As a career choice, digital marketing was always expected to remain on an upward path. But 2020 has even inspired a bit of a spike in that trajectory. 

With more and more businesses taking their operations online, digital marketing is becoming more requested. The need for experts in the field will certainly remain on the rise in 2021 as well. 

If you are a digital marketer – whether you want to run a digital marketing agency or prefer to freelance – one of your biggest challenges is likely getting more clients. Let’s explore how you can do that in 2021 and still have enough time to do digital marketing for others. 

A Sturdy Foundation 

Before you head out looking for clients, you need to establish what it is you offer. Here are the three main points to focus your attention on:

Who Do You Want to Work with? 

The first question to ask yourself is what kinds of clients you actually want. Be as detailed with your answer as possible. Cover everything from the size of the company and the niche they’re in to the kind of work they need done and the average length of the projects you’re willing to take on. 

What Are Your Skills? 

Digital marketing is a vast field, and you can offer a very wide range of services. Try to concentrate your efforts on your strongest skills. This will help you achieve the best results for your clients and provide the highest income. Consequently, it will allow you to expand further, as you’ll have concrete success stories to show for yourself. 

Note that it’s always a good idea to further enhance your skills. There are thousands of courses online you can do at your own pace and leisure. Online learning platforms like Skillcrush or Udemy are great options if you’re looking to merge your digital marketing skills with a bit of coding and design. This can give yourself even more of a competitive edge.

What Makes You Different? 

Since the digital marketing landscape is so vast, you’ll need to find a way to stand out. 

Think about your qualities realistically and align them with the kinds of clients you ideally want to attract. True, you may not be able to come up with something completely innovative, but as long as you insert some personality into your proposals, you’ll be good to go. 

Inbound Strategies

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And now, let’s look at some inbound strategies you should focus on to attract clients:

Be Active on Socials 

Social media is a two-way street – which means there are two ways to attract clients there. 

First, establish a presence that promotes your values, your work, and your expertise. Share your blog posts and offer insight. Post about successes, failures, and the things you’ve learned. 

Do some social media advertising, too. Promote your posts with Facebook Ads, run Instagram ads, and use LinkedIn’s awesome targeting to reach your potential clients.

Blog about More Than Just Your Industry 

A lot of digital marketers blog about digital marketing for digital marketers. That’s an amazing way to establish yourself as an expert, but your clients will not care about all that. They’ll want to know how you can help them. 

Face your blog towards your clients. Write about ways to do X in the niche you are targeting. Offer advice on how to do Y to someone who is not a digital marketer. Explain what you’ve done in the past and what you’ve learned from the experience.

Keep Your Clients Happy 

Business owners know other business owners and work with a lot of different people. If you make keeping your clients happy and successful a priority, chances are they will recommend you to friends and acquaintances looking for a digital marketer.

You can even establish a referral system, where the person who puts you in touch with your next client gets a discount or a bonus consultation.

Outbound Strategies 

If you also do some client outreach yourself, you can expect to reach even more businesses. 

Network in Your Area

One of the best places to start looking for new clients is actually offline. That coffee place you go to every day? What’s their social media presence like? Is their website outdated? Does your accountant have an outdated blog? Could your mechanic use your services?

Consider the people you interact with and their businesses, and spread your business cards (yes, they still exist) around. Talk to people about digital marketing and your services, not just aiming to convert them, but to inform them. A pushy sale will never go down as well as a considerate conversation. 

Use Online Directories

Online business directories are an awesome place to find clients too. Find the clients you potentially want to work with there, and then take your research further. Check out their website, social media, PPC campaign, etc., and figure out which services they might be able to benefit from. 

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You’ll need to practice your cold email pitches and come up with a formula for the amount of time invested in prep and research versus chances of conversion. But don’t worry – you’ll get better at it the more you do it. 

Use Social Media (Again) 

You can find a lot of potential clients on social media platforms too. The process will be essentially the same as with directories – find brands you like, do a bit of digging, and then reach out to them. 

You can warm up the cold approach a bit by getting in touch directly on social media. Find the head of marketing or the CEO, follow them, engage with them, and then slip into their DMs or inbox. It’s not the best way to approach huge brands, but it is a great option for younger, more hip and trendy businesses.

Final Thoughts 

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If you’ve been reading this article expecting to discover a brand new yet untapped strategy for getting more clients this year, we’re sorry to disappoint. 

However, the simple truth of the matter is that the formula for attracting clients has not changed. Hard work plus visible results equals clients. If you can’t walk the walk, no amount of talk will help you grow. But if you’ve got the walk down, you can perfect your talk, and businesses will love to work with you.