbound marketing.
This is the client hunting process, the pitching, the networking, and all of the other naturally-extroverted activities that have landed me clients through the last decade of my career.
While this applies to freelance work, you can also know that my grandfather build his entire law business on the back of going to play golf and drinking with people at bars.
Now, with the power of the internet this doesn't have to involve so much extroverted work (or hangovers). You can simply hangout
Outbound marketing current checklist (take only what applies to your business):
10 pitches per week
5 engagement DM's (at minimum)
Post daily on LinkedIn
Post daily on Twitter (or X or whatever it's called now)
Engage on all social platforms, spend time commenting, replying, etc
(Optional) Apply on freelancing platforms to jobs
Inbound marketing (aka bringing clients to you)
Inbound marketing has a lot to do with *gag* brand building.
It is how clients come to you first without you ever having to go to them. It can also involve strategies like using SEO to grow your website and other nauseating but must-be-done things that have to happen if you ever want to build a sustainable online business.
Inbound marketing current checklist (take only what applies to your business)
One blog at minimum being posted per week (at minimum)
One to two YouTube videos posted per week
One newsletter sent to your audience per week
3 short-form videos
3 IG posts/week
Measuring What Works
More than anything, if you are going to use any strategy at all, you need to figure out what is working and what is not working.
There is no point in doing strategies that are not bringing in the results you want.
Now, you need to give some strategies time to work, too. You are not going to get 10,000 blog readers just by posting five blogs over the course of a month.
You will have to figure out which systems need more time and which ones you should abandon quickly in order to focus on what IS working.
Building Systems
Ideally, you also spend your time building systems and making things easier for your business behind the scenes, but too many people spend time building that instead of actually getting clients and making money.
You can have the most optimized system for moving clients through your sales process, but if you don't have anyone getting in the funnel? Forget the system.
Ready for More Clients?
My 30 Days To A Full Pipeline program is exactly what you need if you are ready to stop playing business and start doing business.
It's a much more in-depth program for people who want to implement a complete strategy to get (and keep getting) clients.