Increase your freelance revenue by doing these 5 things
When you decide to work for yourself, your first task above all others is to get clients and get them fast. Most people who are just starting out working in their own business can sometimes forget that once you leave the cozy comfort of the corporate pay-stub, it’s not just about doing what you love; it’s about being able to do what you love while handling a multitude of tasks as the owner of a business. Let’s say you’ve got a client roster of 10. They pay on time, you have excellent synergy, and you handle all their professional creative needs. What more can you ask for? In my observation, customer service goes far beyond answering the call when your client has a problem. You didn’t get into your profession to put out fires all day or be a short-order cook when they need a landing page for an upcoming marketing campaign. The reason I created a digital agency was that I wanted to be a breath of fresh air to businesses who did not want to spend their time trying to learn what I already know. Sure, anyone can sit down in front of photoshop and learn the basics, but to truly master you need years of discipline. Your clients may not have years. They’re lucky if they have months of runway before they are unable to operate. That’s why it’s important when you’re in the service business that you bring your ‘A’ game not only on projects and deliverables but also on post-projects. When you’ve popped the cork on a long-deserved project, this is where your unique ability in client retention needs to come into play. Here are 5 small-business/non-business gestures that will win you all sorts of praise around your clients’ offices.
Value NEVER gets old
I love the word value. Why? Because it’s a word that is limitless in how you can express it. Value can mean more or less–but you always want more value, never less value. Think of your firm as a grocery store and your services are the products on the shelves. Your clients will appeal to more for less. You want to be the big shiny box with the “Get 20% More” for the same price of the original size product. That’s a no-brainer for most customers. So, you must enhance existing services to your clients to show you’re in the business of efficiency and increasing value. For example, if you can offer them a real-time monitoring product for their website that can alert you of site performance free-of-charge and with no significant increase in your monthly burn or expense rate, go for it. Make a BIG deal when you launch it. Individualize the announcement as if you were solely thinking about them and how you can make them feel like they needed this all along. Now they have it free-of-charge, setup, and hassle.
Special occasions are gold
I didn’t get into business for myself to shield away from the world and collect a check. Your clients are people, not a revenue stream. I call today’s way of doing business H2H, which is human to human interaction. Think of ways to let them know you’re an engaged and thoughtful firm who can spot birthdays, anniversaries, parenting/children milestones, etc. A simple card saying “Your business success is important to us” or “Happy Birthday” can go the distance of keeping a customer for the life of your business and beyond. A great example from my world is when a client of ours passed a major milestone of daily active users (by the way, I found this information by being a follower of their blog and social media accounts). I took the opportunity to send the founders a gift basket of exclusive microbrews to their office. This was over 18 months ago, and it’s still part of their stories when talking to other businesses.
Become the year-round Santa
When your clients are spending significant time and money on you, it’s this kind of appreciation that shows that you are not only creative but you are also interesting. When it comes to providing a giveaway for clients, you have to be very conscious about what you’re offering. Some clients would frown at you giving away free services, and you should too. Your business time should not be a lotto ticket. You have to think about the clients who don’t win and how they feel about you giving away a service they pay handsomely for. Instead, hold giveaways that are separate from the everyday business and office politics. Tickets to sporting events, gift certificates to a popular restaurant, or a weekend getaway can really get clients to pay attention and engage. The purpose of a giveaway is to show that your firm is more than a house of work, you can also be a house of fun and reward. To me, this is very gratifying; it’s because of your clients that you’re able to live out your dream as a freelancer or an agency. And you can always pay them back by offering “methods of appreciation.” This also keeps them wondering what you have in-store for them this month. Lastly, whatever kind of giveaway you offer, make it simple. Make sure it’s effective, and it has a small production footprint. The last thing you want your clients to think is that you’re spending more time on a contest than what they’re actually paying you for.
Listen and inspire
This is a no-brainer. If you’re not proactively engaging your clients, you’re not in the service business. In a busy restaurant if my waiter is attentive and observing my dining experience, that is memorable and keeps me coming back. Your client deserves the same attention whether they’re a quarterly project or on a monthly retainer. Calls should be personable. For example, today, I called our client just to see how their round is going. It’s not our priority to do that; I’m not an investor. But I know that being a founder/CEO can be lonely and it’s sometimes hard to find a feedback channel to get fresh eyes on a situation. While your revenue and growth can be a self-absorbing journey, you have the opportunity to give the gift of listening to your clients. On occasion, I will send links to helpful articles after a talk to let them know I was attentive and aware of their needs. While this can be a balancing act between being their creative director and their therapist, it can increase your credibility by giving them small moments of time to increase their success.
Give features away (if you can)
Two things I’ve learned while running a creative agency is to avoid scope creep and to show your value to clients. It’s within your control to decide if you just want to be a one-trick pony or a magical master unicorn. Most of my clients have never worked with a creative agency. Most are concerned they will receive a proposal that will send them to the poorhouse before product launch. While it’s not in 5ivehat’s interest to be charitable, we will do our best to work with clients to make sure we are transparent about cost, scope of the project, time, and future planning. Future planning is important–it’s the best and most complex process to grasp as a business owner. You can’t predict the future, but you can plan accordingly. When a client doesn’t know if they will need analytic software to increase the efficacy of their copy-write, we have it already set up for them to be trained on and to test at no cost to them. By becoming an essential part of their success, you in return become successful. Features like real-time server monitoring, SEO management, social media engagement, and user polling can make your business indispensable and a major value-add to their investors, advisors, and users. While some clients won’t benefit from every feature offer you present, it’s greatly reassuring to know that it’s there to use if needed. Defining yourself as the first line of defense to their business, you essentially become an invested party. You can also introduce affiliate program services when partnering with web hosting providers, domain providers, and project management platforms. Exclusive pricing for clients who are part of your portfolio can boost your client retention rate and increase your business’s likelihood of growing. However, remember to define the balance between what is relevant and not relevant to your business and your client.
5ivehat is a digital UX agency in Chicago, IL. We specialize in mobile/web experience design solutions for B2B/B2C companies.
