Hello and welcome to another MabsArts blog, today we will be talking about a couple of tips I have for newbies or experienced sellers on Fiverr looking to get their first orders and increase their orders. Let’s begin.
Professional Profile
If you’re a freelancer like me, there is a chance that at one point of your career you have struggled with bringing in new clients into your business. Fiverr has more than ever, become a competitive market. You as a freelancer will have to do much more than just create a good gig service in order to secure your first clients. That is why it is important to always be professional as a freelancer, as that will generate the very valued word of mouth, that is the foundation of any good business.
What is Good Gig Etiquette?
Gig etiquette is the experience a potential buyer goes through in order to receive whatever service need. Bad etiquette can be easily judge by a negative review. Good etiquette looks like a 5 star review with a nice tip on top, but great etiquette is what we are striving for. This means not only a nice wonderful tip, but also continued business. So how do we go from being an average freelancer to a great one?
In this blog post we will look at the experience a potential buyer goes through as they navigate our gig and our services.
Finding your Gig
Ask yourself, what are the avenues that lead to your gig page?
1- The Fiverr search engine
2- Social Media
3- Your Website
4- Business Cards and Stationary
If you’re only counting on one of this paths to be your key to success, you will be easily disappointed. That is why it is best to have your toes dipped into each one of these. A healthy balance between them will generate for you a stream of views and possible clients that are interested in your services. This over any quick “get rich scheme” is what you will need to learn.
If the very first step a potential client will take in order to find your service is a problem, then there is no way that they will even purchase from you, let alone purchase more than once.
A good rule of thumb is to start by adding only one new avenue of marketing at a time. When you feel comfortable to pursue another and your analytic are showing consistent growth, then move to the next one you need, and of course find even more ways to advertise your business.
While you do that here are a couple of good tips to get you started:
Higher placement in the Fiverr search engine
In order to be featured on the Fiverr search engine in a worthwhile place, you need to excel as a seller, and I understand this might be a bit difficult for you when you are starting out, as it relies entirely on how you complete and deliver orders. One good tip even when you are not receiving any orders, is to be on top of your inbox. Answer every message that comes in, between 24-48 hours, the faster the better, and try to be consistent, as this will show Fiverr that you are a professional and are committed to the customer service of your business, it will not up your chances in the search engine algorithm, but it counts for your level upgrade so keep that in mind, as that does bump you up in the searches.
Bring consistent traffic to your gig, from other places other than Fiverr.
You might be thinking that Fiverr is the only palace to find business for your service, but that is not quite right. There are many other ways that you can promote your services in order to secure your next order.
The three main ways are:
– Social Media Marketing
– Blogging about your services and your industry
– Email Marketing
You can find even more information on these types of marketing on the internet. However, the goal with most marketing is not perhaps to sell a product, but rather the idea that you are an expert in that field. You sell that by being professional, learning about your industry, and coming up with new an innovative ways to improve it and the people it serves. So whether you are a plumber or a freelancer. The best in the business will get the biggest share of the pie. Your mission is to improve your business so that you too can be part of the best in the business. How can you apply this to your marketing campaigns?
Be HONEST.
Be REAL.
BE GREAT.
Honesty means, using images that are real, and tell the story of who you really are as a person and as a business. Show examples of your work, examples of your work in progress. Be honest with your fails and honest with your successes, and people will help you along your journey.
Real as in, show your struggles too. There is nothing better than seeing a freelancer work through a problem and come out with an even better solution than they initially set out to get. Look at how popular devlog community is in Youtube, where thousands of people rally behind the ups and downs of a game developer. So be real, don’t be ultra real where we know everything about you, but enough where we feel you’re a human being and not a mindless money machine.
Be great by deliver consistently high quality work that delights your clients and your fans at a reasonable amount of time.
This one is the most important out of them all, it is important to always deliver the highest quality of work possible for your clients. These deliveries will result in feedback and if you’re a visuals service, it will show up as an example of your previous work on Fiverr. It is important that every project is the best you ever did, and that your clients are highly satisfied and it shows in your feedback. Treat each client with kindness, respect, accommodate when possible and deliver beyond expectations.
Here are a couple of tips to help you get started upping your game:
– Estimate a little more time and then deliver quicker than expected.
– Do not sacrifice quality for time, if you have to take a little longer on a project communicate with your client and make sure they understand where you are in the process and what you need to complete the work. Be honest early one and don’t wait till the last second to tell them that it’s going to take longer. You wouldn’t want a client to change the specs of a project midway through development so neither do they.
– Once you have their order. Always message first, show them that you are taking care of them and their business and you have their business’s best interest in mind. That means show work in progress, send them updates, be communicative.
