Being Active and Alert: How Freelancers Get Clients through LinkedIn

95% of freelancers who use social networks for business use LinkedIn, according to How Freelancers Market their Services: 2017 Survey. Some of these freelancers are getting clients through LinkedIn in interesting ways.
By being active on LinkedIn and alert to opportunities, and not just posting their profile and forgetting about it, these 5 freelancers are getting clients through LinkedIn:
- Sandy Barth
- Anne Erlich, PharmD
- Deb Dulin
- Ruwaida Vakil, MS
- Lindy Alexander, PhD.
They’re doing it by:
- Responding to opportunity
- Highlighting their expertise on LinkedIn Publishing
- Looking for and reaching out to prospects.
And, of course, they all have client-focused profiles, which you need to impress clients once you get their attention.
Responding to Opportunities
Sandy Barth and Anne Erlich, PharmD, have gotten clients through LinkedIn using a simple strategy: Responding to opportunities.
LinkedIn notifications let freelancers keep updated on the professional moves and achievements of clients and colleagues. Sandy, a visual integrated marketer in print, web, and video for B2B and B2C markets and owner of High Profile Group, LLC, used one of these notifications to re-connect with a former client.
After getting a notification that the former client had recently started working at another company, Sandy sent him a message through LinkedIn. “I congratulated him and let him know I would be happy to help him on future projects,” she says. “About 3 months later, he called and had several projects which have resulted in approximately $10K worth of billing. Not bad for a quick, simple email that started the ball rolling!”
Anne, a freelance medical writer and owner of Write Market Access, got two clients by responding to, instead of ignoring, headhunters (recruiters). Many freelance medical writers consider recruiters who are looking to fill full-time jobs a waste of their time. But Anne took a different approach.
After accepting connection requests from two recruiters, one sent Anne a message about a full-time job with a medical communications agency. Out of curiosity, Anne decided to talk to him, and learned all about the company and the position.
“I realized that I hit the jackpot,” says Anne. “I had the name of a medical communications company that was desperately in need of a medical writer with my exact skill set.” So Anne searched LinkedIn and found the executive vice president, vice president, and human resources agent for the company. “I sent each of those individuals a cordial introduction of myself and a few writing samples. Within a week I had a new client,” she says.
Anne used the same process with the other headhunter — and landed another new client! She told both headhunters that she was launching a freelance medical writing business.
Read more about how Anne gets clients:
“Want Great Clients? Be Different”
Highlighting Your Expertise on LinkedIn Publishing
Ruwaida Vakil, MS, and Deb Dulin are both getting clients through LinkedIn Publishing, which lets you highlight your expertise. Through the notifications LinkedIn sends when you publish an article (or post), you reach everyone in your network.
Get more views of your article by also sharing it as an update. You can do this about once a day for a week or so.
“LinkedIn Publishing articles are great for marketing,” says Ruwaida, a freelance medical writer and owner of ProMed Write LLC. Ruwaida focuses her articles on the type of writing she does, to demonstrate her expertise.
Sample article:
“Gap Analysis vs Needs Assessments in CME”
Get more practical advice on LinkedIn from Ruwaida’s webinar: Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn to Build Your Career, Business, and Online Presence, available on demand.
Deb, a graphic designer and branding expert, and owner of Dulin Design LLC, focuses on the benefits of branding in her LinkedIn posts and uses visually interesting images to make them stand out. “My posts educate businesses on best practices for marketing and help clients learn more about my style of design and whether it aligns with what they are looking for,” says Deb.
Sample article:
“Is blue the luckiest color? “
Deb also got a client through a clever update: an infographic about the various services she offered in 2016. The message above the infographic explained how she helps her clients:
“We created this infographic breaking down all of the amazing projects we completed in 2016. One-third of these elements were not what our clients had in mind, but through strategy and discussion, we determined the best solution for their needs. Looking forward to more great collaborative work in 2017!”
You can also see who’s viewed your posts. While readers are most likely to be people who are already in your network, they may forward your posts to people you don’t know who could be good prospects or contacts. And if a prospect views your articles, this gives you a great opportunity to send a message asking, for example, if you can provide any more information about the subject of the article.
