Marketing freelance work can be quite tricky. As more people enter the independent workforce and work from home, competition is especially fierce these days. Anyone in the current digital world will agree that digital marketing for freelancers is the key to creating and maintaining a business. Below are five critical marketing strategies that freelance workers need to embrace to boost their marketing and establish their businesses.
1. Strong Online Presence
Building a strong web presence indicator is a must for any freelancer who wants to be successful. Here are a few ways to establish and maintain an impactful online presence:
Create a Professional Website
Your website is a personal business portfolio that describes you and your work professionalism. It should display your portfolio and act as a marketing tool demonstrating what you can do as well as details regarding how a client can hire you. Ensure that your website is:
- User-friendly: Well-organized with a clean, professional layout that does not distract from the major subject of the home page.
- Responsive: It can be used on both the larger desktop screen and the handheld mobile device.
- SEO-optimized: Optimize your site with the help of appropriate keywords so that your site would appear on the top of search results page.
Leverage Social Media
Social networks are a great means of reaching potential customers and underlining one’s proficiency. Select those niches that are most frequently visited by your target consumers. Freelancers are especially likely to benefit from using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. It is equally important to share new posts, respond to followers’ comments, and join the existing discussion groups.
Utilize Online Marketplaces
Freelance websites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer can assist you with uncovering clients in a bigger pool. Develop elaborate personal web pages that may contain information such as skills, work experience, and recommendations from the clients. Search for projects and compete for tenders that best fit your firm’s experience and skills.
2. Network and Build Relationships
Marketing entails networking and is well applicable in freelancers’ businesses. Interacting with other professionals means that you are likely to be assigned cases, work together or be recommended by them. Here are some networking tips:
Attend Industry Events
Attend conferences, webinars, and workshops that are associated with your area of specialization. These events are good platforms that give one a chance to interface with potential clients and/or partners. Talk to new contacts, swap cards and take time to follow up on the newly made acquaintances.
Join Professional Associations
One of the ways that can help to get recommendations is to join professional associations or organizations. Such societies quite frequently include occasions, boards and directories where one can possibly get to interacting with others in the similar line of business.
Engage in Online Communities
Get in touch with discussion lists and newsgroups of your field of operation. Contribute in discussions, provide helpful comments, and advise others. Reddit, Quora as well as specialty forums according to the industry can be effective channels in establishing your market credibility and reach.
3. Invest in Content Marketing
Content marketing for freelancers is one of the methods that can be used to establish credibility with a potential client, position your business as knowledgeable in the sector and make yourself noticeable online. Here are some content marketing strategies for freelancers:
Start a Blog
A blog on your website that can be updated regularly can be a useful tool in order to show others that you know what you are talking about. Discuss the issues that refer to your field, offer some useful tips, and present possible ways to solve the issues mentioned in your articles. Fresh content can also work for your SEO and helps potential clients to search and find you more easily.
Guest Posting
Contribute to other reliable industry-related websites and blogs. This may also assist you to have a large number of visitors and clients, as well as develop yourself into an expert in the respective industry. However, do not forget to put in the guest post at least one link pointing to your website or portfolio.
Create Valuable Resources
Create useful content in the form of an eBook, white paper or guide and ensure that they are updated. Make these available for download on your website, in return for people’s contact details. This can assist you to create an email list and cultivate leads that you are yet to close on your business.
4. Optimize Your Personal Brand
Personal brand is also known as the image of an individual and how that individual is perceived in society. If there is one thing that makes a freelancer unique from the rest, and memorable to the prospective employers, it is an objective statement. Here’s how to optimize your personal brand:
Describe Clearly Your UVP
Determine what sets you apart from others and how you can be of use to your clients. Your UVP (unique value proposition) should give clients the rationale for choosing you over your rivals in the interface. That could be Skills, Experience, a style of working or any other aspect which makes you unique.
Consistent Branding
See to it that the branding is the same in all areas. This comprises your website, social media pages, business cards, and any marketing material you might be using. Stay consistent with logo, color, and the language to maintain professionalism of the company’s image.
Collect and Display Testimonials
The information that comes from a client’s experience of using the services provided by your company is original and credible and builds audience trust. Make use of word of mouth by requesting satisfied clients to give their feedback and post them on the web page and on the social media page. It can be confidently stated that positive feedback from the clients will have a positive impact on potential clients and their decision to hire you.
5. Use Email Marketing Effectively
E-mail marketing can be considered one of the most efficient strategies for lead nurturing and interacting with clients. Here are some tips an online marketing freelancer can apply in email marketing:
Build an Email List
Gather emails from anyone that visits your website, people at events you attend, and any contacts through business networking. Rewards for subscription should be something like a free Ebook or such other materials which are only for subscribers.
Personalize Your Emails
Recipient-specific e-mails tend to attract a higher open rate accompanied by a better and higher click-through rate. Make sure that you are using your email marketing platform to categorize your audience and then communicate to them as different people. Target your broadcasts to individuals by their first names and be sure to personalize your message according to the subscriber’s past activity and preferences concerning your products.
Send Regular Newsletters
Maintain your audience base with the help of the regular newsletters. Post relevant information on your business, and in your industry, helpful tips, new posts, and more. Always make sure that your newsletters that you are sending are informative and not only a form of advertisement.
The Bottom Line
Marketing as a freelancer is not easy, but with measures put in place, one can establish a good brand and even attract more clients to their business. Invest in your brand by developing a strong online presence, networking, content marketing, personal branding optimization, and, finally, e-mail marketing for maintaining the audience engagement. Therefore by applying the above mentioned freelancer marketing tips, one will be in a good position to have a fruitful freelancing career.
