If you want to understand how to find clients, you’re going to love this blog post.
In it, you’ll learn:
- Why you’re attracting the wrong clients (or no clients)
- How to attract the right clients
- How to turn your existing wrong clients into dream clients
- How to start a freelance web design business when you’ve got the web design know-how but no clients, no portfolio and a severe case of imposter syndrome
And I’ll give you some resources to help you grow your freelance web design business.
Before we dive in, the reason I’m even writing this is because I was reviewing a survey I created on my website asking web designers what their number one biggest struggle is when it comes to building their business.
I had to do a double-take when I saw that over 500 people responded to this survey that I had barely promoted! As I was reviewing these survey responses, I had a major a-ha moment which I’ll share with you a bit later.
The overwhelming majority of web designers who responded to my survey said their biggest struggle is “finding clients.”
Can you relate??
Their second biggest struggle?
“Finding clients who are willing to pay me and don’t want everything for super cheap or free in exchange for exposure or a trade.”
Um, yep.
Whether you’re a web designer or not, the strategies I’m going to share with you in this blog post will help you not only attract clients but the right kind of clients (and that’s a super important distinction).
- They are more than willing to pay you what you’re asking
- They wouldn’t dream of asking you to work for “exposure”
- You actually enjoy the work you do together
- Communication is effortless, even when things don’t go according to plan
To uncover how to find the right clients, it’s important to first understand how we’re attracting the wrong clients (or no clients) in the first place!
How To Find The Wrong Clients
When I first started my web design business, I attracted nothing but the wrong clients.
The wrong clients are those who don’t want to pay what you’re worth, clients who want you to work for exposure, or working with them is just a miserable experience in general and communication is difficult.
Let me be totally clear – it wasn’t their fault they were the wrong clients, I just didn’t know that what I was doing was attracting them to me like a moth to a flame – and I didn’t know how to course-correct once I was in the midst of working with the wrong clients either!
Here’s how I attracted the wrong clients:
- By telling people I know that I’m a freelance web designer
- By working for people you know for super cheap or free in order to gain exposure and build a portfolio
- By taking referrals from people who know I’m a web designer, but don’t know the specifics of who my ideal client is or what types of websites I build
Here are other ways I see web designers attracting the wrong clients:
- By posting their services or responding to ads on freelancer-for-hire website
- By creating a website that talks about their coding skills and showcases their portfolio (typically of client work they’ve done for very cheap or free to build the portfolio
Right now you might be thinking, “But isn’t that how I market my web design services?”
How will I find clients if I’m not telling people I’m a web designer, building up a portfolio website, and asking for referrals? How will I find clients if I’m not going to job posting websites and looking for work? If all of that is getting me the wrong kinds of clients, then how am I ever going to find clients at all, let alone the right kinds of clients???”
Here’s the a-ha moment I had from thinking about my own experiences and reading 500 survey responses from web designers (and if you’re not a web designer but you’re reading this because you struggle to find clients, you’ll find this helpful too):
It is not about what you do, it’s about the results your clients get from working with you.
Let me say that again a bit differently.
If you are selling web design, you are a commodity – something to be gotten at the lowest possible price. Because everyone is selling web design, and in countries where the cost of living is much lower and the people are very skilled, they can charge way less than you can and make a great living.
So what sets someone who charges $5000 for a website (or coaching, or whatever it is that you’re selling) apart from someone who charges $500?
The person who is charging $500 is selling a website.
The person charging $5000 is selling results.
And when a client who really wants results spends $500 on a website, one of two things happens:
- One, they get what they pay for and end up extremely frustrated that their website isn’t getting them results
- Two, you build them a $5000 website for $500 and feel taken advantage of and totally burned out
I’m guilty of number two. And I almost quit freelancing and gave up on my dream of being my own boss because of it.
So it’s not your clients’ fault that they don’t “want to pay that much for a website.” It’s not their fault that they treat you as an order-taker instead of a trusted advisor. And it’s not their fault that they pay you $500 for something that you should be charging them $5000 for!
It’s not your fault either, BFF, because you didn’t know any better.
