EF #3: 🤓 Marketing Smarts for Freelancers

Hi Friend! 

I just returned from a fabulous dual-city Florida press trip (Orlando and the Palm Beaches) via the new Brightline train. (Feel free to check out my Southern Living article about it.) If you write about travel, you know that going on a press trip is not a vacation, though it’s always fun and full of great experiences—like the tranquil stroll through the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens pictured above.

A press trip often involves stressful/rushed travel days, an activity-packed schedule requiring lots of stamina, hours of social interaction (tough for an introvert like me), plenty of note-taking, tons of photo snapping, and late nights. 😴 But, like every press trip I’ve been on, this one was filled with great experiences. Plus, I got to meet a wonderful group of writers!

Connecting with these new friends reminded me that we are all on our own unique journey. We all have different backgrounds, professional experiences, living situations, health challenges, support networks, and financial goals/obligations.

But we also share so many similarities. And, just like in my yoga studio, the support we get from a like-minded community of freelancers feeds the soul. We get each other.

From balancing workloads, meeting deadlines, and dealing with rejection to nurturing relationships, pitching our services, and invoicing clients, we understand the freelancing life. We shore each other up, share strategies, encourage each other, and provide support.

We also share the understanding of how important it is to continually market our business if we want to thrive in the long haul.

Freelance Focus: Marketing Smarts for Freelancers

If you're like many freelancers, you might feel hesitant when it comes to marketing your own business. After all, self-promotion can feel downright awkward for some people who don’t have that “Look at me, Aren’t I great?” personality. And the fear of self-promotion can be daunting for others who might not have that “salesy” mindset. (I’m talking to you if you’ve ever thought, “I don’t want to come across as being pushy.”) Either way, the lack of consistent marketing leads to missed opportunities for growth and connection with potential clients.

In today's competitive landscape, visibility will make or break your success as a freelancer. Without effective self-promotion, your talent and hard work will likely go unnoticed in the noise of the crowded gig economy. Building a consistent marketing strategy plays an essential role in establishing your brand, expanding your network, and ultimately growing your business.

You might have tried to overcome your marketing challenges through sporadic approaches, overly aggressive tactics, or copycat ideas. What does this look like? Posting on social media only when you remember. Sending unsolicited direct messages with a hard sales pitch to a stranger. Replicating someone else's marketing without tweaking it to your personality, voice, niche, skills, and experience.

But these approaches often backfire, alienating potential clients and damaging your reputation in the process. 😳 Yikes!

In this newsletter issue, I'll explore a sustainable approach to marketing your freelance business—one that emphasizes authenticity, consistency, and value creation. Because what’s the point of being anyone but you in your marketing?

By showcasing your work, sharing your unique perspective, and engaging with your audience authentically, you can build a strong personal brand and attract the right opportunities without feeling like you're constantly selling yourself. 

Ready to confidently and authentically market your freelance business?

Change your perspective on marketing

For starters, ditch the idea that marketing needs to be “salesy” all the time. Sometimes it does, with a clear call-to-action (CTA). But most of the time, it doesn’t. Think of marketing as a smorgasbord of activities you do to establish trust, earn credibility, connect with your audience, create value, nurture relationships, differentiate yourself from others, and build your brand.

Perhaps most importantly, marketing allows you to build relationships. View marketing as an opportunity to foster genuine connections with your audience, including past and current clients/editors, prospects, freelancers, public relations pros, subject matter experts (SMEs), and other professionals in a variety of industries. It’s all about the people, people. 😉

Effective marketing also taps into the power of storytelling. Share personal anecdotes, struggles you’ve overcome, client success stories, or the journey behind your work. Share your blooper reel and your sizzle reel! 📽 All these stories help craft engaging, relatable marketing messages.

Marketing allows you to highlight your services and showcase how your expertise can solve clients’ problems or fulfill their needs. Just because you’re awesome (you know you are!) doesn’t mean others know about you. Marketing lets you tastefully toot your own horn. 📣

Leverage marketing to celebrate your uniqueness. Instead of trying to copy what other freelancers say or do, showcase what makes you different. This encompasses not just your skills and expertise, but also your personality, your background, and your perspective. For instance, I’m pretty laid back and love to connect through laughter, so I’ll try to weave some light-hearted humor into my marketing when appropriate. 😂 #boomerhumor

Also, when done well, self-promotion shouldn’t feel like you’re bragging or being pushy, fake, or manipulative. Instead, adopt an authentic approach to your marketing that prioritizes sincerity, transparency, generosity, and genuine connection with your audience. It should feel good to communicate who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

In other words, lose the incessant sales mantra: Do you have work for me? Hire me! I’m available. Right now! C’mon, you know you need me.

Create a marketing schedule that works for you

I mentioned this in the last newsletter, but you need to be consistently marketing, whether that’s a little bit every day or a few times a week. You can’t just “do marketing” once or twice a month…or when you remember…or when you have free time…or when you’re in the mood. (If I had to wait for the “marketing mood” to strike, I’d have been out of business decades ago.)

