Throughout all of twitter, and other various social platforms, I see a ton of people complain about themselves “not getting clients” and it’s solely based on themselves, not the clients. I’m not going to list designer’s names, but I always see the same tweet, just different designs practically daily. The designs are always headers too. So on my timeline I see it, but rarely will see other designs, maybe an ad or two here and there. Simple reason as to why that person isn’t getting clients… many people don’t need “headers”. Yes, there is a market for headers and designs such, but not EVERYONE is looking for them, and the “potential Clients” you may attract won’t want to buy a header half the time, they’re looking for something else like a logo for example. To summarize my client week of (Oct. 27 — Nov.1), I didn’t have a single repeat in design requests out of the 5 total clients. Sure, 5 clients aren’t a lot, but what they order is, especially for the price.
The simple moral of “Quality over quantity” is still effective, and every designer should remind themselves of that. Now, yes you can still post daily of the same “headers” but you’re not learning as much, and you’re not attracting in clients. For example, I see a designer post headers roughly every day, sure they get the likes (100+) and the follows, but what’s worth it, making money or getting so-called “clout”.. money I assume you answered, cause who doesn’t like the money? — After seeing these constant daily headers, I was almost sick of it saying “that’s all I see him do” and whatnot (yes, my ego kicked a bit), but It got annoying especially when I see designers do this specific one thing.
When you don’t get clients, it’s not about your pricing. Yes, maybe 15% of the decision is around pricing but it’s not the main thing. What draws in a client is your work, professionalism, well-built website/portfolio, and clear expertise in the field. Now, if they like your work, they’ll want to pay the price that YOU charge. Don’t ever lower your prices to get clients, cause when you do, it’ll bite you hard in the butt. If you see yourself getting absolutely 0 clients, it’s not because of your pricing, but it’s because your marketing and traffic is bad. Just earlier this weekend, I had a chat with a fellow designer. In my message, I told him “Yes, I will be posting articles on this, stay tuned and check out my page”. So in this message, I attracted him to my article, driving in traffic without him even realizing it. So off that ONE message, I was able to get a new reach for my article and lead that one new reach into many many more. Now, I won’t share the marketing practices that I use, but I can tell you to either Google or view lessons on business-marketing and marketing for designers. But the main thing is to never switch your prices because you aren’t getting clients because then that drives away clients showing that you’re essentially “horny” for clientele.
The best recommendation that I’d have to give, is that if you’re only focused on one design and one design only like headers, for example, expand out into other designs such as Logos or Stream Packages, as then you’ll have more clients rolling in that see you can create effective and efficient designs other than just headers or one design. Expanding & Experimenting is always for the better, not for the worse. And remember that clout is inexistent. Not trying to brag, but I as well as other smaller designers (under 1k on any social platform) have had or currently have more clients than bigger designers(above 1k). Followers really don’t mean anything. A prime example is @PaperCrownsLLC They’re a huge company tied with big brands and players within and without esports, and they’re under 1k followers. So not to be rude, but followers don’t mean Sh!t. The likes, the reposts, the retweets… they don’t matter. What matters the most is your marketing and traffic, and ultimately how you gain your very next client.
