In my last post, we went over someone’s blasting out of her availability over the internet. She was asking readers to share her post. Read Coattail Freelancing for the details.
Her marketing missed the mark entirely, for she posted it with “freelancing” as the hashtag.
Oh, sweetie. You didn’t.
Are you making similar mistakes?
Let’s see why this sucks:
First, the freelancer in question is barking up the wrong tree. Everyone, even those of us who have had damn successful careers here, are constantly looking for work (if we’re doing it right).
Second, as I mentioned in the previous post, we have no idea how this woman writes, what she writes, what she’s good at, what she’s bad at …. in other words, she’s someone who just walked in and asked for work without introducing herself, giving us her pitch, or even saying hello.
Third, there is an unspoken assumption — subtle, but it’s there — that we’ll just hand her referrals and work. We writers who are also looking for work.
Yeah, that’s not happening.
Hers is a common misstep, unfortunately. Plenty of people think that announcing availability is all that’s needed. But we need more than that, right? It’s ineffective marketing at best.
There are other ways our marketing could be falling short, though. It’s not always so blatantly obvious, either. Here are a few things that could be tripping up your marketing efforts:
Lack of consistency.
Show of hands — how many of you regular readers are sick to death of me repeating this one? I am, too. But honey, this is by far the most common mistake one makes when marketing. Your message should be consistent. Your effort should be consistent.
The fix: Send a well-crafted query or LOI to a specific, hand-selected list of potential clients. Then –and this is the big one — follow up. You cannot know who has seen it and was interested and simply forgot. You can’t know that you’re wasting your time because they’re not hiring. You can’t know them at all if you don’t follow up.
Too much consistency.
The same holds true for too much of a good thing. Sending an introduction to 25 potential clients a week isn’t necessarily a good idea. If you’re doing that every week (hint: you should be doing something every week), you’ll spend your entire life following up. It also tells me you haven’t put much thought into who you’re reaching out to.
The fix: Narrow your efforts. I tried to reach out to no more than seven potential clients a week at first. As the business grew, I narrowed further, contacting one or two a week, then one or two a month.
Slack marketing.
Marketing your business (that’s what you’re running here, right?) isn’t something you can do once and be done with. Looking for new clients only when you’ve got an empty desktop is a recipe for financial despair. I know. I’ve done that. I’ve learned from it, too.
The fix: One more time for those in the back — market every single day. Even if it’s following up with one contact today and sharing something another one posted tomorrow, make sure to stay actively engaged in finding work. It’s not hard. It’s a new routine. To make it simple, try tweaking your reach to five new contacts a week. Makes it easier to follow up if you’re sending a quick note to one, then saying hello on social media to another. I can’t build the perfect system for you, but I would start with what sounds manageable to you.
The wrong message.
Are you telling your potential clients what you do for a living? Are you giving them a list of your accolades and expecting them to come running for your help? They won’t. You haven’t told them the ‘why’ yet, as in why should I hire you?
The fix: Take the focus off you. Sure, give them some of your background so they understand you’re a professional, but make that message a call to action. Take “me” out of it and put the client’s “you” in there. As in “your message written your way” or “get your communications projects completed with the help of an industry veteran writing consultant.”
Not knowing the potential client.
This is a big one. It’s why the spray-and-pray method of marketing (see my second point) rarely generates good results. Sure, a blind squirrel eventually finds a nut, but wouldn’t you rather spend less time searching and more time in front of those who are more likely to hire you?
The fix: Spend five minutes on a potential client’s website. Find out what they sell, what type of communication they’ve favored, and what their messaging looks like. Look them up in the news to make sure they’re someone you want to work with. It has happened that some companies’ values are so badly aligned with reality that avoiding them is a better option.
Also, look for gaps in what they’re doing that might logically be filled by someone like you. Example: if they’re selling high-end flooring, are they giving customers a guide to choosing flooring, a primer on what installation entails, or a blog that explains the different types of flooring they sell? If not, there’s your opening.
Writers, how have you tweaked your own marketing efforts, and how has it improved your results?
What’s your go-to strategy for securing new clients?