Today, being present on the internet and social networks is essential to optimize the productivity and efficiency of companies and, above all, of freelance workers.
The Internet is a great showcase in which freelancers can show their business offers efficiently and economically. Saying that digitizing your business is important and that online marketing is essential for any business, is a reality.
The proof is in the numbers: there are more than 3 billion searches a day on Google and there are more than 1 billion active websites on the net.
If you are not present on the web, you risk losing a flow of important customers that will benefit your competition.
Taking into account the large number of Internet users that there are currently (and more and more are being added), the use of social networks to shape your digital identity and have more presence on the web gives you a considerable advantage in the world of freelance work.
Therefore, today it is common and also strictly necessary for the freelancer to use social networks to get customers in quantity and of better quality. If you are not present on the internet, there will be a large audience of people who will never find out what you can offer.
Here you will find some places where you can advertise your freelance services.
1. Get Your Own Portfolio Website
The portfolio will often be the trigger for a client to decide to work with a freelancer. A good personal brand will capture the attention of the potential client and the portfolio will end up making them fall in love with your job.
A portfolio brings together some of the projects completed throughout your professional career and generally, those most successful projects are included in the portfolio and are a sample of professional skills.
Your freelance portfolio gives a real test to the potential client of what you can do. It is one of the most important tools in customer acquisition.
Many times it will make the first impression on the client and although the portfolio should help you get new clients, it will also be key in your personal brand.
There are different ways to design the portfolio. Among freelancers, the most common digital portfolios are made using websites (or section on the web) that showcase their work. Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress are some of the most popular options.
Now comes one of the key questions, what projects to include in the portfolio?
It can be very appealing to add a list of all the projects you have worked on but think that the potential client’s time is limited and you should make an appropriate selection that allows you to get their attention without saturating.
Get a creative and visually attractive portfolio that includes the projects that you are most proud of. When selecting jobs for your portfolio, think about what type of clients you want to target.
If you are looking for a particular type of project, highlight those jobs that are relevant to that potential client.
2. Start Blogging
In your portfolio website, you can also include a blogging section. Blogs are one of the essential tools for online marketing.
It allows you to create quality content of common interest, shows that your website is up to date, attracts organic traffic thanks to SEO positioning, increases your personal brand, offers recent news about the services you offer to clients and generate content that can be shared on social media.
Let the Internet users also become your readers.
You may think that blogging is not your thing, but even if you have no experience in this, everyone has something important to say. The purpose of this is not that you become a great writer, but that you can constantly share valuable content with the people who read your blog.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is optimizing a website to improve its position in the results shown by web search engines. That is, trying to get your site to come out first when users Google something related to the topic of your site.
The purpose of SEO is that your website has more visibility to get more visits, which can mean more sales, reach more customers, or generate more income in general.
The blogging tool is interesting and can be put to good use. It is a great way to demonstrate your expertise through tutorials and opinions for the community.
Also, it is an excellent way of giving back to the community by helping others. The blog combined with the action and promotion of your content on social networks will be the perfect tool to create a community that revolves around your freelance business.
3. Use ‘Google My Business’
Google My Business is a platform that has the purpose of promoting companies and businesses, making relevant and important information available to users. Thanks to this Google service, people can quickly find your contact information and the services you offer.
What you will achieve with this tool is to be present in Google and position yourself well in the search engine. When someone searches for a service like the one you offer, for example, “copywriters in” some “city”, you can appear in the most relevant results.
You will be able to give all the relevant information you want: what is the name of your business, what services it offers, where it is located (if that is the case), what is your schedule for the public, how they can contact you, and other information of interest that may be useful for your clients.
Using this tool, you can also manage the reviews and comments of your profile. Customers will be able to leave opinions about your business and comments on the publications and you will be able to contact them and respond to those reviews.
It is a very important point to promote communication between the company and its customers. You will be able to analyze the statistics of your company and check the number of visits, interactions, etc., that your business page has had.
4. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, with 645 million registered users in more than 200 countries. For this reason, LinkedIn is a great place for you to promote your work or service. On LinkedIn, you can use text ads, which are the most basic option to start advertising your company on LinkedIn.