But now I’m going to share with you how you can shift from selling websites to selling results and start attracting the right clients.
How To Find The Right Clients
I stumbled upon how to find the right clients quite by accident.
I was so frustrated and burnt out by working with the wrong clients that I stopped altogether and created the 5-Day Website Challenge, a free video tutorial series that teaches female business owners how to build the kind of website that helps them grow their email lists so that they can use email marketing and automation to sell their products and services.
And I was totally caught off guard when people who had signed up for my free training started asking me to build websites for them.
Why? I’d think. I’m showing you exactly how to do it yourself – for free?!?!
That’s when I figured out that I was positioning myself as someone who can give people specific results rather than a commodity. When people were willing to pay me thousands to get the exact same thing they could get for free, that’s when I knew I was on to something.
In order to shift from selling web design to selling the results that clients can get from web design, you must stop focusing on yourself and how valuable your coding/design skills are and how much time it takes you to build a website.
It’s not about you. It’s about your clients.
What problem is your client struggling with that a website can solve for them?
And if you’re willing to do the work to get really, really specific about these problems and solutions, then you’re going to start attracting the right kind of clients.
First, figure out who your ideal client is.
Your ideal client is not just “anyone that needs a website.” That’s what keeps you stuck as a commodity to be had for the lowest price.
If you’ve had clients in the past, who was your absolute dreamiest client? You loved everything about working with them, and if you had ten more of them life would be golden?
Ask yourself – what was it that you loved about working with them? Was it the project itself that was dreamy and fun, or was it the person? Did they put their heart all into the work you did together? Did they keep deadlines? Were they respectful, gracious? Did they pay on time?
Then get even more specific. If it’s a person, how old are they? Income? Name? Gender? Location? If it’s a company, what industry? Annual revenue? Number of employees? Location? Make a list of all of these qualities.
Then go into research mode. Go find those people online and talk to them. Ask them what their biggest struggle is with their website. Ask them what they love about it. Ask them what they loved about working with their last web designer, and what they didn’t love so much. If they could change one thing about their last web design experience, what would that be? Ask them what their business goals are.
If you are willing to zero in on the exact type of client you want to work and become an expert in getting results for that specific industry and type of client, then you’re on your way to being able to charge $5000 for a “website.”
And I put that in quotes because you now know that you’re selling much, much more than a website.
Then, figure out what results you are selling.
How do you know what results you are selling? By asking your ideal client what their business goals are and what their biggest struggles with their website are, and then finding the intersection between the two.
Then, anticipating that they don’t know what they don’t know, create content to educate them about how website built in a certain way with features related to their industry can help them get results. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, podcasts, or whatever – this is how you market yourself and set yourself apart from all the other web designers out there and go from a commodity to be had at the lowest possible price to a valued and trusted advisor who produces results.
Here’s the truth: Most people won’t do this.
They’re too afraid to focus on one industry and one type of client because they think they won’t get enough clients. They won’t talk to people who are like their ideal clients because those people already have websites and don’t need their services. They’ll continue to showcase all the gorgeous sites they’ve built and struggle to understand why no one values the skill and effort it took to build it.
Think about this: 500 web designers took my survey. And they are probably all really talented and awesome at what they do.
That’s your competition. They all have a portfolio. They are all selling web design.
A portfolio helps your clients understand what their website could look like or what features it might have, but it does not help your potential client really understand the results they can get from working with you. Especially if the sites in your portfolio are for businesses outside of their niche.
If you want to land the right kind of clients, the kind that want to pay you what you’re worth, you have to shift your thinking from showcasing websites to giving them results.
And because most people won’t do it, the opportunity is ripe for you to be one of the ones that do.
How To Turn the Wrong Clients into The Right Clients
So what do you do if you find yourself with a roster full of the wrong clients? Clients that see you as an order-taker rather than an expert who can get them achieve their goals?
First, ask yourself if you see yourself as an order-taker or an expert who can help them achieve their goals. Because it starts with you.
You teach people how to treat you.
When I first started freelancing, I felt like an imposter because I never formally learned to code. I didn’t feel like I know enough to call myself an expert. So why would my clients treat me like one?
