27 Apr
Digital marketing can be a powerful way to grow a business, but it’s also an additional skill that is not practiced by all freelancers.
Freelancers have to work for their clients, but they also want their work to get promoted. Moreover, Digital marketing encompasses a wide variety of marketing tactics and technologies used to reach consumers online.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.
Moreover, Digital marketing, also called online marketing. It is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel.
What are the different types of digital marketing?
There are several types of digital marketing, and some of these are more technical than others.
1. Content marketing
Content marketing uses storytelling and information sharing to increase brand awareness. Ultimately, the goal is to have the reader take an action towards becoming a customer, such as requesting more information, signing up for an email list, or making a purchase. “Content” can mean blog posts, resources like white papers and e-books, digital video, podcasts, and much more.
Moreover, Content marketing is about building a sustainable, trusting relationship with your customers that can potentially lead to many sales over time, not just making a single transaction. It can be further categorized into content strategy, writing, and distribution.
- Strategy: With content strategy, you’re mapping out your client’s content plan. The goal is to figure out what type of content will appeal to your client’s target audience the most, and drive them to take a certain action. (Sign up for a newsletter? Follow your client on social media? Buy a product?)
- Writing: Then there’s content writing, which is, well, writing! Most freelancers choose to specialize on a single or a few content types, there’s plenty to pick from, including blog articles, whitepapers, eBooks, website copy, landing pages, and more.
- Distribution: It entails promoting your client’s content, and driving visitors back to their site. There are various techniques that you can utilize here, including content syndication, posting on social media channels, blogger outreach, and more.
2. Social media
This includes everything a business does via social media channels. Just about everyone is familiar with social media, but marketers must approach social with an integrated and strategic approach. Social media marketing goes far beyond simply creating posts for social channels and responding to comments.
Furthermore, Social media might sound easy, but there’s a science to it among other things, you’ll have to be well-versed in how to optimize your posts for maximum reach and engagement.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The goal of SEO is to get a business to rank higher in Google search results, ultimately increasing search engine traffic to the business’s website. To accomplish this, SEO marketers research words and phrases consumers are using to search for information online, and use those terms in their own content.
There’s a lot to unpack with this particular branch of digital marketing there’s keyword research, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and more. Seeing as consumers are increasingly researching products and services online before making a purchase, companies are now investing more time and money on SEO.
4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Don’t confuse SEM with SEO, SEO deals with getting a client’s website to rank organically, but SEM involves increasing a client’s visibility on search engines using paid methods such as PPC ads. PPC ads are a key part of most companies’ digital marketing strategies, and they’re particularly useful for anyone who’s looking to increase their sales and revenue within a short period of time.
5. Email marketing
Email is one of the most effective marketing techniques. Email marketing pros not only know how to create compelling campaigns, they also understand optimal audience outreach and are skilled at analyzing customer interactions and data, and making strategic decisions based on that data.
Additionally, Email marketing software can offer many different analytical measures, but two that marketers are always striving to improve are the open rate –the percentage of recipients who opened the email – and the click through rate – the number of recipients who opened the email and clicked on a link in the email.
6. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click refers to paid advertisements and promoted search engine results. This is a short-term form of digital marketing, meaning that once you are no longer paying, the ad no longer exists. Like SEO, PPC is a way to increase search traffic to a business online. When you set up a pay-per-click campaign, you will also be able to choose whether you want your ad or promoted results to be shown to users all over the world, or only within a specific geographic area.
Pros and cons of freelance digital marketing
Now that you’re up to speed on the different types of digital marketing, let’s discuss the pros and cons of freelancing in this industry.
Pros
Here are the pros:
- You have no boss
- You can decide when you want to work
- You can decide where you want to work
- Every project is different; you’ll never get bored
- You get to decide how much you earn — your pay isn’t restricted by some lame rule that says that salary increments are capped at a maximum of 5% per year.
To sum it all up, the beauty of freelance marketing lies in the fact that you can do it on your own terms, in your own way.
Cons
There are several cons of freelance digital marketing as well. These include:
- Competition is stiff. Assuming you’re going to reach out to clients on freelancer platforms (more on this in a bit!), you’ll have to stand out among all the other freelancers from around the globe.
- You have no fixed income. You might earn $5,000 one month, and then $500 the next. As you build your client base and get more retainer jobs, the situation should improve, but you still won’t get as much stability as you would with a regular 9 to 5 job.
- No one’s going to sponsor you to upgrade your skills. Things change really quickly in the digital world, and you can’t rely on your company to send you for courses or workshops that will help you upgrade your skills. Luckily, there are a ton of free online resources that you can make use of.
