A Guide to Marketing Yourself as a Freelancer

Everybody discovers their passions in work at different times. Another thing that people often discover is how and where they like working and when they’re most productive. In light of this, some have found themselves taking the freelancer path instead of full-time employment. It could be as a result of the flexibility it gives them to pursue other things or work from the comfort of their own home. Whatever the case, one of the most glaring things about being a freelancer is that there’s no guarantee work will fall into your lap as you’ve got to go out and source work for yourself. Here’s a guide to marketing yourself as a freelancer that could help you get more work.

Define Your Target Customer

In order to effectively market yourself as a freelancer, you’ve got to first understand who you’re marketing to. Sit down and ask yourself who your ideal customer or client would be and how you can capture their attention.

Another way to define your target market would be to use the internet to get demographic data which tells you where your prospective customers are located. Useful information that may help include statistics, credible research done by the government, trade and industry groups, universities or marketing institutions. Following your target customers closely is imperative as that’s where you’ll learn the characteristics you need to know about them that will help enhance your marketing efforts.

Talk to Your Market

Once you’ve been able to define your target market, you have to go on to talk to them. This is where the hard work begins as you have to develop a strategy outlining multiple ways to do this. Here are a few ideas.

Email: One of the ways you can talk to your target market is through the email. Despite assumptions that email is dead in this social world, it is still a powerful way to get people’s attention as email is used widely by many, especially professionals. You can carry out an email marketing campaign using the findings from your market research. Look at successful campaigns for inspiration and don’t forget to personalise your content so that it’s relevant to the user.

Social media: In this day and age it’s no surprise that social media is a tool that you can use to communicate with your target market. This could be a useful medium, whether your target market is individuals or businesses. However, each social platform serves a different purpose, so know which is best for your marketing goals. When marketing yourself on social media, be creative and share your strengths as a freelancer through storytelling if you’re using Instagram, for instance. You can use these platforms as a way to share your portfolio in an appealing way.

SEO: A third way that you could speak to your target audience is through your SEO efforts. If you have a website, this means using targeted keywords to help your prospective customers find you online. To fast track your efforts, doing paid ads could give you the visibility you need. Alternatively, you could outsource this to a professional team such as Caffeine Marketing as they are capable of helping with pay per click and paid search campaigns so you see quicker results.

Collect Testimonials

One of the most effective ways that you can market yourself as a freelancer is by the use of testimonials as a means of promotion. This helps you build credibility as a professional, as well as build trust. You could share these testimonials through any of the means mentioned above like email, social media or your personal website.

Marketing yourself as a freelancer is a lot of work. However, if you’re willing to put in that work you’re more likely to yield positive results. It may not happen overnight, but eventually, you should see a return on your investment.