A freelance web developer must find clients on a regular basis to ensure the stability and sustainability of his independent activity. For this, many techniques exist. Go get web development missions yourself by cold-calling prospects. Use the many platforms for freelance web developers. Finally, make sure to attract customers using the principle of inbound marketing. For a comprehensive and reliable long-term strategy, the ideal is to multiply the acquisition channels by diversifying them.
Use platforms for freelance web developers
Direct canvassing is very rarely a task appreciated by independent developers. The use of general or specialized development platforms is therefore an excellent way to give yourself a chance of being approached by a potential client if they are attracted by the profile of the developer. Ad sites, specialized platforms, and low-cost platforms, if they are not sufficient in themselves, nevertheless represent an essential outlet for any developer wishing to start freelancing.
Benefit from the partnerships of your service providers
Service providers and other suppliers of tools or services for the self-employed often offer services or even assistance to help them develop. Coworking spaces, for example, offer many preferential rates, while ITG regularly sets up partnerships with platforms for freelancers specializing in development, training, project management assistance, etc. These lower-cost and sometimes even free resources should not be overlooked. They mainly serve the service provider to provide a better service to the freelancers who benefit from it.
Do inbound marketing
When you want to canvass or wait for the platforms at a minimum, it is necessary to invest in inbound marketing and personal branding. This increasingly used strategy consists of bringing customers to you by positioning yourself well on search engines or by using social networks effectively.
Create your website
Having your website is certainly the best advertising you can do because you have perfect control of your content. Its goal is to position itself in 1st position on the name of the freelancer instead of platform profiles and social profiles. Its objective is not to generate traffic to convert, but to convince potential customers who Google its name.
When you are a freelancer, controlling your image and your notoriety means giving yourself every chance of being called.
Use social networks
The professional network LinkedIn is almost essential for freelancers. It is necessary to provide as much information as possible about your profile in order to allow the prospect to understand it as best as possible. For more visibility, it is possible to publish articles or links leading to your site, but a social and content production strategy is time-consuming. A solid profile and above all, numerous feedback from previous clients can greatly help build your reputation and above all convince you.
Convincingly asking your clients to post a favorable review on LinkedIn and the platform from which it comes seems little, but over time it becomes enormous. A real guarantee of credibility.
How to approach a client when you are a freelance web developer?
Being on the lookout for a new contract is a common situation for most freelancers throughout their professional lives. This is more or less true depending on each person’s ability to build loyalty, depending on a particular economic situation, etc. Learning to find your own opportunities is therefore more than a real asset, it is a challenge. Here are the two main methods to achieve this.
Find customers around you
Being a freelance web developer and working from home should not prevent you from being interested in the economic fabric that surrounds us. If the objective is to build loyalty in order to reduce customer turnover, ensure better, more stable income, and reduce the effort of finding new customers to convince, working with nearby companies remains a real asset. Many craftsmen, traders, and service companies particularly like working with professionals who are part of their network or at least in their geographical area. Being able to meet them and build a relationship of trust anchored in reality reassures them and can clearly play a role in their choice of service provider.
To create a memorable first contact, it is preferable to go directly to the premises of companies that you perceive as potentially ideal clients, with the start of an adequate proposal. With two or three clients accessible geographically and with whom to build a bond of trust, the independent developer ensures a solid base to develop its activity.
Approach by phone, email, or social networks
Expanding your search via web canvassing is also essential. Targeting companies based on needs that can be identified and contacting them via social networks such as LinkedIn, their website, and their email to make them an initial proposal of its added value takes a little time but is easily industrialized with the good method and the developers have plenty of them (crawl, scrap, etc.).
It is best to avoid talking about prices or establishing a quote on the first contact. Showing your vision, your ability to identify their obstacles and needs, their unspoken problems, allows the target to be convinced of having found the competent person who understands them. This is what will determine the value of the freelancer in their eyes and therefore determine their sensitivity to prices.
Starting with the financial aspect directly positions the potential client in cost arbitrage, and therefore for the developer, in price competition.