Landing the Right Clients as a No-Code Freelancer: Tips for Finding Your Perfect Match

As a no-code freelancer, finding clients who align with your skills, values, and working style can feel overwhelming. The wrong clients drain your energy and resources, while the right ones fuel your growth and success.

Adalo lets you build database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps — published to the App Store and Google Play — from a single no-code editor. With this powerful platform as your foundation, attracting and landing ideal clients becomes a matter of strategic positioning and smart practices.

You might know about the benefits of finding the right clients, and the downsides of working with the wrong ones – but how do you go about finding the right clients for you?

In this guide, we’ll give you the tips and practices you need to build a freelance or agency business that works for you!

Use Adalo’s Platform for Experts

The Adalo Experts program connects talented makers, UX designers, and software builders with clients that need those services. Adalo, a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms, published to the Apple App Store and Google Play, powers this network where experts build apps for clients using the platform and community as a client base. Most experts agree with Eric Goins from Flywheel Agency and fellow expert Zaylan Jacobsen that, "A lot of our clients come direct from Adalo Experts program."

This presents a great opportunity to find your initial client base. Simply sign up for the Adalo Experts program, and create a profile that attracts the leads you want. Ranking higher on the Adalo Experts page is directly related to getting the most leads.

Here are our top tips to get a higher ranking:

Tip 1: Have great apps on your profile

Your portfolio helps you stand out, build trust, and convince a prospective client that you have what it takes to build their app. If you haven’t worked anywhere before, consider building a couple of apps for yourself, or take on one or two free projects for a prospective client and then ask them to write a testimonial.

Tip 2: Have a professional profile

This goes a long way in creating a good, solid impression to a prospective client – and it’s likely to get you more referrals too!

Tip 3: Position yourself strategically

• Show your speciality: If there’s a particular type of app that you’re great at building, or maybe certain features that you have more experience with, use them to your advantage and highlight those specializations.

• Make yourself standout: This is where branding goes a long way to help you stand out. You can design a logo for yourself, or if you work with others, you can give your agency a name. (More on branding later in the blog!)

Use Other Freelancer Platforms

There are plenty of great platforms to find clients – and Adalo encourages freelancers to sign up for as many platforms as possible! To improve your chances of success with finding the right clients, keep in mind these points:

• Make sure you’re proficient in the skills that you list
• Curate your profile to highlight those skills
• Include a professional photograph and any other documents that might improve your prospects: certifications, testimonials, etc.
• A few of the major platforms to look for freelancing projects/work include: Upwork, CodeMap, Fiverr, Heep, Toptal, and Wellfound (formerly AngelList)

A quick note about showcasing your skills and services: The skills section of your portfolio or profile simply lists down what you’re able to do, or what you’re good at. You need to convert that into what it provides a client in the real-world to turn your skills into a service. If you are an Adalo maker who is skilled with Xano, Zapier or Airtable, you should be reinforcing and highlighting your different skills.

For example, your skills might be:

• App building
• Web development
• UX design
• Data analysis
• Project management

Your services can then be:

• Building high-performance end-to-end apps and websites
• Creating seamless user experiences across digital platforms
• Managing multi-stakeholder projects for software development
• Helping individuals and SMEs promote their products and services online
• Helping make data-driven decisions by finding answers to important business-centric questions through data analysis

Get Your Leads Organized

The best thing you can do to keep leads coming your way is being prompt with communication. Stay organized and respond promptly all through your relationship with your leads and clients.

Here are some pro-tips!

• Drip email to prospective clients so that you stay top of their mind
• Try reaching out to them on phone if they give phone number
• Have clear directives for what the next steps are to move things along
• Put into place best practices so that you handle every lead with a maximum effectiveness for least work
• Always be closing!

Now we know this can get difficult once work begins coming in, so you might want to try using a customer relationship management (or CRM) tool to stay on top of things. You will also be able to use a CRM to make a workflow.

Ramp Up Your Networking

Create more opportunities to find clients for yourself by networking! Freelancing doesn’t have to mean a lone wolf journey – networking isn’t ass difficult as it sounds. If you understand how the network effect works, you can use it to your advantage to increase your pipeline of leads. Once you’ve done some networking effectively, your clients then act as salespeople, spreading the word about your services far and wide by word of mouth.

It will help for you or your agency to be present on professional platforms like LinkedIn and on social media sites like Twitter. This will help you look for and connect with prospective clients. It can also give you project and app ideas, and keep a pulse on where the industry is headed.

Here are some ways you can network (even if you don’t enjoy it!)

• Contributing to online forums
• Commenting on articles and other people’s content
• Writing blog pieces and articles can increase your visibility as a freelancer.
• Join groups and discuss solutions and your approach

If people stumble upon your content, it’s likely that they’ll see you as an expert in your field. They will be more likely to hire you or recommend you to others. To help drive referrals, you can ask your happy clients to tell their friends about their experience working with you. It helps to have some material they can share easily with their network, like your website, portfolio, or contact details.

Collect Data Wherever You Can

An important part of the process is to keep improving, and the best way to do that is by collecting data – plenty of data! Here are some good places to start:

• The number of clients you’ve reached out to
• How many responded, seemed interested, rejected, or didn’t respond
• The gap between the requirements of the project and your portfolio
• The amount of time between outreach and closing a client
• The time taken to complete each project

Do you have your own strategy for finding clients? Was there anything we missed? Give us some of your tips! And check out our space for freelancers and agencies on Adalo to get started on your journey. The world of no-code freelancing has plenty of opportunities!

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