How To Get More Graphic Design Clients: A Step-by-step Guide for Freelancers

Being a graphic designer working on freelance means combining several jobs – from an entrepreneur to a salesperson. And all the work done by such professionals will be yours and it will take up about 70% of your time, while only 5-10% will be your actual work as a designer. If you are ready for this, then go ahead and take this guide as a tutorial to improve your freelance designer experience, find clients and scale your business. So, here are 10 simple steps to follow.

1. Introduction to Freelance Design

Let's face the facts: freelance design is a competitive field, nevertheless well-thought-out clients can help you become more visible among your competitors and find prospective customers. To begin with, it makes sense to clearly realize that freelance design is a business, like many others, so you can't escape all the elements that are inseparable from business processes (remember? marketing, sales...). That said, your skills as a freelance graphic designer are not the largest of these elements, but only its driving force.

The most important features here, in the freelance field, are the ability to manage your time efficiently, to be highly motivated and, without any doubt, really disciplined. Flexibility - the ability to adapt to changing situations - should not be forgotten as well. But still design is creativity and it is impossible to build a successful graphic design business without the ability to make creative discoveries and the correct understanding of the situation.

2. Find Your Design Niche

The right specialization in the design sphere is a key to success. Below is the list of the positions in design that are likely to be in high demand in the next 7-10 years:

1. Product Designer (marketing skill is one of the musts)

2. Webflow Designer (coding basics knowledge is required)

3. Motion Designer (AE is indispensable)

4. Design System Engineer (for those with fade to crafting components and organizing them)

Generally speaking, the coding skill will be an advantage at the market, so the freelance graphic designers should pay special attention to it. Your employment chances will go up if you know CSS, HTML and Java Script well.

Don`t forget to take into account your strengths and weaknesses, be objective to yourself. Think of the demand for the services you`ve chosen and analyze your perspectives. And, surely, don`t forget where your interests lie – you should be fascinated by what you do. It may be reasonable to select one industry to work in, say, finance or healthcare. Overall,  sticking to a certain niche will help you stand out among other designers and attract the customers who are in search of narrow-field specialists and, thus, are ready to pay well.

3. Make Unwanted Redesigns

There's a good move to fill in your portfolio if you are just making first steps in design or move to a different niche. To show your skills and style, your abilities and interests, redesign a product or a website that is of interest to you. Do it with all your heart and it won't go unnoticed.

It's vital to remember that the purpose of doing so is demonstrating your skills, so make it really easy-to-use, attractive and intuitive. This can also help you create your own unique design style and to try out various techniques and tools.

4. Create Valuable Content

Below are certain ideas for creating valuable content, which will give you a great opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and attract new customers:

 • Tutorials or design tips videos that demonstrate expertise in various techniques
• Design templates, fonts, or UI kits, but make them free to download
• Blog posts or articles on the topics relevant in the design field
• Podcasts or interviews with some popular designers or experts in the industry

No doubt, we are all online now, and it's a great way to connect with your audience. Share your thoughts and ideas with people, create a community around your niche. This will build your reputation as an expert in a certain field and attract potential clients who are looking for a specialist in that particular field.

5. Leverage Social Networks

Whether we want it or not, we're all social media savvies now and these platforms are a great way to search for your customers for graphic design services. There`s no ready-made solution, but still there exist some options that were a successful start for other designers:

I`d say Pinterest is underrated these days, but many designers have taken off there. Another great option is Instagram with its visual content spread instantly. After that, depending on your TA, you may find X, Facebook or LinkedIn extremely useful for your purposes.

The thing with social media is that promoting your services doesn`t work and even makes the situation worse, especially in terms of reputation. So, it's important to create value for your audience. Become an Internet personality, a brand of yourself by communication with your audience, sharing your content. Active online presence makes your business grow and scale.

6. Offer Free Consultations or Discovery Calls

Another way to demonstrate your expertise level and attract new customers is to provide free consultations or what is called discovery calls. This shows your engagement, helps you to communicate with a potential customer and to add certain value.

There's one thing you need to pay attention to: in case you offer a free consultation, define straightaway what you are ready or aren't ready to provide. It may concern either time limits or the type of the consultation itself. This way you will provide the value immediately, create trusting communication and get the order from this customer in the end.

7. Write Case Studies

The matter of value and the step-to-step designing process can be demonstrated through the case studies. To do that, you need to provide a detailed analysis of the project and mention three main aspects: the challenges it faced, the way they were solved and the outcomes.

Bearing in mind the issue of giving value to your community and potential customers, it's vital to focus on the positive changes you`ve made and not on0 the responsibilities and tools used. The results of your work can be shown through various data and metrics. The main thing is to stress the results you've achieved and the changes you`ve made.

8. Build an Online Portfolio

Now we`ve come to the best option to showcase your achievements and attract new customers – your portfolio. There is a number of tips to take into consideration:

•  Leverage email marketing to promote your portfolio and attract new clients
• Run a blog alongside your portfolio to showcase your expertise and grow your audience
• Use social media platforms to drive traffic to your portfolio and increase your online visibility

Creating a portfolio is a complex process, but the key is to demonstrate your best past clients’ projects in the most attractive way. Provide context for your projects, add videos and photos to bring it closer to the potential customers. And don`t forget to clearly provide your contact details!

9. Freelance Platforms (The Ones to Avoid)

It goes without saying that freelance platforms are an effective way to attract new customers, but there's one point to keep in mind - some of them can actually harm you. Working on some of them, such as Fiverr, 99designs, and Upwork, can attract new graphic design clients whose goal is to save as much money as possible. This may underrate your work or show it as a low-paid one. In my opinion, it makes more sense to develop your own brand and thus attract more who are willing to pay well for good work.

Be ready to study the freelance platform you are going to use – there may be some tricky terms of service or fees. These often include high interest on your earnings or the demand to work only with the customers they provide. Beware of such pitfalls and follow your own way. In a longer perspective it will bring more benefits.

10. Cold Calling or Sending Emails

Although some people underestimate cold calls or emailing, they can be an effective way to attract clients for a freelance designer. But be sure to follow the strategy below:

• Search for website or app UX bugs, and report them to the owner
• Make an offer to fix the bugs and improve the design
• Make another phone call or send email  to discuss the proposal and answer any questions

There are certain rules for this type of promotion: be as clear as possible, list the services and state the value you offer to provide. Calling a person by their name makes your offer more personalized and thus better. These two simple techniques make it more likely to get new customers and build a reliable reputation.

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If you work really hard, stay concentrated, are ready to learn and get better, just add the above 10 tips and you are sure to build a good business and attract customers ready to pay. All that will lead you to your desired goals of financial stability and creative fulfillment.