Photo by Yves Lorson.

One of the best ways to increase your income as a freelance writer is not to market for more work (ie, new clients), but to get it from existing clients. This is an often overlooked marketing method and missing it is like throwing money out the window.

Employing the 80/20 Marketing Rule

There’s a time-honored, marketing rule of thumb that says 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your clients. Most of us spend 80% of our time chasing after new clients. Switching that algorithm, for example, spending 80% of your time massaging your existing client base, would be a much better use of time.

Following is a 3-step plan designed to get more work from your existing client base.

A 3-Step Plan to Get More Work from Existing Clients

1. Ask for a 10-minute Consultation. As freelance writers, most of us get clients either via referral or because we’ve pitched them. Usually, clients contact us with a specific project in mind. Once we complete that project, we may never hear from them again until they need us again for another, similar project.

Why is a consultation important to getting more work?

Asking your clients to give you ten minutes of their time allows you to dig deeper into their business. What you’re looking for are pain points: problems you can help them overcome.

For example, as an SEO writer, a lot of my clients are internet marketing firms. They provide a wide range of services, from SEO article writing to blog postings to article submission services. Each one is different.

I recently snagged more work from one client by finding out that he had a lot of blogging work he needed done. These weren’t for any of his clients, but for his own sites. But, he just didn’t have time to do them and meet client deadlines as well (a lot of internet entrepreneur have this problem, including yours truly).

Only by talking to him and getting a better understanding of his business, his workload, how his day flowed was I able to get this work – which is ongoing.

2. Prepare a Questionnaire. You should do this before you have the consultation session with your clients. Prepare open-ended questions. Remember, the goal is to find out more about how you can help them (ie, get more assignments).

You might ask, for example, are there ancillary services they’re not offering because they don’t have the time/staff to handle it.

Prepare five to ten questions along these lines that will help you gain a better understanding of their business.

3. Proposal. Once you’ve had the consultation, prepare an open-ended proposal where you specifically ask for the work.

For example, you might say, “During our consultation, you mentioned that you have many website clients who don’t have blogs. You can package my blog writing services as part of your website design offerings to potential clients.”

In fact, that’s how I got my foot in the SEO writing door. I queried clients, offering to let them package my SEO article writing services with their internet marketing services. I landed my first client within a week, and now SEO writing is about 75% of what I do as a freelance writer.

Getting more work from existing clients is not hard. With a little planning, it can be the most cost-effective and lucrative marketing you will ever do as a freelance writer.

Yuwanda Black is a freelance SEO writer. She blogs at InkwellEditorial.wordpress.com and is the author of ‘How to Make $250+/Day Writing Simple 500-Word Articles’.

Yuwanda Black

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