Read more about how Ruwaida gets clients:
“Innovations in Freelancing with Ruwaida Vakil”
Looking for and Reaching Out to Prospects
LinkedIn is also a great tool for finding prospects and reaching out to them. Lindy Alexander and Deb both get clients by doing this. Lindy is a freelance writer, researcher, and content creator who focuses on health, business and food writing.
Finding prospects
Use LinkedIn to:
- Search for prospects
- Find the right contact person for companies/organizations you’d like to work with
- Find more relevant prospects through “People Also Viewed.”
With a free membership, you can filter searches by the level of your connections (first, second, or third), companies, and industries.
In the search bar, click “Search for people with filters.” On the right hand side, you can search by:
- Your connections
- Industry
- Current company
- Location (e.g., the United States).
In general searches, you’ll get a lot of results, but LinkedIn sorts results by relevance so the top results should be best.
If you know a particular company (or companies) you want to work with, search by its name, and then use keywords to find people with the right job titles.
Lindy and Deb both search for prospects by job title. The right title (and department) varies for different types of freelance work and in different companies.
For Lindy, the relevant job titles are:
- Content marketing manager
- Brand manager
- Marketing manager
- Head of communications
- Digital marketing manager
- Online/digital editor
Deb’s relevant job titles are:
- Marketing director
- Business owner.
In large organizations, the people who hire freelancers usually have titles like:
- Vice president
- Manager
- Director
- Associate directors
in departments like:
- Communications
- Marketing
- Web content.
When you find a good prospect/contact person, check out his/her “People Also Viewed” section. This is a great way to find:
- Colleagues at the same company who may be better prospects for you (higher or lower in the company)
- People at different, but similar, companies with the same/similar job title.
Reaching out to prospects
Reaching out to people on LinkedIn, “social selling,” is different than others types of marketing. “Be prepared to play a long game,” says Lindy.
“Sometimes connections and conversations can pay off quickly, but really, it’s about developing a relationship and trust, and that takes time,” she says in her free report, 3 Steps to Finding High-Paying Clients on LinkedIn.
A key part of developing those relationships is:
- Doing your homework
- Personalizing your messages
- Being professional and low-key (no hard selling).
Lindy got a client through LinkedIn by doing this. After identifying a good prospect, she reviewed the prospect’s profile. She found a common connection she could mention; they both knew the same person.
In the invitation to connect Lindy:
- Introduced herself and mentioned that she is a freelancer
- Noted that she also knows the common connection
- Asked if the prospect wanted to connect with her on LinkedIn
- Ended with a thank-you.
The prospect accepted the invitation and sent a “nice to meet you” message.
Next, Lindy politely asked whether the organization uses freelance writers. The prospect replied that they might need freelancers in the future.
In her reply to this message, Lindy demonstrated that she understood the type of content the organization produced, and sent links to relevant samples of her work.
Five months later, the prospect hired Lindy for her first project with the organization.
The messages Lindy wrote are included in 3 Steps to Finding High-Paying Clients on LinkedIn.
Social selling — and all marketing — is something of a numbers game. “Be persistent and prepared to send out lots of requests to connect. Landing high-paying clients get easier with time, but you have to put in the work,” says Lindy.
Deb also researches the prospect before reaching out. “Finding something in common is another benefit of LinkedIn, as I prefer warm introductions,” she says. Deb initially contacts the prospect through LinkedIn, and then moves the discussion to regular email. After that, they talk on the phone or meet in person.
Learn More
From The Mighty Marketer
“How Freelancers Use LinkedIn to Get Clients: The Client-Focused Profile”
How Freelancers Market their Services: 2017 Survey
“Want Great Clients? Be Different”
“3 Creative Ways to Get Great Clients”
“Innovations in Freelancing with Ruwaida Vakil”
Other Resources
3 Steps to Finding High-Paying Clients on LinkedIn, from Lindy Alexander
Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn to Build Your Career, Business, and Online Presence, an on-demand webinar from Ruwaida Vakil, MS
