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Building freelance or web-based businesses takes time. Getting good clients, making decent money, setting up a workable schedule – so much of it is up in the air. Oftentimes, work is hard to come by for a long time, and then you have WAY TO MUCH OF IT! It seems like it just happens that way. You’re either broke or you’re swamped.
Here’s a question that so many freelancers ask themselves… “At what point can I quit my day job?”
The answer – When you have to turn clients away!
But what do you have to do to build a client base like that? To build something that you can count on now and in the days to come.
I know what so many of you are thinking. “I have work for the next month, but what about after that? Will clients keep coming? Will I be able to keep putting food on the table and paying the electric bill? Or will I have to go back and find a real job again?”
I can assure you, if you do it right – you won’t need to go find a job ever again. But you need to take a keen interest in marketing yourself and your services before you can throw your apron and your timecard at your boss!
5 Ways Freelancers and Web Workers Can Market More Effectively
First and foremost, you need a website. That isn’t an option. Almost all of your promotion is going to take place through, around, or on your website. So I am not going to even add that to the list. If you don’t have a website, find a designer and get one up. This post will be here when you get that taken care of!
1) Define a target market
Make sure you know who your clients are. I’m not talking about a general, all-encompassing target market like “small businesses,” but rather a really tight, definitive market like “realtors.”
This will do two things: it will give you focus in your marketing and it will allow others to market for you. All your new marketing will be directed toward realtors, while your old clients will be able to refer you as specializing in working with realty!
2) Make free stuff
Free stuff is great. It costs pennies to produce and is usually worth way more than a free pen or mouse pad. Above all, people love free stuff.
I know you’re wondering, “But I want to make money! Why give something away for free!”
People like free. People like knowing what you’re good at. But people hate work. For this reason, it is imperative that you give away free promotional materials. One of my favorite selling tactics is to actually flood a client with information. I give them all the how-to books and manuals I can (with my logo on all of them). Then I ask them for the sale. They see all the information, realize it’s just too much for them to handle, and hire me and my staff!
Free promotional material can include:
- 10-20 page tutorials
- 5 page special reports
- a 15 page analysis with supporting graphs and charts
- an audio program or dvd
If this stuff is tangible, it works about 100 times better. There is nothing wrong with ebooks and other promotional items, but if you can get a real pamphlet or report in their hands – your chances of closing a deal are much higher.
3) Effectively Use Pay Per Click Strategies
Masters of Internet marketing will tell you it is the best thing since peanut butter and jelly. I for one like Internet marketing quite a bit. It’s the best way imaginable to get huge traffic to a site using relatively little money to start up.
On the other hand, a lot of business owners will tell you that Internet marketing is the bane of their existence. These people have pretty much wasted a ton of money and seen no real benefit. But I will let you in on a secret… They weren’t looking!
The difference between these two groups of people is analytics. The people that love Internet marketing actively manage their campaigns. The people that don’t manage their campaigns just see money flying out the door. They set up their accounts, put money in them, and let them go.
The most widely known Pay Per Click program is Google Adwords. It’s simple to set up, easy to use, and lets you play with great features like campaign tracking, funneling, etc.
Here are a few thoughts I have on setting up and running effective PPC campaigns:
- Don’t let Adwords pick all your keywords. Only use keywords that make sense. Keep in mind – Google doesn’t care what kind of traffic you get. They are in it to make money.
- Manage your campaigns daily, or twice a day. Check in and make sure your keywords are performing as expected. Delete the ones that don’t. Add more of the ones that do.
- Pick keywords that are cheap and target what you sell. Do research before you activate your campaign. One time I did a campaign for a gentleman promoting a “Safe Toys” ebook. The keyword ‘Toys’ was about $2.00 a click. The keyword ‘Safe Toys’ was 50 cents. We picked ‘Safe Toys.’
- Use the conversion tracking. Go through the tutorial in Adwords and implement the conversion tracking. It will let you know who clicked on your ads and what they did once they got to your site. Conversion tracking is a must!
4) Harness Social Media
Up until a couple months ago, I didn’t realize the implications of social media. Since then, I can’t stop raving about it.
Being that most of you are freelancers and web workers, social media is something you are familiar with. If it isn’t, check out sites like Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, Mixx.com and Reddit.com. All of which operate under the same principle – voting.
Using a voting system, people are able to suggest articles they like to other people on the Internet. Often, the topic and writing style play important roles, but the simple fact is huge traffic. If your site gets stumbled or dugg, you can count on thousands of hits that you don’t have to pay for!
5) Get Links
There is a common misconception that getting links to your site is difficult, especially if you don’t have any money. Nothing can be farther from the truth!
There are things you can pay for which will help you get your site out there. Some include:
- Paying for a sponsored review from a noteworthy website like sponsoredreviews.com
- Buying a text link ad on a site that your target market frequents
- Sponsor a website, whether it be by post or with a banner
But more importantly, there are ways to get free links and free traffic!
- Add your company’s logo and any relevant promotions in the signiture of you emails
- Do online press releases
- Post regularly on the forums
- Comment on other people’s sites
- Participate in a contests like one at Problogger or Daily Blog Tips
- Link from your social media profiles on sites like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, and Stumble!
Most Importantly, Figure Out Who Your Market Is!
I can’t stress this enough – find a target market. If you can’t find a target market, who will you market to? The whole world? All owners of small businesses? All teenagers in America? That’s a whole lot of wasted money…
Find something more manageable and branch out from there.
If you’re in web design, market to all membership programs in your local area. That might sound too small, but think about it. You have every professional membership organization, all the volunteer fire departments, city councils, networking groups, clubs, etc. All those people are in your target market.
After you dominate that market, move on to the next! I assure you – you won’t be working at your day job very long! You’ll have more than enough work for the next couple years…
How many of you have had success with pay per click programs or social media? Tell us your stories – we love hearing them!
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{ 8 comments }
Good stuff, as always, Ritu. Can I bang my gong, though and add #6: Write Good Content. The writing itself doesn’t market, but it makes repeat customers. One repeat customer is, in my business anyways, worth a dozen one-shots.
@Bob: The post was written by Jason. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment and adding one more valuable point to the post.
Bob, excellent catch. To be honest, the post was getting a little long and I had to make the choice of talking about marketing methods or getting into specific marketing practices :0)
More to come, though – I assure you!
Love your article. Easy to read and very informative and relevant! We’re working hard trying to help people Leverage their Influence on the Net. There is SO much to do …and So much to learn, but when you enjoy it, it makes it so much easier. Find your niche and run with it! Thanks again.
@leverage – You hit the nail on the head. If you don’t have a niche, you won’t succeed. Period. Game Over.
Running your own freelance business or web based business is ok, but if you don’t specialize IN anything, you won’t have the opportunity to be your own boss for very long!
If there is anything we can help you with – please let us know!
Jason, good advice. I left quit the corporate world to start freelancing 7 years ago, and the frustrating slow times are always balanced by hectic times when you have to turn work away.
I would be interested in a full article on point #2, “Free Stuff”. Especially the physical goods. Would love to hear of specific success stories. Also want more info on the vendors and tools that you have found useful for designing, printing and fulfilling these free items.
thank you!
Great post,
Really worth in spending time to read your blog and I look forward to read more from you.Thanks Bob!
When it comes to Inbound Links, I think some people under-utilize the use of forums and message boards. It’s really easy to drop keyword-rich text links in forum threads and control the content that goes along with it… Yea, the links aren’t worth much juice, because it’s a forum thread… but it’s still an inbound link, with a keyword you WANT to rank high for.
Of course.. that’s just one small way to get inbound links. There are many other ways.
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