Today’s post comes from Lori Widmer, a Philadelphia freelance writer and editor with over 15 years of building long-lasting marketing connections. Lori is the author of Marketing 365: Daily Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Small Business e-book (available at Smashwords), and co-founder of the About Writing Squared Five Buck Writer’s Forum. Read her blog, Words on the Page.
Another writer recently told me his marketing suffered from “paralysis of analysis.” He wanted marketing strategies that didn’t require a ton of thought.
Frankly, that’s how I see marketing anyway.
Maybe it’s the word. “Marketing” sounds ominous and complicated, like one of those torturous processes that corporations labor over for months to produce a few pages of strategy. Perhaps corporations need that process. However, for freelance writers, it needn’t be so tedious.
Maybe you suffer from that same paralysis as my writer friend, or are just bored with your current methods. If so, try adding one or more of these strategies to your marketing efforts:
1. Plan it. Choose how many clients you’re going to contact. Make it a number that feels manageable to get in touch with on any given day. The next day, contact that same number. Repeat this every work day. If you find you’re able to contact more clients than you originally thought, do it. The idea is to do something every day to expand your client list.
2. Suggest new projects. If you’ve worked with certain clients for years providing a specific service or product, suggest adding another service. Blogs, newsletters, and sales letters are just a few ways writers and editors can add to what they provide to increase their earnings. Create a sales package of everything you offer and present it to a client, showing how additional services or products can help them improve their businesses or lives.
3. Follow up. All those marketing pieces you sent out a month ago are useless unless you follow up. Get in touch with those contacts. Say hello, repeat your offer, send them a relevant article, or just ask what they need and how you can help. They may not need your services, but you won’t know if you don’t ask.
4. Target potential clients that resemble your existing clients. Not every client you’ll have will fit into the same box. For that reason, brainstorm where to direct your next marketing efforts. Look for potential clients that share similarities with companies you already do work for. If you work with doctors’ offices now, check out health-care suppliers. If a group of potential clients has similar needs, your chances of securing business increase.
5. Create several points of contact. Keeping your name in front of clients even when you’re not marketing to them directly can boost your business, too. Whom will your clients remember – the person who sent them a brochure, or the person they interact with every week on social media sites? Brush off your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ accounts and use them to get in touch with clients by sharing links, stories and ideas.
Inefficient marketing comes from lack of regular application. If you’re consistent with whatever methods you choose, you will see results.
What are your obstacles to consistent marketing?
Lori:
Great ideas!
And just to tack on to your closing: Inconsistent marketing leads to inconsistent results. I suspect that I’m not alone in having to remind myself that marketing is a process, not an event. Setting (realistic) goals, measuring progress and results, and making a commitment by scheduling whatever tactics you choose to use just like any other project. It’s not magic, it just looks that way when it all comes together 🙂
I have to credit you, Mark, for that “paralysis of analysis” comment. You originated it. It’s perfect, too!
Great tips, Lori! For me, the main obstacle tends to be time – I have a two-year-old daughter, so need to squeeze work in between her 25 hours a week of daycare and her naps at home. I always have enough client work to fill those hours, but I want to reduce reliance on a few regular clients and continually seek out more lucrative opportunities — to do that, I really need to make the time to put my own business first.
Kathryn, you’ve said it yourself — put your own business first. Can you carve out a few minutes every morning before you start work to contact a new client? One a day is a good start.
I find too that sometimes I can steal back fifteen minutes from other things, like checking emails every time one comes in or checking Facebook. Where are your few minutes hiding?
Very astute, Mark! Feels like magic too sometimes, doesn’t it? 🙂
Lori: You should be the poster child for Just Do It! marketing – hey – a new company brand. Although Nike might have something to say about that. 🙂
Well done, as usual, Lori.
I love it, “paralysis of analysis.” Just do it! Or keep on doing it, in your case. Excellent writing as always.
Thanks, EP! That line is Mark Keating’s line, not mine. But he summed it up perfectly, didn’t he?
Some great reminders here, thank you. I do tend to be a lax on following up after I have contacted somebody, so I do need to get on top of that.
I quote “Choose how many clients you’re going to contact. Make it a number that feels manageable to get in touch with on any given day. The next day, contact that same number. Repeat this every work day. If you find you’re able to contact more clients than you originally thought, do it. The idea is to do something every day to expand your client list.”
I used to make huge lists of possible customers. You are right that the list MUST be manageable.