I’ve been feeling like a rookie freelancer all over again.

It’s because I decided to get into a different freelancing niche. Let me tell you, it’s been difficult, slow going, exciting, unnerving, energizing and mind boggling all at the same time.

My Niche Journey

Sometime last year, I became restless and wanted to focus on working with a specific type of business and industry only. Since then, I’ve had a few false starts… and made a little progress.

By false starts, I mean I thought I had identified the perfect niche for me. I even registered a domain name so I could create a landing page targeted to that niche — only to change my mind after a few weeks.

Then finally, after several months of research, prayer and just waiting for inspiration, I decided on a niche. Almost as soon as I did that, I started getting a trickle of new projects from the identified niche. God, I take that to mean “Yes!”

Finding projects in the new niche has encouraged me to keep going, but I realize I still have a ton of work to do to make sure the trickle turns into a gushing river.

In this post, I’d like to share with you what I’ve been doing to get a foothold in this new market. I hope these ideas can help you to gain a strong presence in your own market, too.

Breaking Into A New Market

Watering holes

One of the most important aspects of market research is discovering their watering holes. Where do your ideal clients hang out?

It doesn’t make sense for me to use all my energy trying to get my ideal clients to read my blog, or connect with me in social networks. I need to go where they already are.

So far, I’ve been doing this by attending live events and being more active specific social networks. I’ve discovered that my new ideal clients are quite active in LinkedIn, a social network I had previously not been active in.

That’s changing now. I’ve been joining relevant LinkedIn groups and connecting with people (those who fit my profile of the ideal client and those who are influential to my ideal clients). I’m setting aside Friday afternoons to be active in group discussions and submit some useful answers. I may even create my own group (we’ll see about that!).

The important thing is to listen and find out what my new ideal clients’ pain, problems, and predicaments are, and what types of solutions they’re looking for. I also have my eyes open for their most frequently-asked questions in my field, how they work with freelancers, and what areas I can be most useful in.

General Research

Because the niche I want to work in is quite different from what I’m used to, I need to learn more about it. I’ve been doing this with the help of:

Books

I’m reading books to help me gain a general knowledge of my new niche. I’m also reading other books that help me bridge what I do know (the strategies) to what this market needs (how to apply those strategies in this niche).

Blogs

Blogs are much easier to consume than books, and can be just as helpful. Along with books, blogs are also great for identifying and connecting with influential people in this new niche.

Training Courses

Because my new niche requires a different kind of copywriting, I invested in a couple of training courses. I used one like a Bible when I had my first client in this niche. (By the way, if you’re looking for high-quality training courses for freelancers, I highly recommend the ones by American Writers & Artists Inc. View their catalog here.*)

Testing

Now that I have better knowledge about my new niche, I’m in the testing mode. I’m trying out promotional materials and buzz pieces, to see which ones will generate the best response.

What’s Your Experience?

Were you previously a generalist who then decided to specialize? Or have you ever switched from one niche to another?

How did YOU do it? And how long did it take for you to feel comfortable and confident in that niche?

I’d love to hear about your experience, and any advice you may have for me and other readers. Post a comment below.

PS: If you’d like to learn more about finding your freelancing niche, sign up for this free webinar I did with Steve Slaunwhite, copywriter and freelancing coach.

*Affiliate link – I am an affiliate for AWAI. This means that, if you purchase any of their courses through my link, I will receive a commission. While I only recommend products and services I believe in and often use myself, you should still do your due diligence before buying anything. Thank you!

photo credit: Ian Sane

This time last year, I was inspired. I had a terrific idea for a client gift and commissioned the talented Willie Hewes to design it for me. The result was this:

A cute mug that says, “Other Moms have jobs, I have blogs!”

My clients loved it! Two even posted pictures on their Facebook walls as soon as they received it.

Granted, not all my clients are Moms (or even female for that matter) and one didn’t have a blog. I simply ordered mugs of a different design for them.

But now, I’m sitting here, two days before Thanksgiving, with no idea what to send my clients to show how much I love and appreciate them. I haven’t even bought Christmas cards, and I bet the deadline for mailing them out to make sure they arrive on time is close. (Bad freelancer, bad, bad freelancer!)

So I need your help. Yes, again.

