by Rachel Smith
22 February 2017
Not to blow my own trumpet, but I think I am a pretty good journalist and copywriter and have always had great feedback from clients. I just find I don’t get nearly enough work to actually feed myself. Is this happening across the board, or is there something I can do to change this? (Sorry for the ‘how long is a piece of string’ question). Anna
This is a recurring theme on our blog, and in a lot of cases, I think not getting enough work, or any work for that matter, boils down to one thing: not marketing yourself as much as you should. Some freelancers do struggle heaps, unfortunately, but I know of quite a few who are making a ridiculously decent living, even when things are a bit quiet out there or it’s tax time, or print titles have a freelance freeze. How? Because they market the HELL out of themselves, they’re good at it, and they never take their eye off the ball.
Here’s what that should look like:
While you may be shit-hot and the BEST at whatever it is you do, most clients and editors are not going to go out of their way to chase you down and throw lucrative projects your way, which means you have to go out of your way to find them and coax them into giving you work. I know that sucks, but it is what it is. Of course, when you DO find those clients and alert them to your presence and brilliance, be aware that they can and will Google you immediately. So make sure your LinkedIn, Facebook page, Twitter account, blog, online portfolio – or wherever else you promote yourself – is up-to-date. And offer a multitude of ways you can be contacted.
The once-every-six-months-missive-when-you-remember to a client lead that’s gone cold is not what I’m talking about. In your marketing strategy, you need to establish a decent reminder program that prompts you to get in touch with clients and editors at least once a month. (I’m personally terrible at this so I really need to take my own advice.) That might mean a quick email, a pitch, a mention of a WordPress update you’ve seen or a cool plugin they might be interested in. Or it might be a newsletter. I know freelancers who send regular newsletters to their editor and client base – and while that might give some of you the willies, it’s a really interesting exercise in keeping your employers up to date with what you’re doing, and perhaps even make them think, ‘Hey, Anna just wrote about X, I might get her to do a related piece about Y for my publication / website / blog’. The flip side is an editor / client thinking, ‘Why are you sending me this? I get 500 emails a day. DELETE’ but you’re always going to come across this, and it shouldn’t stop you putting yourself out there.
If you’re good at what you do, then BLOW that trumpet, Anna! It’s not only a great way to share your knowledge and set yourself up as an authority in your field, but it’s a bloody FANTASTIC way for potential clients and editors to get wind of what it is you actually do, and with any luck, hire you to to do it for them. How to do this? On your own blog, preferably, that you MARKET the hell out of at every opportunity, but you could also make use of LinkedIn’s publishing platform. You’re already connected on there to a wide network of potential clients, and it’s a way to stay engaged and connected to them. And hopefully, pique someone’s interest in potentially hiring you for their next project.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if all editors flooded our inboxes with offers of work at $1/word? Ahhh, let me just daydream about that for a moment. Right, back to the real world. You have to pitch to get work. You have to SELL ideas to editors – good ones – that will work in their publications. You have to offer value to clients. You have to help solve their problems. Do this and do it regularly, and I guarantee you’ll get more work. We’re currently revamping our pitching document for the new site (launching hopefully in April) which will help you track your pitches – stay tuned for more on that.
Have you ever heard it said that you have to put yourself in front of people six times before they decide to buy? That’s why it’s important to have a long-term marketing strategy that you are diligent in following – to keep yourself fresh in your clients’ minds, to chase new business and new clients, and to ensure you always have a wide pool of income streams from which to fish from.
Do you ever find yourself asking why you don’t get enough work? What do you do about it? How do you market yourself?
