Bani Kaur is a freelance B2B SaaS writer for impressive clients like Klaviyo, Litmus, Dooly, and more. She uses design thinking to write research-driven and value-packed content for B2B SaaS brands. Below, she shares her tips and tricks on building and maintaining a robust client list – no matter the state of the economy.
Finding and Maintaining Consistent Client Work
What are your go-to sites or resources for finding new clients?
Superpath slack and Kaitlyn Arford’s community are great places to look for new clients.
Talk to us about your biggest client retention secret.
Go above and beyond for your pilot piece. A great first experience is hard to shake. That way, even if you stumble somewhere down the line, your clients will have faith in you to turn it around. If you read my testimonials, this is the one thing all my clients acknowledge.
Going above and beyond in the initial phases paves the way for a stronger, sturdier, and more interactive client relationship!
How has the current state of the economy shifted your processes for both finding new clients and maintaining your current client roster?
Ah, this is a tough one. The economy has shifted my processes quite a lot. Leads have been much slower than usual and follow-ups have been sparse.
Most of my clients have cut back on their monthly cadence moving into 2023, if not already having eliminated their content budget. A team I wrote for laid off 6 people (2 in-house, and 4 freelancers) and replaced them with just one content manager. Needless to say, he’s overwhelmed.
This is where having a great professional network has been tremendously helpful.
All of my clients who cut down on work have introduced me to others in their network who needed a writer.
This also reconfirms what I mentioned earlier about doing great work from the get-go. It leads to referrals, testimonials, and respect.
What tips do you have for getting in front of prospective clients as a freelance business owner?
Don’t be scared to DM the people you’d like to work with, BUT avoid a salesy approach. Unless they’re specifically looking for a person with your role at that moment, it’s often off-putting. Instead, talk about their work and their needs. And if you can exhibit critical reasoning and some nuanced takes during that conversation, I promise they’ll remember you and reach out when they’re ready.
Second, warm pitch aggressively. Follow freelance communities and newsletters and reply to all calls with a personalized, relevant, and thought-provoking pitch. Bonus points if you can fit it into LinkedIn’s ‘add note’ character limit.
Third, talk to other freelancers. Help them out. Offer to review their work. You never know when someone is looking to pass on an opportunity to someone they trust.
What advice do you have for new freelancers who are just building up their client roster?
Three words: Keep at it.
Perseverance will see you through the first few months.
And once you have that first client, work on that project like your life depends on it. Learn everything you need along the way. Upskill while you work.
When I got assigned my first piece with Klaviyo, it was a dream come true. I was elated for about an hour; then I set out to learn everything I could about Klaviyo’s product, target audience, and brand voice.
I signed up for 130 of their customers’ emails so I’d have relevant and unique examples to pull from. I reached out to 7 Klaviyo experts on Twitter and built relationships (most of which have lasted to this day!).
And all of the effort was well worth it because it opened doors to tremendous new opportunities.
