The Freelance Introvert: Work the way you want without changing who you are by Albrighton Tom

Author:Albrighton, Tom [Albrighton, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC Business Communications Ltd
Published: 2020-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

6 · Marketing yourself

Self-promotion may not come easy to introverts, but it’s an essential part of freelancing.

Why you need marketing (even though you hate it)

Freelance introverts often find marketing tough. It’s usually because they think of it as ‘arrogance’, ‘boasting’, ‘egotism’ or something like that. When you’re a natural wallflower, blowing your own trumpet just feels… wrong.

Unfortunately, there’s no way round it. Unless you’re remarkably lucky with word-of-mouth referrals from people you already know, you will have to market yourself. So you’re going to have to toughen up and get used to self-promotion.

Some freelancers kid themselves that marketing is some sort of optional extra – something they fit in as and when, if they don’t have any real work to do that day.

It’s better to think of marketing as generating future cash flow . Your actions today determine your success tomorrow. The sooner you get down to it, the sooner you’ll see the benefit.

Another reason for marketing is that it determines what clients think of you before they get in touch. The more positive their impressions of you, the higher the deal zone (chapter 7) will reach. In other words, the stronger your freelance brand, the more you can charge.

Ways to find new clients

When you first start freelancing, building a client base can seem truly daunting. How will you find new clients? How will they find you? How do you actually get from having no clients at all to supporting yourself with freelance work?

Before you start, accept that your journey will probably take a little time. You will have to go step by step, and each step you take will show the way for the next one. But remember that everything you try will bring some sort of learning, progress and reward. It might not actually win you any business right there and then, but it will still help you.

Everybody’s story of freelance success is unique, and if you ask another freelancer how they got started, you may be surprised at how different their journey has been from yours. But at the same time, there are usually certain common approaches that everybody tries, at some time and to some extent.

Your options for finding new clients are:

Working for people you already know from previous jobs, friendships, family links and so on

Getting referrals from existing clients , where they recommend you to someone they know

Getting referrals from other freelancers who have too much work (where they pass the contact over to you, and you deal with the client direct)

Getting subcontracted work from other freelancers (where they retain direct contact with the client)

Partnering with other freelancers who have complementary skills and can bring in clients for both of you – for example, a web designer and a back-end website developer working as a team

Working with a firm or agency who need your skills to support their own offering – a digital agency, a PR agency, a marketing agency, a law firm and so on

Getting new enquiries from visitors to yourown website

Driving more traffic

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