How I've landed all my clients

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Want to know how I’ve landed all my freelance clients?

I’ve worked with 34 businesses over the last five years.

That’s included brands like Semrush, Shopify, and People Managing People.

Here’s exactly how I landed each client – including the actual emails that led to some of my biggest gigs

Let’s dive right in…

How I’ve landed all my clients: The numbers

What have been my most effective biz dev channels?

Let’s take a look 👀

I’ve landed:

• 7 clients in Slack groups where clients hang out

• 6 clients in Slack groups where content marketers hang out

• 6 clients through client referrals

• 5 clients through networking

• 3 clients through calls for freelancers on LinkedIn

• 3 clients through warm pitches

• 2 clients through cold pitches

• 2 clients through failed job interviews I turned into freelance work

Now let’s look at each channel in action, starting with the least effective and working up to the one that’s worked best for me…

💼 Failed job interviews I turned into freelance work (2 clients)

This one is for sure the least replicable way of landing clients out of the bunch.

But it’s how I landed two clients back when I first went freelance.

Here’s what happened:

Covid hit and I was made redundant from my agency job. Then I spent the first six months or so applying to jobs while also trying to land freelance clients. 

And I managed to turn two failed job interviews into freelance work.

One was for an SEO agency that didn’t have budget to hire me full-time, but did send me some freelance pieces (which I drastically undercharged for 🙃)

And during my interview with another other company, it became really obvious to me and the Head of Marketing interviewing me that I wasn't a good fit for the job. The role was going to be as much about creating video content as it was about writing blog posts, and I was like “yeah I’m not that guy”.

But the person interviewing me was like “if I was just hiring for a writer you’d be my top choice”.

A few months later, I got this email from him:

I don’t know if there’s any actionable takeaways from this. But I guess it just goes to show that the more people who know what you do, the more people are going to think of you when they need help with that.

🥶 Cold pitches (2 clients)

I’ve landed a grand total of two clients from cold pitching in my freelance career. 

One was my first ever freelance client, who I landed way back in 2017 (when I was trying to get a freelance career going alongside a full-time job).

Here’s the pitch I sent:

Luckily he said “can I pay you to edit my stuff from now on?” and not “go fuck yourself” 😂

And that relationship has actually led to six figures of work (more on that later 👀).

The other was this pitch I sent to a wedding photographer:

In hindsight, wedding photographers weren't a good target audience, because very few have an established SEO strategy (or the money to spend on one).

But I was legitimately looking at loads of wedding photographers' sites since we were in need of one.

Luckily, one of the like 50 folks I sent this pitch to took me up on it.

I did an initial blog post for him for like £100.

Then I offered to rewrite his entire website for him and optimise it for search in exchange for him doing the photography for our wedding, which he usually charged £1,800 for.

He said yes, so this cold pitch lead to almost £2,000 of work 🥳

I know some freelancers swear by cold pitching. And I did it quite a lot in the early days of my freelance career, because I needed work NOW.

And hey, it led to these two clients!

But in hindsight I probably think the time I spent cold emailing hundreds of businesses in those early years would’ve been better spent building relationships with folks.

Speaking of which…

🔥 Warm pitches (3 clients)

I’m pretty sure I’ve landed every client I’ve ever sent a warm pitch to.

Remember that client I cold pitched who has sent me over six figures of work?

He co-founded an SEO-related Slack community which I joined a couple months into going freelance full time. And I could see a few things they could maybe be doing a bit better, so messaged him to let him know what they were.

He liked my ideas. And he happened to be looking to bring someone on board to help run the community and its content programme at the time. So he asked if I wanted that gig. 

And I’ve been working with them for nearly five years now 🙌

I’ve also sent successful warm pitches to a SaaS biz who sponsored some of our TOFU webinars back in the day:

And a content lead at another SaaS biz who messaged Tyler to say he was a fan of one of my TOFU newsletters:

As you can see, these pitches aren’t anything special. But they really don’t need to be when you're someone they know rather than a rando showing up in their inbox.

📢 Calls for freelancers on LinkedIn (3 clients)

You know those LinkedIn posts that are like:

“Hey I’m looking for freelance writers to cover this topic you’ve written about tonnes. DM me if you’re a good fit.”

I must’ve chucked my hat into the ring for over a hundred of those…

And it’s led to three clients. 

So not exactly an amazing ROI on the time I’ve invested into those DMs 🙃

This is another one where I’d probably have been better off spending that same time just chatting to the right people.

