Finding customers when you start your business is important.
It is even a necessity for the survival of your activity or company.
So whether you are self-employed, a freelancer, …
Here are our tips to start well in your project.
3 Ways of how to find clients
We’ve categorized the different ways to find clients into 3 categories that you can use for your sales mission :
Finding “Free” Customers
This requires a huge amount of energy and here again you will find 2 possibilities :
- The active voice with for example publications on the various social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
- The passive voice or you set up a website or blog that targets your business or your product offering and it is the prospects who will find you, this is attraction marketing.
Both require a lot of resources in human energy, time, perseverance before you can achieve your project of potential sales.
The web offers freelancers, freelance, to launch their business or brand with potentials to achieve their new projects that are simply outstanding.
Use the right strategy allied to the right communication embellished with a touch of business prospecting and if everything is well orchestrated you will only have to stay on top of your theme.
Paid solution to find customers
The idea is not new and there is no shortage of tools on the web to advertise and find customers but at what price ?
Here the resource is financial and not always very affordable depending on your product offer as the competition can be important and aggressive on your niche.
We are talking here about online advertising on social networks for example Facebook ads or even directly with the most famous search engine on the web, with Google ads.
Hybrid prospecting, mix free and paid
Another idea, for freelancers is to register on online service offering platforms.
By searching the web you will find 5euro.com which has recently been renamed ComeUp.
Once registered, complete your profile and propose your offer.
The platform has so much visibility on the internet that you will have real potentials to find customers through this network and make sales there.
How to find your 1st customers ?
The first question to ask yourself in terms of strategy is this :
Which of the 3 types of prospecting above will you choose ?
Once this is defined you can start to put your first actions in place for your project.
Your mission is to find the profiles of prospects corresponding to your product or service offer.
The first customers can quite often be from your entourage such as :
- your family,
- your friends
- and acquaintances
- or your colleagues
You will be aware that the resource on this side is very quickly limited for the needs of your business, your activity.
How to find customers for free
When we tell you for free, it’s always to clarify that the financial aspect will be zero.
However your time is money so understand that nothing is really free.
Another point to consider is that free often takes much longer to bring you your prospects and potential future clients.
Social media posts
An idea that many successfully exploit by offering products or services that meet the needs of consumers.
Your presence should be regular and not always with commercial communication.
Consider bringing even advice to your potential customers.
Ask them questions to understand their needs and offer items or services in line with their request.
The website or a blog on the web
A great idea for the long term. Create blog posts that if well referenced will bring you unlimited traffic.
This is a long term project but if your business is that of your multi-year vision then the website idea is really worth considering.
This strategy is based on attraction marketing type of business prospecting.
Service Offer Marketplaces
You can, we mentioned above, use the platforms that are specialized in offering services.
People looking to delegate certain tasks know them and use them very regularly. This saves them from having to take on an employee, for example.
As a freelancer you should also let people know that you are available on these platforms, several is always better, with an adapted communication on your social networks.
You should quickly have new prospects and customers. Sales will be within reach.
How to attract customers
We have mentioned different possibilities above to develop your business and projects in free ways.
Now let’s take a look at the paid options for finding customers.
In order to make an advertising investment and not an expense we invite you to make sure you have the right skills for this type of business prospecting.
Indeed, you can very quickly lose your money.
This money that could have been so useful for your new business project.
- The most known are Facefook ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn also offers online advertising on its network.
- Other alternatives allow you to buy traffic to redirect to your blog post or website.
- Freelance freelancers offer this type of service on the aforementioned platforms. Another solution is to go through a service provider such as a marketing agency to whom you will give the elements for your needs of prospects so that it targets your future customers at best.
Which Marketplace sites to find customers ?
You have several alternatives for your customer search. The following internet sites all offer this kind of service.
They are marketplaces specialized on the offers of services that freelancers make to companies in search of temporary or regular skills.
The best known, a priori remains Fiverr but you can also consult and register on others such as :
- UpWork,
- Graphic Designer,
- Malt,
- Coder
You can some platforms are specialized, international or French.
Make your selection according to your needs and your target of prospects.
Our tips for finding customers
We made the choice to use a sales prospecting tool to target our ideal prospects according to our needs.
This tool allows us to target future customers on different social networks :
It also offers the ability to do your prospecting on :
- the websites you approach
- or even your searches for new potentials on Google MAPS
All profiles are integrated into the one database but in different pipelines to follow up on each one with possibly a different strategy depending on the lead’s origin.
For profiles coming from LinkedIn, a service is available to collect more information about them, it is the lead enrichment.
The tool also offers the potential to connect it with your external apps allowing the automation of certain tasks between apps, this is Marketing Automation.
We are here on a paying solution but currently accessible with a possibility of LIFETIME ACCESS.
You pay once, payment in several instalments possible, and you can enjoy ClarkUp for life.
Of course, the company plans to have access by monthly or annual subscription.
If your idea is to have a long term business this solution could fit your needs, and also depends on your target.
This business development tool is not for all companies or activities.
The target are companies that offer products or services with a profit of more than 500€ per sale.
If this is not your case, refer to other solutions on how to find customers…
If you are one of the people interested in our solution, we invite you to check out the ClarkUp offer available and reserved for our readers!
