28 clues to discover

new WordPress clients

PAGE 1 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS
 Often times, discovering and landing new clients
can feel like going on an extensive treasure
hunt – you just never know quite where to look!
Since we’re always up for an adventure, we’ve rounded
up a slew of clues to help you find your next batch of
WordPress clients and discover that pot of gold!

PAGE 2 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Clue 1 – Mingle with other
treasure hunters
Oh networking, the key buzzword we constantly hear. There’s a reason why, though – being
able to master networking will help you expand your horizons on potential client reach.

Networking doesn’t always have to feel like “networking,” though. In fact, it can be fun!
(Yes, it’s possible!)

Grab leads from local and national networking and meetup organizations. Try searching
Meetup.com, attending WordCamps, Chamber mixers, or other various industry events
such as SXSW or Blog World.

Once you’ve made the initial contact with someone, try assuming the role as a professional
matchmaker. Notice someone looking for a job? Pass them off to a connection who may want to
hire them. Stumble upon some industry news or a funny video? Shoot it over to your vendor! These
are easy ways to keep your name fresh with others and make you more relatable. You never know
when your vendor may get asked for a recommendation on a fabulous WordPress expert!

Looking for more places to mingle with fellow treasure hunters? Check out
these inspiring web design conferences to attend!

Clue 2 – Join forces with

WordPress peers
Don’t shy away from networking with other WordPress professionals – embrace it! Not all
WordPress experts are created equal, and being able to bounce work and ideas between one
another will not only benefit you, but also your clients.

Choosing to collaborate means an expansion of client networking opportunities, since each

freelancer and agency has their own set of contacts. Working with other similar-minded
professionals also means you have someone to brainstorm with, receive feedback from, and
also solve problems together.

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 When you form a team, you’re also able to compete for the same business that only larger,
more well-known agencies would typically be running for. Your production costs may be lower
than that of a traditional agency, which can give you an edge on winning business.

Joining forces also means you can expand your service offerings to clients, which allows
you to go from advertising yourself as just a designer or developer to something a little more
full-service. Exhibiting versatility is an attractive quality for those looking to assign a job in the
uber competitive ad-tech-digital marketplace.

Clue 3 – Step up your social

media game
Social media can be your guiding compass when it comes to searching for new clients,
especially LinkedIn. This is the platform that many company decision makers decide to use,
|and it’s a great professional forum. Polish up your profile and make sure it’s up-to-date,
showing off how awesome of a designer and human you are.

While online, answer other people’s questions, offer help, and post useful content that your
followers will care about. Not only will this grow your relationships and connections, but it
will also lead to clients who may be searching for you!

Continue your content marketing by getting social with your brand and connecting with the
community. Social media is a great way to hack branch reach in a relatively inexpensive way.
By creating quality content and showcasing your work, you’re making it easier for potential
clients to find you while building a reputable online, and offline, reputation.

Remember – only join platforms that are relevant to your expertise. It’s
better to be really good at one platform than having an average presence
on every single one of them.

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 Clue 4 – Speed past with
excellent customer service
The best form of advertising is word of mouth, or these days, keyboard. An extremely satisfied
customer can’t wait to boast about their experience, so when someone goes to them seeking
WordPress expertise, make sure your name is the first to come up! As humans, we tend to trust
recommendations made by people close to us, so the more clients you have talking about you,
the better.

*Moment of silence for all of the awesome, free social media posts
advertising your business that this could also lead to. Be sure to save
those for testimonials!

Clue 5 – Evaluate your

surroundings and encourage
repeat customers
Aside from all of the positive vibes a satisfied customer radiates, they can also result in a repeat
customer. If you knock it out of the water helping someone, they’ll likely make their way back
to you when they’re ready for their next site design. But why wait? Examine current and past
clients to see if you can scout any additional work from them. This could include things like:

• Helping them learn how to use WordPress

• Offering ongoing support and site updates

• Lending a hand with their social media strategy

Not all of your clients will need these upgrades, so don’t be too bummed if the first few clients
don’t take you up on the offer. Even just one repeat customer is better than none!

