One of the things I learnt early on in my freelancing career, is that it’s always best to be the one contacting your client, rather than the other way around. As a freelancer, you maintain control of the situation if you can spot and fix a problem with a client without waiting for them to notice and contact you. And maintaining regular contact with a client means you’re more likely to spot a problem – or simply make sure that you and the client know that things are on track.
There are plenty of ways to keep in touch with your client on a weekly basis, without annoying them.
- Set up a weekly catch up call
- Send them weekly reports
- Drop all of your clients a regular newsletter of the industry news
It’s also important to keep in touch with previous clients, for potential repeat business. You can do this by:
- Sending ‘check-in’ emails every couple of months, checking in on how they’re getting on and if they need any help
- Add them to your client newsletter, for added value (plus you could add special offers into the newsletter sidebar to potentially tempt them back)
- Offer them a referral bonus if they send other clients your way
- Encourage them to like your brand Facebook page, Twitter account or blog
Most of my active clients have me in a “staff augmentation” role, and some kind of staff meeting at least weekly, usually daily (a la Scrum Standup).
Those where I’m doing something more solo, usually have me doing something that takes a month or less. These usually have obvious milestones such as implementing various major features, so I report when those are reached.