WordCount Q&A: Marketing your freelance business in bad times

The publishing industry is in tumult. Publications are trying to do more with less – less advertising revenue, editorial staff and readers. Throw worries about a recession into the mix, and it means trouble for freelance writers who depend on magazines, newspapers and customer publishers for their livelihoods. Or does it?

Not necessarily. Hard times don’t have to be bad times, at least not for freelancers who have a plan for marketing themselves during a shaky economy. That’s the view of Keven Malkewitz, a marketing expert and assistant business professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Malkewitz earned his marketing chops as a brand manager and business unit manager at Adidas, before getting a doctorate and helping consumer and technology companies with their marketing programs.

I asked Malkewitz recently what independent contractors such as freelance writers can do to keep clients and paychecks rolling in during a bad economy. Here’s what he said:

If times are tough, should freelancers hang onto current clients or go after new work?

During bad times, companies hunker down, they put stuff on hold and they don’t do new projects. In that case, you’ve got to work with the hand you have, so work on building stronger relationships with existing clients.

What could freelancers do to make themselves more attractive?

The thing that makes people like writers and designers most attractive is having some type of core competency that most people who do what they do don’t have. New skills are always helpful. For instance, we have an active design community in Portland, so instead of doing general design, a designer could stand out by doing branding or another specialty.

Should freelancers increase their marketing efforts in bad times?

There are fewer marketing efforts in down times, so for the companies that do it, marketing can be more effective. Studies have shown that companies that advertise in down times rebound higher. So invest in yourself. Marketing efforts do make sense.

Any other suggestions?

It’s all about networking, people you talk to and the quality of your work over time. It’s a good time to re-evaluate what you’re doing, to think about new ways of doing things. Really, that’s good to do anytime. We’re creatures of habit. We do things the way we’ve always done then. But bad times provide a positive opportunity to change.