The value of meeting clients face to face whether in person or with video conferencing is imperative to making a good impression and securing work. It’s your opportunity to put your best foot forward, and literally, be the face of your brand. With such a huge rise in the gig economy, however, the landscape is competitive and it begs the question, do freelancers need video conferencing to make their business successful and stand out?
One of the biggest hurdles for freelancers when attracting clients is providing them the peace of mind that they are paying for a hard-working, dedicated professional who they may likely never meet in the flesh. It’s important to bridge that gap if freelancers want to ramp up client in-take and bring in more jobs for themselves. Standing out doesn’t just get you jobs – creation, connection and collaboration by way of video conferencing does.
CREATING CONTENT
With time zones and distance between each potential job, it’s a pretty competitive landscape out there. Freelancers, remote workers, solopreneurs – everyone who chooses the “laptop life” – need to stay relevant and fresh. Video conferencing software is designed to enhance the online meeting experience, but that’s not all it’s good for. The platform lends itself quite well for recording, giving freelancers the opportunity to create endless audio and video content derived from their online meetings. Recorded video chats and conference calls can be a treasure trove of insights that lead to great ideas down the line. No exchanges are lost in the discussion. It’s easy to go back through the recording and take what you need to be fleshed out. Whatever nuggets of insight or information come up during sync, these can later be drawn out and woven across social media, into podcasts or edited into snippets of video.
Content is king, and video conferencing can help any freelancer create it easily by just hitting record from any device including laptops, smartphones or tablets. This is especially helpful if you’re building your brand and looking to have more presence online. Take it another step in the right direction by creating pre recorded tutorials and webinars to share with your audience ahead of time.
DRIVING COLLABORATION
Conversations work better when you can see how what you’re saying lands with the other person. Video conferencing gives freelancers that added edge of being able to interpret what their client is actually thinking and feeling through body language instead of solely relying on a two-dimensional email. For example, in regards to email marketing, including a link to a discovery call using video conferencing software could be the difference between making a connection with a prospect versus sending out a slew of unopened emails. A link to a video chat gives them the opportunity to set up a call free of distraction on their own time and ultimately, diminishing email threads.
Furthermore, video conferencing software fosters better collaboration. If a client has a question, it’s easy to set up an online meeting – video or audio – and address their suggestions or concerns. Have a complicated idea that needs explaining through diagrams and shapes? Use an online whiteboard to communicate your abstract idea and sell it to your client. Not only does collaboration in real-time help ease any client’s peace of mind, but it also saves you time, by making you appear professional, organized and as an authority in your field.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Video conferencing gives freelancers the freedom to not have to rely solely on themselves to fulfill every role. Nowadays, it’s easy to reach out and connect with others who can share your workload or provide critical feedback on your project. Freelancers can outsource and delegate parts of a project to other freelancers where needed.
No matter where you are, you can reach out to your mentor or find a new one. Send files back and forth to others if you need an extra set of eyeballs or want to pass it around test groups. Video conferencing or conference calling is immediate and helps to dissolve any challenges or obstacles on the spot rather than going back and forth over email or spending too much money on long-distance calls. Plus, your target market doesn’t have to be local anymore. Connections can span the globe which opens up your audience and adds more work to your pipeline.
So does video conferencing scale and grow your freelance business into a successful one? Let FreeConference.com show you how technology can dramatically improve the quality of your communication with how you attract and retain clients; get immediate access to an online meeting; send files and documents; record, and more.
