Getting started freelancing in no-code can be tough. If you’ve been in the industry for awhile you start to hear advice converge around things like ‘positive word of mouth is the best way to keep growing clients’ and ‘it can just be a leads number game’ but where many Adalo Experts get stuck is going from zero to hero and getting their very first few clients.
This blog post is for new Adalo Experts who want real world tips from the Adalo Experts team on how existing Adalo Experts have found their first few clients. If you’re an existing Adalo Expert (or freelancer on any platform in fact!) there may be a few new ideas in here that can help shake some new leads into your inbox.
Tips to maximize leads from the Adalo Experts website
At Adalo we want to see you succeed as an Adalo Experts! The more happy customers our Experts have the more happy Adalo clients there are and Adalo, Adalo Experts and Adalo Experts’ clients all win.
On the Adalo Experts website, we have given all of our Experts a space where they can flaunt their skills and get access to 100% free leads. Many of our Adalo Experts agree with Adalo Expert Eric Goins from Flywheel Agency that ‘A lot of our clients come direct from Adalo.com’. Some, like Adalo Expert Zaylan Jacobsen state that “Most of my leads have come through the Adalo Experts platform".
Making great use of Adalo Experts website is something that can lead directly to paying clients.
However, not all Adalo Experts profiles are created equally… so let’s share the Adalo Expert team’s back-end tips for what it takes for Adalo Experts to rise to the top of the Adalo Experts rankings and get the best client conversion.
Tip 1: Have great apps on your profile
This might seem obvious: clients want their Adalo Expert to build an Adalo app for them, so the apps that show up on your Adalo Expert micro site are obviously going to be hugely important to showing your Adalo craftsmanship and skill. The better app examples you have the more highly Adalo will want to rank you on the Adalo Experts page because we want prospective clients to go ‘wow’ on everything our Adalo Experts have built on Adalo.
Tip 2: Have a professional profile
This might seem even more obvious than Tip 1, but let’s reinforce it. You are wanting to convince prospective clients that you’re the one they should work with, why not use the space you have to convince them you’re someone they would be foolish to not send a lead to?
Having a professional microsite is easy, but a lot of Experts often leave low hanging fruit in how they maximize their presence. Try scrolling through the front page of adalo.com/experts and see what top ranking profiles are looking like. Do you have beautiful images that would feel right at home on page 1? Do you have awesome webapps on your profile that show that you are an Adalo magician? What about your self description? Often Adalo Experts highlight their life stories when clients want to hear about what makes you better than the other Experts they’ve bulk opened over thirty tabs.
Want to have some fun? Try having some friends or family members rank a few profiles that they would reach out to and see how yours performs. If your mother wouldn’t choose your profile, perhaps there are some opportunities to improve.
Tip 3: Position yourself strategically
Now this tip might be slightly less obvious. Often Adalo Experts just highlight that they are awesome at Adalo, however, this risks you being one of many awesome Adalo Experts. Why not try to think about what your special offering can be, like for example:
- UX testing professional
- Get v1 within 10 days
- Guaranteed 1,000 users
- Best in class analytics
- Scale your app to be ready for 1M users with Xano
- Get coaching from an Adalo App Academy instructor
Clients are often looking at the Adalo Experts directory like it’s a food menu where they have an idea of what they already want to order. If other Experts are cheese burgers, maybe try being sushi or a salad. Identify what prospective clients want from their Expert and see if there is a niche that you can own. As a plus the Adalo Experts team wants to make the best experience for prospective clients, so unique on point offerings will rank higher.
Other tips for finding new leads for your freelance or agency business
While all of us at Adalo are proud of the Adalo Experts program, your Adalo.com microsite is just one source of leads. As Adalo Expert Erik Goins from Flywheel shares on his Adalo App Academy course ‘Anywhere that someone can find you helps them to hire you’. Here are a few tips that Adalo Experts have shared on strategies they use to maximize their income leads.
Remember to highlight your credentials as an official Adalo Expert everywhere you advertise, it’s a great way to prove your bonafides.
Tip 4: Make profiles on all the freelancing platforms
While obviously Adalo Experts is the bees knees, we promise we won’t be jealous if we see your profiles shared on other freelancer sites like UpWork, Fiverr, CodeMap and Heep.
