93 Ideas to Find New Clients for your Freelance Business

Before you do anything else, decide what clients you’re after and what you can do best for them (your niche). Now you’ve got your offering and target market nailed, here are the ideas for hooking them in.

On LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is more than likely the social media network where your target market is hanging out and expecting to talk business. 

1. Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find and connect with your ideal clients. 
2. Send personalised LinkedIn connection requests. 
3. Post helpful and informative content to attract the right people to want to connect with you.
4. Create a plan for regular posting to keep your presence high, the LinkedIn algorithm happy and yourself front of mind to prospects.
5. Start conversations using direct messages. 
6. Take some time to make your profile stand out with a great profile image, header image, experience, featured posts and about section with a call to action. 
7. Publish articles on LinkedIn with industry insights and trend spotting. 
8. Use relevant hashtags strategically.
9. Share case studies with project results and metrics, before/after comparisons, client testimonials and showcase your process and methodology.

Other social media channels are available

If it makes more sense to use another social media channel, then do, but try to focus your energy on nailing one.

10. Share your work process and behind-the-scenes content on Instagram. 
11. Join and participate in Facebook Groups where your target clients hang out. 
12. Answer relevant questions on Reddit and Quora. 
13. Use X to share quick tips and engage with potential clients in your field. 
14. Create Pinterest boards showcasing your portfolio and linking to your services. 
15. Share time-lapse videos of your work on TikTok to reach younger clients. 
16. Post regularly on Substack or Medium with helpful industry advice. 
17. Create YouTube tutorials demonstrating your personality and skills.
18. Post on your personal social media profiles to make sure your friends and family know what you do. They might need your expertise or know someone who does. 
19. Be yourself. Write how you speak (don’t try to be formal) and sometimes share personal details about yourself, like your hobbies or what you did on your day off. People want to work with people they like and have something in common with. 

Direct outreach

These are your low-hanging fruit ideas. Unfortunately, the most fruitful ideas are normally the easiest to put off! Eat the frog and get in the habit of doing a little bit first thing every day. 

20. Research and contact companies in your target market (AI has some great tools for this). 
21. Create tailored proposals for specific companies. 
22. Follow up on past client leads. 
23. Ask current clients if they have any more projects (and suggest things you could do for them). 
24. Create upsells and special offers for past and existing clients. 
25. Develop maintenance services and retainer agreements. 
26. Find out if your current and past clients have sister companies they could refer you to. 
27. Reach out to previous employers. 
28. Contact companies posting relevant job listings. 
29. Start a waiting list and take deposits or payments upfront. 
30. Put your prices up.

Speaking opportunities

If you’re a good public speaker, it’s a great way to get yourself in front of lots of people and get known. If you’re not, build your skills by starting small. 

31. Start a podcast and use it to make great contacts by asking those people to be your guests. Do a talk at a local coworking or shared office space, sharing your expertise. 
32. Speak at a conference. 
33. Host a webinar for your own network or someone else’s community. 
34. Host a workshop or training session. 
35. List speaking as a service you offer and create a professional media kit.

Networking

It’s all about growing a fruitful business network. Make a name for yourself in your target market’s industry (for example, travel), and don’t just network with your peers (other freelancers).

36. Join freelance communities like Being Freelance, The Dots or Freelancer Magazine for business from other freelancers and referrals. 
37. Join a community or membership body specific to the industry you work for. 
38. Attend professional development and industry events. Make sure you have your elevator pitch ready. 
39. Attend events that your ideal clients are going to (LinkedIn might be a good place to find out where they’re hanging out). 
40. Go to local networking events. 
41. Join a coworking space and get involved in their meet-ups. 
42. See if you can host or get a speaker spot at a local networking event. 
43. Create your own series of networking events. 
44. Attend virtual coworking sessions to meet people while you work from home.
45. Join the local Chamber of Commerce meetings.
46. See everything as an opportunity to start a conversation. If you read a book or listen to a podcast, send the author or host/guest a thank you and tell them why you enjoyed it.

Education and authority building 

Demonstrate you have confidence in your expertise. 

47. Create online courses.
48. Write an ebook about your industry.
49. Develop free resources, templates or tools.
50. Create infographics about your process.

Content marketing and SEO…

Your website is useless to you if it doesn’t get visitors. 

51. Build a website for your freelance business or make sure your existing one is bang up to date. 
52. Start a blog focusing on your industry expertise. 
53. Write a blog about who you’re not for.
54. Create case studies of successful client projects.
55. Write guest posts for industry-leading websites.
56. Develop free resources and lead magnets.
57. Optimise your website for local SEO.
58. Update your Google My Business listing. 
59. Ask your clients to leave you Google reviews (you can ask them to cut and paste the testimonial they give you). 
60. Add client testimonials to your website. 
61. Create industry-specific whitepapers.
62. Start an email newsletter.
63. Develop video content showcasing your expertise.
64. Implement schema markup on your site.
65. Optimise your website for mobile devices.
66. Get backlinks from online directories and communities you’re part of. 
67. Contact your university or school alumni to see if they want to cover your business story. 
68. Get in your local paper (for the right reasons!).

Buddy up

Strategic partnerships and referrals can create long-term benefits for both parties. 

69. Partner with a complementary service provider. 
70. Create an incentive referral programme or simply ask your clients if they will recommend you to their business network. 
71. Ask satisfied clients for testimonials and referrals. 
72. Collaborate with other freelancers on larger projects. 
73. Get on board with an agency to be their specialist, especially if they can offer clients a new service. 
74. Partner with educational institutions. 
75. Join affiliate programmes related to your services. 
76. Think about the brands you love to use, like software tools for your business, and start chatting with them. 
77. Create partnerships with local businesses. 
78. Volunteer for nonprofit organisations related to your industry. 
79. Sponsor local events (you could offer your services in exchange instead of a cash payment). 

The freelance marketplaces 

Use them cautiously, as they can be a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of rate. If you find your niche, get your price right and build your portfolio and reviews, they could work for you or get you started. 

80. Create a professional profile on Upwork. 
81. Join Fiverr and create multiple gig variations to target client segments and price points.
82. Establish a presence on Toptal if you’re in tech, development, or design fields.
83. List your services on PeoplePerHour with detailed packages. 
84. Use Freelancer.com’s project bidding system to find relevant opportunities.
85. Join niche platforms specific to your industry (e.g., Behance for designers, GitHub for developers). 
86. List your services on local freelance marketplaces in your region. 

Quirky ideas

Marketing yourself is about standing out and being memorable, not blending in. 

87. Choose a few dream clients and send them a fun gift like a locked transparent box full of sweets where they must contact you to get the code. 
88. Create a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style story proposal where they could explore the different paths of you working together. 
89. Start your own industry magazine. 
90. Post your target audience a handwritten letter. 
91. Use a tool like ScoreApp to create a sales funnel with a quiz. 
92. Create personalised video pitches. 
93. Create posters or print ads.

Coming up with ideas is easy, but you’ve got to execute them for them to be effective. We’d recommend choosing one or two of these to focus on—the ones you believe will make the most difference and work on them a little every day. Pay attention to which ones bring you the best clients. Consistent marketing efforts will bring consistent client enquiries.