What are YOU giving your clients for the holidays? What would you suggest I give mine? Send me your ideas in the comments below. Feel free to include links to where I can order them.

Thank you!

PS: If you’d like to send the Mommy blogger mug to your clients (or yourself, why not?), you can order it from my Zazzle store. It also comes in a T-shirt, and you can special order the same design to be printed on other items too.

My birthday is coming up (hint, hint!) just passed and I’m taking this opportunity to do what I’ve been wanting to do for the past few months: close the Savvy Freelancing store.

Relax, this is good news for you, because starting today until November 8, 2011, you can buy any product from the store at 50% off.

That’s right. Both “The Savvy Freelancer’s Website Secrets: How to Create A Client Magnet Online” and “How to Make Money on Elance” are now selling at half price.

After November 8th, I’m closing down the store, and you won’t be able to buy these — at any price.

I’m doing this, because of increased demands from my family and clients. I also want to free up more of my time to keep writing useful posts on this blog and organizing helpful webinars.

Will I reopen the store in the future? Most likely, yes. And most likely, I will publish an updated version of some or all of these products. But I’m not making any promises!

Meantime, if you think you can use these, now’s the time to get them:

Click here to get 50% off “The Savvy Freelancer’s Website Secrets: How to Create A Client Magnet Online”

Click here to get 50% off “How to Make Money on Elance“

photo credit: timparkinson

But I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, especially one that’s essential for me to meet my freelancing goals.

So I put together this video to share with you, other shy freelancers, three lessons I learned about conference networking:

Lesson 1: Be prepared

And prepare ahead of time, so your intentions don’t get sideswiped by the unexpected. This guest post by Thursday Bram has plenty of advice on preparing for a conference.

Lesson 2: Change Your Mindset

Reduce the pressure by adopting a more helpful mindset, rather than thinking, “I need to leave this conference with X amount of projects in the pipeline.”

Lesson 3: Take Baby Steps, And Keep Going!

If you’re extremely anxious about networking face-to-face, start with smaller, more intimate get togethers with markets you’re more familiar with. Then move on to bigger, more unfamiliar groups. It’s like exercising: you have to push yourself beyond what’s comfortable, but not too much or you’ll get injured.

Don Crowther also has some excellent tips on attending conferences, for both networking and getting the most out of the content, here. It’s a longish video, but full of good advice.

What networking tips help you when you attend conferences? Share them in the comments below.

Every time I go to a conference, even if it isn’t exactly relevant to the type of work I do, I come home with a stack of business cards — and at least one client.

It’s not luck or fast talking. It’s just some planning and a few techniques that anyone can put to work. You can walk away from any conference you attend with new clients, if you’re willing to invest time and effort into the process.

The Pre-Game

I tend to go to several conferences every year, ranging from small local events to South by Southwest Interactive (19,000 official attendees plus thousands more who attended without buying tickets). No matter what the size of the event is, though, I have a similar process.

1. I read every word of the website and promotional materials the conference organizers create. I get a good idea of who the typical attendee is and what they’re expecting to get out of being at the conference.
2. I create a special offer or elevator pitch tailored to that typical attendee. I write out exactly how I can help that type of person and their business. If I think it’s worth it, I’ll create a special package deal just for a given event, including setting up a landing page on my website and printing up postcards for the event specifically.
3. I go over the speakers’ list and research each person. I look for people who would be ideal clients for me, as well as who could be a good connection in general.
4. I look at who else will be specifically attending the conference. A quick search on Twitter will get a good list, even if the conference isn’t publishing an attendees list.
5. I schedule a time to sit and chat (such as at lunch) with anyone who seems like a particularly good prospect. This isn’t a sales meeting, though — I don’t heavily pitch any of the people that I talk to at a conference. I just try to be helpful and learn about what they do.
6. I brush up on industry news so that I have plenty to talk about, even if the conference isn’t covering an industry or niche I usually work with.

Beyond the time I invest in research, I also make sure that I have a huge number of business cards for any event. It’s easy enough to say that as a freelancer, someone who really needs you will remember you or that you’ll just get the other guy’s card. But the fact of the matter is that not having a business card can very easily come off as unprofessional and absolutely no one remembers who they talked to at a conference without a physical reminder.

