Getting new clients - one way to do it

[heni30]

Some people who are starting out have been asking "what's the best way to get clients?"

 

Here's what I recently did to get my work out to architects here in Atlanta.

 

Step 1. Buy a directory of the 1,800 AIA members in Georgia - $24. Luckily it was close to letter size magazine.

 

Step 2. Cut out all pages and scan (40 pages) (one cut with xacto knife)

 

Step 3. Run jpegs through trial OCR program which turns them into Word Documents.

 

Step 4. Hand docs over to Craigslist typist. Email addresses show up as blue automatically. She consolidates all email addresses separated by a comma in groups of 50 about 3 groups to a page.

 

Step 5. Send out emails in bunches of 100 in BBC with concise cover text and 6 jpg samples.

 

So far I've gotten 3 jobs and I'm meeting with a large firm to discuss a project on Monday. And this isn't even interior design firms or engineers or out-of-state firms.

 

They say Babe Ruth had the record for the most home runs but he also had some sort of record for the most strike outs.

 

I think there's something to be said for the shotgun scatter approach.

 

Of course, there is the matter of having a good portfolio.

Edited April 5, 2014 by heni30

[RyderSK]

Seems like a good way to appear on some sort of Blacklist sooner or later :- )

[heni30]

I also had apprehensions and maybe some people were annoyed - but I had several people replying and thanking me - that they were going to keep me on file (they didn't have to reply). I think clients welcome information about services that might be valuable to them. I spent a lot of time making the text sound professional and intelligent and to the point - not your typical spam-type bothersome emails. And, most importantly, the samples, I believe, were eye-catching and high quality.

 

Someone with a mediocre portfolio would not get the same results.

 

And I only sent it out once - maybe if I bugged people sending it out twice a month what you say is true.

 

I sent you an email.

Edited April 4, 2014 by heni30

[Zdravko Barisic]

I also had apprehensions and maybe some people were annoyed - but I had several people replying and thanking me - that they were going to keep me on file (they didn't have to reply). I think clients welcome information about services that might be valuable to them. I spent a lot of time making the text sound professional and intelligent and to the point - not your typical spam-type bothersome emails. And, most importantly, the samples, I believe, were eye-catching and high quality.

 

Someone with a mediocre portfolio would not get the same results.

 

And I only sent it out once - maybe if I bugged people sending it out twice a month what you say is true.

 

I sent you an email.

 

This is the keyword!

Sending only once, and maybe later twice, but for 6 months+.

Good luck with new clients!

[heni30]

This is the keyword!

Sending only once, and maybe later twice, but for 6 months+.

Good luck with new clients!

 

Yep; and someone mentioned the importance of having a legit business email address; NOT yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.

 

Er............is that "napalm death" written in bones for your Avatar? That might be something to avoid putting in a cover letter. :-)

[Zdravko Barisic]

^

Oh, yeah, the band of my youth!