Which brings us on to…

☕ Networking (5 clients)

I’m using “networking” here as a blanket term for work that I’ve landed off the back of relationships I’ve built throughout my career.

For example:

Three of my first freelance clients were folks the agency owner who had to let me go when Covid hit really kindly sent my way. I was a one-person content team, so when she had to let me go she stopped offering content marketing as a service. Then when things started picking back up and clients I’d worked with at that agency hit my old boss up for more content support she sent them my way.

Plus, two of my current clients are businesses that TOFU members I’ve made friends with over the years referred me to :)

This is the first time that I’ve ever mapped out how I landed all of my freelance clients before…

And I actually can’t believe that staying on friendly terms with my old boss and making friends with a couple of fellow freelancers has led to as many clients as cold pitching and applying to shoutouts for freelance writers on LinkedIn combined 🤯

I’ve spent a lot less time networking than pitching. And chatting to people is waaayyy more fun than pestering people for work.

🤝 Client referrals (6 clients)

People get new jobs. They start side projects. They consult on the side. 

And if they need a good writer for any of those things and know they can rely on you?

They’ll keep sending work your way. 

One of my clients has actually sent three other gigs my way over the years 🙌

Something to keep in mind though:

Nightmare clients NEVER send you referrals. Which is another reason (if you need one!) to replace pain in the arse clients with people who are actually nice to work with as fast as you can.

Appreciate that’s easier said than done! But I think it’s worth mentioning, since client referrals have kept my freelance business alive in some tight times.

💬 Slack groups where content marketers hang out (6 clients)

I’ve landed six gigs from Slack groups like TOFU over the years.

That’s been through a combination of:

• Clients putting a call out for writers in the #work opps channel

• Fellow freelancers saying they know someone looking for writers with my experience

That’s like double the number of those kinds of gigs I’ve picked up through LinkedIn 🤯

I imagine that’s probably for two reasons:

First, I think folks put the word out in groups like this first so they can avoid the deluge of DMs that will come their way if they post about them on LinkedIn. So you’re competing against fewer people to get noticed when those posts come up in communities like this one.

And second, anyone posting something like that in TOFU is going to recognise me given how much I post here. Which means mine is probably going to be one of the first portfolios they check out. 

So those pitches kind of end up being warm pitches, I guess? Or at least lukewarm pitches 🤷

🎯 Slack groups where clients hang out (7 clients)

You know how I mentioned I’ve helped run an SEO-focussed Slack community for the last five years?

Well, I’m pretty sure I'm the only content writer in there.

So every time someone has posted asking the group if anyone knows any good writers, I’ve slid into their DMs and said “yeah, me 🙋”.

And since everyone recognises me from how much I post in there…

That’s landed me seven gigs 🙌

If you think I’m crazy for sharing this ONE WEIRD TRICK FOR LANDING TONNES OF CLIENTS…

Honestly, I haven’t gotten a gig this way since ChatGPT dropped and SEOs all started using that to write content instead of us squishy humans (we’ll still b here wen u need dat AI slop rewriting in 2 yrs SEOs 🫶)

But the principal stands:

Build relationships with your potential clients by spending time where they hang out. When they’re looking to hire a writer, there’s a good chance they’ll think of you.

🍻 It’s all about relationships

The biggest thing I’m going to take away from breaking down how I’ve landed all my freelance clients is how little work I’ve landed cold.

Cold pitches and responding to calls for freelance writers on LinkedIn have led to just five of my 34 freelance clients. That’s a measly 15%. And I’ve definitely spent more than 15% of my biz dev efforts chasing those opportunities 🫠

Turns out I’ve had some kind of preexisting relationship with 85% of the clients I’ve landed in my freelance career – even if that’s just them recognising my face from my posts in a Slack community.

Really wish I knew things were going to shake out that way when I first went freelance. If I did, I’d probably have worked with a lot more clients by now if I’d focussed on building relationships instead of being the 967th person to DM a content lead who’s put a call out for freelance writers on LinkedIn 🙃

The good news is that I now have a playbook for building relationships and nurturing them into a steady supply of new work.

It’s called Sales for Sane People – Tyler’s brand new course.

And it’s a step-by-step system for building a sustainable, predictable pipeline of client work – once and for all.

I’ve only been following it for a few days and it’s already landed me a lead 👇

Want to stop the feast and famine freelance cycle forever?

👉 Get Sales for Sane People here 👈

THIS WEEK ONLY: Use code SANELAUNCH at checkout for a 20% discount on the course purchase or your first month of MOFU Mastery!

Code expires FRIDAY – so don’t wait!