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Top 10 Ways To Market Your Freelance Business Online
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To make your freelance business successful, you must market your services every day. You have to constantly be marketing if you want to charge rates that make you happy, and to get a constant stream of clients coming into your business like clockwork.
Many freelancers struggle with marketing their services online, but this doesn’t have to be your fate. You’re about to learn some proven ways to market your freelance business online so that you can earn the income that you secretly desire.
Here are 10 ways to market your freelance business online that never ceases to fail.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Have an Online Portfolio
Having an online portfolio is critical to the success of your freelance business. In your portfolio, you want to include previous works that you’ve done for past clients. This will give potential clients an idea of the results they can expect to get by working with you.
You can have your own website, or you can create a portfolio on a marketplace that is specifically created for freelancers. Having a collection of your work is non-negotiable if you want to get new clients, so make sure you have one.
2) List Your Services On Freelance Marketplaces
There are a lot of freelance marketplaces where you can promote your services. Some of the top marketplaces are:
- Fiverr.com
- Upwork.com
- Freelancer.com
- Behance.net
- Toptal.com
- Guru.com
- Peopleperhour.com
The benefit of being on these marketplaces is that they already have traffic coming to their website. So you can list your services along with your portfolio, and attract potential clients who are looking for the services that you offer.
3) Create A Website
Being found on freelance marketplaces shouldn’t be the only way that you promote your services. When you create your own website, you get to block out the competition and focus on selling to your visitors 1-to-1.
Make sure you have a section dedicated to your portfolio and list all of the services that you offer. If you have testimonials from past clients, be sure to list those also. This leads directly to my next tip:
4) Have Case Studies
Case studies are crucial to the success of your freelance business. A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular project that you’ve been hired to take on.
Case studies show how you’ve helped a previous client reach the goals that they wanted to attain. You can immediately be perceived as an expert at what you do, and people will be able to get an idea of the work you’ll be able to do for them.
5) Ask For Referrals From Previous Clients
A lot of service businesses benefit from the use of referrals, and the best part about it is that referral marketing is free. This form of word-of-mouth marketing lowers your advertising costs and makes your “marketing” looks more trustworthy than a traditional advertisement.
When combined with influencer marketing, it can help to amplify your marketing message and send a steady stream of clients to your freelance business consistently.
6) Leverage Social Media Effectively
Social media marketing can play a pivotal part in helping you get found online. You don’t have to be on every social media website – you just have to be on the ones where the leads and potential clients come to you.
A great example of a social media website where you should be promoting your services is LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn, you will find a large variety of business owners who could benefit from the freelance services that you offer. Make sure you fill out your entire account and profile information, your website information, and state the nature of your services on your profile.
7) Ask For Testimonials And Reviews
This is similar to the concept of case studies, but it isn’t as in-depth as a case study would be. Reviews of your freelance services will become incredibly useful on the freelance marketplaces that you’ve signed up to.
Also, testimonials from clients can be placed all over your website which will make you look like the obvious person to hire.
The simple act of asking your clients how they felt about working with you can generate a lot of positive feedback. Then, you can ask them if you can use their review as a testimonial for your website and portfolio.
8) Start A Blog
Starting a blog is a great way to build your authority in your niche. You can stand out from rival competitors by showing that you know the “inner workings” behind the services that you offer.
For example, if you offer services for content writing, you can start a blog about ericommon writing issues that business owners face, and provide solutions in your blog on how to solve them.
More than likely your potential clients struggle with writing, and won’t want to write a 1,000-word article for their website. But since you will sound like the obvious expert in your blog, and you offer content writing services, they will more than likely come to you first to have their content created.
9) Join Forums In Your Niche
Joining relevant forums in your niche is a great way to get recognized as an expert at what you do. When participating in forums, don’t promote your services right away. Your goal is to provide helpful information to people who are desperately seeking answers.
After a while of being on the forum, people will reach out to you to see if you can provide services to them. This is when you will want to tell them about the freelance services that you offer.
10) Run Pay-Per-Click Ads For Your Website
Another way to get found immediately is by running pay-per-click ads via a platform like Google Ads. You can lead potential clients directly to your website, and allow them to take a look at your services.
This is a great way to get targeted traffic to your website at a very low cost. You should also consider advertising on platforms such as:
- Microsoft Ads
- Facebook Ads
- LinkedIn Ads
Final Thoughts on Top 10 Ways To Market Your Freelance Business Online
These 10 tips for marketing your freelance business will help you to grow your business and get exposure to the services that you provide.
Remember that you have to market your business constantly if you want to achieve the most success possible, and following these tips will help you to do just that.
Soon you’ll have the thriving freelance business that you’ve always dreamed of.
Want to learn more about how to build your freelance business? Take my free online course Get on the Right Path to Freelancing here.
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Cover image by Image by Buffik
Randall Magwood
Randall Magwood is an internet marketing coach and the author of several marketing books designed to improve any online business’s sales and profits. He's the creator of the New Marketing Outlook Blog and enjoys studying internet marketing in his spare time. To learn more about how Randall can help your business, visit his website at: NewMarketingOutlook.com
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Randall, good to see you here my friend. Excellent guest post.
I am partial to blogging, as you know. When I did the freelance writing bit I landed a collection of clients – long and short term – without a freelance writing business page. Readers read my blog posts, enjoyed my writing and offered to hire me to write their content. Talk about the power of blogging effectively. I did nothing business-wise save write and email blog posts and receive payment for doing this.
Zero advertising, no marketing, no mention of being a freelance writer.
Once you gain trust through your blog, you can prosper while breaking many traditional business rules.
Hi Randall,
I love using forums and social media to soft-sell my business. I’ve done some paid ads via Taboola but it mostly generated traffic only. I’m working on more referrals through UpCity this week as a matter of fact. I don’t like asking for reviews directly too often.
Of course, blogging is a great way to showcase all of your work, and as Ryan said it is a way to build trust. People love doing business with those that they can trust.