Freelancing is an exciting career to embark on because it gives you the freedom to work on projects that engage and motivate you. The key to making a success of it is to build a brand whose reputation precedes you. It may sound easier said than done, which is why we’ve created a list of handy hints and tips that will talk you through everything you need to know.
Tell the world who you are
If you don’t take the time to tell the world who you are, no one is going to track you down to ask you. What you need is a short and sweet homepage on your website that introduces your area of expertise. From there you can add an About Us page which gives a little more insight into the creative behind your brand. Think about what you would want to know about the person you were looking to hire online, and then weave it into your copy in a natural and readable way.
Engage with your audience on social media
Your audience is out there posting night and day, all you need to do is find them. If you take the time to engage with interested parties on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll soon find you’re getting new leads and inquiries almost every single day. Once you do that, you’ll hit a critical mass of daily correspondence that ensures new work is always in the pipeline. Ideal for turning your freelancing business from a weekend side hustle into a full-time job that fills the working week.
Connect with collaborators who will expand your reach
Collaboration is something many freelancers overlook, and when you take a step back and think about it, it’s hard to see why. Just because you’re working remotely doesn’t mean you have to cut yourself off from your peers. Take the time to reach out and connect with people whose skills would compliment what you’re doing, and before you know it you’ll be sending clients to one another and securing bigger projects.
Connect with collaborators who will expand your reach
If you don’t take the time to tell the world who you are, no one is going to track you down to ask you. What you need is a short and sweet homepage on your website that introduces your area of expertise. From there you can add an About Us page which gives a little more insight into the creative behind your brand. Think about what you would want to know about the person you were looking to hire online, and then weave it into your copy in a natural and readable way.
“I always stress the importance of collaboration to my freelance writers. Not only does it help them generate more leads, it also allows them to find new ideas and sparks of inspiration they would have missed otherwise” — says Marie Fincher, Head of Content for TrustMyPaper, and Lead Writer for PickTheWriter.
Keep your website content current
There’s no better way to take the shine off your brand than by populating your website with outdated and no longer accurate content. By scheduling a monthly audit of everything you have out there, you’ll be able to ensure you stay on top of things. Most of the time you’ll find there’s hardly anything you need to do, which means your online presence has been working well for you.
Focus on your niche
If you want to really take your freelancing business to the next level, you need to find a niche. When you start out you’ll soon find that a whole load of different tasks will be offered to you, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept all of them. In fact, if you spread yourself too thin you’ll find you become a jack of all trades, and a master of none. The problem with this is that you’ll never be able to increase your prices and position yourself as an expert because you will just become someone who takes whatever work is going at that moment.
Create a blog to position yourself as a thought leader
Having a blog is no longer a novelty — your customers expect to see one. This means that if you’re not posting at least once a week you’re not just missing out on new leads, your competitors are getting them at your expense. Take the time to craft readable listicle style blogs that are broken up into readable bitesize sections. They make for shareable content people love to engage with, and they’re also great for micro posting on social media.
Build an email list so you can market yourself
Building your brand is all about getting out there and making things happen, so what are you waiting for? Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to do it, and all it requires is a lead capture ad on Facebook to start building a list of potential clients and customers.
Showcase your skills with a portfolio
As a freelancer you’re not going to have the backing of your employer’s reputation, so you need to build your own. The best way to do this is to showcase your skills by building a portfolio. A simple landing page style one-page site is all you need. It will then serve as the perfect place to display links and images that show interested parties what you can do. By adding a couple of lines of descriptive text to each project you can make it crystal clear what you contributed. Ideal if you want to put your brand in the spotlight like never before.
Design a logo that represents what you stand for
Last but not least, you want to give the impression that you’re in control, diligent, and professional. By choosing brand colors, layouts, and of course a logo, you can formalize and standardize all of your content across the various platforms you’re using. It’ll help ensure you have everything in order so you can make a perfect impression that can make all the difference.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article has given you plenty of sparks of inspiration about how you can take your freelancing business to the next level. Any venture is about building a brand, and no brand was built in a day. You’re not going to suddenly get 100,000 likes on Instagram and find you’re inundated with more orders than you know what to do with. Steady, consistent application and effort is the name of the game here, and it will soon start to deliver tangible results you can be proud of.