To attract the attention of your audience and achieve conversions, it is essential to use clear and direct language, choose an attractive image, and optimize the headline as much as possible.
You can also use InMail messages. These work like LinkedIn’s private email. This advertising option allows you to send messages to targeted users through LinkedIn’s email client (LinkedIn Messenger).
By using InMail messages you can contact only users who use LinkedIn frequently, which is excellent because you will not waste your time with abandoned profiles.
Remember to personalize your message so that people feel that behind that text it exists someone who is genuinely interested.
Another option is to use sponsored content that allows you to share content on your company page and promote it to a targeted audience to increase the audience.
This option is great for expanding the scope of news about your services, promotions, or other relevant content. Plus, it is not limited to just text articles, but you can also include SlideShare presentations and video ads.
5. Join Freelance Platforms
Freelance job platforms are very popular with those who are starting to look for clients. On these websites, there are hundreds of people looking for freelancers who have skills like yours, so if you create a profile on any platform, you will soon be able to access the job options that are there. Some of the platforms you can use are:
Each platform offers different benefits and possibilities, but generally, there you can offer your services or apply for job vacancies.
Within each platform, you can grow your reputation, and thus you can become better known as a freelancer. If you do not use any of these platforms, you simply will not exist for a huge audience looking for freelancers.
6. Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are ideal for targeting a specific niche of people who have a similar interest to your freelance business.
Belonging to a group will allow you two things, to generate engagement with people who are interested in your services or also to connect with people who work in the same niche and thus grow your network.
Facebook Groups Will Help You:
- Share information and keep in touch with members who belong to the groups you have joined
- Communicate through Group Chat with any member
- Generate content so that members can collaborate
- Have more visualization in your publications than with fan pages
- Broadcast live through “live streaming”. Now you can even send them a video while talking to them
- Know who your target audience is
- Analyze and measure the activity of Facebook groups using statistics
When you launch a new product or promotion, you can spread it to those that you consider relevant, as this can help you bring traffic to your website. Also, you will be making it known amongst your target audience.
If you have a blog, an online store, or a web portal, you can always keep the community informed by disseminating your content through the communities.
But be careful, you do not need to go overboard with spam. The ideal is to actively participate in them and not focus only on sharing the content of your interest.
7. Guest Post
Guest posting is a practice that basically consists of writing an article on a blog that is not yours, but with a similar niche or industry, thus becoming a guest author.
It is a very common practice in blogging due to the multiple advantages it offers both the guest author and the blog that receives the collaboration.
Receiving a request to write on a blog other than yours, but on a topic that interests you, can be considered a good personal and professional opportunity to increase your visibility.
If you are not a well-known freelancer in your niche, participating as a guest blogger in a blog with more visits and greater reputation can open the doors to a wider audience and, also, gradually position yourself as an expert in the field.
This practice will also improve your professional relationships. Collaborating with other freelancers is a great way to build and maintain relationships with other professionals, making you advance in giant steps in your freelance career.
Guest posting is a practice capable of generating positive synergies in two directions.
At the same time that the guest author is benefited by this activity, the blog that incorporates material written by another freelancer in its content offer manages to get more traffic, gain links, greater visibility, and become known among the public. from the guest freelancer.
8. Instagram
Instagram has become the new home for brands, where engagement is high, followers are loyal to the brand, and real business goals can be achieved.
On this platform, you can create an account to publicize the work you do as a freelancer and you can also pay for advertising so that your content reaches more people, they know you and hire you.
In case you have a personal Instagram account where you post content about your work and a strong follower base, one option is to convert it to a business Instagram account.
This gives you access to all business features and makes the transition organic for your existing followers. Also, you can choose to open a new business account.
Before choosing the type of content to post on Instagram, you need to think about the audience that will see it. Once you know who your audience is, think about what type of content they would like to see.
Think about those accounts or posts that your ideal clients tend to interact with and what content those accounts typically post.
Define what you want to achieve using Instagram and how that would benefit your business. Knowing where you want to go keeps you on track and allows you to direct all your efforts to achieve real business goals.
All social media is about creating a sense of community. A relevant community for your brand already exists on Instagram, you just have to find it.
One way to do this is by interacting with the people and brands you already follow. It is important that you use the correct hashtags, those that your audience usually reviews.
