How do I reach good clients with a decent budget when I don't have one?

I’ve been doing B2B marketing for about 8 years now. I freelance and run a small firm with just myself and a 1099 employee. We mostly handle outbound marketing and consultations for clients, like cold emails, phone calls, LinkedIn messages, and event promotion. Most of our leads come from third-party platforms like UpWork, and occasionally we get inbound inquiries or referrals.

Right now, we’re getting a decent amount of inquiries, but the problem is that many are from startups with little money, or they’re in saturated markets like IT or software development. Some clients target only enterprise-level accounts but don’t really have a product advantage (no case studies, reviews, or anything beyond price).

I know I can get them results, but it takes a lot of effort from my team and me, and the profit isn’t enough to scale. And since we’re so focused on client work, we don’t have time to do our own marketing.

Ideally, I’d prefer working with clients who already have warm leads and need help reaching out, or have an offer that could be profitable even with cold outreach. These are the kinds of campaigns my team and I have seen the most success with.

I’ve been looking into targeted advertising, but the cost per click (CPC) for the industries I’m targeting can go as high as $14 per click. For example, Private Equity clients on the buy side who reach out to small companies about selling. I even spoke to Google directly, and they estimated $280 per lead (I’m currently getting leads for $6-$12, or even free).

I knew quality clients would cost more, but I didn’t realize it would be that much more expensive. Even if these clients pay 3X what I’m charging now, I don’t have enough capital to make that initial investment.

I can’t afford to pay $300 per lead (at a 25% close rate, I’d need to spend $1200 to get one client). I understand this is how I’d grow, but I don’t see how I could get there without taking out a loan for the startup capital.

The other approach I’ve found somewhat effective is running awareness campaigns on LinkedIn, seeing who interacts, and then reaching out. But that still requires a lot of manual work, and with everything else going on, I can’t scale that.

TLDR: Is there a way to get in front of potential clients with a decent budget and product without spending too much or doing a lot of manual work (no networking events, no trade shows)?

How do you manage to get clients on Upwork? I’ve heard it’s been pretty tough lately with offshore work pushing prices down.

Blakely said:
How do you manage to get clients on Upwork? I’ve heard it’s been pretty tough lately with offshore work pushing prices down.

All my clients are inbound, and since I offer cold calling, most people don’t want offshore services because of time zone issues and accents. I’ve also optimized my profile with SEO terms to appear in search results.

@Brook
Can you share some tips on optimizing my Upwork profile?

Blakely said:
@Brook
Can you share some tips on optimizing my Upwork profile?

It’s all about focusing on short-term gigs to build reviews. Set competitive, not super cheap, rates to look competent. Specialize in a niche area with decent budgets. Use keywords for the services you offer. You can either offer something that requires specialized knowledge or licensing (like engineering or financial assessments), or something others don’t want to do (like cold calling, debt collection, or firing people). Just make sure there’s enough demand because the competition will be low. Once you get reviews, you can start charging more. My current goal is to find bigger-budget clients without breaking the bank or spending too much time.