Happy Tuesday! Welcome back to The Gig. As someone wise once said, “hard work never goes out of style.” Let’s get after it.
Mentioned in today’s issue: Instagram, Meta, and Snapchat+. Plus one easy way to build trust & confidence with new clients, productivity secrets of the top 1%, and how to close deals 33% faster with legally-binding digital contracts.
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes and 19 seconds
Making the Rounds
- Instagram updates Sensitive Content filter to include weight loss ads. This means you can remove ads that relate to “body weight control” from your feed as well any recommendations served to you by the platform.
- Meta study reveals 1 in 3 consumers message with brands at least once a week. The study also found that 40% were chatting with businesses more often than before the pandemic.
- Snapchat+ hits 1 million subscribers globally. Despite only launching in June and at the offensively low price of $3.99/mo, the company has reportedly already generated $5 million from its paid subscription.
Working With Clients
The House System Always Wins
Ever had buyer’s remorse?
It’s not uncommon to have doubts immediately after buying something.
And freelance clients are no different.
If it’s their first time working with you, you can bet they’ll have a seed of doubt in their mind about whether they made the right decision to hire you.
Especially if they’ve been burned by other freelancers in the past.
Sharing lots of testimonials can help with this (if you’ve got ‘em)…
But another way to build trust with new clients is to have a step-by-step system for how you’ll complete the project.
Giving them insight into your process will put their mind at ease…
So make sure to walk them through it during the interview process, on the sales call, and again during the onboarding or kickoff call.
Pro tip: keep it simple and stick to 3-5 steps or pillars.
Having a step-by-step system implies consistency in your work, because inputs dictate outputs.
So if the quality of your inputs (aka the process) are consistent, then the quality of your outputs (aka the project deliverables) will be too.
Working For Yourself
Productivity Secrets of the Top 1%
Forget cold showers, pomodoro timers, or 5 AM workouts…
If you want to hit the ground running first thing in the morning and maximize your output for the entire day…
The #1 productivity hack is writing your to-do-list the night before.
Because you should already know what comes first, second, and third.
Otherwise, you’ll waste valuable energy and momentum trying to decide what to tackle first…
And that creative leakage will sabotage your productivity for the rest of the day.
Tools We Love
Close Deals 33% Faster With Legally-Binding Digital Contracts
Managing contracts is a key part of running a freelance business.
Since you don’t have a company legal or HR department looking out for you…
Your legal protection is entirely up to you.
But asking a prospective client to print out a contract so they can sign it and send it back to you is so 2004.
Enter HelloSign.
HelloSign lets you send out contracts and request legally binding signatures in seconds.
With it, you can set up templates, streamline the signature process, and easily access every signed contract you’ve ever received from anywhere.
Start your free 30-day trial of HelloSign today.
Gig Alerts
Looking for clients? These freelance jobs were posted on Upwork in the last 24 hours:
- Remote closer job
- Facebook ads manager and technical strategist
- Creative Deck Designer for NFT Deck
- Expert e-commerce writer needed for US based skincare brand
- Graphic Designer for Television series poster/book pitch deck photo.
- Graphic Designer needed for 2 billboard advertisements
Quote of the Day
“As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.”
— John Wheeler
ICYMI:
Monday: 🔨 Crypto ban hammer