How I Easily Find Freelance Clients on Instagram: A Step by Step Guide

AL
codeburst
Published in
4 min readFeb 4, 2018

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*The following method is written from the perspective of freelance web development but can be adapted and applied to other types of professions as you see fit such as design, social media, marketing, etc.

Upwork wasn’t for me. So I found a way around that.

I recently did a Snapchat/Instagram story takeover for the @womenintech channel where I discussed how I used Instagram to find clients and build my first portfolio. I got a lot of feedback asking to go into more detail on how to do this. Since the takeover is no longer accessible, here are the exact steps I took to utilize the IG platform and find clients.

Step 1: Appear Credible
If you are going to be contacting random people on the gram, your profile can’t look like it belongs to a fake identity. Ensure the following things:

1.) You have a profile picture.
2.) Your bio states what you do.
3.) You have pictures of you solidifying that you partake in web development, photos of your projects, etc.

It’s not required but helps if:
•You participate in the community and interact with other devs (find other devs through hashtags like #webdeveloper or the language you work in like #javascript)
•Your bio has a website displaying your work experience more information about yourself
•You talk about your projects, what your learning and improving on, etc.

Basically the goal is to not look like a scam.

Step 2: Find Your Niche(s)
Your passion may be developing websites, but you’re not going to be passionate about developing a website for something in which you have no interest. Furthermore, it’s going to be really difficult to understand what’s best for the client if you don’t understand their business or care to understand their industry. For example, obviously I can spend lots of time doing research and develop a website for a company that sells hunting gear, but it’s not something that I would enjoy doing. I wouldn’t be able to offer suggestions from a consumer’s perspective for my client because I don’t have any remote interest in or experience with hunting.

On the other hand, if I had interests in hairstyles and I were designing and building a website for a client who owns a hair salon, not only would my suggestions for the design or functionality from a consumer perspective be authentic, but I would thoroughly enjoy the process. The purpose of working for yourself is getting to choose who you work with and that you do what you love so it doesn’t feel like “work” in the first place, isn’t it? Beyond this, the more familiar you get with what works and what doesn’t work with clients in your niche will allow you to grow and promote yourself as an expert in that category for similar jobs in the future.

Choose niches that you can add value to with your skills and you will feel energized and excited about collaborating with your client as a byproduct.

Step 3: Scope Your Clients
This is where the gram comes in. Click on the magnifying glass at the bottom of your IG app and type #yourCityYourNiche in the search bar. In my case I would type #pittsburghhairsalon. You don’t necessarily have to search your city. I only did this because I prefer a more personal face-to-face connection when working with clients.

Next, scroll through and find the Instagram business profiles of the hashtag you searched.

Check their bios. Do they have a website listed? If the website is up to par, move on to the next business profile. If the website sucks, or they don’t have one listed at all, it’s time to slide in their DMs.

My script would typically go something like this:

“Hey there, I’m Al! I was looking for hair salons in the area and found your page. I noticed that you don’t have a website so I wasn’t able to get that much information about the services you offer. If you are interested in having a personalized website for your company so that you can reach more people and bring in more clients, I happen to be a web designer* and I’m actually running a special this month for small businesses! If your interested in chatting more about increasing your reach let me know! If not, no worries!”

*I use the title ‘website designer’ instead of ‘web developer’ because in my subjective experience, the average person outside of tech interprets a web designer as someone who designs and makes websites.

  • Be genuine and try not to sound desperate.
  • Don’t expect everyone to reply or be interested in working with you. Do expect to send out a lot of DMs.
  • Do some AB testing with your words to figure out what gives you the best return.
  • You can include a price if you wish. It’s all up to your personal preference.

Again, this is my personal experience which I am sharing in hopes to help you succeed using alternative strategies to discover jobs. It is not 100% guaranteed to work for everyone. I love sharing methods that resulted in favorable outcomes in my professional growth and my goal is to see you kill it, too. Feel free to engage with me on my platform or IG lives if you have anymore questions. I wish you the best of luck!

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