How to Pick a Marketing Strategy That Actually Gets You Clients

You wake up, check your inbox, and once again — no new client inquiries. You're posting. You're blogging. You're tweeting. You're reeling. And still, nothing.

I've been there. I actually quit freelancing the first time I tried to go full-time, because I could not get clients. A grand total of two weeks into my business, full-time, I went running back to the safety of a normal job.

But thankfully, I picked myself back up, looked critically at the mistakes I'd made the first time around, and made a plan to change it for try number two. A few months later, I took a second crack at going full-time in my web design business. And by doing what I'm about to walk you through, that second try was a runaway success. I started receiving a client inquiry a day. I booked out my freelance services months in advance. I even became so in demand that I doubled my prices, too.

So what changed? I finally understood what marketing actually is, how it works, and how to pick a strategy that fits me — not the one every one of my competitors seemed to be killing it with.

Prefer to watch? Catch the full video below, or keep reading.

If I asked you right now what your marketing strategy is

The answer can't be every single social media platform under the sun, plus a bit of ads, some blogging, posting in Facebook groups, and in-person networking too. I mean — it could be your answer. But if it is, that's probably exactly why you're struggling, and why you're still waking up every day without a client inquiry.

Here's why that doesn't work: there are four key ingredients to getting client inquiries rolling in daily, and trying to do everything means you're skipping all four.

Ingredient one: exceptional mastery

Every single platform, every single marketing strategy, is different. What makes you successful on Instagram is different from what makes you successful with a blog, which is still different again from what makes you successful with in-person networking, podcasting, or PR. And if you're doing anything online, the platforms are changing daily — what worked on Instagram two years ago, or even six months ago, isn't what works today.

If you're a solo business owner and not a marketing agency, don't set yourself up for failure by trying to keep up with the best strategy for a zillion different channels at once. Myself and all of my most successful freelance friends had this in common: we each picked one marketing strategy and learned it like the back of our hand — studied it in our free time, took notes on what was working for other people doing it well.

Ingredient two: genuinely liking the strategy you choose

My husband could smash in-person networking every single day of the week. People love him, and the man is as charming as it gets. Me, on the other hand — when I walk into a room full of strangers at a co-working space or a conference, honestly, the only thing I want to do is walk straight back out the door I came in from. Introducing myself to new people and striking up conversations with strangers does not play to my strengths. I also genuinely hate social media and showing up on it and posting my life on it. So that's not for me either.

What I did come to realise I absolutely adore is creating long-form helpful content — videos like this one, or blog posts. It turns out writing blog posts and video scripts plays to one of my strengths, too. I have a natural talent for explaining educational topics in a way people can easily understand. And when you have a natural talent for something, it's so much easier to stick with it.

NOT SURE WHERE TO EVEN START? If mastering a marketing strategy feels like a long way off because you're still finding your footing, start smaller. The Dream Client Booking Blueprint is a 5-day guided challenge that helps you land your first dream client without the overwhelm — no website or portfolio required, and it's exceptionally affordable, meaning you can test out a potential design career for less than the price of dinner.

Ingredient three: consistency

You might not like it, but you know it. Anytime you watch a video or interview on the secrets to someone's incredible success, consistency is always, always mentioned. Consistency is genuinely the magic ingredient that separates the people who are successful — in business, in fitness, in life — from those who aren't. And it's just as vital for a marketing strategy.

Ingredient four: choosing a strategy that's somewhere your ideal clients are likely to find you

Marketing, honestly, isn't that complicated. For the longest time I told myself I hate marketing, I'm bad at marketing, I don't understand marketing — and the truth was, I was just totally over-complicating the whole thing. Marketing is truly just getting in front of your ideal clients. That's it. It's figuring out who your people are, where they hang out, and then showing up in their world.

If your ideal clients are younger guys, Reddit could be your ticket. If females are your target, you'd be a lot more successful getting in front of them on Pinterest than on Reddit. If your people are commuters working 9-to-5 jobs, hosting your own podcast — or guesting on other people's — would be a perfect fit for busy people listening on their commute. And if you offer a service that requires meeting clients in person and being in their local area, like photography — or even a service like web design, where you could serve anyone anywhere but choose to focus on your own country or language — your time is best spent on an in-person strategy: figuring out which physical locations, events, markets, cafes, clubs, or co-working spaces those people actually attend.

What it looks like when you get this wrong

Let's go back to that time I tried and failed to go full-time. Here's what I was actually doing wrong.