PAGE 5 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Clue 6 – Get social and
ask for referrals
Keep the opportunities of a happy customer spinning by tapping into their network for referrals.
While I mentioned above that a satisfied client will want to brag about you, not all of them will
think to do so, or may even forget.

Skip the waiting and just flat out ask them (in a nice way, of course)! Go through your client
history and look for a couple of happy clients who haven’t sent you referrals yet and send them
either an email or phone call to ask if they know of anyone looking for WordPress help.

“When you’ve got an active referral network working for you, it

means you’ve got an automated system for bringing work to
your desk — and that’s great, because it means you don’t have
to channel as much time and energy into marketing yourself.”
Ashley Gainer, Layout

Extra steps you could take – have happy customers write a testimonial for
your website! Hello, positive PR!

Clue 7 – Establish a
gold-worthy brand
While this may sound elementary, whether you’re a freelancer or an agency looking to land
more clients, building a sturdy foundation at your core will yield a higher customer count.
Really drill down what kind of brand you want to stand for, and then take it back to the basics
to ensure your website, clients, and work reflect those values. Potential and current clients will
take notice and trust your expertise.

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 Whether you’re just starting to build
your business or simply looking to up
your game, if you act like a big-time
agency, you’ll land bigger clients.
We’ve got 10 tips that will help you rise
above the noise and build a badass
design agency. Ready? Let’s amp up
that brand confidence!

Clue 8 – Stick to the path and

determine your niche
You’ve heard it time and time again: “Design for a niche!” Now, this isn’t always possible for
everyone at first, but once you’ve landed your first client and start to add more work to your portfolio,
you can really start to analyze where you either currently or want to fit into the marketplace.

It’s a scary thing, to consider positioning yourself as a designer for a specific set of people,
and not for everyone else. But before your write the idea off, here are just a few benefits of
establishing a niche:

• Clients will know exactly what you can offer them

• Your voice can be extremely consistent

• You can template things and maximize productivity

• You can grow your strengths in that niche

Does this make your palms sweat? No worries! You’re not actually stuck in this niche. You can
always take on other types of projects; establishing a corner of the marketplace just gives you
a consistent way to market yourself.

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 Clue 9 – Prep your portfolio
for adventure
Make your work walk your talk and show potential and current clients that it’s worth chatting
about. Showcasing current, stunning projects on your website on a regular basis will help you
establish credibility and prove that you’re the designer everyone should work with.

Besides adding the best of the best to your portfolio, what exactly should you include? Here are
a couple of ideas:

• The “client loved it” piece

• The award winner piece

• The famous piece

• The pro bono piece

• The activism piece

• The risk piece

Additionally, consider including your process for each piece to your portfolio. Sound strange?
Hear us out. Adding your chicken-scratch doodles and scary brainstorming clouds for all of
the world to see has numerous benefits, including showing off how you develop ideas, solve
problems, and refine ideas.

“It’s difficult to know when to stop designing,

and even more difficult to know when you’ve
done too much. Showing your process in
your portfolio will demonstrate that you’ve
mastered those challenges.”
Morgan Smith, Layout

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 Clue 10 – Journal a
compelling client case study
Using case studies is a fantastic way to
appeal to company decision makers. It helps
them connect the lines on what is needed, As a WordPress
why they need it, and ultimately, why they
need YOU. As a WordPress professional, professional, you’re not just
you’re not just making things look pretty, making things look pretty,
you’re solving a problem.
you’re solving a problem.

Basic formats for a client case study in-

clude the client, challenges they faced, your
process, and then the final results of the the project.

Clue 11 – Launch an
SEO journey
While this may be more of an advanced clue after you’ve captured a couple of clients, having a
basic roadmap of how SEO fits into your website will help you get to the top of search engine
results and be the first designer new clients turn to. Gaining a spot on page one of Google for
a relevant search for your services is like finding the holy grail, and having an outline of how to
get there will boost your brand reach.

