My current roster of clients has only ideal clients on it. What’s an ideal client? For me, it’s one who’s easy to work with, pays well and on time, and gives me interesting writing projects. For you, it might be something different.
Most writers know they should only work with ideal clients, but it’s hard to level up the quality when you’ve got external pressure like bills to pay. So you say “yes” to every opportunity that comes your way, no matter if it’s an ideal client, project, or situation.
To grow your business, you must ditch the bad B2B writing clients for good ones and only attract the ideal ones. My freelance business started to grow and become easier to manage when I did that.
Here are five ways to attract higher-quality clients so you enjoy your work and business more, have fewer hassles, and increase your revenues.
1. Develop and refine your project delivery process
The more you work with your clients, the better you get at delivering your writing projects to them. Your entire process becomes more repeatable as you get familiar with them, their industry, and their end goals. This familiarity gives you leverage to work more closely with them, on bigger projects (if you want), and for higher rates.
So look at all the tasks you do for each project and document them. See how you can optimize them to be as efficient as possible while still delivering the high quality you want to be known for.
2. Become their go-to expert
As you continue to work with your ideal clients, you get to know their business, work rhythms, industry challenges and opportunities, and everything else. All of which makes you an expert, someone who “gets” them.
When you’re the expert, you’re the first writer they come to. Being seen as the expert is more challenging if you work with everyone on every project. (This is also part of the argument about being a generalist versus a specialized B2B writer.)
That means you should always read, study, and learn about your ideal clients. Find out everything about their industry, preferences, challenges, opportunities, business goals, etc. Develop your knowledge with each ideal client and apply it to the next one. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
3. Publish relevant success stories
You’ll achieve better results for and with your ideal clients once you start consistently working with them and applying your processes. You’ll want to create success stories that resonate with similar ideal clients and share them in your self-marketing materials. You’ll easily attract other ideal clients and win more business because they can relate to them. They’ll see themselves in the stories and want the same success.
4. Focus on simple messaging
When your marketing message is focused on your ideal clients, it resonates with them. It cuts through all the noise online and tells them you’re “the one” for their next B2B writing project. If you’ve done it right, you can build a pipeline of prospective clients, so you’ve always got someone waiting for you, and your business grows. Your message gains so much traction that it’s shared everywhere, and you’re getting referrals from past clients.
5. Learn to say “no”
One of the reasons you’re not working solely with ideal clients is that you never say no. And I get it; it’s hard to say. I remember the first time I told a client we weren’t a good fit — I was so nervous. But I did it, and I’ve done it many times since. Saying no to bad-fit clients has a compounding effect on your B2B writing business. You’ll better understand who your ideal clients are and the criteria they need to meet for you to consider working with them while unclogging your calendar of the wrong types of clients and projects. So, learn to say no to low-quality clients as soon as you’re in a position to and you’ll be set up to say yes to the ideal ones.
Low-quality clients can make a mess of your B2B writing business. They impact your cash flow, cause you a ton of stress, and generally make you wonder why you started your business in the first place.
The good news is that you can be a successful B2B writer without them. You can always attract and work with only your ideal clients if you know how. Use these five tips to optimize your business processes, learn what they look for in high-value writers, and attract better clients with a more focused business.