Even those phone-based apps that are supposed to help you exchange information aren’t going to be as good of a reminder as a new contact finding your card in his pockets as he’s unpacking from the conference.

At the Conference

All that sounds like a lot of work, but when you get to the conference, it pays off. I’ll usually have two or three appointments each day of a conference and those right there can be golden opportunities. Just sitting and talking about how business is going with someone makes a big difference in how they perceive you when you get around to talking about what you do. Just by letting the other guy go first, you can always frame your business in terms of how you can help him.

The same goes for less structured introductions. There are a lot of conferences where I spend most of my time out in the hallways. I go to sessions I really want to hear, but I’m constantly looking for new people to introduce myself to. You can’t be shy in this approach: if I’m hanging out with people that I knew before the conference started, I assume I’m doing something wrong. I ask strangers if I can join them for lunch, chat up people standing in the hallways, ask questions of speakers after they finish their talks.

All that interaction always pays off. At some point in the process, I’ll always find someone who really does need what I can offer. When I do, I’ll jump in and suggest that I’d love to do a free consult when the conference is over — oh, and I have my calendar, so let’s schedule it right now. I don’t mention selling at this point, even though I can be a little aggressive about getting a time pinned down to talk. But more than half of those consults that I’ve done have resulted in at least a small project. Some have resulted in thousands of dollars worth of work, which is more than enough to cover the cost of going to a conference in the first place.

Do you have a question for Thursday? Or additional tips for freelancers looking for clients in conferences? Post them in the comments below.

Thursday Bram has been freelancing for more than eight years — the last four full-time. She’s the co-founder of EnhancedFreelance.com, a membership site for freelancers ready to up their game.

Image by Lisa Padilla

Do you want a steady flow of clients and cash?

Who doesn’t? Even rarer is a freelancer who isn’t looking for their next big client or project.

Recently, I interviewed Kenn Schroder in a free webinar, where he shared his Constant Clients and Cash model for freelancers. (The webinar is over, but you can still sign up to get access to the recording here.)

It is essentially a system or process for finding leads, nurturing them, and converting them into paying clients. Nothing new there. But a few key concepts stood out for me, mainly because they don’t come as second nature to most freelancers.

Key Points From “Trouble-Shooting Your Client-Getting Machine”

1. Have a system.

When polled, nearly half (47.8%) of webinar participants said they did not have a client-getting system or process.

This means about half of freelancers are going about their client acquisition through random or ad hoc methods. There’s no method or design in how they market their services, find leads, or finally land clients.

It also means they probably don’t know which marketing strategies are most effective, nor how to ramp up their business if they had to.

As Kenn stressed during the webinar, a system is essential. For one thing, it removes a lot of the stress from freelancers, because after you’ve found an effective system, you can put many parts of it on auto-pilot.

Then you’ll be able to tweak it, cut out parts that don’t work, and do more of the parts that do.

Next step:

Do YOU have a client-getting system? Maybe you do but you’re not aware of it.Map out how most of your clients find you. If you don’t think you have a system, reverse-engineer how you got your most recent clients and see if you can uncover a system behind it.

2. Collect leads and nurture them.

Step 2 of Kenn’s Constant Clients & Cash models is collecting the contact information of prospects and leads.

Most prospective clients won’t be ready or interested in hiring us right at the moment that we’re interacting with them. Therefore, it’s critical that we’re able to get them into our sales funnel, so we can nurture the relationship with them and be there when they are ready to hire a freelancer in our field.

I’ve been doing this through an email database, which I manage through Aweber. Through Aweber, I’m able to send my email subscribers new information, segment them, and even pre-schedule a sequence of messages.

For offline prospects, a customer relationship management (CRM) software is useful. It captures your leads’ contact information, as well as your follow-up process (more on that later). Because I’m now marketing to offline businesses, I’ve begun shopping around for a CRM solution. The ones I’m considering are Capsule, IQTell, or Zoho CRM.

Next Step:

What’s your current method for collecting prospects’ contact information? How can you make that method faster, easier, and more efficient? Rolodexes don’t cut it anymore!

3. Follow up, follow up, follow up!

If you’ve been marketing for any amount of time, you’d know that the profit is in the follow up. And yet we often leave this out of our marketing processes.

