How to start freelancing in digital marketing, a comprehensive guide to building a strong base of customers - Sales Charm for Businesses
If you are thinking of becoming a digital marketing freelancer and are looking for the best ways to promote your business like a professional, then we have written this blog for you!
It is well-known that owning a freelance business in digital marketing is no walk in the park. You have many successful freelancers, digital marketing consultants and agencies. Every one of them has its own base of customers, digital marketing projects, knowledge, reputation and more. So, what can you do?
The answer is in the next comprehensive article...
We'll charm you with: what does it mean to be a digital marketing specialist, digital marketing skills and services, principles to run a business and in digital marketing, phases to start freelance career and business models that can be used.
Data for starting your own digital marketing career
Before we start to charm you with the steps, meaning and principles of digital freelancer. Let's postpone a bit on 3 industry numbers.
* Facebook is the most popular social network with over 2.3 billion users.
* Studies show, that digital marketers hourly rate in the United States, is between $51-$200 per hour.
* A digital marketing manager will make 72000 a year on average in the United States.
What does it mean to become a freelance marketer
You can look at this question from 2 angles. The first is from the business owners' perspective. You run a business which means: collecting money, finding potential clients, freelance jobs, building a client base and so forth. The second is digital marketing professionals' perspective. You deliver remote digital marketing services for customers, such as: content writing, search engine optimization, email campaigns, managing social media channels, digital marketing blogs, etc.
The difference between each freelance marketer will be their expertise, differentiation, niches they choose and their business model, including prices.
What skill sets do you need to become a digital freelancer
There are a few skills which are universal and compatible for each business owner. However, there are some that are more related to digital marketing specialists.
First, we'll charm you with 4 main skills (or characteristics) each freelance business needs to run his or her business.
Passion
How much would you want to get married to your business? More seriously, do you really like what you are doing? Do you have fire in your eyes each day?
In each business, you need to have a great desire for success. Each morning you have to recharged yourself with new energy for new challenges to come, and they will!
Patience
As everyone says, great things happen to those who wait! In each freelance career, it takes time to build your own customer base. To be honest, it can take years. Sometimes, you will have to work for a salary and build your business as a second job. Eventually, when you work hard to build your brand, acquire customers, maintain them and be an excellent person at what you do, you will succeed in sustaining and prospering.
Persistence
This is one of the worst flow of almost every human. We start by doing something and rapidly give up. This is why many people pay for the gym, and go for one month. Then, they "forget", they need to exercise at least 3 times a week to see the results.
As someone who sells digital marketing services, you will have to keep searching for potential clients, expose yourself every day, maintain your website, ask for recommendations and so forth.
Scholarship
Do you know those people who bum their head on the wall, but keep making the same mistake over and over? Unfortunately, we all know!
As someone who complied freelance services, you will have to examine what promotes you to accomplish your goals. Do my selling methods help me convert a prospective client to a paying customer? Do my marketing efforts drive more traffic to my website? Does the use of my sales funnels capture more leads? Of course, there will be many questions you should test.
As a digital marketing freelancer, you will also have to possess 3 more main qualities for success.
Creativity
You will want to find various solutions to the same situation. Think that you start managing customer's social media marketing. You want to see which platform, you capture more leads, what titles, descriptions, call to action and images receive more reactions, what is the best way to engage with prospects, etc.
In each phase here, you will have to think and test several options. Then, see what gives you a better outcome.
Analytics
Each action you will take, must be tested! As a digital marketing freelancer, you will run A/B testing all the time. Examine what titles drive more traffic to the website, what calls to action capture more leads or convert prospects to paying customers, what color of the button makes more visitors click, what is the best introduction in a sales video, etc.
Story-telling
You will ought to know how to deliver the message in every step you take. It will start with your own marketing execution. You will have to sell your services, convince paying customers that you know what is best for them, manage their marketing, etc. In each action here, you will tell a story to drive people's reaction.
The entire digital marketing library to start and develop your freelance business in a competitive market
Download multiple worksheets to build your digital marketing business for success. Click the button below to access.
Services you can provide in the digital marketing industry
This is an ever-developing industry. Companies and individuals are turning more and more to the Internet. They invest more time, effort and money into increasing their presence and digital marketing channels. Meaning that, as a digital marketing consultant, you will have more demand. However, there are many ways you can help them: email marketing, managing paid campaigns, on-page SEO, managing their ecommerce stores and more. You can also earn money from affiliate marketing and ecommerce stores you build for yourself.
There are many digital marketing jobs you can become an expert. We will try to clarify them by separating them into niches.
* Social media management- You can be in charge of LinkedIn operation, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, Google my business and many more.
* Ads manager- You will control the business owners' digital marketing campaigns paying for like: Google ad, Facebook paid campaigns, LinkedIn paid campaigns and more.
* Content creation- You are the copywriter of some or entire marketing activities, such as: social media content, blog content, email marketing campaign, etc.
* Search engine marketing- You will be in charge, in most cases, of a part of the SEO efforts like: On-page, Off-page and technical SEO.
