As freelancers you certainly love the freedom, flexibility, and ability to live an independent life and earn extra income. The only thing that must make you worry is how to get more clients and have a reliable income. I understand this 100%The good news is that by unleashing the power of the internet you have a very effective way to market yourself as a freelancer, therefore attract more traffic AND clients.
Here below, you will find an infographic including marketing statistics, trends and data to help you realize how much the internet and digital marketing matter for freelancers, but that's not all! If you read on, you will also discover some of the best online marketing tactics you can use to promote your Fiverr Gigs and profile. Ready? Let's jump into it...
Blogging is one of the most effective ways to promote your freelance business. Here's some proof. Ramsay Taplin has turned blogging into a full-time business. And social media sharing tool Buffer used blogging to gain 100,000 new customers. Blogging is an essential part of content marketing, which is using different types of content to promote your business. Some of the benefits of blogging include:
Demonstrating your expertise to potential clients
Building trust with new visitors to your website or online profile by providing reliable information
Creating content that shows up in search results when people look for your services (this is related to SEO, which we'll talk about later)
Bringing traffic and potential customers to your site
Overall, blogging is one of the best ways to build awareness of your brand. So, how do you get started with blogging? It's easier than you think. We recommend you use WordPress via your web host, as it's easy to install and use. There are also plenty of Fiverr sellers who can help you with the technicalities. Once that's done, you can create content for your blog. Our best tip: focus the content on your potential customers' needs. For example, if you offer graphic design services, educate your potential customers about choosing suitable images as a backdrop for your designs. And if you're a writer, let potential customers know about the importance of SEO. The right content shows your expertise, and helps clients make the decision to work with you. Other tips to make blogging easier include:
Plan ahead and create a content calendar so you can draft several posts at a time
Consistency is the key to successful blogging, check out this 4 strategies for blogging consistently
2. Email Marketing
You might think that the popularity of messaging apps makes email marketing old hat, but you'd be wrong. It turns out that email marketing is just as popular as ever, across all age groups. That's why it's a no-brainer to use email marketing to communicate with potential customers. It's also remarkably effective. Email Monday says email marketing brings in $38 in revenue for every $1 spent, which is a great ROI (return on investment). But you don't have to spend anything to get started with email marketing to promote your business. Here's how you can do that. First, get a MailChimp account. It's free for up to 2,000 subscribers, and 12,000 emails. Follow the simple onscreen guides to set up your first email using one of their pre-built templates. Or hire an email marketing expert to create your own customized template. Grab a signup form and put it on your website. MailChimp also provides signup form links you can use in social media bios and in your email signature. Write your first email. The research shows that the most effective emails are pretty short, around 200 words or so, though you can go longer if you want to. A simple way to start is to share your most recent blog post, with a short introduction, a relevant image, and a link. As you get more comfortable, use email marketing to keep customers up to date with helpful tips, lead magnets, and special offers. Other tips for email marketing success include:
Write an appealing email subject line that encourages recipients to open your email
Include a clear call to action telling readers the one thing you want them to do next (like follow a link to your seller profile, for example)
Ensure you send relevant emails to each subscriber by segmenting your list. Most email marketing software includes segmentation tools
Avoid sending too many emails, otherwise recipients will mark your emails as spam, making it harder for you to reach anyone
Boost your emails open rate with those 5 exclusive tips you need to know.
3. Social Media Marketing
If you think social media is all about cat memes and inspirational quotes, you're missing out on a powerful way to promote your freelance business. According to the Digital in 2018 report, there are more than 3 billion social media users globally, and almost the same number of mobile social users. The same report suggests that social media is a great way to:
Figure out what your customers want
Create value for your customers
Keep connected with them before, during, and after sales
We agree, and it's why we strongly recommend social media as a key digital marketing strategy. To get started with social media marketing, choose the sites where your customers hang out. For most people, this will include Facebook, but consider LinkedIn if you offer B2B services, and Instagram or Pinterest if your business relies heavily on visuals. Make the most of your presence on any site by:
Completing your profile fully, including a consistent profile photo across multiple social sites. This will help customers to recognize you, wherever they connect
Using your bio as an elevator pitch for your business so people quickly understand what you offer
Adding a link to your website or seller profile in the bio, so social media followers can easily click or tap the link to learn more about you
Sharing helpful and interesting content, and keeping self-promotion to a minimum. Don't worry; if you get a reputation for being knowledgeable and helpful, people WILL find you to hire you
One way to get a quick win on social media is to share videos related to your services. No worries, Fiverr sellers can help you nail your social media strategy by covering everything from setting up your profiles to using ads for promotion. Check out my interview with Jeff Bullas about how to use social media to grow your business
4. Q&A Sites
It's no secret that here at Fiverr, we believe that Q&A sites are a great way to grow your freelance business. In fact, we're certain that Q&A websites are one of the best tools in a seller's digital marketing arsenal. That's because those sites are built around providing expert answers, and showing off your expertise is one of the best ways to win new and repeat business. Just as a sample Quora gets more than 200 million visitors a month. Attract even a few of those, and you'll be primed for a successful freelance career !Using Quora effectively is all about answering questions with authority on topics you know about. To get started, fill out your profile completely so people who check you out can follow links back to your site or seller profile. Avoid over self-promotion answers, and link to your Fiverr's profile or Gig ONLY when it’s natural and legitimate within the context of your answer. Are you wondering how to use Quora effectively as a freelancer? You got all the answers you need within the freelancer marketing guide to Quora I've recently published.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Need to bridge the gap between creating content and using it to get traffic to your site? That's where search engine optimization comes in. It's about writing and optimizing your web pages in a way that it's easy for search engines to understand and index your website and for people to find your pages within Google's SERPs (Search engine result pages)We get it: SEO is a large and complex topic, and you might want to get some SEO help to use it effectively. But here are a few tips to help you get started. Getting seen in search is all about being relevant to what people are looking for. The words and phrases (keywords) you use within your content and the way how you use them within your page Meta Tags and body prove that relevance to search engines making it more likely to show up in search results.
If you manage to appear within a search engine's top ten results for a specific keyword - or even better, the top three - then you'll get more traffic, more leads and sales. A quick way to find out what your clients are looking for is to start typing a search term into Google. The autocomplete suggestions are the terms most people look for. You can also use a tool like LSIGraph to find a list of terms related to the topic you're creating content on. Once you've worked out your topic, and the most important keyword phrases, it's time to include those in your content. Key places to use them include:
The title
The heading and sub-headings
Within the first 100 words of your content
The images file names and "ALT" tags
The meta description
Use variations and related terms throughout your content where it makes sense, and keep your content readable. Whether you're blogging, answering questions on Quora, or simply optimizing your Gig pages, SEO is one of the most important digital marketing strategies to master.
Done right, it will keep traffic and customers flowing to your site so you can have a successful freelance business. Feeling overwhelmed? Hire an SEO consultant on Fiverr and give your website the competitive edge it needs.
Conclusion
That's it! You now have a clear understanding of how much powerful the internet can be AND you have also discovered 5 highly effective digital marketing strategies you can use to promote yourself as a freelancer.
What other strategies have you used to grow your freelance business? Share your tips in the comment section below.
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