As a freelance writer, your marketing strategies can make or break your career. Are you chasing clients or are they chasing you? If you’re out of breath and not catching the jobs that make you a living, you need to rethink your plan and start deploying the marketing tools and strategies that will reverse the trend.
What does your day look like?
I was talking with a writer last week who starts out each morning on Craigslist.org and applies to every writing gig that sounds promising.
Next he heads over to the freelance writing job boards on his favorite forums to see the same jobs to which he just applied. Maybe if he’s lucky, he finds one or two new ones someone has put up since he last checked.
Then it’s off to Elance.com or Odesk.com to see the jobs he had bid on have been awarded to someone willing to accept a loaf of bread for a 500 word article.
He feels like he is spending more time writing proposals than actually writing for pay.
Do you wonder, as he does, how anyone manages to make a living in this business?
Maybe you are making steady money working for content sites. You go full bore 8-10 hours a day and yes, you’re working from home in your pajamas, but you don’t know when you will ever get a day off and you know any day the content site can change the rules on you and your passive income is toast.
Meanwhile, you hear others snickering.
They don’t work for content sites.
They don’t beg on Elance.com.
They claim they make more money per writing hour than you do in a day.
How are they doing it?
It all comes down to their marketing strategies.
Here are the basic marketing tools you should be leveraging to grow your writing business and turn the model around so clients are competing for your time and attention.
Freelance Writer Marketing Tool #1 – Business Cards
Get them and circulate them. Somebody you already know needs a freelance writer and doesn’t have the first clue how to hire one. Stop letting cheapskates in Timbuktu tell you how it’s done and what they think you are worth. Start teaching local businesses how you wish to be treated. Business cards will let them know who you are and what you do.
Freelance Writer Marketing Tool #2 – Website
Not having a website hosted on your own domain is like not having a yellow pages ad twenty years ago. Maybe if you don’t want anyone to know about your business it makes sense. Otherwise, 21st century marketing requires a website. Fortunately, website set up is much more reasonable than a yellow pages ad. You can get yourself up and running for less than $20.
Freelance Writer Marketing Tool #3 – Local Business Networking
Getting out and meeting people in your area will expand your marketing horizons exponentially. That podiatrist down the street is desperate to stay afloat until the economy rebounds and he does not know how to run an e-mail campaign that isn’t spam. You are uniquely positioned to be his liaison for e-mail campaigns and web content and if you get to him first you will have no competition.
Make a plan to turn the situation around. Isn’t it time you were the one doing the picking and choosing? Isn’t it time you could relax and catch your breath? These marketing tools can add more freedom to your freelance writing week.
I will be exploring these marketing tools and other freelance writer marketing strategies in the coming weeks. Subscribe to my RSS or e-mail feed to be sure you don’t miss any posts.
Being a freelancer in any arena is tough. I can compare this to my photography business. Trying to convince people to hire a professional for something they feel they can do themselves is tricky. However, credibility and word of mouth help. Great points, Tammi. Business cards should flow through your hands like water.
Leah, I know. I get so frustrated when I talk to people who tell me they don’t need help with their content. Especially when I am thinking “Hello, I’ve seen your site.” lol (theirs, not yours)
Of course, I’m at that point myself where I do things I know I should outsource for lack of money. My e-book would have benefited from a graphics artist’s touch. All proceeds from this project will be applied to a good collaborator on the second one.
Like you said, the key is to get the cards out there, make the contacts and build credibility. Keep looking for ideal customers with more money than time. They are out there.
One strategy that has worked for me is pitching prospective clients. I have never used bidding sites because the pay always seems so low, and I stopped responding to ads because I rarely get a response when I do. I did get a few good jobs from ads, but the ROI was low. So, I’ve found that contacting potential clients directly is a good strategy. Posting ads and using PPC is also effective! I’d love to do some local networking but I’m not sure if I’d find much of a market for my services in Japan.
.-= Kathleen O’Connor´s last blog ..Why I’m Unsubscribing from Your Blog =-.
Kathleen, I agree that pitching targeted customers is the way to go. I am working on a pitch for a local merchant this week. He tells me he has thousands of e-mail addresses he has been collecting for years, but no idea how to use them.
I have moved around a lot. I can appreciate the uncertainty you face with local networking in a new home. I believe you will have a good perspective to offer expat, relocation and travel sites. You may find you can help Japanese businesses communicate more effectively with an English speaking audience. I am sure you will find your sweet spot.
Maybe your proposal format/strategy is something you could offer businesses as a service or e-book on your site. “Let me hone your pitch” or something like that.