How to reliably get new clients
Cold emails to get new clients
Follow ups to get replies
Link building emails
Partner with influencers
Graceful apologies
Pitch journalists
Onboard new users
Ask for donations
Ask for referrals
Developer: get new clients by reaching out to businesses and giving them a few ideas of what you can help them build
Many businesses are open to working with freelance developers or development agencies to bring projects and features to life and out of backlog. The key is to proactively reach out to the owners or department directors of businesses you want to work with and provide a few ideas of what you can help them build, so they understand what is possible with your skills. This will help you stand out among the 99% of other developers who just list the programming languages they know and hope a potential client will figure out a way to put their skills to use.
❶Good job on making it possible to directly edit all of your email templates.
❷Here are a few other ways you can provide value and convert more users into paying members:
・Add a free membership tier that lets users save their edited email templates.
This will give users a reason to come back to Art of Emails more often, to revisit their saved templates and discover new ones.
Offering a free membership tier also means these users would already have an account and would not have to create one when they wish to upgrade (friction point = lost sales).
・Enable comments on each template.
This lets members ask questions about the templates and help each other. A supportive community creates engaging content on their own and keeps users coming back.
❸A little background about me: I'm a PHP developer who has helped companies like Verve and Compass build and improve features their customers love. I recently helped Groove (a skincare subscription company) build an interactive onboarding survey with a 23% higher completion rate and recovers a lot more people who stopped the survey mid-way.
❹Let me know if you're open to a 15-min brainstorm session to bounce around a few ideas?
❶Provide one positive comment about the work they're doing to open the conversation.
❷Share 2-3 valuable ideas of what you can build for them that would help them achieve an important business goal (examples: more conversions, user signups or paying customers).
❸Briefly describe what tech stack you specialize in and mention a recent project you built for a client and the goals it has helped the company achieve.
❹Ask them for an initial call, framed as a brainstorm session to entice them to learn more.
Writer: get new clients by sharing a few content ideas that will help them capture more leads or sales
For this approach, reach out to the owners or marketing mangers of businesses that either make meaningful money with their content (affiliate marketing, ads) or offer a paid product and capture leads with their content. This means that they likely have the budget to hire a freelancer writer.
The key is to provide 2-3 content ideas you can write for them that would attract their target audience. This really helps you stand out among other writers who simply link to a few pieces of their past work.
❶I'm a huge fan of ProProductivity. Really enjoyed your article about proactively reaching out to people that inspire you.
❷Since content marketing is a key channel for you, here are a few meaty topics that would bring in high intent leads and get a lot of social engagement:
・Lay out the most effective productivity systems into actionable easy-to-follow steps (examples: Pomodoro Technique, Getting Things Done)
・A compilation of the most interesting insights from top productivity gurus like Craig Jarrow and Katie Mazzocco
❸A little about me: I'm a writer that specializes in content that converts (here a few of my recent articles: 1, 2, 3).
❹Would you be open to a 15-min brainstorm to bat around some content ideas?
❶Provide a positive comment about one of the prospect's recent articles to show them that you're already familiar with what they do and their audience.
❷ Provide a few content topics that would attract their target audience such as leads.
❸Briefly explain what type of writing you specialize in and link to a few recent articles you have written.
❹Ask them for an initial call framed as brainstorm session so they're enticed to learn more.
Web designer: get new clients by sharing a few design ideas that will improve their conversions
For this approach, reach out to the owners or marketing directors of businesses that capture leads, customers or users with their website and provide 2-3 design ideas that will improve their conversions. This will put you leads and bounds ahead of other designers who simply make generic statements about improving the look of their websites and link to their portfolios.
Congrats on dominating the search results for 'Birmingham solar panel installations'.
❶I took a look at your website - here are a few ways you can nudge more visitors to request an installation quote from you:
・❷Fix your Request Quote button to the top of your pages so it's always a click away. The more time it takes for a potential customer to find a way to contact you, the more likely it is they may just give up.
・Showcase previous installation projects with pictures, the average amount of electricity they generate per month and the money the customer saves per month.
・A more compelling header image. The goal is to pique your visitors' curiosity in the first few seconds so they keep browsing. Based on my experience with other websites, real pictures featuring people kept more visitors from bouncing off the page.
❸ Let me know what you think.
❶Provide a positive comment about a specific aspect of their business to build rapport.
❷Provide 2-3 actionable design ideas and explain how each change would help the prospect achieve an important business goal.
❸Ask them what they think of your ideas. This nudges them to reply to your email to open the conversation.
Copywriter: get new clients by sharing a few copy suggestions to improve their conversions
❶Came across a few ads for your product - converting user uploaded content into optimal sizes for each device can be such a PITA, great job for making this so easy.
❷Based on my experience helping products like Wires and Speeder convert ad traffic into users, here are a few ways to convert more visitors into users:
・❸Headline: Full stack adaptive delivery → Save your devs from the time suck of user uploaded content
A headline needs to convince someone not to bounce off your page so it has to pique their curiosity and emotions. 'Full stack adaptive delivery' sounds quite vague and doesn't really explain the pain point your product solves.
・Tagline: Serve ultimate UX with better images on any website. One script to rule them all → Convert user uploaded content into optimal sizes for every device. With one line of code
Now that your headline made them think "I have this problem", your tagline needs to be a fishing rod that reels them in. Even if your target audience is techy, explaining what your product does as simply as possible really boosts conversions, because every extra second of thinking time is a second they could decide to not bother and bounce off.
