Industry-specific

Here I will share some easy steps to get your first freelance client. Many people have skills they know they could trade on the internet for a handsome income and free lifestyle. They are frustrated with their jobs and think they’d love to start a side-income, or they’re without employment and could do with a freelancing income stream. The biggest hurdle they face is “where do I start?” There are so many false promises on the internet that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up. However, one simple approach works wonderfully well. In this short blog, I’ll share the 9 easy steps to get your first few freelancing clients: 9 easy steps to get your first freelance client 1. Create a free offer. It could be a free consultation in your domain, a free design if you’re a graphic designer, a free SEO audit if you’re an SEO expert, etc. It’s important that this offer is something that many business owners need and usually have to pay for. 2. Design a simple post for social media about this offer, asking for their email ID on a link or in the comments. Here’s a sample: 3. Join forums for business owners or freelancers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit etc. and post this offer in all such forums. 4. You will start receiving responses if the offer had any wings. Reach out to all the email IDs you receive and send them a Google Form (or something similar) to fix an appointment with you to discuss their case. (If you don’t receive many responses, you may have to rethink your free offer and try this step again.) 5. Once you’ve got a handful of appointments, start calling them and delivering on the promise of your offer. It’s important to be ethical- even if you feel that a particular request won’t convert into a paying client, I’d highly recommend you go ahead with and deliver on the free offer. 6. Tell them exactly what they should be doing for growing their business (in your particular domain). If you’re a designer, for example, you could tell them how their social media presence needs a face-lift with better designs. If you’re a digital marketer, you could lay out a strategy for growing their business. It’s important to give out everything you’ve got at this stage. Don’t hold back your best ideas just because this is free. Why? Because… 7. Make them a paying offer. The way to do this is simple. After you’ve laid out all the things that business should be doing in your domain, you end with one question. “Would you like me to do it for you?” Then pause. Let them speak. The silence can be awkward, but if you’ve delivered genuine value in the free offer, a surprisingly large percentage of people will respond with “Yes”. This is when you move on to giving them a quotation. 8. Make it risk-free. Give them a quotation with a moneyback guarantee. Don’t ask for money upfront. All this is important because you want to minimize the fears in the clients’ head. Since these will be your first few clients, don’t rush to get the money. Focus on learning from the experience, getting some positive reviews from your freelance client, and getting a comfort zone with freelancing. 9. Ask for referrals and reviews. Once you’ve got some clients (or even after the “free” offer), don’t forget to ask these people for any referrals and for reviews on your website or Google page or Facebook page, etc. This is the way to get the wheels rolling, and one freelance client will lead to another and towards building your freelance business. These 9 steps, if done well, would work for a wide variety of expertise areas. Of course, they won’t work for everyone. If your talent or expertise is an extremely niche area, you may find it harder to find people online who would take your free offer. Nonetheless, the basic principles in this approach would work for any freelancer, even if the ways to reach out to potential clients varies.

Financial industry’s products and services are just like any other product or service. They need to be marketed. The services provided by banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, financial institutions etc. have their customers just like in any other industry. These companies require customers to purchase their securities. The traditional style of marketing any financial product is publishing through yellow pages, hoardings, advertisements on televisions, magazines, newspapers, etc. It is not easy to get this age-old business (and often controlled by the government) to adapt to new technologies. There is often tremendous friction. However, the companies which have made (or are making) this shift well are the ones that are thriving in the 21st century. Let’s explore some ways in which Financial Industry can use digital marketing. 5 WAYS TO USE DIGITAL MEDIA IN THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY 1) TO FIND PROSPECTS With the world going digital, it is easy to segment and target very relevant persons who might be interested in specific types of products. Both Social Media Ads and Google Search or Display Ads have very powerful ways to reach people interested in any niche product. Devising a behaviour-based and customized marketing strategy, showcasing the right product to the right person at the right time – can be achieved through digital media. 2) TO GET CUSTOMER FEEDBACK & ENGAGEMENT Social media is the finest way to assess genuine feedback and concerns. A company that keeps its ears open for social media conversations around their industry will often achieve the best insights and design strategies that alleviate the most customer pain-points. Social media monitoring tools are an enormous resource for any finance-based company. 3) TO HAVE AN ONGOING CONVERSATION WITH THE MARKET A rational and relevant conversation with the customers can elevate customer experience. Customer issues and grievances can be solved virtually to boost company goodwill. A company that responds quickly online builds enormous trust in today’s customers. 4) TO TELL YOUR BRAND STORY USING VIDEO People prefer to watch videos rather than read large amounts of text. A business social media page with a lot of videos tends to have more likes and followers. Websites have also been using videos very effectively in the last 6-7 years. They engage customers by posting mouth-watering videos. ICICI bank posts about numerous activities they perform on their social media channels very effectively. If a finance company explains its schemes, policies and procedures through videos instead of written content, people will learn more, get attracted more, and get retained more. Good video content is also rewarded by Google and Facebook’s algorithms. You’re more likely to reach your target audience if you use video instead of plain text. 5) TO RESOLVE QUERIES USING CHATBOTS Customers not only want online services, but also want to solve their minor queries on digital platforms. Companies can now ensure that they are 24*7 available. Using Chatbots , most customer queries can be resolved using a conversational and easy-to-approach tone. The advances in machine learning and A.I. have made the design of effective Chabot extremely viable. REAL INSTANCES OF DIGITAL MARKETING OF FINANCE INDUSTRY. 1) Yes bank digital diya campaign in 2017. Yes bank launched a website (http://www.thedigitaldiya.in) where every visit on this website will light up a digital diya. An amount equal to every visit was contributed towards the fund for eradicating rural financial illiteracy. The success was easily measured by counting the number of visits. Following this creative trend, the bank managed to light up over 1 million diyas. 2) ICICI mobile application – iMobile app. With the world obsessed with smartphones, mobile apps keep you a step ahead. ICICI advertised about its mobile app in a very creative way. ICICI mobile app provides you the travel card and there is no need to get into issues of currency exchange. ICICI has been awarded with India’s best mobile banking app by The Forrester banking wave. 3) SBI-Cashkiaadatbadlo In the wake of demonetization, it was very needful to go digital for customers. People suffered liquidity crunches. SBI early in that year of demonetization came up with the campaign of CASHKIAADATBADLO. It advertised products like SBI debit card, SBI Pay and SBI buddy mobile wallet. Its advertisements were so real and relatable for the audience that it was more reliable and trustworthy. You can see the video here. 4) Chatbots developed by Indian banks. Yes bank has Yes robot, ICICI has software robotics, City bank has Humanoid Laxmi, HDFC bank has Onchat. These chatbots help customers by providing various services like checking account balance, tranfering money, opening new accounts, locating ATMs and branches, giving current interest on loans. About the Author: Tanushri Saxena is pursuing her MBA from GLS, Ahmedabad. Currently, she is interning as a content writer at WebKow. She enjoys an occasional cup of coffee and is an avid Game of Thrones fan (but not season 8  ).