So, you’ve got a few client-getting strategies in mind to start taking your freelancing business in a more positive, profitable direction.
Maybe you’ve decided to cold email your way to freedom.
But you’re stuck before you can even start, because you can’t seem to find good leads to reach out to.
Freelancing job boards are full of people just looking for a deal on a one-and-done project (though occasionally you might find a unicorn!), and you’ve started to doubt good clients even exist.
Don’t worry though, good clients – even dream clients – really do exist.
To find them, try looking in one of these nine, unexpected places to dig up some qualified leads.
1. Turn The Facebook Ads Algorithm Into A Personal Lead Generation Tool
A little known secret is that you don’t need to run Facebook Ads yourself in order to use them as a lead generation tool.
In order for this to work properly, you need to have shown some interest in some movers and shakers in the niche you’d like to freelance in.
However, once you do, Facebook will start to show you ads related to those interests.
For once, you’ll really want to pay attention to the ads in your newsfeed.
Because the folks running these ads are actively investing in their businesses and looking to grow. As Billy Bross writes for Teachable.com:
“Smart online marketers know that “hope marketing” is a lousy way to grow a business. What is hope marketing? It’s HOPING people visit your website. HOPING they then visit your sales page. Then HOPING they’ll buy. You can’t predictably scale a business relying on hope, which is why we have sales funnels (sometimes called a “marketing funnel”).”
Anyone running Facebook Ads for their business is a potential client who knows how to take action and control in their business, which are two crucial aspects for business success.
That means they are pre-qualified leads you can reach out to.
The more you interact with these ads, click through, “read more,” comment and like, and search for related content, the more Facebook will show them to you.
Basically, you’re turning the Facebook algorithm into a personal lead generation tool, to help you connect with the more than 5 million businesses running ads with Facebook.
For free.
Another bonus about this method is that there is usually a link to the prospect’s website on their business page (heads up: if there isn’t, they are likely working as an affiliate and not actively marketing their own business) and sometimes even a direct contact email.
That should help you find the right email to reach out to, or at least the name of the person you’re looking to connect with on your social media of choice.
2. Capitalize On Abundant Facebook Groups To Hunt Down Niche Prospects
There’s a group for everything on Facebook.
Including niche businesses and products.
Use this to your advantage by joining up and following groups for people you’d like to work with. If this means financial coaches, search Facebook for groups and pages dedicated to financial coaches, or even just ambitious coaches.
If this means artisanal soap producers, do the same.
Once you get into the groups or onto the pages, start interacting and sharing whatever value you have to share with the people you think might make great clients – consistently.
“The algorithm is smart. ONLY if and when you show consistency, will your posts be automatically shown to more members of the group. As a result, you want to be consistent and concentrate on 2-3 awesome Facebook™ groups (that are ideally filled with potential ideal clients/customers for you) at a time.”
Cornelia Pauline, Founder and CEO of Funnelgal, writes.
Answer questions, or even ask questions to get to know your prospects better, and keep providing content in the group that educates, entertains, inspires, and builds up your authority with its members.
(If you need ideas for what kind of content to create and share in these groups, check out Episode 7 of The No Pants Show podcast, 21 Ways To Attract Your Dream Client With Easy To Make Content.)
Often times you can find contact information and websites for the owner’s of the groups, who are usually great leads themselves.
This way, you start shaking hands with members at all stages in your niche, building your reputation, and growing your authority.
Just remember, as Ilean Harris reminds us in her article for Forbes:
“Pretend you are speaking to people in-person, offline. In real life, you would never put your link on a sticky note, stick it on a person and walk away. You would talk to them and add value before inviting them to work with you. Don’t forget your offline charm when you are online and this strategy will be fruitful for you.”
The more value you share and the more help you give, the more your demonstrations are likely to attract clients looking for your flavor of expertise.
3. Use LinkedIn To Tap Into A Powerful Network of Business-Minded Leads and Built-in Audience
LinkedIn is a gold mine not only for finding qualified leads, but for building relationships and authority with them as well.
First off, if you know who your ideal client is, you can simply search their title and narrow the results by “People” to get a long, long list of potential leads.
As you connect with each one, send a short introductory message, or even your typical cold email, to familiarize them with you, what you do, and why you’re reaching out.
