How To Get Freelance Clients With Your Website

Have you put up a website for your freelance business, expecting your inbox to be suddenly flooded with emails from clients wanting to book your services, but then… nothing happens?

Crickets.

And you think (as you pour yourself another glass of wine) “what the heck! I did all this work to create a website and nothing is happening. The internet is a lie!”

Well don’t worry friend. I’m here to tell you that you can get freelance clients with your website… it might just need some tweaking.

Your website should be a 24/7 sales machine. It should be attracting and converting your ideal clients.

If your freelance website isn’t working to book your calendar full with your ideal clients, we’ve got your back. Here are 8 steps you can take to improve your freelance website and start getting clients.

8 Tips To Get Freelance Clients With Your Website

 

Include a CTA on every page

 

A CTA is a call to action.

It’s basically a button or a clickable link with the most important action you want a website visitor to take. It’s how they go from the page they’re on, to the page you want them to go to – like your hire me page!

Your CTA could be something like:

• Hire me!
• Let’s work together
• Contact me
• Buy now
• Sign up
• Send me my guide! (for a lead magnet opt-in)
• Book a consultation call!

If your site doesn’t have CTA’s, you’re leaving your website visitors to decide where they want to go on their own – which is never a good idea because they’ll probably just leave your site. You have to tell them what to do next.

If your process is to start with a free consultation call, include a CTA on every single page to book a free call with you. Make it as easy as possible for people to hire you.

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Use a booking calendar

There is nothing worse than the awkward back-and-forth email exchange that happens when trying to book a meeting with someone.

You can completely avoid this hassle by setting up a booking calendar like youcanbook.me, Calendly, or Acuity scheduling.

With these tools, you set your available times so your clients can see exactly when you’re free and book a spot that works for them. With a paid plan, you can set up automatic email reminders so your clients never miss an appointment again. You can even use the calendar to accept payment if you’re charging for sessions.

Not only does it make it easier for you, but using a booking calendar makes you look more organized and professional to your potential clients. Instant win!

Show your best work in your portfolio

Most clients want to see examples of your work before they hire you. A good portfolio means you’re always ready to show off.

Your portfolio should ideally show clients your best work – and the kind of work you want to continue doing.

If you’re a designer who wants to do big website projects, your best website projects should be featured in your portfolio. Don’t include 5 examples of social media/ebook/logo/PDF designs if that isn’t what you want to get hired for.

Or if you’re a freelance writer who wants to do sales page copy, feature those jobs first. Leave out the irrelevant blog articles that don’t show off your conversion copywriting skills.

Include your best work so clients feel like they can’t go another day without getting you to work on their project, too.

Create a compelling value proposition

 

A value proposition is basically a headline that tells potential clients why they should work with you instead of other freelancers. It highlights who you are, who you work with, and the benefits of working with you.

Your value proposition should be the first thing someone sees when they land on your website.

Website visitors decide in about 2 seconds if they want to stick around and learn more about you. Your value proposition should make your potential clients realize they’re in the right place.

To write your value prop, start by identifying your benefits or unique value. Maybe you have a unique 2-week design process. Or maybe you are a writer with social media experience so you can get your clients articles seen by more people. Figure out why your clients love working with you and use that as a starting point.

Writing a value prop can be tricky, but here are a few guidelines to keep in mind. A value prop:

• isn’t a tagline
• shouldn’t have buzzwords
• can be a headline with a few supporting sentences or bullets, so don’t worry about trying to squeeze it into one sentence
• shouldn’t be a meaningless slogan

A strong value proposition will resonate with your ideal clients immediately and keep them on your site to find out more about you.

 

Create a design that speaks to your ideal clients

 

Your brand and website should be designed to appeal to your ideal clients.

When thinking about the style of your site, consider that colours, images, graphics and fonts that might be appealing to your ideal client.

What this looks like depends on your ideal client avatar.

If you’re targeting health coaches, your website is going to look a lot different than if you’re targeting B2B tech startups. A website targeting health coaches might use bright and fun colours, script fonts, and images of healthy people or food, whereas a site targeting a B2B tech founder is probably going to use cool colours like blue and grey, modern sans serif fonts, and images of people working on their laptops.

Consider what your ideal client is looking for when browsing freelance websites. You always need to be designing for their tastes, not necessarily your own.

Layout the experience of working with you on your services page

One thing that sets good freelancers apart is their process. They guide their clients through a process to get the best possible work done together.

Showing that you have a process demonstrates to a client that a) you’ve done this kind of work many times before and you know what you’re doing, b) you’re a professional and c) you’re organized and you will keep their project running smoothly.

Talking about how you work with clients, your process, and everything a client can expect during their project is a great way to build trust and confidence in you.

Add a “How this works” section to your services page to give clients a glimpse into your business… and put a CTA right next to it so they can book a consultation!

 

Use social proof to build trust

A good testimonial can help to take a client from a ‘maybe’ to a ‘yes’.

Testimonials create trust with potential clients who’ve never worked with you before. Reading about a positive experience will…

Add rave reviews from anyone you’ve worked with.

Think you don’t have any testimonials? You can use:

• Reviews from freelancing sites like UpWork
• LinkedIn recommendations
• Praise you’ve gotten for work on social media posts
• Nice emails from clients thanking you for your work

Always ask your clients for a testimonial and get permission to post it on your website. Bonus points if they let you use a headshot – people like to see human faces when they’re reading a testimonial. It lets them put a visual to the story they’re reading.

 

Build your email list

You’ve heard it a million times… the money is in the list.

Building an email list allows you to keep in contact with people that visit your site, but aren’t quuuuuite ready to hire you yet. Once you’ve got them on your list, you can send them more valuable content to build your credibility and let them get to know you. They might just need to warm up to you before they’re ready to hire you.

An email list also allows you to diversify your business later by selling products, ebooks, courses, other services, or anything really!

To build your list, you need an email marketing provider (we love ConvertKit) and an opt-in form creator (we use ConvertBox for this).

Create a lead magnet that answers your target clients’ most burning question and offer it as an incentive to join your list.

Does your website have all 8 of these client converting must-haves for freelancers?

 

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