6 ways to get your work in front of clients without buying ads: for graphic designers and lettering artists.
Vol. 054
6 ways to get your work in front of clients without buying ads: for graphic designers and lettering artists.
Get your work out there, position yourself as a professional, and land your ideal clients without paying a dollar.
A quick bite:
Getting your work “out there” is tough. Platforms will convince you that you need to “pay to play” and if you’re not spending money or tons of time creating crazy-elaborate posts on multiple platforms, you won’t ever get seen or find success. I’m here to say that’s wrong: I’ve found success through doing this organically, and for free.
Below details my secrets on how...
Reader submission: Figuring out how best to get out there. We know we need to better use Instagram, but it's not a huge priority so it more or less sits there doing nothing. Do we buy ads? If so, where? If we are going to send out info to prospects, how do we identify them? Just getting going has been a huge challenge.
This is a fantastic question. I’ve tried to prevent this from being an absolute novel (I don’t know if I succeeded...), so, I’ve packed this damn thing FILLED with links to more extensive explanations on everything should you be interested. ‘Cause, ya know, I love you 😘
An annoying aside, but of course, this is very different per industry and per business. That being said, I’m gonna speak from my own experience from the perspective of a freelance graphic designer and lettering artist in Denver. I personally have never purchased ads or paid for marketing. Everything has been organic and natural.
Simply: how do we as graphic designers, lettering artists, [insert your creative entrepreneurial profession here] get in front of our ideal customers and clients?
Like all complex questions or problems there is no simple solution. (copyright: my dad). I do think that the issue is less about “getting your work out there” and more about “getting your work in front of clients who understand your value and are willing to pay for it. Great work begets more work: if you’re doing quality work for quality clients then you’ll be able to take on less clients, to make more meaningful work, more money, and ultimately you’ll be able to experience the perpetuation of that equation.
But, how do you get your work in front of the right prospects or clients?
Again, from my experience as a freelance graphic designer and lettering artist in Denver, a combination of the following will position you as a valuable investment in the eyes of your ideal clients.:
Being everywhere
Networking organically
Showing up consistently
Pricing your work correctly
Offering value to your peers
Conveying your value regularly
Be everywhere
You want to get your work out there? Be everywhere!
If your days aren’t jam packed with client work, they should be jam packed with direct or more organic marketing efforts.
As a graphic designer and lettering artist, your work can be posted multiple times (showing process and final) across a multitude of platforms: Instagram, Dribbble, Behance, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blog posts, submissions to art-feature blogs, a newsletter...I could keep going.
According to Salesforce, it takes 6-8 touches to get a prospect ready to make a purchase. Or, in our case, a potential client ready to pay for our services.
How does being everywhere help you land more of the right clients?
Through getting your work everywhere you’re constantly top of mind (or at least their subconscious mind) and therefore more likely to be remembered or selected for a particular opportunity. Putting your work in multiple locations forces people to see it over and over, constantly being reminded of what you do and why it’s valuable. Being everywhere will absolutely land you more leads, but be sure to first qualify those leads.
Network organically
Networking organically is one of the best ways that I got my work, my value and my name out into the minds of others.
Personally, the avenue with which I started was through using Instagram for more than simply posting images: as a graphic designer and lettering artist, I use Instagram as an opportunity to convey that value and connect with others.
When I used to be slow on client work, I’d find clients/opportunities that were portfolio builders or good potential long-term relationships. Even if they were low paying, I’d focus on selecting the right partners to network, build relationships, and get eyes on my work.
As an extrovert, I also make a point to talk about what I do to. Literally. Everyone. If I talk to a stranger for more than 5 mins, I somehow mention my business. Why? Because IT’S POSSIBLE that work will come of it in the future. I’ve had multiple job opportunities arise from this.
Why does networking organically help you land more of the right clients?
Simply: it feels less “salesy.” A hard sell is a tough sell. But if you warm people up and talk about your creative services casually and consistently, they’re far more likely to trust you and therefore not question your value. Which leads me to my next point…
Show up consistently
Consistent with literally everything. With creating. With showing your work. With talking about your work. With conveying your value. With marketing yourself. With learning.
Consistency is king/queen.
