All Freelance Work is a Community for Freelance Workers Including Free Portfolios, Job Search, Job Posting, Helpful Articles, Forums, & More for the Self Employed.
HOW TO SET YOUR FREELANCE RATES - A GUIDE FOR FREELANCERS & CONSULTANTSThere are many factors which business owners must consider on a daily basis as it relates to the running of their business. Things such as how to find good help, where to acquire supplies and how much to pay one’s employees are all pertinent matters which must be addressed. There are a few ways to go about figuring out your rates when it comes to how much to charge the customers.12 Sure Ways to Get More Customers for Your Freelance / Home-Based / Small Business
by Abdillahi Abdillahi
Whenever you start a new business you ask yourself one of the most important question "How can I get customers?"
Or if you have some customers already you say it like this "How can I get more customers?" .There are many ways which you can promote your services or products but it seems not every company owner is utilizing from them. I was on MSN messenger the other day and there was a friend online who was reading some of the articles I have written so far. As he was telling me that he found them interesting etc I suddenly asked him this question "What do you like to read about?" And he answered the question like this "I like to read about the internet and computers but what I really want to read about these days is how to get customers, a short article. I then said "Well you know what you just gave me an idea of what to write about my next article .I will be telling you some tips which I think will work if implemented well and bring customers to you .
This friend I'm talking about has recently started a web hosting company and he is trying the best he can to make it the best company and take his share from this industry. So that is how I got the idea of writing this article.
It is really hard to promote a new company into a crowded industry such as the web hosting industry where people start new companies daily. Like I said before there are many tactics which are legitimate and as a company owner you are supposed to use them for your company and see the outcome.
As you can see now, Today in this article I will explain some tips which you can use to get customers or more customers .There will be 12 tips as the title of the article says and most of them will not cost anything if you want to use them for your company. But You know when you want to start a business you will have to invest some cash into it and see how it goes so that is why the tips which will cost you something worth all the money you spend on them.
All the 12 tips I covered here can be used for any business type even though I wrote them for the web hosting companies. All right why don't we start explaining the 12 sure ways to get more customers ? Ok then here we start doing so.
Freelancers & Small Business Owners - Here are 12 Sure Ways to Get More Customers
1.More Customers with a Referral Program.
This is one of the best ways to get customers or new customers. You can setup a referral system which your current customers can sign up to refer customers to you. You give the customer a special tracking url which he can then give it to any one he wants to sign up through his special tracking url. So whenever an existing customer's url is used then that customer gets a commission like 15 % of the price.
Also you offer his is own account where he can track the statistics of his campaign etc. It is better to automatically sign up any new customer the referral program so he or she can start referring customers to you right away without having to go through another sign up process than the first sign up process which is when filling out the order form. For that reason ask the person whether or not to sign up for the referral program with the same information provided with the order form.
And for the management and the tracking url which we I mentioned above you can use many ready programs and scripts which will just do that and more .Some billing soft wares allow you to sign up affiliates and give them that special tracking url . That is the number of tip and it works well because I have seen it and used it for my company and recently I made some research and asked some hosting companies how they got most of their customers and most of their answers were through referral system. So start setting up a referral system and see how it comes out.
2. More Customers By Networking & Word of Mouth
This is very similar to the referral program except that the existing customer doesn't get any commission and no special tracking url.This one works very well too and I saw companies got customers in that way. In order to make an existing customer refer new customers to you ,you should be providing good service to him and he should be happy .So make sure you do the best you can make your existing customers happy because happy customers mean more business is on the way and that they will not hesitate to refer new customers to you. Ask your current customers what they think of your service and if they are happy or not and if they say that they are happy then ask them to write a testimonial or a review about your company etc. So basically your existing customers will refer new customers to you if they are happy with you .
3. Find More Clients with Weekly and Monthly Special Offers to Bring in New Business.
This is another good one to get more customers. You can offer special monthly offers and see how the sales will soar. For example if you sell 100mb for $10 monthly then you can make it a special weekly or monthly offer and sell it for half of the price. And as you can see if anyone orders that package from you he will save $5 which is a good thing :) and that is why most people would be interested in. Of course to get a good profit you might need to set special rules for those offers like saying applies to monthly payments etc even though I don't think it is good thing to do because this might make some potential clients to say away because they might want to order that package and prepay for six months or one year service and if they make the payment for example one year in advance they will save $60. That may not be good for you but it is for them but allowing them to make payment in advance like that will get you more customers. You can also set a date which the offer will expire and won't be available anymore .So make weekly or monthly special offers and watch your sales soaring .
4. Find More Customers by Offering Huge Discounts.
Yes it is true .This one is like the weekly and monthly offers as customer would save some money by ordering any package with the discount on it except that it might be only for monthly payments. Offering huge discounts will get you more customers. You can offer discounts in many ways like saying order for six months service and get 30% discount etc. Make sure you don't offer too many discounts as you would always want to generate profit .You can start offering discounts at the end of the month but why wait when you can start now and observe the results ? :)
5. Get More Clients by Offering a Bonus with every order.
Well this is a good one too and it is easy to use it for your company . I have saw many companies giving out some good bonus for just ordering anything and you can do the same for your company . You can give a bonus to the client whenever a customer makes an order . There are many things that you can give out as a bonus to for example sending a url where he can download a special e-book , template etc for free.