In fact, following up is the reason we need to put prospects in our contacts database: so we can follow up with them on a regular basis, keep them warm to our offers, and keep us in their minds.

Many things can keep us from following up effectively. It could be the fear of being rejected, fear of being pushy or obnoxious, or plain not knowing how to do it.

According to Kenn, following up is needed at two points in the Constant Clients and Cash Model: first, after getting the prospects’ contact info; and then after we’ve worked with a client. It’s a good idea to follow up with past clients in order to turn them into repeat clients or even have them on some sort of continuity service arrangement (such as a retainer arrangement).

Next Step:

How well do you follow up on prospects? Do you follow up on past clients for additional work and continuous work? Identify new offers you can make to past clients. Use a CRM solution to map out a follow-up schedule with prospects and existing clients.

Get More Clients

These three key points alone are enough to help any freelancer get more clients. Which take-away point resonates most with you?

Which next action step are you going to take?

Share your thoughts and plans with me below.

PS: These key points are from a webinar with Kenn Schroder, “Trouble-Shooting Your Client-Getting Machine.” Kenn is the author of “Web Design Clients Galore: A Web Designer’s Guide to More Clients, Better Projects, and Higher Fees.”

photo credit: Hamed Saber

If finding all the high-quality clients you want is still a struggle for you, then join us in the next Savvy Freelancing Webinar:

Trouble-Shooting Your Client-Getting Machine

on Wednesday, September 21, 2011, at 10:30 am EST.

This webinar is over, but you can still access the recording by fill out the form below:
    In this webinar, I’ll be interviewing Kenn Schroder, veteran web designer and author of “Web Design Clients Galore: A Web Designer’s Guide to More Clients, Better Projects, and Higher Income.”

Kenn will be sharing:

• the seven-steps in his Constant Clients & Cash Model

• the most common problems freelancers have when finding clients, and how to fix them

• which “marketing” activities could be keeping you busy — but don’t actually bring in clients

• why prospects give a lukewarm response when you talk about your services

• how to turn more prospects into paying clients

• how to make your fees into a non-issue so you can earn what you need

Sign up for the webinar recording below:

See you there!

PS: If you’ve registered for any of the previous Savvy Freelancing webinars, you don’t have to sign up for this one. You’ll automatically get the access details for this and all other future webinars. Watch your email for the link to the webinar!

PPS: By signing up for this webinar, you’ll also get access to all past and future Savvy Freelancing webinars — completely free!

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog lately you know I’m transitioning to working more with offline businesses. I’ve been doing a lot of research on how to market my services to offline businesses.

I’ve noticed the possibilities are endless, but in general, you can break up these marketing approaches into two kinds: the traditional, tried-and-true approaches, and the more avant-garde, “experimental” approaches. Here are a few of them.

Tried and Tested Offline Marketing Methods

These methods may not sound exciting, but successful freelancers swear by them.

Direct Mail

Direct mail involves creating a mailer — usually a letter with a response device. A mailer could also be a postcard or brochure. And it’s highly recommended that you include something bulky in your mailer to make it stand out among other pieces of mail your prospects receive. Bulky items can range from magnets and paper clamps to small flower pots and baskets. Your imagination’s the limit.

Many successful freelancers swear by direct mailing so clearly, if you do it right, it works. It’s also easily scaleable. Once you have your mailing pieces in places, you can mail as often as you want, and to as many businesses as you want.

Direct mailing does require you to have a good, targeted list of prospects. It can cost a lot of money to come up with your prospects list; sometimes you may have to buy them. Otherwise, you’ll have to put in the time and effort to put your own prospects list together.

Of course, direct mailing entails other costs as well, such as the cost of printing, purchasing the bulky item, and finally, mailing off your piece.

You can learn more about using direct mail from The Wealthy Freelancer.

Cold Calling

Another offline marketing strategy that seems to work for a lot of people is cold calling. Literally, you get on the phone and call businesses “cold.” That is, they may have never heard of you, they didn’t ask to hear from you, and they may not be prepared to talk to you at the time you do call.

This method takes a lot of time on your part, unless you hire other people to do the calling for you. It’s also tough, because you’ll probably have to experience a lot of rejection before scoring a client.

