All Freelance Work is a Community for Freelance Workers Including Free Portfolios, Job Search, Job Posting, Helpful Articles, Forums, & More for the Self Employed.
WHERE
TO FOCUS YOUR MARKETING: NEW PROSPECTS OR EXISTING CLIENTS
by Charlie Cook
Imagine that you ran an ad, mailed a brochure, or sent an
email ad to a new list of people who fit your target market
profile and everyone who saw it responded right away and made
a purchase.
Has
this ever happened to you?
Of
course not. The first time people hear about your products
or services is the least likely time for them to buy.
When
you go out for a night on the town, do you go to a new restaurant
you've never heard of or do you typically go to one that you
know and like? Similarly, who is the most likely to buy your
products and services, someone who doesn't know you or someone
who has experienced the high quality and the results you provide?
Clients who have bought from you before, are the most likely
to buy from you. Think about it.
If
long-term prospects and clients are your best source of revenue,
where should you focus your marketing?
I
occasionally make a sale the first time someone visits my
web site, but more often it's the people who I have been in
contact with for months, that become my best customers and
clients. Why is this?
The
longer you've had a relationship with a prospect or client,
the more they know and trust you. Once they buy or use your
products, they've experienced the quality you provide and
are even more likely to buy again. They are also more likely
to recommend you to others.
Marketing
research has shown that people are more likely to buy after
six or seven contacts. Some web businesses use this as the
basis of their marketing and provide a tutorial series you
can sign up for with one sent out each week for six weeks.
While this is an improvement on the one time spot ad, it misses
the boat. The problem with this approach is that you don't
know when your prospects will want to make a purchase. What
happens if they need help on week eight but have lost your
contact information?
What
you want to do is build long-term relationships so that whenever
a new prospect or past client has a need, they think of you
as the expert to go to or to refer someone else to. The longer
you are in contact with prospects and clients the more opportunities
you have to demonstrate how helpful you or your products are
and to earn their trust.
Depending
on what you're marketing, you may need to establish a little
or a lot of trust. If you sell major label music CDs for $17,
it may not take much work to convince people you can ship
them what they want. If you provide financial services and
want prospects to trust you with their life's earnings, it
can take longer. It may be six to seven months before your
prospects will consider even having a conversation.
Use
the following three steps to build long-term profitable relationships:
1.
Focus on your prospects' needs and wants and offer something
for free to motivate people to contact you.
2.
Contact your prospects regularly and give them tips and ideas
they can use.
3.
Couch your offers in terms of what your prospects are looking
for.
Which
is more important, new prospects or existing clients?
The
answer of course is both. To grow your business you need to
constantly grow your network of contacts, of people who know
how you can help them. At the same time, focus your efforts
on building long-term relationships so that prospects become
clients and clients become repeat clients.
Do
this and you'll have more people interested in what you offer
and more people buying your products and services.
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DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT TO FREELANCE OFFSITE OR ONSITE Deciding to work onsite or offsite sounds like a relatively simple decision, but it’s actually one which isn’t easy to make. Sure, when you’re lying in bed just after the alarm has gone off and you see that it’s raining outside and all you wish was that you could go back to bed for ten minutes and then do your freelance work from home, working offsite sounds ideal. But there are as many cons to the offsite work job as there are pros and you need to weigh them carefully when making the decision about whether to work onsite or offsite.
IS FREELANCING RIGHT FOR YOU? Freelancing, a term introduced by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), is when you work without being committed to an employer. With development of internet and communication technology, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people going their own way and leaving behind the cubicles. You are reading this book, so you must be contemplating becoming a freelancer, but before you make your move there are a few things to consider.
FREELANCER'S GUIDE TO TIME MANAGEMENT The most common problem that freelancers face is figuring out the balance between work and the rest of life. While there are a few freelancers out there who don’t work as much as they need to in order to pay their bills and improve their business, most freelancers have the opposite problem – they work ALL the time. And that’s why there are a great number of freelancers who “burn out” after a short (or if they’re lucky, a long) time. In order to make sure that you aren’t one of those people who “used to freelance but got burned out”, you need to set limits on how much you work. Then you need to stick to those limits.
SHOULD I TURN DOWN FREELANCE PROJECTS? As freelancers, we often feel as if we have to say ‘Yes’ to every single job out there. However, we as freelancers are in a position where we can choose to say ‘No’ if we want to. Believe it or not, there are certain projects that you probably shouldn’t accept. Turning down work is probably the hardest decision you will need to make when running your business, but sometimes turning down a gig is necessary. In this article I will explain to you the details that you need to consider when you aren’t sure which route to take. Consider the following:
COOL IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS CARDS As freelancers, we need to promote ourselves with business cards. How about putting yourself ahead of the rest of them by designing and printing completely unique business cards? You are about to take a look at the coolest and most innovative business cards that you have ever seen.
LIST OF FREELANCE FORUMS & MESSAGE BOARDS Looking to get together with other freelancers? Want to network? Want to ask questions about freelancing that you can’t find the answer to anywhere else? Look no further than the freelance forums that we have listed below. Feel free to let us know about forums that we have missed.
The followup to Brendan Sinclairs successful Web Design Business kit is a comprehensive look at all the business aspects of working as a web designer. It's thorough and has some excellent advice in it.
A complete, secure, online billing application that maintains hourly service billing, flat fee billing and recurring charges. Integration with Authorize.Net and other leading payment gateways provides hands-free recurring billing with a sophisticated CRM system.
Browse through our extensive list of free Business, Computer, Engineering and Trade magazines, white papers, downloads and podcasts to find the titles that best match your skills and interests; topics include management, marketing, operations, sales, and technology. Simply complete the application form and submit it. All are absolutely free to freelance professionals who qualify.
All Freelance Work is a Community for Freelance Workers Including Free Portfolios, Job Search, Job Posting, Helpful Articles, Forums, & More for the Self Employed.
