Almost every freelancer wins work through people who already know them. Very few have a plan for making that happen.
That’s the headline from two sources we’ve been looking at. The first is a new survey from Newcastle agency WE-COM, which asked 35 UK marketing freelancers how they find and win client work.
The second is our own Freelancer Focus interviews, where 13 North East freelancers told us how they got their first client and where their work comes from now.
The numbers and the real stories line up almost exactly. Here’s what they tell us.
1. Referrals win almost everything
In WE-COM’s survey, 94% of freelancers said they find work through referrals from their own network. Just 3% find it through a freelance platform.
Our interviews say the same. Of the 11 members who told us how they landed their first client, 10 got it through someone who already knew them:
- Jack Roberts was passed a client by a director at his last in-house job.
- Hannah Zora Strong was referred by an SEO consultant friend.
- Jule Wilson was recommended by a fellow freelancer, then met the client for a coffee.
- Jennifer Robson brought clients with her from a business she co-owned.
- Dan Evans started by helping small business owners he already knew.
The one exception was Jeff Nicholls, who spotted a watch dealer on TikTok, saw how their website could be better and sent a cold email. He describes it as “99% luck and 1% cold emailing”.
Most of our members still rely on referrals years later. As Sam Collier put it, people who know you and trust your work are your easiest sale.
2. Where the referrals actually come from
“Referrals” sounds like luck. Our members’ stories show it’s usually one of five places.
Old colleagues and employers. Ian Ferguson’s work has come from people he’s worked with in the past. His advice: never burn your bridges.
Private groups. This was the surprise. Jack Roberts gets 95% of his business from two marketing WhatsApp groups. Hannah Zora Strong became the go-to ads person in the Mums In Marketing Facebook group, and even ran a masterclass for it.
Other freelancers. Hannah and Jules both got their first client from a fellow freelancer. We refer each other more than we think.
Being visible in a niche. Sam Collier’s main channel is her weekly LinkedIn newsletter. Ian shares what he sees in messy ecommerce setups on LinkedIn and guests on podcasts. Lauren Archer Etherington does events, podcasts and her own PR. Hannah’s awards and a talk at BrightonSEO raised her profile too.
Local business support. Hannah is an Expert in Residence at the BIPC, offering free 1:1s to local businesses. She also picked up clients after being signposted through a North East Growth Hub interview. Nobody else we spoke to mentioned this route.
And underneath all of it: coffee. WE-COM’s respondents named 1:1 coffees among the most reliable ways to win work. Danielle Pegg Mowbray’s advice to her younger self was to go for more of them.
3. Nobody’s using marketplaces
WE-COM found 54% of freelancers had tried marketplaces and now avoid them, and another 40% had never used one. 83% said their biggest worry was a race to the bottom on price, and 80% felt the platforms don’t value their experience.
Across 13 Freelancer Focus interviews, not one member mentioned Upwork, Fiverr or anything like them.
4. The gap: spare time, but no system
Here’s the problem. If referrals are the only channel that works, most of us are waiting for the phone to ring.
WE-COM found 86% of freelancers have spare capacity most months. Their biggest frustrations were poor-quality leads, being ghosted after sending a proposal, and never having time for business development while delivering client work.
Our members feel it too. Dan Evans knows he needs to get back out networking. Jules Wilson says she isn’t great at making time for self-promotion. Jack Roberts admits that if his two WhatsApp groups disappeared, he’d be in a bit of a pickle.
The freelancers doing well aren’t waiting. They’ve become the go-to person for one thing in a specific community, so the right people think of them first.
5. What to do about it
Five things our members’ stories suggest you can start this month:
- Make yourself easy to refer. Be able to say what you do and who for in one sentence. Ian Ferguson says narrowing his focus to ecommerce and technical SEO made pricing conversations much easier.
- Get back in touch with old colleagues. They’re where most first clients come from, and they don’t stop being useful after year one.
- Pick one community and show up. Jack and Hannah didn’t join every group. They became known in one or two.
- Book two coffees a month. Low effort, and it’s the thing almost everyone says works.
- Look at local support. The BIPC are worth a look if you work with small businesses.
What NEFN is doing
We want NEFN to be the kind of community Jack’s WhatsApp groups are for him. Over the coming months we’ll be:
- Pushing our Slack channel for sharing overflow work, spare capacity and “does anyone know someone who does X?” requests
- Running sessions on pricing and on explaining your niche so others can refer you
- Adding a new question to Freelancer Focus: “How did you win your most recent client?”
If you work in ecommerce marketing, WE-COM has also launched ODD-JOBS, a marketplace alternative built on this research. Rates are agreed up front, briefs are scoped for you, and it’s free to join.
