Freelancefolder

Solve the Common Marketing Problems that Bug Most Freelancers

Posted January 19, 2010 in Business, Marketing

As a freelancer, you probably have a great deal of expertise in what you do. Whether it’s programming, web development, graphic design, freelance writing, or some other field–you’ve worked hard and honed your skills. Now, you may be starting to see some of the benefits of all that hard work.

With a few exceptions (those of you whose field actually is marketing), your knowledge of marketing is probably not as strong as your knowledge of your chosen profession. As a freelancer, you know that you have to market your business in order to survive. So, you’ve done what it takes. But, there are still a few nagging problems about marketing your freelance business that bug you.

It’s normal for a freelancer who doesn’t specifically specialize in marketing to struggle in this area. Here are four common marketing problems that bug freelancers (and their solutions):

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Seven Tips to Keep Your Clients Coming Back for More

Posted January 13, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing

In any business, existing customers are always more profitable than new ones. The same is true for freelancers. If you want to pump up your income, you’ll find it easier to get more business from your existing clients first, rather than looking for new clients. So, you should constantly be working to turn existing clients into repeat clients.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to persuade previous clients to hire you again. If you’ve been doing your job properly, they already know, like and trust you.

On the other hand, it takes much more work to find new prospective clients. And then, after you find them, you need to more aggressively “sell” your services to them.

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Bold, New Ways to Market Your Services

Posted January 5, 2010 in Marketing

A brand new year has arrived and with it usually comes new hope and anticipation for better things to come.

The post-Christmas adrenaline rush makes this a good time to try new things. Use this season’s energy to propel your freelancing business to new heights.

If you’re making New Year resolutions, why not include one to try at least one new way of marketing your services — one you’ve never done before? The scarier it is, the better, because you’ll be stretching yourself and diving into something completely uncomfortable.

And doing something new that stretches you only means one thing: you’ll grow. You’ll learn something new, you’ll get better at something, and your confidence will soar. I guarantee it.

Here are seven ideas for bold, new ways to market your services in 2010:

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5 Misuses of Social Media That Could Kill Your Freelance Business

Posted December 18, 2009 in Marketing, Social Media

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this year, you have witnessed the explosion of social media as a tool for marketing, networking and branding in new and exciting ways. What started out as a few different methods for communicating and sharing online with friends and family has spawned entirely new occupations, from social media marketers to brand management organizations to software applications for everything from backing up your social media profile to monitoring your brand online.

Word of mouth marketing has been redefined, arming customers with the ability to propel a good or bad consumer experience into the viral limelight and customer service representatives with the chance to respond instantaneously to praise or complaints that mention their name.

Now with the recent addition of real-time results to major search engines, the level of potential exposure for brands and businesses and even people by name has dramatically increased. All you have to do is type a brand name into Google’s search box to see the ramifications this can have.

In this post we’ll share some of the misuses of social media that can damage your freelancing brand.

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15 Sites for Learning and Mastering SEO

Posted December 14, 2009 in Marketing, Tools/Resources

We recently compiled a list of some of the best social media blogs on the web. Although maintaining healthy relationships and building a strong network on the web is crucial, search engine placement certainly can’t be ignored either.

We all know the impact of search engines on our daily traffic. It can be a make or break deal. With Google covering the most ground on search engine space and Bing slowly trying to catch up, it is a must for freelancers to learn the basics of search engine optimization. The key is to utilize both social media and search engines in a way that gets you the most from both worlds.

Here are 15 SEO blogs that you should read if you are interesting in mastering SEO:

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3 Ways Freelancers Can Benefit from the Big Brand Backlash

Posted December 9, 2009 in Managing Clients, Marketing

Every morning the masses drive through or stop by their favorite coffee shop for a cup of their beloved beverage. The demand for the perfect cup of java to start each day resulted in the growth of one of the mightiest brands in the business, and it wasn’t long before you could find a Starbucks as easily as you could a McDonald’s.

Soon, though, it became apparent that there could be “too much of a good thing,” and consumers started expressing their disdain for the massive chain store brands popping up everywhere and their preference turned to the “local” neighborhood coffee shop. People spoke with their pocketbooks. In 2008, Starbucks closed down outlets while independent coffee houses brought in new customers without cutting prices. A recent story about this from Reuters indicated that independent coffee houses now represent 54 percent of the coffee market!

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How to Monitor Your Brand on Social Media

Posted December 8, 2009 in Marketing, Social Media

Did you know that people are talking about your freelance business?

It’s true. The evolving technologies and transformation of web as a social tool means that people everywhere are talking, and it is critical for you to listen to what they are saying about your business.

The methods we’ll show you for tracking your business on social media are pretty simple, but they can provide a lot of insight as to how you can change your freelance marketing efforts to better suit the needs of your target market.

Let’s take a look at a few ways we can listen to what others are saying by monitoring social media.

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Five Freelance Branding Tips You Can Use Right Now

Posted November 25, 2009 in How-To, Marketing

Can you control what others think of your freelancing business? Do you know how to motivate potential buyers? Have you built customer loyalty?

While these tasks may seem daunting or even impossible, by properly branding your freelance business you can accomplish all of the objectives listed above and more. Good branding effectively communicates what your business is about, motivates buyers, and builds customer loyalty.

In this post, we will introduce you to the concept of branding. We will also identify five quick methods that you can apply right away to improve your brand. Finally, we’ll share some thoughts about branding that you might not have realized before.

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Know Your Clients: How To Build Loyalty With Customer Surveys

Posted November 20, 2009 in Managing Clients, Marketing

Do you know what do your clients think about you?

Many clients won’t even tell you if they are unhappy, instead they’ll simply stop using your services. You may never find out that anything was wrong.

Loyal customers are important to your success as a freelancer. Even if a particular client no longer needs your services, you want him or her to to speak favorably about your business.

One way to keep your clients loyal is to keep them happy — but how do you find out whether your clients are happy? The only real way to find out what a customer is thinking is to ask. That’s why customer surveys can be so important.

In this post we’ll show you how customer surveys can help build loyalty, and we’ll offer a sample.

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