Certainly being talented and having good people skills are the base to build on for a freelance business. Today’s new marketplace for freelancers seems to need more than these basics to answer the big question – how do you keep your clients coming back?

You will not be surprised to find out you need to be proactive today and have an assertive outreach to clients, otherwise known as a marketing plan.  You also want your clients to keep hiring you, stay around longer, and tell their friends how great it is doing business with your company. Isn't that a win-win for you and your clients?

To help all of you wondering where your clients have gone and to kick-start freelancers new to the business, here are the highlights of an updated marketing plan to keep clients coming back.

• Referrals and word of mouth are the best but don’t wait for them, ask for them.
• Get a good mix going: direct mail, email, blogs, and updated web site. Get inspired to inspire.
• You know it is easier (and less expensive) to keep clients than constantly be looking for new ones so find some special rewards for your best clients.
• Pay close attention to your client’s web sites and the work they are doing in their news releases, awards they win, new products they are launching.
• Then, go to the next level and have conversations, the give and take of information between you and your client.  Just mailing a promo or having them visit your web site does not constitute a dialogue; it must be a two-way flow of information.  

This last tip is the most difficult to launch because it represents a different business model for freelancers. You are used to broadcasting your message and having the client call. The clients are used to being bombarded with promotional materials they have to wade through to find something that relates to them. Try dialogue instead. By having an ongoing conversation with clients, you can build a better relationship with them. As that relationship grows in time, you gain that client’s loyalty and with that loyalty, your clients will be less likely to leave. 

You can begin a dialogue with clients the next time you contact them. Start by asking them how they want to keep in touch and work your way up to what additional services can they use? Keep it brief and make it easy to respond. You can always motivate your clients to complete your survey by offering an incentive to respond.  It’s Marketing 101 at work!

Getting this client feedback is only the first step to understanding what it takes to keep clients. Once you have that knowledge, you'll then need to translate the information into marketing actions and tasks. So we talked with a few freelance clients to get you started. Take note that client’s responses are both alike (increased use of stock) and different (business has increased, business has decreased). This is testimony to the need for dialogue with each client you want to keep so you can understand their individuality.

Question:  “How has your freelance hiring changed in the last two years?”

Art Banuelos, Associate Creative Director at LehmanMillet West, ‘With the growth of our business in the last two years, all assignment needs have been increasing; design, photography and illustration, We always require digital capture now for photo assignments and our photography needs have changed to 1/2 from assignment and 1/2 from stock.’

Marie O'Neill, Director of Art & Design at Children's Press & Franklin Watts, ‘Our hiring practices have changed drastically. With downsizing reducing our in-house workforce to almost zero, we have subcontracted out the department’s work to one firm. So commissioning freelancers for us is now in their arena.’  

Cheryl Flohr, Communication Services at Parker Aerospace, ‘Today we make more stock photography purchases.  Now, we also fully accept digital photography (and prefer it).  Five years ago, we would accept it only for product photography.’

Today to help clients come back, you need to:

• Have a unique niche or specialty or technique or style
• Add more services that meet my client’s broader image needs (like digital video)
• Be able to provide digital delivery fast
• Consider possible uses of same image (like low res to high res)

In Conclusion

By providing information that your clients need now, including the benefits of working with you and updated representative visuals of your “brand”, you will not only keep clients from leaving but you may also see them refer others do to business with you.

                                                 ###