You can give anything you want as a bonus but it is good to keep in mind that the bonus should be something you think would be good for the customer or he would interest in etc and not something that will make him say what that is what they call a bonus? :) Also it is good to give the bonus after you receive the payment and set up the account so you can feel you didn't just give a bonus in case no payment is made. Start giving out bonus and see how your business grows .
6. Join Forum Discussions to Find More Clients for Your freelance business.
You should join forum discussions where the kind of services you provide are offered. For example if you have a web hosting business you can join many good forums where web hosting is discussed . In the forums you can post your weekly or monthly special offers but don't just go to the forums when you want to post an ad . You should join the discussions and contribute and help the other members in the same time get help and free advertisement for your company with your signature. Whenever you post an ad on such forum other members and guests will see your offer and might just contact you for business . So go and join those forums and get free advertisement for your company :) and remember don't just go there when you want to post and ad but be active and make a part of the community.
7. Offer Many Different Payment Options to your clients ... this can pull in more clients to your small business.
Sometimes not offering many different payment options so your potential customers can choose the option that best fits to them and they think is better for them or can make the payment in that way will make you lose a lot of sales. So that is why you should provide many different payment options and make every potential customer feel that you care about them and that you can accept payments from him or her in the way he or she wants.
Because sometimes it happens to me when I want to buy something online and I see they company doesn't accept the way I want to make the payment and I just close the site and search for another and that is what your potential customers will do when they don't find the way they want to make the payment. Most of the time that happens when the company only accepts credit cards or Paypal®. But it is ok because it is possible to get a Paypal® account easily unlike credit cards. For that reason You should provide many payment options so you don't lose any sale any more because that will help you get more customers :)
8. Make Your Web site Multilingual and International ... and win over international customers to your home-based business.
This helps a lot to reach a lot of people all around the world. You should make your web site international and have at least some of the most spoken languages or international language. Well You know English is an international language and you should also make your web site in English. Also Arabic language is also too and you should make a special for those who don't know English.
Just make versions of any language you think is important to your business or you target the most . I have seen some companies which offer their products and services to certain countries only and even if you contact with them and tell them that you are interested in there services etc they will say to you that they offer there services to only those countries in the order form so if your country is not listed then we can't do business with you.
But You shouldn't do that with your company and should offer your services and products to everyone no matter where he is in the world. By offering your services and products to anyone no matter where he is in the world you make sure that you are going to reach many different people and also get more customers.
9. Sponsor Web sites and bring the customers to your freelance business website easily.
You can sponsor web sites to get more customers. I think you are saying what? That won't work.Well but it does work You shouldn't just sponsor any site but you should sponsor sites which are huge , I mean sites which get a lot of traffic and are similar to your site like web hosting discussion forums . That will help you get customers because you are going to place your ads on the site etc.
10. Paid Advertisement bring in traffic ---Only on the web.
Well here comes the advertising section. Of course this will cost you money unlike other tips which I covered but it works and it is worth any penny you spend on it. You should advertise on sites which are similar to your site and got a lot of traffic daily . Also you can use some pay per click search engines or Google® adwords . I have asked some companies which use that service how it works and whether or not it works well for them and most of them said that at least they get 1 customer through it and as you can see it is a good thing. I mean if you get 1 customer daily through it then that will be 30 customers per month and not bad. Just make your own research and see the sites you like to advertise on and the pay per click programs you want to use and give them a try.
11. Paid Advertisement bring in clients ---TVs, Radios, Magazines, News Papers.
This is another one but the only problem one might have with them is that they might cost a lot specially advertising on some well known TVs ,Radios,Magazines,News Papers because they are the best ways to advertise your company and get more customers. Advertising on TV is a great thing but costly like I said before. And even though it might costs a lot but it pays you back every penny you spend on it. Suppose you are going to advertise on CNN® cable and your ad is aired when for example there is live coverage of something and they go to a commercial break and they air your ad. You know millions of people watch it (including me:)).
So think about the effect it will make. And about the radios they are good too and might be a little cheaper than the Tvs. There are things you should consider when advertising on radios . If you have a domain name with numbers it might confuse the radio listeners e.g. if you have a domain name named john4host then how will they understand that the 4 is a number and not like for or four ? You see ? Really confusing but you can tell the host to make it clear and tell the listeners.
International magazines are a good way to advertise on . There are many great magazines which you can advertise your company on . The great benefit of advertising on them is that your ad will be seen by anyone who is subscribed to that magazine and since it is international your add will be seen by people from around the world. And about the news papers , the local news papers will be a good way to tell the local people about your business because it is delivered to homes every morning .And as you know there is a page just made for advertisements etc. So you can use local news papers to get more local clients :)
12. Rent some place(Office) and get a sign with your Logo to bring in customers to your small business. Well renting some place down town is another good way to get more customers.You can rent a small office down town and make it the official head quarters . If you work from home then you can make a small sign in front of your house so people know about your company. But it is not that necessary even though it can help your business a lot.
Conclusion: Those were the 12 ways which you can get more customers or even customers.
As you can see most of them don't require money in order to do use them for your company . So try to use the ones you find easy or that can be implemented easily. Like I said there are many ways you can promote your company and I couldn't list all of those ways . That is it for the time being now I guess you have something to do and that is trying out the tips covered here and waiting for the results
Abdillahi is a web designer, founder and president of http://kooshin.com , a company providing affordable web hosting and web design solutions to small to medium sized businesses and individuals. For more information , please visit http://kooshin.com
BlinkList | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Netscape | Onlywire | RawSugar | reddit | Spurl | StumbleUpon | Yahoo MyWeb