* Digital marketing courses- This is a growing niche in digital marketing you should consider. You can either build your own course or manage the customers. You will take control of the user experience, content, online presence, etc.
* Ecommerce management- Here, you will upload and download products. Manage keywords that will rank your customers higher on Ali-express, Esty, your customers' website store, etc. You will, also, lead the store's content, recommendations and user experience.
* Affiliate marketing- You will collaborate with other suppliers and sell their services through social channels, online marketing campaigns, SEO, content creating and more.
If you want to read more about these roles, try this article.
General tips, for starting running your own business, in the digital marketing space
Before we'll charm you with business growth plan, we'll give you with a few general tips about how to start running your own freelancing.
Gain experience
Believe me, running a business can be a pain in the bat! You don't want to find yourself working in a role, you don't like. Additionally, you don't want to make a crappy job. Hence, customers won't want to hire you.
Begin with a junior role. Examine if you like what you are doing, what niche in digital marketing is most compatible to your skills and gain knowledge. Work, at least one year as a paid salary digital marketer. Then, when you feel ready, build your own business.
Start small
Invest the minimum effort to start running your business, including money and time. You really don't want to find yourself building palaces that collapse!
Explore what your customers need, and what the best value you can give them. Then, start building your business around this added value. Give only the minimum value proposition (MVP) to run the business and start selling your services to clients.
Follow mentors and influencers
You can read and listen to experts in your field. Additionally, you can do that with any other criteria that can help promote your business. Then, imitate the miles they have gone through. Search what are the key points you can utilize to your own benefit. Also, find what you can improve on your side. Finish with building your business processes in your own image.
Create relationships with prospects, clients and strategic partners
Unfortunately, you don't run the business in a hollowed market. You ought to build networking with anyone who can drive your business evolving. It means that, in any case, you will need to expose yourself, engage, prospect, search for potential partners that help to achieve your conversion rate optimization.
Register your business
The last thing you want is the IRS knocking on your door. You will have to send invoices, collect money, make an agreement, report your income to the authorities and actually run a legitimate legal business.
Analyze the numbers
In each business, including digital marketing, you ought to examine the numbers. This is the only way, you will comprehend that your digital freelancing is on the right track. You should have your Google Analytics installed on your website, and integrated with the Search Console application. You should also send yourself automatic reports using Data Studio.
* Learn how to install Google Analytics.
* Learn how to integrate your website with the Search Console.
* Learn what data you should analyze and export from Data Studio.
Concentrate on branding
Establish your own base of customers that trust you and are loyal to you. It is much nicer that customers want to buy from you, and you don't need to sell. Believe me!
So, how do you do that?
Sorry that we don't have good new for you. It requires hard work, consistency, patience and the will to learn. You will have to market yourself daily. Also, to promote and/or sell your services to customers. Then, give an excellent service. We recommend starting with easier jobs to build rapport with customers. In the end, you will need to retain your clients.
In the next section, we will charm you with a deeper understanding of how to build your business. This information will rely on the general tips being taught here, especially, on branding.
Bring your business idea to life in the digital marketing space
You were hired as a digital marketer for an advertising company, You worked for a year and then decided that you wanted to be a freelancer. Good for you!
Now, you ask yourself, how it should be done?
This is, exactly, what will charm you in the next session.
Make digital marketing efforts on what you are best at and like
You would have to decide in which digital marketing fields you want to expertise. Don't try to know everything because you would find yourself knowing nothing! Research which field you can be best at. This is the most important criterion you need to analyze. Then, also, think about which field you feel most connected. End with up to 2 fields. Prefer fields that are related to each other, like SEO and freelance writing.
The next step, is to acquire digital marketing knowledge. You can start for free by watching and reading many videos and articles on the subject. Such as:
* Neil Patel
* SEO PowerSuite
* Postaga
* Facebook Blueprint
* Squirrly SEO
Select the easiest market niches to penetrate or the most lucrative
This phase will determine the success of your business. It is that important! You should decide on 5 niches. Here are 5 examples:
* Weight lost
* Hosing and VPN
* Body building
* Finance
* Survival
After you find 5 niches to examine, you should finish, end with 2-3 niches. So, how do you do that?
Market research
Analyze the market worth, market size, number of competitors, number of dominant competitors and barriers. Prefer markets that have less competition, smaller number of dominant competitors, larger number of potential future clients or more lucrative.
Next, use the SWOT model. Analyze your strengths and opportunities. Combine them to conclude. On the other hand, what are your weaknesses, threats and where they might meet. Select spots where you have opportunities that leverage your strengths. Avoid threats that might emphasize your weaknesses.
Insert your email and download the SWOT worksheet. So you can analyze your business with this model.
End with how much money you will have to invest in penetrating the market. As a digital marketer, you probably, have to consider promotions and time to spend on marketing and sales. Choose niches that you will nees less efforts, and you will have to spend less money.
Future clients research
Think about who could be the character you refer to, your potential customer:
* Life routine
* Demographic situation
* Hobbies
* Dreams
* Pains
Then, build 2 customer profiles. You should write down in a Word document a few sentences on each one of them. Describe their life using the guidelines above.
