The one thing I miss about full time work is the financial stability of a consistent paycheque. It’s hard to want to stay in freelance if I’m constantly worrying about it, and it hinders me from doing any creative work when I know in the time I’m doing that, I should be working to pay the bills this month. I’m lucky to have a consistent part time design job that I can more-or-less rely on a paycheque on, but I also feel like I’m not doing what I need to do to get to where I used to be financially.
Enter, client acquisition. Probably the bottleneck and barrier to any small business. This isn’t any different from customer acquisition, something I should know well as a product designer. Below is some notes from different sources:
4 steps (6 Figure Creative)
- Attract
- Goal: Generate leads
- Be the kind of marketing you want to see, not cringey.
- Nurture
- Goal: build trust and stay top of mind
- Convert
- Goal: Build value and differentiate
- Monetize
- Goal: Charge premium rates
- Metric: AACV — average annual client value
Things to reflect on:
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In your business, what’s working, what’s not working? What needs to be completely rebuilt? What needs minor adjustments?
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Build a marketing roadmap
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Find accountability
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Make sure outcomes are defined