When you configure the advertising, you must specify which is your ideal audience so that Instagram will show that advertising to them.
Currently, many professionals are building their personal brand using this social network. Do not stay behind.
9. Start Your Own Youtube Channel
YouTube is one of the most famous and used social networks. This platform has even turned informative or professional content into entertainment.
For that reason, YouTube is a great idea to promote yourself as a professional freelancer. Besides, videos rank very well in search engines, so creating videos can make you more popular.
Source: HootSuite
Many people come to this platform looking for learning, guides, tutorials, or advice.
You can create a channel related to your niche where you discuss problems or give recommendations on topics in which your followers would be interested, this will improve your reputation and your followers will begin to see you as an expert and a reference in the area.
This platform is linked to Google so you can observe the metrics of your channel and receive recommendations from Google so that your channel grows and reaches more people.
Another very important advantage of YouTube is that you can monetize your channel, this means that if you manage to get a wide audience that is interested in your videos, not only will your chances of finding new customers grow, but you can also earn money with your videos.
10. Twitter
Twitter is a social network where you can quickly connect with a network or group of people who operate in the same niche.
If you get to create a connection with them and if you also get other people outside the niche interested in what you do, you will have a perfect platform to promote your work.
Remember that social networks are also essential to spread what you publish in your portfolio and blog, so you must be present in them.
On Twitter, you can also pay for advertising so that a tweet reaches hundreds of people. Make sure that the audience you choose for that advertising is compatible with you and that this tweet contains some valuable information that attracts people’s attention.
11. Niche-Specific Sites
There are special websites and social networks for certain types of niches. It depends on the activity you carry out, sure you can be part of any of these websites.
For example, if you are a graphic artist you can use Dribbble or if you are a photographer you can use Behance. It is a matter of investigating what platforms are available to you and that you begin to get involved in a community of freelancers similar to you.
This will make you grow, connect with other professionals, keep up to date with what is happening in the industry, know the trends, among many other things.
But in summary, you can complement other freelancers who are looking for someone with your skills to carry out a project.
12. Craigslist
Craigslist is a site where you can post an ad for your business for free. The platform is very attractive and can be very profitable for you since you do not have much to invest.
The advantage of this platform is that there are thousands of people who use it and they do not have to be familiar with your niche to be able to reach the service you offer.
It may be that a person does not know anything about graphic design but is just in need of a logo for their business, so they will go to Craigslist and find someone who can do it.
This platform serves to be close to the general public, not only those who know about the work you do can reach you, but also those who have no idea who to turn to.
Besides, here you can also look for job opportunities on your own and it is a good option for those freelancers who prefer to have local clients.
13. Previous Clients
Make sure you care for and preserve relationships with previous clients. Even if you have finished working for them, it is good that somehow you manage to maintain contact so that they think of you the next time they need another service.
If you give them a satisfying result, they will most likely want to work with you again.
Some ways to keep in touch with your previous clients are through emails, calls, or messages.
Through these means you could inform them about special promotions, services or you can even create a discount coupon for future projects and give it to each of your previous clients, that will motivate them to hire you again and maintain that business relationship.
14. Word of Mouth
The experience of your previous clients will always be of great help in connecting you with other potential clients.
For that reason, you should never belittle any client, friend or family, since you never know who could recommend you and open a new door of opportunities for you.
Always try to give them the best service and attention because each client has the power to give their testimony to other people and recommend you.
Many people give importance to the recommendations they receive, and before working with someone they do not know, they would prefer to hire someone they already know who works well, who is trustworthy and known.
Expand Your Online Presence and You’ll Attract Customers
Each of the points explained has the power of influence to attract new customers and promote your business. It is always good to focus on one, but the best thing is that you can try several means or techniques so that you get better results.
The different places to advertise your freelance services can bring you different benefits, but in general, all of them will benefit your business.
Some will work better for you if you plan to work strictly online, others will help you build a network and others will fit you better in case you want to find local clients.
Remember that you must show the public that you are unique in what you do, that you can offer them a quality service that they will hardly find elsewhere.
Just as it is important to offer a quality service, it is also essential that you learn how to sell your work because that is how you will get more clients and therefore more income.