Hello and welcome to design and business conversations for creatives I'm Cheyney,
and today I'm going to be chatting with you, about how you can get more clients
for your creative business. In this video I'll go over four points. Firstly, I will
speak about how your brand can be more visible, and therefore attract more
clients. Then I'll go into directories, Facebook groups, and then I'm saving the
best for last, and that is word of mouth. Number one: My first tip for getting more
clients is to be visible. I cannot stress this enough. It's really easy when you're
in business to assume that because you've been working in it 24/7, that
everybody else knows about it. It's really easy just to think, ah I've put
myself out there once or twice and everyone must have seen it. I'm here to
tell you, that is not the case. Whether you trust me to be a reliable source or
not, I have heard in the past that it takes seven times for somebody to see
you before they'll commit to either buying your product or hiring you for a
service. So if this is true, which I believe, that means that you're going to
be wanting to put yourself everywhere. I might be biased because I'm a graphic
designer, but I think that first and foremost if
you have a creative business, you need a website. I think that in this day and age
if you don't have a website it can really ruin your credibility. If people
want to find a business, where do they look first? The Internet. So it's one thing
to have a website ,it's another thing to make sure that that website is
functional, and clear, and easy for your clients to contact you. Not only do you
want all of those things, you also want to be sure that you are driving people
to your website. There are so many ways you can do this, this is mainly what I
use social media for. So you can use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Ello,
Dribbble, Behance, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and the list goes on. By
being present on all of these social media channels you can direct people
back to your website. Mine for example, is www.designbycheyney.com. When a client will
land on your website, they then have the opportunity to get to know a little bit
about you and the style of work that you're producing. Assuming you have a
creative business and that's why you're here, a few key things to remember with
your website is: Make sure you have quality content. Make sure it's easy to
navigate. And I highly recommend putting testimonials on your website, which I'll
talk about in my very last point. If you have any questions of this or you feel
like I've missed anything please comment below and I'll be sure to answer your
questions the best that I can Number two: Directories. So just like I
was chatting about before with the phone directories, directories aren't exactly a
thing of the past. There are online directories. This is something you are
going to want to look into if you have a creative business because when I look in
the analytics of my website I can see where the referrals are coming from.
Quite often the referrals are coming from directories. My biggest referral
lead is The Freelance Village and if you're watching this from New Zealand, I
highly recommend you look into The Freelance Village. I have gained so many
clients from being on there. Usually being on a directory requires a small
fee but I find that nine times out of ten, that small fee will definitely
return a client that returns more than what you have invested. What I recommend
is you Google in your local area some directories that you can put yourself on.
Usually a directory listing will say a little bit about your business and refer
traffic directly to your website which ties in nicely with point number one, you
need a website. The results that return on Google will indicate to you how well
the directory is either functioning or how much they're putting into
advertising. So I'm a creative freelancer, to give you an example of what I would
do if I was looking for a directory in my area, is I would go onto Google and
type 'creative-freelancer-graphic-design-Auckland-New Zealand-directory'. It would
return a screed of results and I could look into the results and decide which
directories I feel are going to be best to reflect my brand, and my business. And
also one that is going to match my budget. My third suggestion to gain more
clients for your creative business is: Join Facebook groups. I have no doubt
that whatever industry you're in, whatever kind of creative work you do,
there will be a Facebook group to match your needs. Facebook groups have been
huge for me for returning business. I belong to one Facebook group in
particular in New Zealand called 'She Owns It'
and it is a community for women in business in New Zealand. I think it's
something like two hundred and fifty dollars a year or something. So less than
a dollar a day and the woman in that group are absolutely fantastic.
Rachel the owner has done a really good job at fostering and nurturing a really
supportive and loving community of woman. And so many women in that group just
want to support other woman in business that are also in that group. It is a
great way to be part of a community but it also makes you more visible and in my
experience that has returned a lot of clients. I'm in quite a lot of Facebook
groups and they're in different little niches that'll somehow relate to what I
do, so I'm in a New Zealand makers group. I am in a YouTube group. I am in a woman in
business group. New Zealand networking group. I'm in a graphic design group. Not
only will some of these Facebook groups increase your visibility but they can
also be really helpful if you have a question and you need an answer from
somebody who understands what you do. So if you aren't already in Facebook groups,
jump on Facebook and have a search. The keywords you search will return the most
relevant results to whatever you put in, and give it a go. My last tip for getting
clients for your creative business is by far the most important, and for me has
referred the most clients, and that is: Word of mouth. Having someone recommend
your product or service to somebody else is huge. It is social proof. Again, it
increases your visibility, but it can build trust with your customer or client
before they even have looked you up. A really easy way for the word to spread
about your product or business is to ask for reviews. Reviews and testimonials are
not only lovely to read it's also something that you can showcase and I
have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of people base their decisions on reviews
that they see. A couple of places you can ask for your clients to review the work
that you've done for them is on Google my business, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I'm
sure there are many more but what you can do with these reviews once you have
them is copy and paste and use them as social media posts. Not only are you more
visible but it's an opportunity to post it on your social media and drive more
people back to your website. One thing that I didn't have on my little list of
bullet points to talk about is: Community. And I think that when I reflect back on
just doing this video, in the last, however many minutes, is community is
everything. You want to be part of a community, part of the conversation and
then people can trust you. You're visible and then eventually it might lead to
some work. And then eventually that work might lead that client to refer you to
another client, and it's a huge snowball effect. I hope this has been helpful for
you. If there's anything I've missed or if you have any suggestions please type
it in the comments below. Check me out on social media using the handle
@designbycheyney on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Thank you for
watching. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up or subscribe using
the button below. See you next time, bye!