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Being a freelancer is a challenging job in itself on top of which come the challenge to stand out from the rest in your field of work. In this blog, we will discuss on how you can reach the top position in your field of work, without leaving your room. Follow are the easy but useful tips and tricks to stand out as a freelancer.

Market yourself well.
If you know how to put your business out there, and do it well, then more than 80% of your work is done. This is because all the businesses, and freelancers, attract customers by managing their marketing skills and placing them carefully, because the right steps could make your rich within months, while the wrong ones will lead you down the wrong path.

• Update your website
  Although you have a website, and you get visitors, you may be missing out on more potential customers who visit your website if your website does not have enough information about the services you provide. The information you put up should always be up-to-date with attention to detail.
  
  If you want any honest advice, ask your family and friends to go through your website. Sit beside them and as they navigate through your website, ask them the reason why they performed a certain navigation and why not the other. This way you will get some idea about what your customer find attractive on your website.
• Online Videos
  How many freelancers have you heard of who have put themselves up on videos to tell their clients about their services? Not many; I’m sure of that. This is why you should make videos and put them online.
  
  The videos could be about what you aim to provide, talk about your business, but don’t try to “sell” your products or services here. Don’t make the videos too obvious to understand. People would want to listen to you if you are not talking too much about your selling your services. Consider that the videos are for your customers and clients to get to know you. Make it seem like you are talking to your friends about yourself.
• Email
  We all hate those emails which try too hard to convince a person to buy their products. Although you too should send out emails to your customers, it is further advised that you keep it different.
  1. Don’t write to everyone who has availed your services. Write to only those who like you and would come back to you in the future.
  2. Don’t sell your services via email. I know this portion of the article was made for ‘marketing’, but it is more of a strategy. Ask for advice from your trusted clients. This will help you incorporate the essential aspects which clients require, into your services, thus, improving your quality of work.
• Case Studies and Testimonials
  If you have been working for a long time with some or many customers and clients, you can add their stories on your channel and website. This will let visitors of your website know what services you provide and the tasks you take care of. What you should write about is what kind of work your client does or did, what were their expectations, the kind of challenges you faced and how you solved them, and, of course, the end result.
  Add testimonials from reliable customers. These testimonials should tell the readers about how effective your services were or how their problems with solved easily, instead of simply saying “Awesome job! Will recommend”. Ask your clients to write such testimonials which are detailed but specific and helpful to your future clients.

Work at Competitive Rates
This does not mean that you need to lower the price you ask for your services. While most of the freelancers choose to reduce their rates, what they fail to understand is that the key lies in effectively managing your work. Instead of working by the hour, charge by ‘per service’ or ‘per task’. This will work for your best.

Recruit Efficient Workers
Once you see a significant increase in the workload, you will want to get some hands to help you out with your work. If you work is entirely freelance-based, you can also recruit people through online freelancing websites. But, always make sure you have the best hands to help you out.

Don’t go for lower rates and compromise on the quality. Pay significantly more, but get the best work done.

Reach out to more people through websites, social media, and more.

• Get known via Social Media
  With the use of social networking sites one can substantially increase their businesses. One can make one’s profile and pages for free on these websites and get to directly reach the followers of the pages. Social media allows one to increase the amount of exposure their business gets.
  People often look to social media platforms to reach out to the company directly or get to know more about the products and services. Therefore, social media presence is essential.
• Networking
  Not only by social media. Every successful business grows by networking and making more relations with your clients, other vendors and businesses. No matter how big or small you start as, find possible relations and grow with it. Making relations is essential for your business because your business grows with the benefits you get from partnerships along with the ideas you acquire.
  Networking does not always work in ways you expect. It could be possible that you have met someone from your community who is successful, but is unable to help you in your venture, but s/he knows someone who will be of help to you. These kinds of networking lead you to better opportunities even if they do not form a relation with the person you know.
  Talk with almost everyone who seems like a potential partner to you. Even if they do not wish to take a part in your business with you, they may talk about your business with other people they know who might be interested.
  Forming relations with your clients is also a key to successful business. If you keep a track of your clients, and provide them with a personalized experience, then it is assured that they will come to you first when they to get a job done. Be sure to maintain good relations with any kind of client.

Always put your customers and their needs before anything else.
In order to show that you care, you don’t have to cut your arm and write their names. You can get them to see that you are about your clients by simply doing them favors and offering that extra service.
Here are a few things you can do:

• Offer Offers
  If your freelance business revolves around providing services like making or designing websites, writing articles, editing photos or such then you can offer discounts to regular customers where you do a certain task for 10-15% less the price that you would otherwise charge other customers.
• Feedback
  Create short feedback survey questionnaires and ask your clients to give their valuable feedback. This could also be a part of your testimonial page where you write about your customer satisfaction.
• Giveaways
  This doesn’t necessarily have to be free and expensive gifts. You could also do an extra task like doing a few more image edits for free or a free t-shirt with their bulk order.
• Discounts
  Make seasonal discount offers to all your clients. While it is important to make your regular customers feel close to you, it is of similar importance to attract more customers.

Always remember that in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to carve your own path and follow that route. You have to think differently to get ahead of others in the same game.