Why You Should Track Every Lead as a Freelance Writer

When I started freelancing, I had a ton of questions:

• How much should I charge?
• Am I charging too much?
• What are the best ways to find clients?
• What services should I offer?
• Do I need a website?
• Why will no one hire me?

It is frustrating and discouraging when you don’t have any paying work, and even more so when you’ve been hustling to find clients and sending cold pitches but have had no success.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was to keep track of every lead I got, no matter how small or unqualified it seemed. In an episode of The Futur, Michael Janda talked about tracking your leads and how it helped him succeed as a business owner. The entire episode is a gem if you’re having trouble pricing your services or finding clients, but the one takeaway that changed my business was to keep track of every lead.

Lead Tracking in a Nutshell

Lead tracking is keeping a record of every business opportunity that comes your way, regardless of the result. So, whether you’re cold calling and pitching or responding to a job posting, write it down.

While there are apps and tools you can use to help you with this, an old-fashioned spreadsheet works just as well. What should you track?

I keep track of the date, company name, contact name, how I found the lead, what type of work it is, the status of the pitch (submitted, in progress, rejected, accepted, and followup), the rate and any other notes.

Why You Should Track Every Lead

Tracking your leads allows you to see patterns in the type of work you’re getting and helps you target your pitches better. It also allows you to see how your sales and marketing efforts are going. Do you get more pitches accepted? Are you seeing an increase in the rate you’re being paid? Are you getting queries but no clients?

It also allows you to keep track of your workflow and make sure you’re not getting too bogged down with work or pitches. As a freelancer, you need to be strategic with your time and only take on the work that is going to help you reach your goals.

Over time, this list will give you valuable data, so that you can make choices regarding your marketing channels, pricing, and anything else.

So, let’s say your leads are mainly people from your SEO efforts who want website copy and reached out because they loved one of your writing style.

Now, that instantly gives you a ton of information:

• Where to focus your marketing efforts. If most of your incoming leads are from one source, you can focus on optimization and getting more out of that source.
• What packages to offer. If people come to you for a particular type of writing, it’s a good sign that there’s currently a market for that type of writing, so you can put together a package for that niche.
• What to charge. Figuring out your pricing is a balancing act. You need to find the sweet spot between what you need to make a profit and how much your ideal client will pay.
• What your unique selling proposition is. If potential clients say, “I saw your post about XYZ and liked the humor,” you can create more content to highlight that aspect of your writing skills. For instance, you might mention words like witty, comedic, or humor in your marketing copy.

Make Small Adjustments

Let’s say 90% of your leads want to work with you but can’t afford your rates. In that case, consider testing a lowered rate for a set period (two weeks, a month, three months) to see if that helps you close more deals. And since you have a list of warm leads, you can email them about your promo period.

I actually did that last year. I used to run a 1-on-1 content strategy workshop, but only no one signed up at the full price. Most of my leads were from Instagram, so I ran an ad and I lowered the price by 45% for a limited time. Then, I emailed my previous leads, who had shown interest in the workshop but said they couldn’t afford it. That campaign worked. 50% of the former leads booked a session, and I signed two new clients from the ad.

It also taught a few valuable lessons:

1. My perceived value of the workshop was way higher than what people were actually willing to pay.
2. My Instagram strategy was attracting the wrong clientele. The people who booked at the lower price were in the early stages of their businesses and were not ready to invest in high-end content help.
3. I needed to figure out a new offer and focus on a different marketing channel if I wanted to get out of the red.

From there, I stopped offering the workshop and focused on ghostwriting ebooks and blog articles. I also shifted to LinkedIn as my primary marketing channel. Once I attracted new leads from LinkedIn and other channels.

And that’s how you can use data to make informed decisions about your freelance business.

What If You Don’t Have any Leads?

If you’re just starting out, that’s totally fine. You can still use data to make choices about your business. Start by scanning through your recent social media interactions, email inbox, and messages. Next, look for every pitch you’ve sent out in the last few weeks.

Now, go through each one and ask yourself these questions:

• Who reached out to you? Was it a personal connection, a cold lead, or someone you met at an event?
• What type of opportunity was it? Was it a onetime gig, an ongoing project, or something else?
• What type of writing were they looking for? Was it copywriting, SEO articles, or something else?
• Where did the sales conversation take place? In your DMs, over Zoom calls, in emails?
• How much were they willing to pay? Did they have a budget in mind, or did they leave that open?
• What was the result? Did you close the deal, lose out to another freelancer, or is it still up in the air?

Keep track of your answers in a spreadsheet or document. Then, at the end of each month, look back at what you’ve tracked and look for patterns. Once you have three months of data, you’ll see some trends emerge.

For example, you might notice that most of your closed deals, the ones you win, came from personal connections or happened on a Zoom call. You might also notice that you’re getting more SEO writing gig offers than anything else. And finally, you might realize what your ideal rate is based on what clients are willing to pay.

From there, you can make adjustments to your marketing and sales strategy. So, if you’re selling in direct messages on social media and it’s not working, try booking calls with every lead you get for the following three months.

Or let’s say you’re getting requests for website copy when you actually want to write social media campaigns. In that case, you’ll need to review your content marketing, website and social media bios, and make sure they’re all aligned with the type of writing you want to do.

Remember that your marketing touchpoints (your website, content, social media bios, portfolios, and demo reels) are like bait. You should carefully curate them to attract the right type of client, not just any client. So, if you’re not getting the right type of leads, take a step back and review your marketing strategy.

By making minor changes and tracking the results, you can use data to make choices that will help you attract better clients, close more deals, and earn more money.

The Bottom Line

Data is a powerful tool that can help you make informed decisions about your freelance business. If you’re not tracking your leads, start today. It only takes a few minutes to set up a system, and the benefits are worthwhile.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.