Digital marketing can be a lucrative career, even with a freelancer’s job. However, when you’re a freelance marketer, you have to do all the work to build your career. This can be extremely challenging, but it’s not impossible.
If you’re looking for ways to build your career as a freelance digital marketer, the following strategies will help you achieve your goals.
4 Strategies for Freelance Digital Marketers to Build a Successful Career
1. Develop your researching skills continually
No matter how good you are at marketing, you’ll need to perform research for each client. While the general principles of marketing don’t change, there are nuances in every industry that require special attention.
Research is a critical step in forming a marketing plan. You can’t expect your clients to know exactly what they need. According to Personal Branding Blog, clients don’t usually know exactly what they need or how to reach their market – that’s why they hire marketers.
Sometimes clients think their target market is one group, but it’s actually another. It’s important to do extensive research to make sure you reach your client’s optimal target market. If you haven’t already, bookmark the top market research resources, like these 17 tools presented by Hubspot.
2. Take online courses even if you have a degree
Building a successful marketing career is a long-term commitment. Most of today’s seasoned marketers spent many years in college to obtain at least a bachelor’s degree. However, today, you can take courses online and learn just as much.
You can never learn too much when it comes to marketing. Even lifetime professionals continue learning as they advance in their careers. Regardless of what degrees you hold, you’ll benefit from taking online marketing courses.
3. Online courses will make your services more valuable
The more skills you have, the more valuable your services become. Today’s clients want to market their business across all possible channels. If you can only offer a few options, clients with large budgets will take their money elsewhere. On the other hand, when you can offer a variety of services, you’ll land more clients, and your skills will justify a higher fee.
Online courses offer a level of convenience you can’t get from traditional education. However, the biggest benefit is being able to keep up with all the current trends in the industry. For example, there’s a unique art to marketing on every social media platform, and you can take an entire course for each one.
Marketers make up 45% of more than 1 billion freelancers across the world. Making yourself more valuable will help you get a larger piece of the pie.
Create and follow your own marketing plan
While you’re focused on your clients, don’t forget to create your own marketing plan! Winging it isn’t going to work in the freelance world. You need a top-down strategy with specific components. For example, you’ll need the following:
- An email marketing plan that includes how you’ll capture leads, planned email sequences, and a coordinated effort to create a seamless flow between advertising platforms.
- A plan for remarketing/retargeting on platforms like Google and Facebook.
- In-depth research on your target market, which includes speciality niches.
- Goals that include milestones and milestones should be broken down into individual tasks.
- Your full plan is spread out over time with deadlines for tasks and milestones.
- A commitment to using specific marketing applications long-term.
Not writing down goals is one of the biggest mistakes digital marketers make. Always write down your goals and post them on the wall in your office. Writing things down will help you stay present with your goals, and you’ll have an easier time reaching them.
4. Identify your income goal
How much money do you want to earn each year? “A lot” isn’t specific enough to know when you’ve achieved your goal.
It’s critical to set goals you can achieve with specificity. Otherwise, you won’t know when you’re off course or what to do to get back on track. You also won’t feel any satisfaction along the way, which can be disheartening.
Specific goals are easier to achieve. For instance, if your goal is to earn $500,000 per year, you can do the math to figure out exactly how many clients you need to take on each month. If you’re falling behind, you’ll know where you stand on a weekly basis, which gives you the opportunity to push harder before it’s too late.
Make your digital marketing career successful
You have the power to create a successful digital marketing career. When you commit to developing and following your own marketing strategy, you’ll have an easier time achieving your goals.
