Get Clients Now! Filling the Pipeline, Week 3

By Selene M. Bowlby in Marketing on July 7th, 2008

Welcome to the “other side” LOL – the 2nd half of the Get Clients Now! 28 Day Marketing Program aimed at Filling the Pipeline.

Last week was a good week for me, however I’m really seeing how much WORK marketing really is! I admit my daily scores are not as high as I would have liked. Lack of time is something that continues to surprise me, now that I’ve taken the freelance plunge and have so much more time to spend on marketing efforts…

However, I’ve always had a problem with putting client work ahead of my own – and even now working for myself full time, I’m still putting my clients first. This is great for customer service, of course! And fantastic for meeting (and exceeding) my client deadlines… but not so great as far as marketing goes.

Success Ingredients – Week 2

I’m very happy with my progress on the Networking Venues Success Ingredient. Now, I must say this is something that will probably never truly be complete – this goes for all of my Success Ingredients – as they are something you must constantly be improving upon.

As far as Networking Venues, though, I’ve reached 100% of my goal in that I have narrowed down exactly which social media sites that I think will be of most benefit to me, and which ones I want to pursue the most. I have a blog post scheduled for later this week that will link to all of my profiles, as well as explain some of the benefits that I’ve found by participating in social networking.

Networking Venues – Progress: 100%
by July 4, 2008
Description of Services – Progress: 75%
by July 11, 2008 – I’ve back-tracked my progress here, as I realize I have a bit more to do than originally planned, including re-arranging my services and creating several new packages that will make things easier for potential new clients looking for information on my web design services…
Web Promotion Strategy – Progress: 20%
by July 18, 2008

Daily / Weekly Actions – Week 2

Not nearly as good as last week, here (and I did give myself a complete day off for the 4th of July! which is why I had a big fat ZERO that day, LOL). I really need to work harder at my daily/weekly actions this week!

Total (# of 10)
6 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 0

Program Goal – Week 2

In all honesty, I’m thinking that I set the bar too high on my program goals this time around. I’ve got a long way to go (and I’m wishing I kept my same goals as last time… doubling my goals was quite a bit ambitious, and I’ll honestly be pretty surprised if I reach them.)

It’s always good to have strong goals to aim for, though. I’d say these count as an attempt towards a “scare yourself goal“. We’ll have to see what I can pull out of my hat in the last 2 weeks of the program!

I received quite a few inquires last week. It’s fun to track where these came from – some are from my blog commenting and forum participation. Some are referrals, and some are unknown. I’m wondering if a few of the most recent inquries came to me from my interview on Sparkplugging (I hope you’ll have a look – Wendy Piersall asked me some GREAT questions about the process I went through in making the move to running my business full time).

Program Goal
20 new prospects / 4 new clients
My Progress
35% – 7 new prospects / 25% – 1 new client

Half-Way Through… Where Are You At?

How is everyone doing at the half-way point? Are you right on track with your program goals? Too ambitious… not ambitious enough…? Please leave a comment below and let everyone know how you’re doing!

About the Author

Selene M. Bowlby is a web designer and front-end web developer with over twelve years of professional experience in the design industry. As the owner of iDesign Studios she specializes in creating custom web sites for other businesses. more »

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http://picknicksbrain.com Nicole

I’m losing momentum is where I am. It’s like “hump week”. As of Friday I was 20% of my program goal of 100 new prospects and over the weekend and today I’ll be 26%, but haven’t closed today in hopes of adding a few more. LOL

I will be a sponsored link any day now, so I hope that will drive more traffic and I’ll be able to attain my goal, but now I’m not so sure. I was confident to start, but need more people on my site. Also, when I gave my free guide a more generic title, I seemed to get more sign-ups. I hope that means my prospects are more targeted now and not a negative thing.

There is one particular weekly item that I have not done even once. I need to do that THIS week! And, I need to start on my article, which is the last of my success ingredients that I need to do before this round is over.

On a side note, there is one thing in the book that I didn’t think I had to do which was “Practice my script” but ya know what? It only takes one phone call of really not knowing what you’re talking about to tell you that you should have a plan. LOL! That will be part of my next round, for sure.
http://www.zigbotmedia.com Bryan

Excellent articles. I will be purchasing that book and doing my own personal marketing bootcamp by the end of the year.
http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com Robert S. Robbins

I’m a web application developer. I don’t need to do any marketing because the demand for web application developers is huge. I actually have to hide from additional work to avoid an avalanche of clients. I guess web designers don’t have it so good. You might want to collaborate with web application developers because they are kept very busy. I specialize in ASP.NET 2.0 and I’m frustrated by the inability of designers to understand its use of themes and web control skins. I think there is a great opportunity there for any web designer who chooses to innovate in that neglected expertise.
http://www.sparkplugging.com/freelance-parent lornadoone

Dagnabit, woman. I need to buy that book so I can jump on your bandwagon. This looks like such a good idea.
http://www.idesignstudios.com/blog/ Selene M. Bowlby

@Nicole – Funny you say you’re loosing momentum, because I am too! I’ve just been so swamped with client work that I’ve continually been pushing my GCN efforts on the back burner (once again!).

I actually have a couple ZERO progress days this week, so I’ve given myself the liberty of striking those two days, and re-scheduling my GCN activities for the weekend, instead. That’s the beauty of the program, is that you can adjust as necessary…

I hope you’re able to get over the hump this week and make more progress on the SI you haven’t started yet, either.

@Bryan – Thanks! I’m glad you like the articles. I’m actually beginning to wonder if it isn’t too repetitive, LOL. I’m thinking next time I’ll just do a First and Last week checkin – basically overview the whole month rather than post on a weekly basis. Still working that out, LOL. I do highly recommend the book though – if you end up buying it, I hope you’ll stop by and let everyone know what you think!

@Robert – That’s fantastic that you don’t need to do any marketing. I think that’s the dream of a LOT of people. I can only hope to be at the point where I can avoid and turn down work.

There’s just so much competition out there for web designers and front-end developers, that we really have to “work it” to help push ourselves out from the rest.

I personally work more with Unix based servers and am more familiar with similar issues (creating themes). Do you know how different the process is to do similar work for ASP.NET vs Unix (PHP / Ruby / etc.)? It definitely sounds like a good opportunity, and surprising that more people don’t do so. Worth looking into… hmmm….

@lornadoone – Dagnambit, woman, yes you do! LOL As mentioned above, I might not do weekly updates next time, but I will be doing another program again soon. I hope you’ll pick up the book and join in on the next session!