Digital marketing tips for freelancers
1. Focus on these four important website pages
One of the reasons that people trust businesses is because of what they have on their website. And no website is complete without these four most important pages:
- The homepage
- The “About me” page
- The portfolio and work experience page
- The “Contact me” page
Your website is the easiest and most direct way for a prospective client to learn about who you are, your skills, and how to work with you in the same successful way previous clients have.
You should include your value proposition, and proof, like a client testimonial on the homepage. A visitor leaves a page within 10-20 seconds of arriving. However, a web page with a clear and immediate value proposition is known to keep web visitors on a page longer and hopefully they convert them into clients.
About me is an important page where you show people what kind of person they are going to work with. According to a report, many people care about the company, not just the product or service when making a purchase. People want to buy from people. Authentic, similar, and likeable people.
The portfolio and work experience page is where you can show off your best work. Clients often want to see a sample of the work that they’re going to get, to see if your style matches what they’re looking for.
The “Contact me” page is key. This is where people can hire you, so it’s a great place to answer any outstanding questions to lay out the next steps and reiterate your value proposition. It’s also a good place to collect important information, like the budget, from people who contact you.
2. Create an online course
Creating an online course can feel like a lot of work, but it’s become easier than ever to sell your expertise. Online platforms give freelancers the tools they need to productize their experience and potentially introduce some recurring income.
When it comes to creating your course, keep a running list of the questions you get most often from your clients. Which projects come your way the most often? What information do you wish all your clients understood?
Each of those questions can serve as the pillar for a new course and most technology platforms will give you more ideas about how exactly you can package your product to sell. You can host online courses on your website or through another platform, and you can promote courses via social media posts, paid advertising, and segmented emails.
3. Create a client onboarding checklist
You don’t immediately start the work on the client’s project. Up until now, you and your new client have talked about things like your skills, the types of projects they have in mind, and the cost you agreed on for your services. You made a general plan for your work together. A client onboarding process can make sure that everyone is on the same page. More importantly, onboarding is where you show new clients what you can do.
As you begin work with a new client, you can upsell them on an online course, gated content, and other helpful resources. And as you start, it helps to have an onboarding checklist to keep track of each necessary step to sustain productive client relationships.
A client onboarding checklist includes steps:
- Send an automated welcome email with details about what to expect next
- Send an invoice email for the first half of payment
- Set up a shared project management tool for project progress visibility
The structure is an important part of any relationship and especially your client relationships. You can’t expect clients to follow your lead on a project if they don’t know what path they are walking. Clearly lay out a client onboarding process for yourself and use a checklist to stay on track.
4. Address these three most common client objections
Any potential client will have a question for you, and they are also going to come ready with reasons why working with you won’t work out. But remember they are talking to you because they need your help. When common client objections arise, it’s up to you to be able to handle them.
You can use your digital marketing to handle client objections before they even reach you. Your website copy, blog content, social media posts, and emails can all showcase how you deal with your clients’ problems. Also, when you are directly dealing with a client through emails and phone calls, being prepared with a list of objections and your responses can help with them over. Three common client objections you can encounter are:
- It’s too expensive: Instead of leading with price, focus on the value and benefits of your service. Circle back to what the client gets with your offering, and the problems or pain points it solves.
- You don’t understand my business: Respond with curiosity instead of getting defensive. Agree with them and let it be known that you want to learn about their business, then ask them to tell you about it.
- I don’t have the time or resources for this right now: Instead of asking them when the best time to talk later is, ask them what time and resources they DO have right now. This helps you learn what support you can offer them in the meantime.
5. Send automated follow-up and thank you emails to clients
To build a relationship with the client you’ll need to send certain emails. During a project, you should send multiple check-in emails. After a project is done, you should still keep in contact with clients through follow-up and thank you emails.
Follow-up emails can go to past clients that you want to work with again. In many email marketing platforms, you can find customizable follow-up email templates to cut down on communication time for you.
When you have a new client, it’s important to build on your existing relationship and keep communication open. Sending a personal thank you note after you complete a client’s first project shows that you care.
Personalized, thoughtful communication is the root of good customer experiences and a big reason why clients continue to work with businesses. However, it can sound like a lot of time-consuming work to send out all of the necessary types of emails to clients. Automation exists to help you send every email you need without extra work from you.
Final thoughts
There are tons of freelance marketers out there, and it’s not easy to stand out in this crowded space. Since digital marketing is a rapidly changing space and it is imperative for companies to stay up to date on new and emerging strategies.
There are many ways that companies do this, some of which are the responsibility of digital marketers and some of which is done by other departments. The key is to offer your clients something that’s truly valuable to them, and to persevere instead of quitting early in the game. Best of luck!