Before I get into more complex posts on how to market your freelance writing services, I want to touch on some of the basics. Although I feel that it is very important to have a marketing plan, many aspiring writers do not agree. If you believe that this is a good thing, the following information should help you get started.
Believe it or not, your marketing plan does not have to be 10 pages long, full of graphs, and so complicated that even you get lost when reading it. Instead, you should keep things simple to ensure that you stay on track month after month.
My freelance writing marketing plan may be a bit different than others – and there is nothing wrong with that. Everybody has their own way of doing things, and as long as you achieve success through your system you are on the right track.
Here are the three primary details of my marketing plan:
- Marketing methods. It goes without saying that your marketing plan should outline your methods for drumming up new business. This can be anything from cold calling to creating a website/blog to query letters. In future posts I will be detailing all of these marketing methods.
- Goals. This may not be something that every writer includes in their marketing plan, but it really helps me. An example goal would be: send five query letters this month. While this looks simple on paper and many people may not need to write it down, it helps to keep me on track.
- Past success and failure. My marketing plan changes on a regular basis. One reason for this is that I am always recording my successes and failures. If something works, I note this so I remember to repeat the task in the future. On the same token, when a particular method fails it is also important to record this data.
You don’t have to include any or all of the above information in your freelance writing marketing plan. Just make sure that your plan is well thought out, and is built to steer you towards your goals as the days go by.
Great tips. Most freelance writers do not think about the business side of writing. It’s a good idea to create a business and marketing plan. These tools will help you and your business in the long run.
Too often, freelancers seem to slap up a half-baked site, not realizing this is a key audition piece for getting more gigs. Instead, take the time to make this a strong sales tool. Show you know how to help clients sell by taking the time to create a catchy, clean design with standout copy.
Agree with you completely Travis. Your professional site, your client-focused blog, etc. are all essentially portfolio pieces in addition to broader marketing tools. I’d take that a step further even and encourage freelancers to think about other marketing collateral that could double as portfolio pieces — white papers, e-books, and case studies for example. If you don’t have many client samples yet, treat your own business like you would a client, and show those marketing pieces off.