Getting freelance clients, the weird way

Newsflash: I started a new part-time job this week, with one of my nicest longstanding freelance writing clients*.

(It’s Host Unusual, if you must know.  I’m clearly biased, but I recommend browsing their – our? – website for unusual places to stay when you’re away).

Another thing happened this week, too.  I got a new freelance client from an unrelated email I’d sent to chase up an online order.  It was easy and lovely, and it made me think about the different ways there actually are to get freelance clients.

We can do better than spraying posts over social media, or drinking tepid coffee at dull networking events, and hoping for the best.

Can’t we?

For inspiration, here are some of the weirdest and most surprising ways I’ve found new freelance clients.

Door-to-door leafleting… with a twist

I’ve written about this before, but my early-career leaflet drops secured a job so lucrative, I could keep my mortgage paid while I looked around for others.

Those leaflet-drops weren’t entirely random, however.  When I thought about who might want to pay someone to write a book for them, two things sprang to mind: big house, car with personalised plates. I targeted both.

It may not be razor-sharp marketing strategy, but it worked for me.

Business cards in unrelated places

I don’t use business cards anymore.  Years of coming home from networking meetings laden down with them put me off. I always put at least half in the recycling bin straight away, and I never looked at the rest.

(My philosophy is a simple one: If I like or need you, I’ll remember you).

But when I did use business cards, I’d leave little piles of them in places you might not expect to see business cards.  On coffee-shop tables.  In hotel lounges.  At the library.  Under car windscreen-wipers.  In the bakery where my stepmum worked.

I got some lovely freelance clients this way; some of whom I still work for.

Proactive emails

Note: when I say “proactive emails” I’m not talking about business pitches.  I’m talking about chatty, actually helpful messages that expect nothing in return.

I’ve sent a few of these in my time.  For example, I once pointed out a spelling mistake in a Guardian ad run by a prominent recruitment company.  The MD wrote back, thanking me and asking if I was free to do some blog-writing for them.

(Reader, I was).

These aren’t surefire ways to get freelance clients.  They probably won’t bring in the big money, either.

But they are fun, friendly, and interesting.  Those things often get missed in the day-to-day grind of freelance business marketing.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do things the ‘traditional’ way.  You should.  Just leave a tiny bit of room for a different kind of magic to happen every now and then…

…and make sure your email signature links back to your website!

*I’m still very much working as a freelance writer, too.  So if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.