Networking Events

Attending networking events is another tried-and-tested way of finding offline clients. This method involves going to live events, such as trade shows, conferences, and meetings — anywhere your prospective clients are likely to be in as well.

These events provide a good opportunity to practice your elevator speech and get to really understand the needs and wants of your prospects. Based on what you learn first-hand by talking to them, you can tweak your services and the way you present them to prospects. It’s also a lot easier to build trust when the prospects have met you in person.

However, networking events do take up your time. You’re not in control of when these events occur, and some require you to pay to gain admission.

Speaking Engagements

Another excellent way to find offline clients is to be a speaker at workshops and seminars where your target clients are in attendance. You can either organize your own workshops, or offer to speak at learning events organized by other groups, such as your local chamber of commerce.

This is a great way to build your reputation as an authority in your field. After listening to your presentation, your prospects will perceive you as an expert. You won’t have to “sell” your services so hard anymore. Speaking is also a great way to network and find possible partners and collaborators as well as clients.

That said, speaking does take time. Before you become known in your field and get invited to speak, you’ll have to create your own speaking opportunities.

Creating a great presentation, one that’s informative, useful and presells your services.

Copywriter Ryan Healy has more networking tips for freelancers here.

Articles

Another offline marketing strategy is to get published in magazines that your prospective clients read. Imagine having a weekly column, for example, in your city newspaper, where you talk about your niche or industry. If you’re a designer, you could talk about visual branding, choosing colors, trends in marketing collaterals, etc.

Article writing also builds your authority status. The key thing is to have a short author’s blurb with a call to action, so you can collect contact information from readers and follow up with them from there.

The best thing about this method is it’s free. You may even get paid to be published.

It does takes time and energy to write new articles regularly.

Experimental Offline Marketing Methods

And now we come to the experimental offline marketing methods. I’ve heard of these from places like Warrior Forum. I haven’t tried any of these methods, so I don’t know if they work as well as other marketers say they do.

Cold Selling

This method involves walking into a brick-and-mortar business and chatting up the owner. Basically, you educate them about how they can increase their business, and then lead the conversation into how you can help them.

I imagine this could work pretty work, if you have the right personality for it and can take plenty of rejection.

Personally, I’m too shy for this approach. You’ll also need to know how to carry out a good sales conversation, so you’re not perceived as pushy or obnoxious.

Video Camera Technique

Here’s one I read about at a popular Internet marketing forum. It goes something like this: You go to a business with your video camera and shoot a footage of a business in action (with their permission, of course). You upload the video on YouTube then show the business owner how quickly the video gets indexed by Google and ranking in the front page for relevant keywords.

If they like what they see, they’ll hire you on the spot to do more online marketing for them. If not, you take down the video.

I’m not sure how well this method really works, but you’ll need to be very sensitive when approaching businesses with a video camera in hand, to avoid getting business owners angry and getting thrown out of their premises.

My Choice

Based on my personal preference and my target market, I’m going to try direct mail, networking events, and articles. Of course, I’ll have to track my results and see which ones work best.

It goes without saying that I consider my website and blog to be marketing tools as well, no matter what kind of market I’m going for.

How About You?

If you work with offline businesses, what marketing strategies do you use to find clients? And what are your tips for successful offline marketing?

photo credit: Orin Zebest

Well, within a week of publishing that post, three different people asked me for a card. Which means said business cards had to be produced much earlier.

I turned to my trusted community, Solo Masterminds, to get feedback and advice on the three business card designs I made myself on my handy dandy iMac using Pages.

Thanks to the talented designer Shannon Smith, this is what my business card looks like now:

The Final Design

Here are the design and copy decisions I made:

• I used an ink illustration of me instead of a picture. Granted, a photograph helps people remember you, but I find it too cheesy. An artistic rendition of my image is my compromise.
• I decided to use the same colors as the ones on my website.
• Shannon advised making the telephone number (the shaded area) bigger than everything else, for emphasis.
• I used “web writer” instead of “web copywriter,” because that’s more familiar to my target market (local business owners, not Internet marketers)
• I shortened “social media marketing consultant” to simply “marketing consultant,” because I didn’t have the space to keep my title on one line. Space is one of the considerations when writing copy for printed materials.

