I'm not really one for intros, so let's get straight to it. 5 steps to getting your first Webflow client. I hope anyone reading this walks away with some insight or inspiration! If not, shoot us an email and let us know what you'd like us to ramble about! Enjoy (:
Step 0: Build a portfolio website, and learn Client-First
I should preface that you don't need paid client work under your belt to create a "portfolio". You can build 5 cool websites that prove your talents and proficiency of Webflow without having a real client. Shoot, I'm pretty sure most Awwwards winners are from passion projects — and those are the projects that would "wow" a prospective client. Go out there (figuratively speaking, I assume us Web Devs are room dwellers) and build! Find a cool website and animation, and rebuild it! Now that's assuming you're only taking on development work and not design work, if you're looking to tackle both, then your work at this building stage doubles — as I'd recommend starting with ~5 projects to your portfolio.
And the other thing I would heavily preface is, if you haven't learned or are practicing Client-First yet... then what are you doing? No but, seriously — you close yourself off from a solid quarter of available work by not being proficient in Client-First. And if the prospective client is unaware of Client-First, then that's an extra item you can add to your pitch (because Client-First pretty much sells itself).
Step 1: Create an UpWork account
A lot of freelancers are against these freelancing platforms, and a lot will say it's not worth your time. I'm not here to say those people are wrong, but I'm also not going to say what is and isn't worth your time. I personally use UpWork, and have used UpWork to really kickstart my journey. So I will share what I did to snag clients earlier in my career (which snowballed into all I do today).
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Purchase UpWork Freelancer Plus
Aside from the benefits that comes with UpWork Freelancer Plus (e.g. being able to see bids, getting monthly connects, etc), I have a feeling that UpWork favors freelancers that pay for Plus. I have nothing but anecdotal experience to support this claim, but hey, the technical reason we want Plus is to see other bids, which takes us to Step #2.
Step 2: Underbid Proposals (but not too much)!
By having the ability to see other bids on UpWork, you immediately see what you're up against. When you're first starting out, you need to underbid most of the competition, but I wouldn't recommend start pitching for $1. Most cases, clients would get turned off by that — ideally your bid should be about 15% under the client's budget. Which still may be a lot, but you want to position yourself as good "bang for buck", not "cheap". Because "cheap" freelancers attract "cheap" clients, and those clients can lead to the biggest headaches.
Step 3: Apply for everything... Not kidding.
I will say that the UpWork market is definitely saturated, but that also means there's a lot of work being posted on there. When I'm full on "grind mode", I log onto UpWork 3 times a day to make sure I put my foot in the door on every that requires Webflow Development work. I have scripts prepared to make it easier (may share more info on this on a later post — so be sure to join the newsletter!), but it's still a good chunk of time and money spent on just applying.
In latest news, UpWork implemented a bidding feature which I personally hate as it makes the barrier of entry much higher to those that can't afford to outbid every post on top of the previous investments I mentioned, but all we can do is adapt at I suppose.
Bonus Step: Become a Webflow Professional Partner
Now this may seem like a "whoa there", especially if you don't have actual client experience yet — but bouncing off of what I said in Step #1, you don't need "real experience" to apply and become a Professional Partner. You just need to have actual hands-on experience with Webflow and exhibit your skills in the projects you submit! You can give yourself a leg up in this growingly saturated market (I think "growingly" is a word, not sure tho), by starting off with an actual "stamp of approval". Also, joining the Webflow Professional Partner marketplace is another obvious avenue for acquiring leads!
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