So you’re a freelance developer and you’ve been trying your luck with the whole "Freelancing" thing but you're coming up short.

You feel like you're doing everything right, but you can't get clients.

This short article is going to give you solutions that actually work.

Before we get into the solutions that you can start applying right away, we have got to look at the reason why you don't have clients.

Why You're Not Getting Clients

1. You Stop Marketing Yourself when You Land a Few Clients

You think that by telling people you're now a freelance developer means clients will start flooding in, queueing at your virtual front-door, vying for a timeslot with you.

Wrong.

Clients can leave you at any time.

Just because you've "reached your peak" doesn't mean you should stop marketing.

Rather get more clients and outsource tasks and increase your rates than stopping altogether and landing yourself back to square one: looking for more clients when you're in need.

This is a common mistake that many freelancers make.

There are ways to ensure that the clients you have landed are recurring (which we'll get into later) but what if the clients you landed only want once-off projects only to never be heard from again on project completion?

Marketing is not a short-term strategy.

Your problem here is thinking you only need to market yourself before you get a few clients.

2. You Don't Have a Unique Selling Proposition

You're being too generic.

You may have set up all of your marketing spaces (eg. Facebook, Instagram, personal site, etc) but... that's all you've done.

You've just set it up without viewing yourself how a potential client would view you.

Now a potential client comes around to your Instagram page and says, "Oh nice, he's a web developer that builds websites for businesses. I wonder if my other web developer friends know this person because it sure looks like they do the exact same thing."

And just like that, you've lost a potential client because you're making yourself appear like "Just Another Web Developer."

Your problem here is that you make yourself appear generic (when you obviously aren't) by not making it clear what your 'Unique Selling Proposition' is.

Here's how to change that.

3. You Don't Show Potential Clients that You are Trustworthy

Look, you may be the nicest, most hardworking person on the planet but you have to be realistic.

A potential client landing on your website or social media accounts will have no idea that you are a person they can trust.

You could market yourself all over the place and set yourself apart, but this won't be enough if potential clients feel even the slightest lack of trust.

The keyword here is 'lack of trust'.

So, how do you gain trust?

Get client testimonials.

How do you get client testimonials?

Do projects.

Struggling to get projects?

Ask friends and family to do a website for them in exchange for a small amount of $ and a testimonial.

Still can't get projects?

Do 2 projects for FREE in exchange for a testimonial.

TESTIMONIALS build TRUST.

You're now SHOWING what you can do and not just TALKING about it.

THIS will help you LAND more clients in the future.

There are plenty of reasons why developers don't get clients but the three I've mentioned above are massive.

Let's look at how to fix those problems.

How to Fix Your Problem of Getting Clients

1. Pick (and Stick To) Your Favorite Method of Finding Clients

To avoid the dreaded "Valley Income" scenario where you fluctuate from being bathed in clients to desperately searching for one while wondering how you're going to make it through to the next month, you need to market yourself .

There are many ways to market yourself.

If you're thinking you've tried them all and nothing works, take a look at this list:

• Facebook outreach
• LinkedIn outreach
• Video proposals
• Twitter outreach
• Friends & family
• Cold-calling
• Cold-email
• Paid ads
• SEO

Have you tried them all?

Well, you don't have to.

The key here is trying a few and choosing one or two that yield the best results.

Some marketing channels work better than others for different niches, locations and service offerings.

Once you've found the best one or two methods, stick to those methods exclusively and create a system for yourself that not only yields clients but saves you time.

Doing things like this will make the effort of marketing yourself less time-consuming.

This means you'll do it more and that means you'll get more clients.

Following Up

It's not rude to follow up.

Read that again.

Business owners often glance over emails and simply forget to respond.

For this reason, if you're using a form of marketing that involves sending messages (e.g. social media and cold emails), it's important to follow up.

You shouldn't be annoying. Be reasonable. But don't take silence as a "No, thank you."

Follow up with emails or calls, but space them out so as not to turn into a spammer in the eyes of the potential client.

Persistence is key.

Remember, every potential client you're contacting already owns (or wants to own) a business. They're busy people. You need to remind them what you can offer them and how you can help them.

2. Create a Unique Selling Proposition for Your Potential Clients

You have got to set yourself apart from the sea of other web developers out there.

Do this by creating a unique selling proposition.

This requires, among other factors, two things to be successful:

1. Understand the Client's Problem

To accurately provide a solution, you need to first understand the problem.

Most potential clients you're interested in as a freelance developer will not have a way of getting in new customers online.

This is a problem that you can use to craft your USP.

Whoever your potential client is, identify the problem they're facing, and then spell it out clearly in your communication with them.

Be sure to carefully explain how your specific skill set can solve their business problem.

Doing this means you're not offering a generic web development service but one tailored specifically towards meeting the problems of your potential client.

You can sum up your SOLUTION to their PROBLEM in one sentence.

Example:

Focus on running your business, while I focus on growing your business.

I help Dentists get more Patients.

Hire me to get you more recurring SaaS customers.

2. Packaging Your Services

Once your potential client understands that you can help solve their problem, they'll want to understand exactly how you're going to do that.

This is where you'll need an excellent proposal to set a couple of goal-achieving options for the client to choose from.

Here's the Web Design Proposal Template we use (free download).

You must set them up to be specific to the client.

As an example, you could offer Web Design and Digital Marketing services.

You can read more about WHAT and WHY it's important here .

3. Create Trust

Clients want to feel like they can trust you.

They wouldn't be paying you if they didn't.

The important factor here is to give them something to base their trust on.

If you have a website where you sell your services, show testimonials from past clients.

If you reach out via cold email, quote a past client success of yours.

If you're cold calling, mention how a past client felt working with you.

Give potential clients the PROOF of trust they need to go ahead and work with you.

Creating a personal brand is an absolute sure-fire way of creating lasting trust in the minds of potential clients. Learn about creating a personal brand if you really want to set yourself apart.

Keep Going

There are many more ways in which you can get clients, but those I've mentioned are huge.

Paying attention to these and staying consistent in your effort will result in more clients. You've got this.

Interested in learning more?

Here's a very detailed article showing you step-by-step how to get clients .

Thanks for reading <3

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