One of the most important financial documents that freelancers and small business owners can perfect — are invoices. After all, a sloppy and unprofessional invoice doesn’t encourage your clients to pay you on time. And, that’s not great for your cash flow.
There’s another purpose for invoices; it’s a powerful way promote and market your business. Think about it. Your customers may delete or skim an email, but they’re bound to read an invoice to make sure that they’re being charged the correct amount. Use this an opportunity to convert that invoice into a lean, mean marketing machine.
1. Spreads Brand Awareness
Most invoicing platforms allow you add your logo and change the color of the font and background. By adding your logo and using your company’s colors, it reminds customers who you are, what you do, and what sets you apart from the competition.
In other words, it helps customers identify your brand, as well as reinforces your brand.
2. Proves That You’re An Industry Leader
When creating your invoice don’t forget to share a link to a free report of guide for your customers to download For example, at Due we’ve created several guides to assist freelancers so that they that can increase their chances of success. Besides reports or guides, you can share a link to a guest blog post, quick response code, or (QR) code (a barcode) with a video, or including your social media icons so that your clients can learn more about you and your industry.
All of these techniques are ways to demonstrate to your client that you’re an industry leader and that you deserve their business again.
3. Incentivizes Your Customers
You can also offer your clients a coupon or discount for future goods or services. For instance, you can include a message in your invoice for a 10 percent discount for the next writing gig for which your client hires you. It’s a simple and effective way to encourage repeat customers. And, they will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Another idea is to run a promotion or giveaway, such as randomly drawing an invoice number and giving the recipient a prize or gift.
4. Gives You an Opportunity to Improve Your Business
You can ask your clients to leave feedback when sending them an invoice. Asking them what areas you need to improve to help them — makes them feel valued, and shows that you really do care — but more importantly, it gives you a chance to make improvements that you may have overlooked.
You could also send a link to a review site and ask the client to leave a review about your business. Again, don’t take it personal if they leave a negative comment. Look at it as a way to learn and to make your business better.
5. Upsells Your Services
At the end of you invoice you can also remind your customers about the other products that you sell or give information about an upcoming item they may be interested in that will be available.
For example, if you are a photographer, you could mention that you also do custom framing. If you don’t provide some of the services that your questionnaire returns suggest that you need, then you can always partner with someone who does the customization that your clients are searching for — such as custom framing. In this way both companies can promote each other’s businesses on client invoices. You can then watch for an opportunity to add other services to your base of offerings.
6. Thanks Your Customers For Their Patronage
A simple thank you is one of the most powerful ways to sign off on your invoice since it adds a personal touch, as well as shows your gratitude for their continued patronage of your business.
In fact, adding a phrase like “thank you for your business,” to your invoice can increase the percentage of your invoice getting paid by more than 5%.
Conclusion
There is so much information out there nowadays that shows ways in which you can add value to your customers — including on invoices. Don’t be left behind on these very simple to add ideas that can overcome some not too simple invoice blocks.