This clue isn’t an overnight success strategy, but ultimately it will drive traffic to your site and
create client conversions.

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 Clue 12 – Blog it out with
content marketing
To help with clue 11, creating valuable content will not only help your internet search location,
but it will also help you position yourself as a thought leader in the your field for future, current,
and past clients.

Regularly posting valuable content to your website will boost your reach, along with other SEO
tricks. Writing articles over tips, trends, and anything WordPress related will help give your site a
spike in traffic and hopefully a boost in business.

Other ideas to consider for content marketing are:

• your very own blog

• podcasts

• videos and/or written tutorials

• newsletters

Clue 13 – Explore the land

of video tutorials
We live in the age of rich media, with a favorable side on video. Soak up the love and try
adopting video content to help drive viewers to your site and bump your brand exposure.
This can come in the form of video blogs or tutorials – whatever works best for you!

Cherry on top? Video excels on social media. Win-win!

PAGE 10 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

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Download it here!

Clue 14 – Be on the pursuit to

be the best
The word ‘expert’ isn’t used lightly. Future and current clients will be looking to you for your
expansive WordPress knowledge, so fine-tune what you do and get really freaking good at
it. Continually seeking out learning opportunities to sharpen and expand your skillset will
also help you keep the word ‘expert’ attached to your name and become one of the greatest
designers in all the land!

Clue 15 – Never lose yourself

in the expedition
Even though you’re an expert in technology, your clients might need a little extra help to
understand everything. Exempting empathy and a human fingerprint when interacting with
clients will create a cohesive, trusting relationship.

When searching for the right person for the job, humans tend to choose the more likeable professional
over the other. Just keep it real in every outlet of your business, in a professional matter.

PAGE 11 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Clue 16 – Search high and low
to learn all about your leads
No two clients are the same, so skip the cookie-cutter proposals! Research each client and
tailor your approach to reflect each potential client’s business.

Pitching to an ecommerce client? Strike up

a plan to make their products stand out and Fine-tune what you do
make the purchasing process smoother for
their customers. If you pitch a stellar user and get really freaking
experience plan, they won’t be able to resist good at it.
Bonus points? Tailor your conversations
and speak your client’s industry language.
This will definitely make you look impressive to them, especially if you’re working with anyone
in the c-suite.

Clue 17 – Hunt for solutions

While you’re technically in the technology industry, angling your pursuit as a problem solver
can be more approachable to clients. After all, you’re not just selling a pretty design or code,
you’re selling an answer to a problem.

Before starting on a project, establish what your client’s pain-points are that they want to solve.
Whatever it may be, find the problem and pitch the solution.

PAGE 12 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Whether you’re starting from square
one or you’re ready to get the word out,
this ebook will help you program, publish,
and promote your WordPress plugin.
Let’s get started!

Clue 18 – Cash in with

standalone products
This is a dual-purpose clue. One, it’ll fill in your freelance income, and two, it will impress
future clients. By publishing themes, plugins, or fonts, you’re positioning yourself as an expert
in the field and showing off your work. This also helps your content marketing strategy in web
searches to reach potential customers.

Clue 19 – Create a wealthy

bond with agencies
While this may seem like an odd clue, it can be a helpful one! There are times when the
perfect client comes along with an exciting project that may fall outside an agency’s
wheelhouse. Or sometimes, an agency may not have the time to do it. Whatever the
reason, establishing a partnership with an agency can be beneficial for both parties.
It means more work for you, and better, timely work for the agency’s client!

PAGE 13 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Clue 20 – Team up with
non-competing firms
Along the same lines, partnering with completely opposite kinds of agencies can be very
beneficial for bouncing work between each other. Offering each other’s services as an
extension of your core business creates a seamless easability for both of your clients.

For example, if you’re a web designer, look for firms that only do web development. You can
handle their client’s creative needs to make it easier for them. In turn, if you have a client
needing extensive development, you can pass them along.

