Happy St. Patrick’s Day! And happy Blog-iversary to Words on the Page — for 14 years, we’ve been together. I thank all of you for helping make this a great place to share ideas and friendship.
As much as I love a good St. Patrick’s Day celebration, that’s not happening. There’s this pandemic thing…
So everything around me is closed, including the Irish pub. And liquor stores are closed. And restaurants, malls, hair salons…
And now all nonessential businesses.
There goes your work, freelance writer. Right?
Not exactly.
Business locations may be closed, but plenty of them are working from home. Some of them are short-handed thanks to schools and daycares being closed, as well. And all of them are looking to continue to make money while their physical locations are shuttered.
Here comes your work, freelance writer.
Magazines still have deadlines.
Clients still have blogs to fill, articles to write, communications to send out.
Potential clients may have lost their big marketing push when that large trade show was canceled.
So how are you going to make the most of this bad situation?
Offer guidance.
For you and me, working in isolation is called Monday. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday or…. For a client not used to managing remote employees, it’s a complete upheaval of the way they operate.
Reach out to your clients and offer some suggestions for making remote work easier for their employees. We freelancers have mastered the art of scheduling, accountability, teamwork, you name it. Why not send a quick note with some of the ways you keep your own schedule on track? Be the resource when they need it most.
Suggest alternative marketing.
The trade show that was their big money maker was canceled, and that client has no other big event in their future. Get in touch. Give them a list of options that you can help with, including:
- Webinar
- Twitter chat
- Viral marketing opportunities
- YouTube-based video series that links to their website
- Social media marketing campaign
Pitch articles on surviving pandemics.
Yes, they do need them — magazines in particular. Trade magazines, business magazines, even consumer magazines are looking for common-sense ideas that can ease the burden for their readers. But even clients that communicate with their customers (they all should, frankly) will look like a trusted authority if they’re able to get advice to their audience quickly. Hit them up with some suggested topics, particularly around how to weather it financially and how to recover once things return to business as usual.
Offer your assistance.
Now more than ever, companies are looking to get things done. They have to remain competitive, and they could well be short-handed. Reach out. Offer to help with the lower-level, time-consuming things, or help get the ball rolling on projects they can’t get to. Remember — be the resource they need right now. Even if that means doing some odd jobs that don’t pay very well, think of it as building trust. People will remember kind gestures and your offer to help, even if they don’t need it.
Writers, how is your marketing changing during the current pandemic?
Do you plan to increase marketing?
6 responses to “The Freelance Guide to Pandemic Marketing”
As an introvert who works at home, I don’t find the prospect of staying how for two weeks to be that bad. I should have enough groceries to last most of that time, and have plenty of work (or knitting!) to keep me occupied.
After a great start to the year, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I started to think this was it. Then I got a new assignment, one editor said they’ll have plenty to assign in the next few months, and another editor sent a group email to some freelancer saying she knows it’s a crazy time, but they still have a couple months worth of for-your-consideration awards coverage to plan—and invited us to pitch ideas. Phew.
Meanwhile, I just spoke with my sister. She’s a graphic designer who creates invitations and other materials for the client’s big, schmoozy, events. She’s hoping they might try webinars for some of them.
Oh my gawd, staying home for me is what? Tuesday? Every day? I get out when I can’t stand the sight of my four walls again, so the only thing that will change is that I’ll go for a drive and not leave the car. Or I’ll escape to the back deck. Or the chair on the front porch. Or the garden. Or a walk in Valley Forge Park. As long as I’m not near others, it’s all cool.
I just got two more projects, and a new client reaching out. I think this is our time to shine. 🙂
A fellow freelancer who specialized in HR topics said she’s been slammed with assignments — all about how the virus is impacting businesses.
What I’m tired of is this attitude going around that some people “deserve” to get paid and some don’t, according to too many of these “experts.” Yes, we’re remote, but we, too, have bills to pay. So this, “don’t market yourself, work for free” I’m seeing around pisses me off. The non-clients who say, “I don’t pay for this” on a regular week, or telling me I should be “grateful” to write for “exposure” are now saying we “owe” it to them to write for free. to “help out the community.” They’re not going to give us paid work later on. It’s going to be “well, I didn’t pay when you did it before, so why should I pay now?” even if it stipulates this is temporary in the contract.
Nor am I going to stop marketing my books, and I’m sick of people demanding that I put them all up as giveaways. I was considering doing a few of them (first book in series) as temporary freebies, but the yelling and demands mean I’m not.
I’ll do odd jobs, I’ll negotiate rates or temporarily give people a break, because we’re all under pressure. But, again, too many people are using this as a reason not to pay freelancers. They should be glad we have the skills and experience and can keep their businesses running remotely and keep money coming in.
And then they’re those who’ve always refused remote work, who are going around saying, “oh, it’s just like the flu. Everyone is making too big a deal.”
Or people laid off in other industries who are saying, “Share your client list. I want to make some easy money working from home.”
Over it. All of it.
Oh, absolutely. I have no idea why the people in your area, who could well afford to pay you, think it’s such a privilege for you to slave for free for them. Entitled a-holes.
Your idea of giving people a temporary price break is a good one. That pays back, and it’s a nice way to build goodwill with the clients you’d enjoy working with steadily.
I have a high school friend who has COVID-19, and has had for two weeks. Her description of her symptoms and her experience — as she put it, “this is NOT LIKE THE FLU. It sounds like a horrible combination of whooping cough (which I’ve had), high and unrelenting fever, and strep throat. And hers is a MILD case.
People who say it’s nothing are idiots. Sorry, I will not sugar-coat it. Idiots who won’t educate themselves.
And would you believe people said, “Well, were you tested to be sure?”
As she said, testing is not available to everyone. And she, despite all her symptoms, was not allowed a test kit because she hadn’t met one of the criteria — she hadn’t traveled overseas. That’s Florida for you. But that people are even remotely doubting what she has when her doctor and her own symptoms say what it is, well again, they’re idiots.
Maybe, just maybe, this will be a learning experience for some of idiot clients who think they have to observe freelancers’ work to make sure they’re doing it.