When a lead accepts your request, not only will you have access to their contact information for follow ups, but they will also become part of your “micro-audience.”
This means that when you post something on LinkedIn, your connections become a a built in audience – no external traffic source needed.
“B2B marketers love LinkedIn — and for good reason. The platform drives 80 percent of B2B social media leads. Companies such as HubSpot use LinkedIn to republish blog posts, maximizing the number of people reading and sharing their teams’ ideas. LinkedIn provides a perfect venue for publishing insightful, shareable content that’s tailored to your network.”
John Hall, CEO of Influence & Co., writes for Forbes.
So post articles sharing value, ask questions, write daily email style updates and interact with your connections in the news feed.
The more you interact, and your connections return the favor, the more often your content will be moved to the top of their news feeds by the LinkedIn algorithm.
In this way, you warm up leads, build relationships, your reputation, and authority all in one place and in as little as fifteen minutes a day.
You can also direct your micro-audience and new connections to a lead magnet and add them to your personal email list, for more valuable opportunities in the long-term.
4. Try Smarter Google Searches To Track Down Leads With A Few Simple Tricks
For pure simplicity’s sake, Google is your friend.
Refine your results so you don’t get lost twenty or more pages deep by looking up the title of your ideal client as well as a particular city or area, and using these Google search cheat codes.
Doing this, you can often find leads that you would never come across another way.
They may not be active on social media or rank highly on search engines (something you may be able to help them with!).
You can also use Google to further your LinkedIn strategy by getting around some of the less savory aspects of LinkedIn, such as search limits without upgrading to Premium, and sifting through pages and pages of profiles looking for the right “Jane Doe.”
Try searching within LinkedIn using the prospect’s name, company, and title, like this:
To find the person you’re looking for at a specific company on LinkedIn.
This way, you can make more deliberate connections and get on the radars of bigger fish in your niche.
5. Channel Surf YouTube Using Niche Specific Questions to Find Pre-Qualified Leads
(Source: Unsplash.com)
Video marketing is here to stay, which means YouTube is becoming an ever greater resource for tracking down great clients.
“81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% over the last year.” – Biteable
Those investing time and/or money into maintaining a YouTube channel for content marketing purposes are also pre-qualifying themselves as the type of client who invests in their business.
Try searching for question and how-to type videos you believe the audience of your ideal client would be looking for.
Great clients will be the ones solving problems for their audience in video format and then plugging an opportunity or product to buy for further help at the end, much like great blog posts do.
This is also a great way to find prospects because you can get a sense of their personality, humor, communication methods, and principles based on the content they produce and their behavior in the video.
You won’t jive with everyone, so this is a great way to “screen” some leads and better qualify them for your outreach.
And lastly, the recommended videos section could easily point you to more prospects in your niche, making the dreaded YouTube rabbit hole a productive activity for the first time ever.
6. Use Podcasts To Find Forward Thinking Prospects
Podcasts are growing in marketing value and popularity alongside video marketing, so try tracking down podcasts in your niche to find new prospects demonstrating commitment and investment in their business.
“Podcasts have a unique way of making technology disappear. You simply listen to your device; there’s no tapping, swiping or clicking. In this way, podcasting reduces the friction and noise associated with traditional digital advertising, allowing brands to instill a connection with consumers (away from their screens).”
David Shadpour, co-founder and CEO of Social Native, writes for Forbes.
That means smart and savvy clients who like to be ahead of the curve can be found podcasting as part of their marketing strategy.
In fact, The No Pants Project has started sharing regular podcasts too – catch those here!
Mike Shreeve, Founder and Head Troublemaker of The No Pants Project, recently did an episode all about starting a podcast for your own business, where he says,
“You should present content in the way that best suits you. Do the format that’s natural for you. I have a face for radio. I don’t want to get dressed up and do another extra step.”
That means, like video, podcasts let you further qualify your lead by allowing you to gauge their personality, perspectives, and working style, and whether they actually line up with yours.
Another great thing about podcasters is that they demonstrate a value-first approach, like people who run YouTube channels or regularly updated blogs.
7. Try Out A Coworking Space For Some Old-Fashioned Offline Networking
A great way to find surprise clients is offline networking – going old school!
