Like most freelance writers, your primary passion is writing. Makes sense, right? While there is nothing wrong with wanting to spend all your time writing, you cannot afford to overlook the marketing aspects of your business.
If you have yet to implement a marketing strategy, there is no better time than now to change your ways.
What is holding you back? One of the most common concerns among writers is as follows: they don’t have enough time to focus on both writing and marketing. While this can be true to a certain extent, it is important to make time for both tasks.
The best tip I can give is this: block off a portion of your schedule for nothing more than marketing your services. This could be anything from sending query letters to searching online job boards to making cold calls. As long as you are actively marketing during this time, at some point you will begin to reap the benefits.
No matter how well things are going for you right now, you never know what the future holds. Your current contracts and gigs could dry up in the near future, leaving you with nothing to fill your schedule.
It is important to market your services even when you have enough work to stay busy. This will likely lead to more work, but it also means more writing (which is your passion, after all) as well as greater profits.
Final note: you don’t have to spend a lot of time every day or every week marketing your services. You may be surprised at how much you can accomplish in a short period of time. One hour a day, for example, can do wonders.
Now do you see why blocking off time to market your services is extremely important?
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You’re singing my tune, Chris. I’m a big believer in making marketing a scheduled part of any work day. I usually give it 30 minutes or so right before lunch. It’s after I’ve chipped away at projects all morning and need to shift gears.
Lori recently posted..5 Marketing Myths That Are Killing Your Writing Business
True enough, you cannot just write and write without promoting or marketing. It is just a matter of having a good time management.
Connor Harley recently posted..How to Invest in Stocks
Great advice.
Marketing’s easy when you do it every day. You don’t even need an hour. You can do a lot on Twitter in ten minutes.
I like to map out a marketing strategy at the beginning of the month, then schedule the time to do it.
Angela Booth recently posted..Fast and Easy Advertising Tricks for Writers You Can Use Today
Sounds like a good plan Angela.
Hi,
I implemented Tuesday and Wednesday markets, although yesterday I was behind because I had to take my cat to the vet.
I like to block off a couple of hours on Tuesday and Wednesday so I can focus on marketing. In fact, I’ve been trying to find direct mail companies in Ohio because I’d like to reach businesses, but the ones we have are mostly to reach consumers. Maybe I just need to buy a list and send out my own direct mail. Has anyone done this? Did it work? Thanks.
Amandah recently posted..Stop Wasting Time! Go from Ideas to Blog Posts
Chris, you are so totally right about this. I’m not a huge fan of marketing, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to blow it off. Now I actually schedule my last hour of the day for marketing. My tush doesn’t leave that chair until I’ve spent 60 minutes doing something to build my business. It’s not fun…but it works.
Debra
Debra Stang recently posted..18 Lessons I’ve Learned During 18 Months of Fulltime Freelance Writing
It’s so easy to neglect marketing – especially when the project list is flush with clients. However, even when you’re rolling in work, it doesn’t hurt to keep marketing. Otherwise, there may be a point when two or three large projects end and you’re left in the lurch. I like seeing that all of you spend about sixty minutes marketing – do you do this every day?