Clue 21 – Add “publishing an

ebook” to your itinerary
Write about your expertise. Not only
will this further your credibility within
your field, but it’ll also help knock that
content marketing up a notch! You
Recurring revenue is the
can choose to either give it away for bomb.com on an existing
free or charge per download. This is an product!
awesome idea for clue #19. Recurring
revenue is the bomb.com on an existing
product, if you do decide to sell!

PAGE 14 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Clue 22 – Embark on a guest
blogger quest
Search and identify blogs that your future clients may read and request to guest post for them.
The benefit?

“It’s the ideal environment to network with

other designers and bloggers, which will
bring about a whole host of opportunities for
guest posting to help extend your reach and
form future collaborations.”
Joanne Amos, Layout

You’ll be able to shell out your knowledge and increase brand name recognition by injecting
yourself into a different audience. Just make sure whatever you blog about is both beneficial
for you and the readers.

Clue 23 – Set sail with the

Twitter search feature
Building off a dynamite social strategy, you can also use the platforms’ search features for
finding work, especially Twitter’s. Seek out tweets containing ‘hiring + [your keyword]’ in the
search box to find companies that may be looking for someone like you. Try wordsmithing
and experimenting with hashtags while doing this!

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 Clue 24 – Team-up with other
treasure chasers
If you’re a freelancer who works from home, you may want to consider coworking occasionally.
Local coworking spaces provide a great atmosphere for finding like-minded people, building
solid relationships with others, and becoming part of a community. Adding to the benefits,
these mutual spaces can also host events, meetings, and conferences.

Ready to follow this clue? Find coworking spaces by Googling coworking in

your zipcode or perusing the map on DeskSurfing.

Clue 25 – Consider speaking

at an industry conference
While you should first make an effort to attend industry related conferences, the next step
is speaking at them. This is more of an intermediate-to-expert clue, as you need to be
experienced in your niche. By putting yourself out there, you’re helping your brand and
reputation reach new audiences. It also helps you validate your spot as a thought leader
in the industry. Additionally, you’ll also boost networking relationships for future business
opportunities.

Ready to start speaking? We’ve got a few tips to become one of the best
speakers in the land!

PAGE 16 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

 Clue 26 – Market offline and
send a message in a bottle
Even though you might primarily provide web services, sometimes taking it old school and
killing a traditional print strategy can be super effective. Just make sure it really stands out and
doesn’t get lost in the sea of annoying fliers, and drives the user to visit your site.

“If done well, it will establish a positive, lasting impression

that will help land the gig for you. (Plus, they can be a really
fun, creative project — all in the name of business!)”
Ashley Gainer, Layout

Clue 27 – Investigate
local business
If you’re down to do some digging and hacking, you can uncover potential clients in your
department or region by doing a little Googling for outdated WordPress installations.

How?

Run a search for your region or niche and wp-content. What pops up will be sites that have
not done anything to hide their wp-content folder.

Businesses or organizations who may be running their WordPress site on an outdated version
could mean several things. If it’s a potential customer, it may mean a) they’re trying to do it
themselves or b) they hired someone to keep it updated, but they’re slackin’ at their job. Use
this information to market to those clients and seal the deal for yourself!

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 Clue 28 – Job boards:
a bona fide treasure map
Still searchin’ for that treasure? Check out some of these job boards, in no particular order, to
get you started. Bookmark these resources if you’re up for it!

• Smashing Jobs • Freelancer.com • AngelList

• Authentic Jobs • Krop • Guru

• Behance.net • WordPress Jobs • PeoplePerHour

• Dribble Jobs • Sensational Jobs • Codeable.io

• Jobs.Wordpress.net • WPMU DEV Jobs • Reddit’s Hiring Listings

• Indeed • Upwork • Fiverr

• WP Hired • Simply Hired

While there’s no exact treasure map to the treasure trove of clients, following these clues will point
you in the correct direction. Did we miss a clue? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

“Not all treasure’s silver and gold mate,”

– Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The
Black Pearl

PAGE 18 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS

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PAGE 19 | 28 CLUES TO DISCOVER NEW WORDPRESS CLIENTS