I made a big long list of potential marketing strategies and did all of them — pitching to clients, blogging, being active in Facebook groups because I kept hearing I should, Instagram, Pinterest. Which meant I didn't master a single one. I was too busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off, rushing through my list to be as "productive" as possible, because I needed clients right now — so I never took the time to learn the deeper strategy or best practices for any of it.

Then I flopped hard on ingredient number two: liking the strategy. I told myself I wasn't in some luxury position — I needed clients now, so screw my joy, I'd put my nose to the grindstone and do every strategy under the sun even if I hated it. What actually happened was the opposite of productive. I'd look at my long list, dread doing it, and start procrastinating. I updated my portfolio. I changed my pricing. I tweaked the copy on my website. All completely useless, because no one was actually going to my website in the first place — that was the real problem I had. I needed to be marketing, and instead I was avoiding it, because I didn't like the strategies I felt like I had to be doing.

And avoiding the marketing led to exactly what you'd expect: a lack of consistency. The snowball wasn't building. I wasn't gaining momentum anywhere, because I wasn't actually consistent at anything.

The one thing I was doing right was showing up where my ideal clients actually were — mostly Instagram, Facebook groups, Google, and Pinterest. I knew that much. But I still wasn't seeing progress, because I'd chosen to do too many strategies at once.

WANT TO HAND THIS OFF ENTIRELY? If you'd rather skip the DIY and have it done for you, that's exactly what my team and I do. We've spent a decade writing the book on Squarespace design (quite literally) and have trained over 4,500 designers along the way — we also love designing for clients ourselves, primarily taste-led brands, interior designers, wedding professionals, boutique businesses, and personal brands who want their website to be as strategic as it is stylish. If you're done losing dream clients to a website that undersells you, tell us about your project — we'd love to hear from you.

So how do you find your one, magical-unicorn marketing strategy?

The one you can master, that you genuinely like, that you'll actually be consistent with, and that gets you in front of your ideal people?

You could spend a couple of hours writing out a long list of every potential marketing strategy out there and rate each one against those four ingredients. Or — the easier route — take my quiz. Within 60 seconds, you'll know which client-finding method matches your personality type.

DON'T WANT TO RATE TWENTY STRATEGIES BY HAND? Skip the spreadsheet. My Client-Finding Method Quiz takes under a minute and tells you which marketing strategy actually fits your personality — so you can stop guessing and start mastering the one that's actually yours.

Picking a strategy is just step one. Once you pick it, commit to it — fully. That means no flip-flopping back to something else later on. Once you've chosen, I want you to commit publicly to it. Comment on this post with the strategy you've chosen, or the one the quiz gave you.

Step two: learn everything you can about it

My strategy, the one that really turned things around and got client inquiries coming in daily, was blogging. Once I picked it, I went all in learning about it. I took courses on it. I sought out people doing it exceptionally well and studied them and their blogs — what made me interested in the content they were creating, what posts really intrigued me, what I liked about some blogs and didn't like about others. Success leaves clues. Go find people succeeding with your strategy and study them. And if that person has ever been on a podcast explaining how they implement it, that's a gold mine.

Step three: do your strategy consistently

First, decide what "consistently" actually means for you — daily, weekly, monthly, some other frequency. You get to decide. Once you do, make the space for it in your calendar. Choosing to post on Instagram daily but never setting aside time in your day to do it is pretty much a guaranteed road to failure. Pick the frequency, estimate roughly how long it'll take, and block that time out.

And then, decide this is your priority. There is so much power in a decision like that. When I decided blogging was my priority, it suddenly felt okay to push other projects aside or spend whatever amount of time a post took, because I knew this was genuinely the most important work on my plate. If you currently don't have client inquiries coming in, it is pretty safe to say this should be your top priority, too.

One more thing you'll need

I do hate to break it to you, but even after you work through all four ingredients and the three steps above, it might still not be enough to get client inquiries coming through the door. Nailing your marketing strategy will get people to your website — but in order for them to actually inquire, there's one vital piece that needs to be there, and it needs to be done really, really well: a portfolio of drop-dead killer work.

So how exactly do you build that portfolio if you don't have paying clients right now?

Watch this next.

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Pick one. Learn it properly. Show up for it consistently, in the place your people actually are. That's the whole game — everything else is just noise pulling your attention away from it.

Read this next

• What If You Didn't Have to Post on Instagram to Get Clients? — Erin's Story
• The #1 Way to Get Web Design Referrals (+ Upwork Tips You'll Wish You Tried Sooner)
• How to Get Web Design Clients by Making Friends — Not Cold Pitching
• 30 Business Truths Every Web Designer Needs to Hear
• From $500 to $5,000 Projects: How Megan Built a Full-Time Web Design Business