Once I worked on my mindset and began to believe that I had more value to offer than simply changing a font color on demand, I started to raise my prices.
And it didn’t happen overnight, it’s been a slow progression from feeling like, “Yep, I can totally build you a website,” to “Yep, I can totally help you make more money in your business.”
Then, give your wrong clients the opportunity to become the right clients by re-setting boundaries.
If you’re anything like me when I first started out, I set no boundaries. No boundaries about when I’d be working or available for phone calls and meetings. No boundaries about how many revisions I’d do, or what I’d charge extra for or what was included.
Sure, I had contracts, but I didn’t enforce the provisions because I felt uncomfortable. As an employee, I’d been conditioned for so long to just do everything that was asked of me. Plus, I’m a total people-pleaser and want people to like me.
I didn’t have the language or skills to say no, and that’s how I operated with my clients. Like a people-pleasing employee that wants everyone to like her. Every boss’s dream, but every freelancer’s worst nightmare!
Even right clients can become wrong clients when you don’t set clear boundaries.
Clients can’t step over boundaries that were never set in the first place.
So I had to start settings them. But first, I had to define them. When would I work? When would I respond to emails? Will I allow clients to text me? What constitutes an “emergency?” What’s included in the project? How many revisions will I do before I start charging?
So how do you start setting boundaries with existing clients with whom you’ve never set before?
Not by sending them an email announcing your new boundaries, but by giving them a choice when they are asking for something that steps over your newly-defined boundaries and doing it in a way that makes them feel super awesome and supported!
Here’s an email I received one day from one of my vendors telling me the price was going up:
“Hi, Shannon,
Wow, we’ve been working together for almost 2 years. We are so grateful for your loyalty to us and hope to continue supporting you for many more years to come.
Now that our team has grown (and continues to grow) to over 15 incredible women and our clientele is growing by 2 new clients a week, it’s time our rates reflect the value our team has to offer. But because you’ve been so loyal to us, we’re going to slowly increase your paying rate.
Currently, you pay $X per hour. For reference, current clients that start with a 10 hour/month plan pay $Z/hour.
Beginning in April, your hourly rate will step up to $Y. Then in June, the hourly rate will be $Z. That’s the top rate you will ever pay.
We hope you understand and please do reach out if you have any questions. Again, we appreciate all the support you’ve given us and are looking forward to continuing to support you in all your endeavors!”
What this email does extremely well is:
- Remind me that two years have passed since we started working together to prime me to expect a change.
- Thanking me for being a loyal customer, which makes me feel really good.
- Explaining that I’m going to be getting more value because there are more skills available to me to take advantage of.
- Telling me that a change is happening (the price is going up) and why (because I’m getting more value).
- Stepping me up into the new rate over a few months and giving me the assurance that it won’t increase again.
Imagine if instead of receiving this email, I got an invoice for my new rate with no prior notice or an email saying “Effective on this date, your new rate is X.”
Do you think that would make me feel valued? No way.
You could adapt this approach to new business hours and communication expectations. Or send your clients new service agreements.
But you don’t need to globally announce your new expectations to all of your wrong clients in an attempt to turn them into the right clients. You can handle them on a case-by-case basis.
The trick isn’t to say no when a wrong client wants to step over your boundaries – it’s to give them a choice.
It’s not “Here’s what I WON’T do,” and shut the door – it’s “Here’s what I WILL do,” and give your client a choice.
Give them a chance to become your right client. You’d be surprised how many people don’t even realize that they’re stepping over your boundaries, and once you make them clear people are totally fine with it!
And if your boundaries don’t work for them, they will go find someone who will do whatever they want when they want, and you’ll be better off for it.
If all else fails, it might be time to end your relationship with your wrong client.
Before you go down this road, I urge you to take a look at yourself and your boundaries first and do the work to communicate them. Because if you don’t learn how to do this early on, your right-on-paper clients will eventually turn into wrong clients.
And if you ultimately need to end the relationship altogether, you can check out one of the best resources I’ve found for “firing” difficult clients from copywriter Jamie Jensen.
As you start to attract the right clients, you’ll phase out your wrong clients.