It may seem difficult to attend trade shows and conferences in your niche with no guarantee of success, especially if you’re an introvert, but there are plenty of ways to get around that overwhelm and still network offline.
For example, you can try a coworking space, where:
“You will usually find tons of other freelancers and business owners in coworking spaces. That gives you plenty of opportunity to connect, create synergies or collaborate.”
Denise, of DigitalNomadSoul, writes.
But the best way is to simply tell people what you do.
Whenever you meet someone new and they ask about you, tell them how you help people and why.
In fact, tell your family and friends too – you never know who they might know.
You’ll be surprised at how many local business owners there are, and how many of them can see the value of your services and are looking for your help.
They may not fall in your niche, but they are valuable opportunities to help your local community and sharpen your skills.
I once caught the interest of my local computer repair shop owner by simply explaining what I did when he asked, which is a prospect I would never have thought of or reached out to on my own.
8. Contribute to Industry Forums and Question Sites and Value-Bomb Your Way To The Top
Question forums such as Quora and niche specific forums are great alternatives to value-bomb your way to new clients if you’d prefer not to turn your personal Facebook profile into an aspect of your business.
Just like on Facebook or LinkedIn, the key is to give.
Give freely, give generously, and give without worry of whether or not you’re leaving yourself anything to charge for.
This will establish your reputation, build your authority, and add exposure to your business and yourself as a brand.
There are more than a few big names out there who got their start by incessantly answering questions on sites like Quora.
“According to Hanson Cheng, an American videographer who at one point got over 1 million views on Quora in under 45 days, questions found on Quora can prompt entrepreneurs to write responses showcasing what they know and/or care about in a clear-sighted way. ‘Quora seemed like a great way to flesh out my ideas to create content,’ Cheng told me in an interview. ‘It was my way of finding out what people were interested in learning about and whether any of my experiences could help them.’”
Jonathan Jeffery, growth manager for 24Slides, writes for Entrepreneur.
The key is to put the effort in to present and communicate like a professional, and really go above and beyond with your answers.
The best answers are usually formatted similar to a blog post and offer tremendous value to their readers.
9. Pin Your Way To More Creative Leads With Pinterest
For more creative and social niches, Pinterest can be a hugely valuable marketing channel, and you can find prospects there that you won’t find anywhere else.
While Pinterest isn’t as big as LinkedIn and Facebook, it is actually even more lucrative when used correctly because Pinterest users spend the most money of popular social media users.
To find great leads here, search for boards geared toward helping your ideal client’s audience solve a problem themselves and see who created it.
That’s your lead.
With 70 million users and 500,000 business accounts, a little digging should turn up a small fortune in great potential clients for you to reach out to.
9 Places and Strategies to Find Great Clients:
You don’t need to race to the bottom on freelance job boards.With a little elbow grease and personality, you can find your dream clients on your own terms.
Here are 9 places to look for seemingly mythical “great clients”:
- Turn the Facebook Ads Algorithm Into A Personal Lead Generation Tool
- Capitalize On Abundant Facebook Groups To Hunt Down Niche Prospects
- Use LinkedIn To Tap Into A Powerful Network of Business-Minded Leads and Built-in Audience
- Try Smarter Google Searches To Track Down Leads With A Few Simple Tricks
- Channel Surf YouTube Using Niche Specific Questions to Find Pre-Qualified Leads
- Use Podcasts To Find Forward Thinking Prospects
- Try Out A Coworking Space For Some Old-Fashioned Offline Networking
- Contribute to Industry Forums and Question Sites and Value-Bomb Your Way To The Top
- Pin Your Way To More Creative Leads With Pinterest
The same things that make these great places to find ideal clients also make them great options for your own marketing strategies, when you reach that stage of your business.
If you have the time and money to invest, any one of these places can become a successful client-getting faucet strategy for you to use.
But if you’re just looking for some qualified prospects to reach out to, these places are gold mines for finding leads.
Now all you need to do is take a deep breath, move past the fear, and start talking to prospects. Remember that the secret to getting what you want in life is to persevere no matter what.
And if you’re ready to take your freelance business to the next level, join us in The No Pants Project today to find out how.