Tip 5: Build your brand with good deeds
This tip blew the Adalo team’s mind when Expert Zaylan Jacobsen from Wadalo shared it.
Zaylan, who went from private Adalo Maker to to Adalo Expert case study at the speed of light shares that Experts should
“Approach organizations that may not have been able to afford or may have never even thought of developing custom software for their specific needs. Whether that be a non-profit like a food bank, or a homeless shelter, or a church, or a school you can approach them and go 'Hey, I'm offering app development services and I can build an application for your members, or for a specific process, or something you are trying to manage in your business.”
“Not only will that help you to develop your portfolio, but you'll be able to add a great deal of value to your community. If you do this successfully where you solve the needs of that specific organization you will be amazed by how fast word of mouth travels, and how quickly that leads to more clients if you are really able to deliver on what you say"
Tip 6: Flat out hustle
Building on top of Zaylan’s point above, why not try to get some of these initial altruistic clients to give you some money? You are building value for them while any money transforms and professionalizes the working relationship.
For a physical example why not start on one end of the busiest commercial street in your city and go from business to business asking "what are your ideas for apps that would unlock your business?"
For a digital example you can try going online and looking for businesses that have shown they take value from apps, like gyms and coffee shops. You can share with them an app you’ve built that you ‘can customize for their business for a very fair price’ and tighten the sales pitch for each business you reach out to.
Remember, awareness of how no-code tools like Adalo enables apps to be built at a fraction of the time of normal app development is still not mainstream knowledge. Leverage your magic skills while clients are still thinking apps cost what they did five years ago.
Tip 7: Become an influence maker
Finally! A business reason for internet fame, where maybe all those internet points can actually be converted to cash in the bank. Clients like working with known entities: position yourself as a no-code thought leader and make clients feel starstruck when a big deal influencer like yourself hops on that introductory phone call with them.
While those of us in the no-code bubble may eat, sleep and breathe no-code, most of the internet still has no idea what no-code is… which means there are plenty of gaps for no-code influencers to hop in and build their brand.
Some example strategies include:
- The Adalo forum: Flaunt your Adalo Experts badge with a signature to book a free introductory call, then start responding to as many posts as possible.
- LinkedIn: A great place to let your aspiring tech billionaire persona go into overdrive, keep highlighting the amazing things you’re doing so that when someone in your network is thinking ‘I need an app’ you’re the first person that comes to mind.
- YouTube: Several Adalo Experts have shared that there is a direct conversion funnel in creating educational content on Youtube leading to direct leads. As Paul NoCode says in his Adalo App Academy course "people will write comments on my Youtube video saying I want to build this" and who better to build for them than the video creator?
- Twitter: On platforms like TweetDeck you can follow several no-cde related hashtags, where you can make a point of hopping into conversations.
- Facebook: What business these days doesn’t have a Facebook page? Strategize your Facebook presence and reach out so that Facebook becomes your bespoke Yellowpages of businesses that could buy an app from you.
- TikTok: Creating fresh content for TikTok seems to be the content that gets the most engagement on any platform in the world these days. While TikTok is not an easy channel to unlock, if you have a creative personality you can make some interesting content that gets high engagement in the TikToksphere.
- TEDx: Are there any local TEDx’s in your region? No-code is revolutionary in how it allows many new personas to make awesome apps: why don’t you offer to introduce the power of what no-code can do at a friendly venue like TEDx, Impact Hubs or at University tech talks.
- Google Alerts: Are you specialized in some interesting Adalo or no-code niche? Make some Google Alerts so that when anyone on the web is talking about something relevant to your skill set you can appear like magic and enter the discussion.
Remember, be unified in your online strategy. Have well positioned call to actions on all of your online presences and make sure that your profiles are always closing. Lean towards the augustus of thought leadership and being helpful rather than sounding desperate and annoying.’
Get ready to rockstar lead generation!
If you’ve gotten this far then hopefully your brain is buzzing with ideas of how you can add an extra zero or two behind your number of leads and clients. Check out Adalo’s blog post for Adalo Experts on how to respond to a lead once it’s active, remember to be data driven and organized in how you approach customer generation and finally bring your best, most professional and maximally charming self to every conversation you have with a potential client.
Good luck!
Have any thoughts on how to generate a lead that would be valuable to share with the Adalo Expert community feel free to share with the Adalo Experts team at experts@adalo.com.