Do these three things and you will be on route to a page filled with wonderful reviews from returning clients.
Fiver Gig Page
Your Fiverr gig page is the first thing your potential client will find once they have landed on you as their possible next freelancer. This means that if your information is not clear enough, your prices are a mess or your examples do not show work that is what the client expects you will lose this client and they will move on to the next freelancer with a better gig than yours.
What can you do?
Below is a small checklist of what you have to keep in mind in order to create a gig that looks professional and answers the questions of your clients in a precise manner and invites them to take action with a quick next step for them.
Clear Gig Title
4-5 words long + “I will”
Explain exactly what your services are and what you will offer.
Ex. ” I will draw anything you want”
“I will illustrate your next book”
“I will design an original character”
Short description that explains your gig services in detail.
Only use important and relevant information, avoid technical jargon unless necessary. A good example is for illustrators that only work in vector format, here you can talk about that. Otherwise, avoid all sales pitchy information. If the client is already in your page, there is a high chance that they are already looking to purchase something from you. Save the word realty space and talk about what matters.
Try to answer as many questions the client may have at this stage.
How long will it take? Does it come with copyrights? Are you selling a package or just one thing? Do you need anything from the client before you begin? Is there anything important you need your clients to know or do before you can start?
Do in in a way that is not a bullet list of questions and answers. Here is an example, feel free to use it and exchange the demo words with your information.
My name is (brand of freelancer or business) and I am a (field of expertise). (Some background information about who you are and what you do, and how long for you’ve been doing it. Keep it brief)
By purchasing the (package name) you receive (package description), if you would like (extra that is not included in your basic package), feel free to browse our other packages to find what you need.
Before I can deliver your (product name), I will require (requirements). Be sure to have them before you make your purchase.
Contact me for any questions you may have, I am happy to help.
Clear Call to action or next step
So once your client has read your description and has decided that you are the right freelancer for the project what should you do? My suggestion is to put a clear call to action at the end of your description. Something like “Feel free to message me when you are ready to purchase.” or “Contact me for more information” are good ways to get the channel of conversation open in case the client has more questions or even just wants to make sure that they are purchasing the right gig package. However steer away from catchy sales worlds like “Free, Discount, and Sale”. This is not an advertisement it’s your gig page, the people that stumble upon it are looking to purchase your services, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by putting discounts that undervalue your work.
Market Prices and Clear Packages Information
Just like the gig description is important, so is the the package information. Package information are probably the second most important thing in your whole profile, this is what the buyer is surprising. If they don’t understand this, if they have questions or if the prices don’t make sense, then you are not going to get sales. A couple of things to keep in mind to have.
Keep your prices standard across the board
This means that your gig descriptions should not contain any information on prices, because that could go up or down depending on your time and the market’s demand. Keep it all in the package information.
Make sure that your buyer requests, your custom quotes and any talk on your site or other places that mention your prices are the same. If a buyer sees somewhere that your price is $20 and then they go to your package information and see it’s $100 you are going to lose that sale. Instead of crushing expectations you need to play to the expectations by making all information standard and up to date. So make sure the prices you set are both good market prices (no $5 gigs that cost $500 and no crazy prices that make no sense.) No one sees a $5 pizza and thinks it’s the same as a $50 one. We all know what we are paying for, and low prices do not mean savings, they mean bargain. This is not a product you are selling (unless you are of course) but this is a service, and services at low cost, mean sub par quality. You wouldn’t trust a roofer that charges $5 to make your new roof, just like you wouldn’t trust a $5 designer with your next brand logo. Do yourself a favor and do your research, figure out what other people are charging and what you need to make this a viable business (if that’s what you want), and then come up with a price that is fair for you and the client. This will show that you are honest, professional, and people are always looking forward to purchasing quality service.
Gig Images and profile Portfolios
This section will work for you whether you are a musician or an artists, a fashion designer or a web developer. You need a portfolio, Fiverr offers several spaces for you to showcase your work, but the best most effective way is to do it with a website. I highly suggest you use Siteground with the WordPress integration but you do whatever you feel works for you.
The reason you want your own online presence is because you can do a ton of things with that online island, that can improve your chance of success, like write a blog that talks about your area of expertise and you solve common client problems, or open an online store for your die-hard fans. With that virtual home, you can run an email marketing campaign that brings people’s news of your services directly to their emails so they can purchase from your gig page.
Whether you decide to buy a website, open a Fiverr portfolio, or use the gig images. It is important to display your highest quality work, the work you will be selling and charging for. What you put there is the expectation that both you and the client are aiming towards. Choose only what is important to the client and only show your bests examples of it.
Join us next time, when we discuss how Buyer Requests and BYOB’s can improve your score and your overall Fiverr statistics.
MabsArts 