I printed the cards myself using Avery Clean Edge Business Cards card stock and my $20 color printer. I had originally planned to use my laser printer, for a sharper print, but my Staples store didn’t have Clean Edge cards for laser. No problem, my inkjet printer performed really well.

In the future, I will have my business card printed commercially. I just didn’t want to get stuck with 250 cards until I was fully committed to the design.

I will also use the back of the business card to show a list of services.

I’m also thinking of whipping up an exciting name for my freebie instead of the stale “website evaluation.” I just hope I have the space for it!

What’s Your Take?

What do you think of my business card so far? Any suggestions to improve it?

And while we’re at it, what does your business card look like? How did you decide on that particular design?

Share your thoughts and experience in the comments below.

PS: Darren Rowse has just released his latest product, “The Blogger’s Guide to Online Marketing: 31 Steps to a Profitable Blog.” I haven’t gone through my copy yet, but I trust Darren 100% and his products are always top-notch. If you’ve been wondering how to actually make some moolah with your blog, this is the guide I recommend. Click here to read all about it.

So lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’d like my business card to look like. It’s a tough balancing act.

I want my business card to be unique and remarkable — without looking too weird or being crazy expensive to produce.

I want it to be witty and memorable, like those cards that have only the person’s twitter handle on them — without alienating my prospects.

I want my business cards to be compelling but readable, attractive but not tacky.

Ryan Healy says to put an offer for your buzz piece on your business card, include testimonials and other business card advice here. But how does one do that without cluttering up the card?

And one of my biggest conundrums is this: Do I put my photo on the card or not?

Personally, I find that a bit cheesy. Besides, my hairstyle is constantly changing and I may not look like my photo on the biz card.

But others — whose opinions I trust — tell me this helps people remember who they are. Especially when you’re in a big live event where everyone meets a hundred people, they ones you meet will likely forget what you look like in a few days. That’s where having your picture on your business card comes in handy.

But, really, is there no other way?

Oh and what about a QR code? Should my business card have that?

So I decided to look at other people’s business cards for inspiration, compile those that I like, and decide which qualities I like in a business card.

Business Card Design Inspirations

Here are a few business card designs I liked from this collection:

Attractive but simple, just the right amount of info, not overwhelming, cheap to print.

Witty, out of the box… but will everyone get it?

Elegant, clean, unclutterred, inexpensive to produce

Clean, classy, elegant. Font may be too small though.

Here’s one way to use an image of you without having a tacky picture on your biz card! I like the energy of this card. But this would be quite expensive to print because of all the colors required.

Clear, concise, complete. It’s got the 3 C’s of effective copy.

It’s got pink and I like pink. And a cupcake, which I also like. But do I want a two-sided business card?

Lovely colors, beautiful simplicity

And below are the cards that inspired me from this post:

Another cool, classy way to include your image, without using a picture.

The colors are so clean and refreshing.

Business Card Best Practices

I also read some articles about best practices in business card design (what about copywriting for business cards?):

Business Card Best Practices by Scobleizer
Lots of good advice, but some only apply to people who work in companies. Still, most are applicable to freelancers.

Best Business Card Design Practices
Goes beyond the nitty-gritty of business card designs and talks about purpose, tone and consistency.

Best Practices in Business Card Design
Tips about specific aspects of business cards. Does not recommend using the back of the card, which I disagree with (see below).

Why Is Business Cards Copywriting Important?
Finally, someone who talks about the words on the business card and not just the design. Really basic, though.

What My Business Card Will Look Like

After spending a couple of hours looking at business card designs and reading best practices in business cards, here are my parameters for designing my business card:

• Have a clean, uncluttered layout.
• Use two colors at the most.
• Come up with an interesting, clear, concise, benefit-oriented tagline.
• Put a call to action.
• If I want to include an image of myself, use a cartoon or line illustration (that still looks like me, of course), instead of a photo.
• Use both sides of the card, so I can include everything!

And now I realize I’m probably going to need a transitional business card… until I have my full-blown, revised website and buzz piece set up.

What will my card finally look like? I’m attending my first live networking event in late September, so you’ll definitely see it before then. Watch out for it!