Looking at the online market today there is a huge demand for freelance writers. Conversely, the competition is stiff, and it is imperative to be decisive if you want to be a successful freelance writer. Having excellent skills is good, but you need to notice that every little detail is crucial in making a difference. It can impact greatly on the customer’s perception to move your services.
Regular work depends on the quality of service that offers to your customers. The competition makes into important to work hard in retaining the client base that you have created, even as you go out there to seek expansion. Several tips are crucial in helping you actualise this move. They include:
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Read and understand the instructions
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Communicating with your client
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Delivering on high-quality papers
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Learn about your clients
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Don’t forget about SEO
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Meeting your deadlines
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Ask for feedback
This might sound too obvious, but there is nothing as important as meeting all the requirements of your client. With instructions, you understand the expectations of your clients. Even if you think that you have a masterpiece of a paper, and the client is not pleased, you have not performed your duty. Reading instructions is one of the simplest processes that you will do as a freelance writer. You need to ask yourself if you know and understand the purpose of the piece of writing. Secondly, you need to know your target audience.
Once you realise your major task, read the task a second time, and are sure of what the clients want you to do. Before you start, seek any clarifications from the client, not after.
A major mistake happens when you ignore your client’s request or question, ad this can cost you a good one. You need to keep them updated on the progress of their work especially if they are asking questions. If you do not respond accordingly, you will lose the client. The response only takes a minute or less time since it is a simple confirmation that you are working on their project.
Remember you have to earn their trust and confidence because they hope you are willing to do your best and make any necessary adjustment as they might require. If you are in communication with the client, you become valued, and you enhance the chances of working with him in the future. Be polite and kind in your responses even if you are infuriated. Cool down, catch your breath first, and respond to the client using the right words and a good tone.
If you want to retain most of your customers, you had better deliver on quality papers. Most of the time, freelance writers lose customers for failure to produce want they promised. The customer walk away feeling shortchanged. If you want to deliver on quality, do not accept projects whose topics you are not familiar with. Since you answer to no boss, you can choose what you feel is within your knowledge base and expertise.
Stick to the outlined brief but if you think you can add something new, go ahead and let the client see your competence and knowledge. This will make your work outstanding and breathtaking.
Ensure your paper is plagiarism-free by providing original work. Plagiarism is a serious mistake in freelance writing and can put a bad reputation on your freelance writing business. No customer wants to hire someone who is not able to reference his sources correctly. After you finish the paper, do not send it just yet. Sit back and go through it. You will find a few things that need improvement. Once you have polished everything, send it to the client.
If you do not know enough about your client, you might produce content that does not augur very well with his target audience. For instance, you may be writing for their marketing channel. As such, you can familiarise yourself with their website, social media channels or any of your clients is content that you can find. This will assist you in understanding their marketing strategy, the tone of voice and you will be able to write accordingly. You will impress them and position yourself for another writing gig in the future.
Freelance writers produce content that is crawled by search engines to ascertain its relevance and quality. Imperatively, write to your clients without forgetting about search engine optimisation. Capitalize on keywords that match the language the client’s target audience. This will optimise the content for search engines.
You want to continue working with your current list of clients. Well, pay attention to meeting their deadlines, however tight. Sometimes a client can extend the deadline, but this will not happen often. Every client wants to work with a reliable freelance writer. Do not accept more projects that you can handle. Be very careful about keeping time because if you abandon a project to work on another, you will lose your footing as a writer. To retain your clients as well as your credibility, you have to submit your work on or before the deadline.
Feel free to ask for client’s feedback once you finish the project. This shows that you care about doing a good job and you are open to constructive criticism. Feedback is crucial in identifying the grey areas in your writing style that need improvement and the way you deal with the clients that you have. If you are easy to deal with, polite, energetic, and reliable, you will retain most of your clients.
Freelance writing has become too competitive. Therefore, freelance writers have to treat the clients that they have with the utmost care and respect. The above tips offer a little advice on how you can retain clients and get new ones along the way. The way they perceive you as a writer is crucial, and if you follow these referrals, you will get necessary traffic towards you. Build your relationships in the best way a freelance writer can and look forward to your next client. Now get them!