・CTA: Try it free, Schedule demo
I would limit the above the fold CTA to just one to maximize conversions. The more choice you offer, the less likely someone is to click at all. For the Try it free CTA, instead of directing people to the signup page right away, I would let people upload an image so they can see your dynamic resizing technology in action. Based on my work with other done-for-you products, this "seeing is believing" experience improved trial to conversion rates by 15-25%. This is ultimately what matters, not just signups.
❹Let me know what you think!
❶Find companies who are spending money on their marketing and advertising to reach out to. They are much more likely to have the budget and business need to hire a copywriter.
❷Offer to share 2-3 copy suggestions to improve their conversion rates. Providing a few concrete ideas of what you can do for them makes it much more likely prospects will hire you. When you just talk about some abstract generic benefits like how your copy can help them boost conversions, they have no clue how you'll actually be able to apply your skills to help their business.
❸Share 2-3 copy suggestions and briefly explain the reasoning and psychology behind your idea to demonstrate your expertise.
❹Ask them what they think to open the conversation.
SEO consultant: get new clients by providing an actionable idea on how to improve their rankings
❶Really like the hand foraged look of all of your bouquets.
When I looked you up on Google, I noticed that you're using your company name as your website title.
❷However, if I was just searching for a florist without knowing you, I'd probably enter something like "florist Santa Monica" instead. So if you put "Florist Santa Monica CA" in your website title, you would appear higher in search results for your ideal customers: people in Santa Monica looking for a florist.
To give your search entry an extra edge, you can also mention your same day flower delivery offer in your title to entice more people to click through.
Put together, here's a new title that would entice more ready-to-buy customers to click on your search result:
Santa Monica Florist | Same Day Delivery | Belle Jour
❸Let me know what you think!
❶Provide a compliment about the prospect's service or product.
❷Show them one change they can make right now to improve their SEO. Helping the prospect achieve a quick win means they are much more likely to trust you and your expertise. This is key to stand out in a field like SEO where potential clients are much more skeptical of consultants' ability to deliver.
❸Ask them for their thoughts to reopen the conversation.
How to get regular work from agencies by offering to take on their overflow projects
For this approach, reach out to agencies and offer to take on their overflow work, which can provide you a steady source of paid projects. The key is to highlight your communication skills, reliability and ability to adapt your style to what their client needs.
❶Kudos to your team for consistently hitting it out of the park for your clients.
If you're replying to the listing of an agency who's actively looking for a freelancer
❷I saw that you're looking for an UX designer - here's how I can apply my design skills and reliability to help Swell keep wowing your clients:
If you're reaching out to an agency you want to work with
❷Wondering, are you looking for someone who can take on overflow client work, so you can earn more without needing to scale up your full-time team? Here's how I can apply my UX design skills and reliability to help Swell keep wowing your clients:
❸Quick communication and work done on time
With every client I have worked with, I have always delivered projects on time, with prompt communication along the way. So you never have to worry about: “Will this work be done on time?" "Will this work meet client expectations?"
❹ UX design adapted to your client’s audience, branding and goals
I have created UX design for diverse businesses including spa centers and medical software so I am adept at deep diving into creative briefs and customer research to create unique experiences that achieves your clients’ conversion and branding goals. Here are a few results I achieved for clients:
・Revira: 35%+ more visitors booked beauty appointments after I redesigned their homepage and appointment booking funnel: [link to project]
・Insightseer: customer retention improved 20%+ after I redesigned their UX to make it much easier to discover and use key features: [link to project]
❺Would you be free for an initial chat so you can see if we'd work well together and how I can help your team?
❶Provide a meaningful comment about the agency’s work to build rapport.
❷Mention why you're reaching out to them to set the context and transition into how you'll be able to apply your skills to help their agency.
❸Highlight your relevant skills framed in terms of how you would be able to help the agency with their clients. Mention your reliability and communication skills as well to stand out. Agencies not only want someone who is talented, but someone who can be trusted to reply and deliver their work on time.
❹Since agencies often work with clients from different industries, show them that your work is adaptable and provide a few examples of results you’ve achieved for previous clients to show them how you can help the agency with theirs.
❺Ask for an initial chat, framed in terms of you wanting to learn more about how you can help their agency.
Approach: share your prospect's content on social media before cold emailing them
This is the approach Ryan Robinson used to land a $10,000/month retainer to write 4 blog posts a month for his client. You don't have to have a huge audience to share your prospect's content, it's about helping someone first before making an ask so they're more likely to reply to you.
Ryan <ryan@email.com>to [Prospect]
I wanted to reach out and give you a heads up that I've been loving the content coming out of [Site name] platform these past few months. I can appreciate great content when I see it :)
Just shared your recent post about with my audience on Twitter and I also mentioned the platform as a great resource for freelancers in one of my recent blog posts right here.
The other reason I'm reaching out is because a large part of my business is working with brands like Linkedln, Zendesk, SoFi and others to help scale high-return content marketing programs.
Would you be up for chatting about [Site name]'s content marketing or connecting me with someone else on your team if that'd be a better fit?
Ryan
P.S. Here's where you read more about my process and the clients I've worked with.
