“How do you find clients?” … I see this question a lot. And there are so many different answers to it. For my business almost all of my clients have found me through social media or SEO or have been referred to me from other clients.
I thought that a breakdown of how that happened might be helpful to let you know what is possible for us introverts out here. And it’s good to read different stories of success because we are all going to have different paths to finding clients and building our businesses.
So here’s my story of how my Virtual Assistant and Web Design clients found me…
When I first started out, I was all over social media. One of my blogging buddies, actually wrote me and said, “I see you all over social media and you have such authority. I really am impressed by how you went from hobby blogger to business woman!”
I posted a lot and was active in many Facebook groups, while that kind of activity wasn’t sustainable for me, it gave my business the boost it needed to get those first few clients.
Four clients found me through social media. One of those clients then referred me to her brother, mother, and many of her own clients who needed virtual assistant work. Her brother then referred me to his wife to build a website. Yep, I work with the whole family.
Two clients knew me from my blogging days and reached out to me for work. If you have a personal blog besides your business blog, it really does pay to let those readers know about your business endeavors too!
I was referred to one client in a Facebook group by the group’s owner. Another member saw that referral and reached out to me too. Two for one!
A fellow VA referred a client to me simply because I was active on her Pinterest board.
One client found me through my email list and then referred two more clients to me.
And another VA referred one of her clients to me for web design because she was on my email list.
Four of my current clients found me through SEO. One of those clients then referred four more clients to me for web and graphic design projects.
Through the years I’ve had several more reach out to me who found me through SEO, but these were people who were looking for social media assistance after I had stopped offering it.
By this breakdown, you can see that social media worked well for me when I first started but eventually, referrals and SEO are what I was able to build my business on.
And if you’re an introvert like me this is good news! You don’t have to be constantly marketing and networking to find clients!
This model may be a little slower than others but it worked for me. And it’s kept me in clients. Even during times when I’ve completely dropped off social media and email because of mental health challenges, I still got inquiries and referrals.
How to Get Referrals
When it comes to getting referrals, you need to be someone that your client will feel comfortable endorsing. Go above and beyond for your clients, be trustworthy, and be genuinely excited about their successes! Show that their business and business goals are important to you. If you can do that, your clients will feel comfortable referring you.
Let your clients know that you are open to referrals. Once you’ve worked with them for a while and you know they are happy with your work, ask if they have a peer who is also looking for a VA. You can even offer a referral incentive if you want to – a percentage off a monthly package, a free hour. (I did this at first but no longer offer it.)
How to Use SEO
What are your current clients searching for?
If you’re not sure, ask. Go into Facebook groups and ask some questions.
1. “What is your current struggle with…?”
2. “If you could have any question about …. answered what would it be?”
3. “What are your goals when it comes to…?”
And then create blog posts that provide an answer to their struggles and questions, and will help them reach their goals.
Do your keyword research. (Asking those questions above will give you a place to start with your research.) Google itself is so handy for this. Always check out the “People also ask” section. This section is great for ideas of questions you need to answer in your blog post about your chosen keywords. Use them in your H2 headings.
Also, I love the chrome extension Keywords Everywhere. With it when you do a Google search, you’ll also get trend data for that keyword, related keywords, and people also search for suggestions. It’s awesome!
Quora is another gold mine for questions people are asking about your topic. Do a search there to see what people are asking and create content that answers those questions.
Once you’ve done your research, start creating and posting that content to your blog. It may take some time but eventually, Google will see that you’re the answer to your potentials client’s questions.
I hope this breakdown has been helpful and maybe gives some hope to the introverts out there. 🙂