If you feel like being consistent with showing your work is difficult, it’s very likely that’s because you’re overthinking it. STOP! Overthinking is natural, and it’s totally okay to do IF you get over it. Your perfectionism is literally your ego. And your ego is what’s stopping you from achieving much more in your career. Stop worrying about looking stupid, stop worrying about what others think, and start taking some risks.
How does being consistent help you land more of the right clients?
Consistency helps in a number of ways: it forces you to get over your ego and self doubt, it forces you to practice the art of practicing your art, and it helps you be everywhere. Be consistent for 3 years — this is what started my career as a freelance graphic designer and lettering artist. This concept made Vicarel Studios what it is today!
Price your work correctly
This might seem random, but it’s real. Is your ideal client someone who wants a $200 logo? Nope. Then stop pricing your work for those types of clients. I could write 10 articles on this. And, I’m STILL figuring this out myself. I’ll charge $50k for a project and then the next week do 3x the work for $3k. What the hell?! I’m still working on mastering my pricing process…
A combination of knowing what the industry is norm is for a particular service (from freelancer to big agency), knowing what your perceived equals are charging (the people that you’re interacting with on instagram), offering opportunities to up-sell (your prospect asks for a logo, but you convey the value of a “full visual identity”), and giving tiered pricing options (utilizing the goldilocks principle) will help you feel FAR more confident in your pricing. I go more in depth on how to more confidently charge what you’re worth here.
Why does pricing your work correctly help you land more of the right clients?
When you price your work correctly, you’re perceived as being more valuable. You’ll be saying no to clients. This will make them aspire to one day work with you—to one day be able to afford you. When something is more valuable, more people want that thing — in this case, your services.
Offer value to your peers and colleagues
This one is straight forward: share your knowledge, share your secrets and give value to those around you. Through learning how to share what you know, you’ll not only learn more from others, but you’ll be revered as a teacher and community or industry leader.
When you support your creative community, you position yourself as an expert. Experts get the cool jobs, the fun opportunities and they get paid more.
How does offering value help you land more of the right clients?
If you spend years offering value to others, those “others” will be singing your praises. As an example of how I’ve done this as a hand lettering artist in Denver: I teach hand lettering workshops, I have a digital course on hand lettering for beginners, and I speak about how hand lettering started my freelance creative career. I have been sharing all of this information regularly in the community around me for years. Because of this, I’ve had work opportunities arise where prospects come to me and directly reference “[insert name] said they took a lettering workshop with you 3 years ago and…” or “[insert name] recently heard you speak at that event and they suggested you’re a great fit!”. These warm leads are already sold on my value, my lettering talents have already been validated by someone they trust, and now it’s just a matter of talking through a project!
Talk about your value regularly
When posting your work, stop saying “A thing for a thing that was unused.” You’re not selling f*cking gummy bears at a concession stand, you’re trying to sell 5-figure creative work! Act like it!
When you post your work (on the plethora of platforms mentioned above) talk about the value you bring to the table: talk about your process, your mind set, your client, how you worked with them, what the problem was and how you solved it, etc. You can do this in your own way, in your own brand voice, but you need to find a way to talk about the deeper meaning of the strategic graphic design work that you’re creating. And for the record, don't bother yourself with what other designers think: if your client is happy, and the problem is solved, that’s all that matters.
This mindset should also apply to your website and how you present your work.
Talking about the value of your work is a form of soft selling. After soft selling for a bit, you may find that you’re getting more inquiries. BE SURE that you continue to show your value by sending project proposals in a professional manner..
How does talking about your value help you land more of the right clients?
The sooner you start positioning yourself as someone who solves business problems through your creative work, the sooner you’ll find success. Our prospects can “buy pretty pictures” anywhere. And they can get them for way less on Fiver. Let’s start selling our value — through constantly talking about it — and not just the pretty pictures that we make. We’re not starving artists, we’re professional creative problem solvers.
Getting your work out there is just part of the equation. What I feel is more important is conveying your value while you get your work out there.
And that’s that, yall. Through pricing your work correctly, being everywhere, networking organically, showing up consistently, offering value to your peers, and conveying your value regularly you will find that “getting out there” is less of a task and more of a product of your standard business practices.
