Are you thinking of launching yourself solo as a digital marketer? Are you a digital marketer taking those very first steps into freelancing?
Digital marketing is the perfect career to work from the comfort of your home, at your own time with your own schedule. Over the last couple of months, digital marketing has been thriving with opportunities for anyone with the right knowledge and tools of the digital world. Freelancing in digital marketing can be a great way to start off your business, brand yourself, and at the same time gain experience with clients.
While there are some obvious advantages to freelancing, there can also be a lot of downsides.
Here are some small but useful pieces of practical advice to facilitate your freelance experience as a digital marketer.
TIPS FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS
BUILD YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE
Firstly, begin your journey by focusing on YOU. That means your social media accounts, your profile pictures, your resume, professional cards, and your website if any. Branding yourself is extremely important in the digital marketing world. Build a powerful portfolio with your best abilities and skills. Be creative, upskill and keep everything up to date. Most importantly, make it interesting!
There’s a lot of competition in digital marketing but there’s also a big demand. Build originality and stand out from the crowd with a good digital profile. Try to make daily posts and talk with people because you never know who could be your next client. This is a great way to build your networks and grow professionally.
HAVE A BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF DIGITAL TOOLS
Knowledge of digital tools will come in handy when taking a job. Aside from your niche that you may be good at, knowing a little extra will give you an advantage and more confidence when landing a job. No one is perfect, and ideally, it would be great if you became an expert in every area of digital marketing. However, when you are starting off that’s unlikely to happen unless you have years worth of work experience. But, it’s okay! Just have some ground basis on how these tools work and function.
- WEB: Know how to research things and get accustomed to various browsers.
- SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: A good command with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, etc.
- SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: this will help you stay organized and ahead of schedule. Makes it easy to post daily, edit and load the right content.
- CONTENT CREATION: design, create, and edit your own work through Canva, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, etc.
- EMAIL: know how various email portals work, what are their functions and how to do marketing through them.
- GOOGLE: through Google’s Digital Garage & Skillshop you can learn things like Ads, Analytics, Fundamentals of marketing, etc.
- SEO/PAID PER CLICK (PPC)/AFFILIATE MARKETING: understand how these work and what are the benefits you can gain from using them.
FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT
Everyone is good at something. For digital marketing, it’s important to know what we are skillful with. What sets you apart from other digital marketers? What area do you excel the most in?
Maybe you are highly creative and can create great content for a business like posts, graphics, videos, etc. Maybe you’re proficient with Google analytics or can work with WordPress creating engaging blogs. Whatever your niche is, promote it! This will be the main service you offer your clients and eventually, if you do well, your way of making that extra cash by having clients pay more for what YOU do. With time this will become your signature.
So, in other words – What’s your flair?
LOOKING FOR CLIENTS
To start growing and cashing from your digital skills you will need to build a client base. These potential clients can come from multiple sources. Such as social media accounts, in-person relationships, email marketing, job referrals, job platforms online, and many more.
If you are not sure where to start you can make your first couple of clients through remote working platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, FlexJobs, etc. Additionally, another way to grow your network is by connecting and engaging in social media platforms. Remember to stay open to potential clients.
SETTING THE RIGHT FEE FOR YOUR WORK
When it comes to pricing your skills, you should find a good equilibrium between your experience, the hours spent on that project, and the right income that suits your needs.
It may be ideal to initially check out some prices among digital marketers in your area and start out with low rates. Don’t forget you are initiating your business and it’s important you build experience with clients in order to make a strong presence.
Don’t worry about the price cut, there are multiple ways of making that extra income in digital marketing.
CONSIDER AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is a great work to make some extra commission. By becoming an affiliate of a company and promoting their brand you can get paid every time someone makes a purchase through your link.
In other words, it’s a passive way of making extra cash that can pay off those weekend expenses every now and then.
EXPAND YOUR REFERENCES
Obtaining references from clients can be a great way to promote yourself even more. Nowadays, these references can be sent through emails or posted via social media. This can serve as evidence that you are doing a good job with your current clients. It can more than likely, secure an opportunity with a new client.
Also, building a trusty relationship with a client can guarantee a steady income.
BE ORGANIZED WITH YOUR PROJECTS
When starting off as a freelancer keeping a clear agenda of the tasks at hand and sticking to customer’s deadlines is important for success. It will build trust among your clients because you are showing yourself responsible for their demands.
It’s important to commit to what you have time to do. Don’t overwhelm yourself with jobs you won’t be able to complete.
BE SOCIABLE WITH YOUR CLIENTS
Maintain a good relationship with clients and engage with them every so often for their projects. Have a clear image of what they want, and what they are looking for from you.
Besides, people like working with sociable individuals. Don’t be scared to grow the relationship by talking and asking questions. Obtain feedback if you can to grow personally and see what you can work on more.
UPSKILL
Finally, to work in digital marketing and be successful, one must stay updated digitally. So, don’t hesitate to start new courses and learn new skills that will benefit your starting business. Use the downtime you may have in between jobs to expand your knowledge in your skillset, a different tool, or a cool new app. Check what’s new around you and stay open to new trends.
Don’t settle with what you know but rather aim for more. It will always pay off to know more than one skill even if you don’t use it.
CONCLUSION
In summary, while it can be a challenge to start off as a freelance digital marketer, there are some perks that you can gain from the freedom of working independently. Nothing can compare to working your own hours, managing your own schedule, your own clients, and the leisure of working from anywhere.
These few tips should do the trick, to steer you towards a successful path in your digital marketing career.
REFERENCES
Here are some great articles that help me make this guide!
International Institute of Digital Marketing ™ is a certifying body founded in the USA by several long-standing marketers. We have years of experience in business, marketing, and more, and have put forth our combined experience to develop DMI. Digital Marketing is something that’s all around us, yet there has been no solid foundation for marketing in many, many years. In the news, there are blunders again and again by companies, failing some of the core aspects of modern marketing. Because of this, the need for a solid, stable foundation for marketing in the modern world is needed– a foundation with the ability to be built upon and developed with time.
For Details visit: https://thedigitalmarketinginstitute.org/
Written by: Dafne Nazar, Digital Marketing Analyst at The Digital Marketing Institute Worlwide™.