Whether you’re pitching your ideas to media outlets or you’re pitching your services to prospects, carve out time regularly to market your business. This builds your brand, keeps you top-of-mind, and helps maintain a steady flow of work.

Struggling to consistently market your business? Try to gamify it, like freelancer Poornima Apte recently shared on LinkedIn.

I find that the two key elements of effective marketing for freelancers are finding a schedule that works for you and engaging in marketing activities that feel right for you.

Figure out the chunks of time that work for your personality, energy, schedule, workload, industry, and business goals. ⏰ You might like to tackle this every day for 30-45 minutes after lunch. Or you might take a “one-and-done” approach by dubbing it Marketing Monday, where you devote several hours on just one day to focus on marketing your business. Or maybe you’d rather sprinkle marketing throughout the week, with time set aside two or three times a week to market your business. 

I market nearly every weekday morning for 15-30 minutes while I sip my coffee and watch Good Morning America. I find that, in the morning, my brain isn’t ready to tackle writing or anything that requires deep thought. (This might explain why I suck at Wordle at 8:00 a.m.) My morning coffee needs to kick in before a coherent thought happens. ☕  Anyway, because I’ve integrated marketing into my daily routine for years, it’s become a habit.

But that’s what works for me. Figure out whatever duration and cadence works for you, then literally block out this time on your calendar. 📅 Make it a recurring event, just like an appointment—and don’t blow it off. It serves as a gentle reminder that marketing is a priority. That’s the easiest way to ensure you’re consistently marketing.

Once you’ve nailed down your marketing schedule, you might be wondering what, specifically, you should be doing during this marketing-focused time. It’s time to figure out what activities resonate with you.

Find your marketing sweet spot

Discovering the right mix of marketing tactics might take some trial and error. What works for one freelancer might not work for you. Or maybe a tactic does work for you—but you absolutely hate doing it. (Hello, cold calls!)

Try a variety of activities to see what delivers the results you’re looking for. And—perhaps just as important—identify what activities you enjoy undertaking regularly. If you hate something, you won’t consistently do it, no matter how effective it is or how popular it is with others. You need a variety of marketing tactics in your freelancer toolbox 🧰, such as social media, emails, blogs, testimonials, newsletters, and referrals.

Here’s an example of how I do marketing that I enjoy. I’m not a big social media fan, other than LinkedIn. I’ve always hated Twitter (don’t even get me started on the name change), even though I know tons of writers find value in it as a way to connect with editors. I tried it, sporadically posting a few Tweets (now called what…Xes?), and just hated every moment I spent on the platform. It felt like a soul-sucking time-waster.

So, even though it’s super popular with other writers, I broke up with Twitter (so it’s my ex-X?).

Instead, I primarily focused on maintaining an engaging LinkedIn presence. It feels authentic. It’s where many of my content marketing and copywriting clients/prospects spend time. I understand it. It’s enjoyable enough. It’s professional. It works for me. 

Use templates

No need to reinvent the wheel every time you sit down at your computer. Save time and streamline your marketing efforts by utilizing templates when appropriate.

Whether you're drafting pitches, writing letters of introduction (LOIs), crafting social media posts, or designing promotional materials, templates provide a foundation to work from, eliminating the need to start from scratch with every task. By using templates, you can maintain consistency in your messaging and branding while maximizing efficiency. Plus, templates allow you to focus on refining your content rather than spending precious time on formatting or structure. So, embrace the power of templates and make your marketing process smoother and more productive. 

I’d love to hear your take on this! Send me an email to let me know your favorite marketing ideas. I’m at [email protected].

Mindset Matters

Tools & Resources

Build your own freelance toolkit by exploring the Resources page on the Expert•ish Freelancer website. I’ll be regularly adding a variety of resources that I use or have heard good things about, such as tools/services, podcasts, books, websites, etc. Plus, I’ll be adding my own checklists, tip sheets, and templates—like the infographic 10 Steps to Kickstart Your Freelance Writing Journey—perfect for newbies as well as experienced freelancers who might need to revisit some of the basics. As a newsletter subscriber, you’ll be the first to know about these resources—many of which won’t be publicly available on this Resource page!

High/Low

High: One of my subscribers recommended me in her own network of freelance translators, which resulted in dozens of new subscribers. Thanks, Corrine!

Low: I didn’t get any writing done during the press trip, so now I’ve got a ridiculously overpacked schedule this week. #planbetter 

Up Next

Based on subscriber feedback, I’ll be addressing these topics in the next few issues:

• Choosing or changing niches

• Dealing with money issues

• Diversifying service offerings

Thanks for allowing me into your inbox!

 I look forward to sharing my freelance journey with you, and I look forward to hearing about yours. Just like in yoga, I’m just here as your guide. 🧘 Take what works for you, and tweak it to your needs. Rinse. Repeat.

In the meantime….

Be kind. Do good. Give thanks. 😊

With gratitude,
Lisa

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