I’ve blogged about Milton Keynes Geek Night many times over the last 3 and a half years – and it’s still just as good as ever. Last Thursday’s geek night (number 14)  had possibly the most eclectic mix of talks I’ve seen in a while though – with a talk about Life on Mars as well as the usual collection of web design/developer topics. And then there was Chloe Briggs’ 5-minute talk about marketing for freelancers.

Although Chloe (@clever_cloggs) called it marketing for freelancers, I recognise a lot of this being applied in small-medium businesses too. Indeed, it’s only the large enterprises I’ve worked for that don’t seem to “get it”. Even so, Chloe gave what I consider to be some very good advice, so I’m blogging it here!

• Stand out from the crowd:
  • Use blogging as a tool
  • Know your audience
    • Think about who your existing clients are and what type of clients would you like to work with?
    • Target your content to this audience
• Look after existing clients:
  • It’s good to keep in touch
    • Send a well-crafted newsletter every month/quarter
      • Click-throughs from email outperform social media
  • Clients often appreciate a call every few months to check in
    • They will increase their loyalty to you and make them feel supported
    • You will pick up extra work
• Productise your services:
  • Tiered packages make it easy to compare services
  • Packages provide a jumping off point to start a discussion
• Be a specialist
  • Create your own niche
  • You can easily become knowledgeable about a particular product or service
  • Creates trust and authority
  • Increases your value
• Create residual income
  • Sell after-sales support for maintenance etc.
  • This can be a package including other services, e.g. hosting, analytics reports, etc.
  • Retaining your services on a monthly basis creates loyalty

Hopefully these tips can help others to build their businesses and attract/retain the right clients.