When you have a clear thought about who your customers are, search for where you can reach them. Can you do that on social networks, professional websites, ranking websites, fairs, local stores, etc? As you can see, you can find them offline and online. Then, maximize your efforts on the platforms where your customers can be found, or can be engaged the most.
Differentiate your digital marketing business
By now, you should apprehend who are your 2-3 niches, what you should do to build customers' rapport and where can you find your consumers.
Next, you should evolve your business idea. Combine what the customers want or need and what skill sets you bring to them. Utilize the SWOT model for this purpose. Then, consider what added value you can give for your freelance services, how can you stand out. It can be:
* Business model
* New product
* Unique value
* Two qualities that create a unique value
* Combining two products or more
* Product design
* Eliminating a product's flow
Plan your client acquisition
After you know what your product is, it is time to analyze the target clients reaction. You will have to form a plan to penetrate the niche. This will be conducted by primary target, strategy, milestones and execution plan.
Primary target
In the early stages of becoming a digital marketer, you will have to start small to reach business goals. You will start with a pilot to analyze how the market reacts to your product, differentiation and added value. Hence, you will set a primary target to check product validation. It should be one numeric goal such as:
* Acquire 12 sustained customers at the end of the year.
Strategy
A strategy is the framework of every action you will take in your digital marketing business. It is a general description of your action plan. Here is an example:
* Find and reach prospects that have the highest conversion rate through social platforms, ad campaigns and blogs. Invest more time and effort in getting the best results.
Milestones
These are small numeric goals that help to achieve the primary target. They are daily, weekly, quarterly, and half a year targets.
* Acquire 3 customers, each month.
* Retain one customer at the end of the month. In a quarter, you should retain 4 customers and in half a month, 6 customers.
* Increase your followers to an additional 200 each month on LinkedIn and Twitter. Also, acquire 500 more friends each month on Facebook.
* Engage with 3 prospects a day.
* Capture 3 leads a week.
* Have a 25% conversation rate. From the 12 leads you should capture a month, you should close 3 customers.
Execution plan
This is the last step to start acquiring customers. In this phase, you will implement your strategies by executing routine activities like daily, weekly and so on. Additionally, it can also be projects that you do once in a while, or even once. As long as, it assists with accomplishing the milestones and primary target, it is a legitimate plan. For instance:
* Build a website or landing page. Finish the task within a month. If you plan to use WordPress, you can try the Phlox page builder.
* Receive one customers' recommendation a month. You can add it to your website through Elfsight application.
* Ask exciting customers to publish your work and results. Do that on a quarterly basis. Each quarter, add one job to your portfolio on your website or landing page.
* Build your own profiles on social networks. You can see examples of how I do that through: Facebook business page, LinkedIn and Twitter.
* Start networking. On Facebook, ask 50 prospects to become friends. Also, on LinkedIn, send 15 connection requests. On Twitter, follow 20 users. Refer, only, to your target audience. Do this activity daily.
* Engage with prospects. Send to each approved connection on LinkedIn a message. You can ask them to acquire your digital marketing services for a trial. If they don't want, you will give them a worksheet with tips on digital marketing.
* Join 50 groups on LinkedIn and 30 on Facebook. You can insert your email and find recommended groups here. Share your articles and videos 3 times a week. Once a week, ask customers to try your services and give them a worksheet for their email addresses. You can find content to write about in the Social Animal application. To automate your posts publishing on social networks, try Content Studio.
* Use automation to market yourself and arrange time. You can try Texau. Also, build your email list. You can purchase Sendfox for this cause. Use an application to better organize your workflow. You can try Nifty.
Create cash flow for your freelance digital marketing business
Before you start checking your product validation, you need one more thing. You have to know that you can earn from freelance digital marketing. You will have to come up with a business model. Not every method we'll charm you here, will match your business activities.
* One time payment
* Monthly or annual payment
* Commission for each result
* Subscription
* Commission for company's growth
You can watch a video about some of these business models here.
After you know what your preferred paying method is, you should send invoices and charge the money. You can send invoices with Invoicequick. To increase your cash flow, you can integrate with PayPal, Stripe 2checkout or Payoneer.
How to start a freelance digital marketing business: What you should do to have a prospering business
In this worksheet, we'll charm how to research the market, ways to differentiate you business, finding the best niche and more!
Summary
In this comprehensive article, we have charmed you with the meaning of being a digital marketer, skills you should acquire to run a business in general and as freelance marketing, fields in digital marketing, and steps to start freelancing.
Begin with apprehending what fields you want to become an expert in: social media manager, content writer, digital marketing strategy specialist, etc.
Continue with mastering the digital marketing skills related to the industry and for running a business. You should be hired for a full-time job first. After you posses the digital marketing skill, start planning your business. You should have experience of, at least, one year.
End with establishing your own digital marketing freelancing. Follow the steps being given here to build a sustained business. So, perhaps one day, it could turn to a digital marketing agency.
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