Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business 083: How to find direct clients using LinkedIn w/ Marc Lawrence
Do you use LinkedIn as a way to get direct clients?
If you haven’t previously considered using this awesome platform, then this week’s guest might just persuade you.
About Marc Lawrence
Marc Lawrence spent 20 years working in the corporate world - starting out as a motion designer and moving upwards to eventually have a leadership position in his company.
But ultimately, Marc found himself at a crossroads when he faced redundancy in his job.
The commute to work was becoming increasingly difficult and despite loving his job and the company he worked for, he felt that a change was well overdue.
How to make the transition between being employed and going freelance
Marc decided that he would like to specialise in creating motion graphics specifically for social media.
Despite having no experience running a business, no professional network and very few peers in the industry, Marc was determined to make freelancing a success.
He started his freelance career by becoming a Motion Hatch Mastermind student.
This helped him instrumentally with branding himself, setting up a website and figuring out the practical steps for attracting the kinds of clients he really wanted to be working with - which in his case was working with direct clients.
How to utilise Linkedin to get direct clients
Marc soon found that LinkedIn was a brilliant platform to form real connections with people. Though Instagram is also a great platform for motion designers, he believes it’s better suited to those seeking work with agencies than work with end clients like himself.
He started connecting with established creatives in different fields - motion design, graphic design, copywriting and more - and asking if they would be willing to have a quick, 30-minute Zoom call with him.
Much to his surprise and delight, almost everyone he contacted said yes.
Marc says that consistently engaging with people on LinkedIn - liking and commenting on their posts and being genuine in your comments - is one of the key ways to ensure success on the platform.
He also says that the best piece of advice he was given in regard to how to craft posts on LinkedIn was “write as though you’re talking to someone in a pub.”
He says that the minute he took a step away from the dry, corporate posts he’d been writing before and became more personable, people started to respond and engage.
How do I make sure my posts perform well on LinkedIn?
Marc has experimented with posting at different times but he finds that posting first thing before 9am seems to give his posts more traction.
Similarly, many experts recommend trialling posts that are published around lunchtime at 12-2pm and dinner time after 5pm.
Ultimately, how well your posts perform depends on your audience and what time they are online. You should spend some time trying different times and seeing which consistently perform well with your audience.
Other ways to drive engagement on LinkedIn include asking questions in your posts, posting external links in the comments of your post rather than in the main body of text (LinkedIn doesn’t like links that take people away from their platform), tagging relevant people in your posts, and creating a poll to find out your audience’s thoughts on a topic.
How do I make my posts stand out on LinkedIn?
As amazing as your animations may be, Marc says that there is a window of opportunity that motion designers are not taking advantage of.
One of his most popular services is creating animated written testimonials for clients - something that historically has only really been done in static, image form.
This is something that you can easily create from your own testimonials as well. Pick out the best bits of the text, make them kinetic, pick out a nice background and you have a quick, easy way to display the testimonials that are attention-grabbing and unique to you.
Case studies are also a valuable form of content. Take your audience down a journey from when the client initially got in touch with you, to the end result animation. If you can include tangible results and data as well as the actual animation, this puts you in an even more favourable position for potential clients.
Marc decided to offer one of his first-ever clients a discount on the package in exchange for 12 weeks of analytics data from the Instagram images. With this, he was able to show potential clients that what he produces gets brilliant results.
After 12 weeks of posting animated content on Instagram, the client’s revenue increased by 198% and their engagement by 500%.
Also don’t forget to put your contact details in your LinkedIn bio and make your headline stand out.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Lao Izu
As nerve-wracking as it can be starting on a new platform, or one that you have but rarely use, the first thing to do is gather the confidence to post something (our Social Media Guide can help with this!)
It can be hard putting yourself out there - but the more you do it, the easier it will become.
Marc says that the worst thing that can happen is that people aren’t interested in your post - and to bear this in mind whenever nerves, anxiety or imposter syndrome get the better of you.
Do you have a LinkedIn account? Do you remember to post on it regularly? If not, you could be missing out on an awesome platform to grow an audience, engage with people in the industry and attract exciting end clients.
Leave a comment on the episode page and let us know!
Links & resources
Download the free Social Media Guide for Motion Designers.
Find out more about our Mograph Mastermind program.
Find out more about our Client Quest course.
Find Marc on his website and LinkedIn account.
Podcast music licensed by Big Waves
Podcast production by the team at BE MORE Media