Self-marketing may not be easy, but it is essential to success. And it’s not something you do when you have little or no work, it should be part of your daily routine. It’s about showing people what you can do, what your skills are and what you bring with you.
- Self-Marketing Tips for Freelancers
- Do good work
- Get involved in communities
- social network
- Build your online presence
- Visit events
- How To Self-Market Your Freelance Brand When You Hate Talking About Yourself
- Decide on a concept, not a name
- Get known as an expert, not a gamer
- Show, don’t tell
- Let others talk
Self-Marketing Tips for Freelancers
Here are five tips to help convince future clients that you are the man / woman for the job:
# 1 Do a good job
This may be pretty obvious, but it’s the first and most important step in promoting yourself. Being good at what you do and doing your job as well as possible really goes a long way.
On the one hand, it helps establish your name and skills with your current clients and can guarantee that they will consider you for a future project. On the other hand, word of mouth can spread pretty quickly. So make sure your clients are happy with your freelance work by doing your best and being the freelancer people will remember.
Self-marketing for freelancers
# 2 Get involved in communities
This is especially important when you are just starting out. As part of various freelance communities and networks, you will stay up to date on what is happening in the freelance world and ideally in your line of business.
In addition, you have the opportunity to get in direct contact with other freelancers and to talk about your experiences and exchange tips. Seeing how others market themselves and approach their work can help you figure out which marketing strategy suits you best.
# 3 social networks
Websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are great marketing tools and can help you connect with a wide variety of people. Use them wisely, however – show your clients what you are made of, but be respectful and professional.
Find out about projects you’re working on or clients you’ve worked with – seeing that you’re active on your profile makes you appear trustworthy in the eyes of potential clients.
# 4 Build your online presence
If you want to successfully market yourself online, the above pages may not necessarily be enough. However, you can step it up. Consider building your own personal website – especially if you are a web designer. Even if you aren’t, there are easy ways to create a personal website, tell people about yourself, and create a portfolio.
Alternatively, you can blog or post guest posts on popular websites to get your name out there. Here, too, regular updates are a must!
# 5 Attend events
Having a strong online presence is great, but face-to-face contact is still a must today. Getting a business card and attending various events or doing some charity work in your area can be very useful, especially at the beginning.
Alternatively, you can go to various freelancer meetings, events or workshops. Meet new people and build your network. The saying “It’s not what you know, but who you know” is true – make sure people know who you are and what you can do for them.
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How To Self-Market Your Freelance Brand When You Hate Talking About Yourself
If you don’t take self-marketing for granted, don’t worry! You can still apply. Keep the following tips in mind:
# 1 Decide on a concept, not a name
Just because you’re alone doesn’t mean your company has to be www.namelastname.com and your website doesn’t have to have lots of sepia tone photos of you gazing soulfully at your computer screen or looking important on a television broadcast or TED Talk.
Likewise, it doesn’t have to be just company photos and no personality. Instead, try to base your business on a concept that is unique to you.
# 2 Get known as an expert, not a gamer
Being boutique is often beneficial as it allows freelancers to excel in some things and distinguish themselves accordingly. If you do this and a little bit of it, it can dilute your brand. Also, no individual or organization is characterized by a million different things.
Having a niche also makes it easier to market yourself through content such as blogs, media articles, conference booths, etc., as you can begin to get “known” as the owner of a particular topic or issue.
# 3 Show, don’t tell
Social media may have plunged us into an era of SEO headline hunting and rampant click narcissism, but these types of emails are automatically deleted by most people.
Listening to a customer’s real needs, talking about their previous experience where relevant, and not trying to sell them things they don’t need are generally a much better tactic for building long-term relationships.
# 4 Let others talk
If not you, who will? Your customers, of course. Once you have a good relationship, start collecting testimonials from happy customers to ask for one. Like a good LinkedIn recommendation, a testimonial on a website and in offers looks professional and credible.
Plus, it’s proof that someone is willing to hire you more than once. If the customer cannot or does not want to be put on record, you should at least try to have someone named, e.g. Managing Director, Organic Food Company, France. Who else would think you didn’t write your testimonials yourself?
What has proven itself in self-marketing? Tell us below!
