Jan
02
Posted by Deb
After our recent discussion about $3 writing jobs, I received a flurry of emails suggesting the $3 gigs are easy to find and the higher paying freelance writing jobs are being saved for the veteran freelance writers. I’m here to tell you this isn’t true. If all you’re finding is $3 jobs, you’re looking in the wrong places.
Let me tell you what worked for me.
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Jan
02
Posted by FreelanceSwitch.com
Is taking care of your customers and clients something that just happens in your freelancing business? Or do you actively set about making sure you keep your clients as happy as possible?
One of the buzz concepts of the management consulting world a few years ago was the “client lifecycle”.
The concept of a client lifecycle is something that any freelancer can apply to their business and benefit from. In a nutshell, it comprises of the phases that each of your clients go through whilst they work with you, starting from the moment they first become aware of you and what you do.
The benefit of understanding this for your freelance business is that you can design and control what happens in each of those phases. This means that not only are you proactively determining what happens in your business and managing it, you are also focusing on and building your business around one the most important components of your business: your clients.
Here is what a client lifecycle looks like…
So how do you apply this to what you do as a freelancer? For starters, you can begin by ensuring you’ve got the following points covered for each stage in your client lifecycle:
Stage 1 Awareness and Consideration
- Who are you trying to attract?
- How will they find out about you? Via which channels?
- Are these the optimum channels based on their habits, needs and lifestyles?
- What first impression would you like prospects to have of your business?
- Do your marketing materials convey this impression?
Stage 2 Select and Buy
- What choices do you offer each of your target audiences?
- How easy is it for your prospects to find more about you and your services?
- How simple are your services/products to understand for prospects?
- How easy is it for them to choose the right solution?
- How simple is your buying process?
Stage 3 Initial Experience
- What is a new client’s first impression of actually “doing” business with you?
- Does their first post-purchase experience with you match up to your marketing story, sales pitch or your initial promises?
Stage 4 Use, Learn and Support
- Have you educated your clients about the way you want to work with them?
- Do you make it easy for your clients to use your services?
- Do you have a support “policy” that provides what your clients need but doesn’t require you to be at their every beck & call, driving you mad with frustration?
- Do your clients know what this support policy is?
- Do you have an organised & structured “back end” to your business that enables you to focus on servicing your clients effectively?
Stage 5 Repurchase and Recommend
- Do your clients know about the additional support, services or options available to them after their first purchase from you?
- If your business thrives on referrals, how easy is it for clients to refer business to you? How do you encourage this?
- Do you reward long term, loyal clients for their business?
- How much does your business value loyalty? How do you encourage this?
- Do you have systems & processes set up to make it easy & stimulate existing clients to buy from you again, more frequently or be rewarded for referring people to you?
Building your freelancing business around the specific needs of your clients is something that can give you a huge advantage over your competition - big and small. One of the first places to start to understand these needs is to understand your client lifecycle; once you understand it, put it to good use and your clients won’t be able to walk away!
