Freelance Copywriting, marketing and social media tips

Bio: Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics from social media to telemarketing. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including credit card processing for lead generation resource, Resource Nation.

The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of FreelanceCopywritersBlog.com. If you are interested in producing a Guest Post for this blog, please get in touch with your ideas.

When you’re a professional freelancer, you run a business of sorts. You find ways to reach out to potential clients, rack up references, and put your work out into the world with your name on it. Like a company, this builds your brand.  Between providing high-quality work and building relationships, people get a sense of who you are.

Once you’ve built your brand, though, you want to use it to your benefit. Like any other business, you need to market yourself and your brand to build larger client base.  Lucky for you, the internet is full of opportunities for personal marketing. And don’t worry, it won’t cost a penny.

1.       Start With Your Brand Audience

Before you can begin marketing, you have to assess what your brand is saying about you. This can depend on what you write about, who you cater your work toward, etc. To begin, consider what your audience will be.

• Topics: Are you an expert in your field? Do you write strictly about food, business or design? If that’s what you most associate with as a writer then that is what your marketing should illustrate.
• Clients: Do you write on various topics for specific clients? If you cater your writing to the female crowd, but write about everything from careers to parenting, then that will be important.
• Relationships: Do you pride yourself on the long term writing relationships you have with clients? If you touch on various topics, but have a solid group of people that you exclusively write for, then that will be a beneficial aspect in the placement of your marketing efforts.

 2.       Pick Where You’ll Represent Yourself

Once you’ve decided what your audience is, you’ll want to be present where they are. If you cater to business men in their 40’s, you don’t need to have a strong presence on Pinterest.

LinkedIn: If business people are your main client base, this will be a good place to start. As the professional social network, it gives you an opportunity to reach the crowd you are hoping to attract.

• Business people are busy, and LinkedIn cuts through the fluff of photos and comments, getting straight to your capabilities as a writer.
• If you rely on recommendations, this is a great place to show that off.

Blogosphere: As a freelance writer, you most likely already have a blog. Although you are adding great content frequently, marketing your brand will have more to do with your theme and design.

• Each color represents something different, and is an integral part of how long people spend on your blog. Consider this when designing and choosing your theme.
• While you write fresh content, consider including a page giving examples of previous professional work you’ve done.

Google+: This up and coming social network was made for freelance writers. Google+ is the perfect combination of LinkedIn and Facebook.

• Use the portfolio section to link to all your previous work. If you’ve done a lot, this will look great for your experience. It’s also an easy way for potential clients to check you out for themselves.
• Use the photo section to tell who you are without worrying about tagged photos from last weekend. “Pictures and references to traveling signaled openness to new experiences and adventurousness, while the number of friends you have indicates extroversion,” according to a Northern Illinois University study.

Pinterest: The biggest social network of 2012 is quickly becoming a great way to focus your branding. If you write for women’s magazines and blogs, this is a great place to direct clients.

• Have a work specific account, and create your boards around topics you write on.
• Link to relevant work in the caption of your pin. Photos are a simple way to represent your brand and your writing, not to mention fun for your clients to look through, while still being advantageous for you.

 3.       Finally, Get Yourself Out There

Now that you have your brand out in the wild jungle of the World Wide Web, you have to spread the word. While creating your accounts and profiles will do wonders for your marketing, you should always be looking to grow your client base and audience.

• Email: Create a personal signature for your emails. You can link to all your accounts, allowing those you are pitching to the opportunity to see your work before even responding. This can be the difference between hooking the client and missing an opportunity.
• Twitter: If you already have a Twitter account, consider getting one for your business alone. Here you can create a following that is strictly work related. Tweet about new blog posts and articles that have gone live.
• Blog: Your blog is not only a good spot to place content, but perfect for getting potential clients to check out more of your stuff. Get follow buttons for your Pinterest, Twitter and Google+.

Without spending a penny you can create a full blown marketing portfolio. Keep your brand constant throughout each platform, giving onlookers a good idea of what you have to offer and what you’re all about. The key to your personal freelance brand marketing is to direct potential clients to all the places you know will best represent what you and your business is all about.

This article was written by Chris Peterson, a copywriter for Straight North, a Chicago internet marketing firm. He specializes in B2B and B2C marketing, with experience in informational blog posts, press releases and website content that emphasizes Search Engine Optimization. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he earned a Master’s degree in journalism.

The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of FreelanceCopywritersBlog.com. If you are interested in producing a Guest Post for this blog, please get in touch with your ideas.

The word “blog” has been tossed around for almost 15 years, but a formal definition still eludes many of us. That’s partly intentional. By nature, blogs are not boxed in. Bloggers define their own guidelines and styles. Bloggers express political opinions, share eggroll recipes, sell disposable shoe covers and show off videos of the new baby wiggling around on the floor.

Many blogs are established with a specific purpose, and others take a while to settle into a comfortable rhythm. Rather than showing you methods to improve your general blog-writing style, this post aims to help you identify the type of blogger you are. From there, you can craft a distinctive voice that accomplishes your purpose as a unique blogger.

The Informative Blogger

We’re talking purely objective blogging here. For more on opinionated writing, scroll down a bit. Informative blogging most closely resembles newspaper and wire writing. These bloggers tend to stick with safe AP Style writing. While the content might be analytical (strong blogs typically are), this blogging style is fact-based and topical. Posts also can be instructional – this post being an example.

The Business Blogger

Granted, most bloggers can claim to be business-related (dropping ads is easy enough these days), but for our purposes, we’re referring to bloggers selling products and services. Commercial blogging can be informative and persuasive, and the formality of voice depends on the product being peddled.

Search Engine Optimization is a writing style often used in business blogging. For example, a blogger might link to a specific item – leather safety gloves, for example – with the intent being that Google will spot the relevant word combination and corresponding link within a blog and assign the target company a higher ranking in searches.

The Persuader

Some bloggers write to change minds, be it for political reasons or simply to encourage readers to take up a cause. If the persuader is starting from scratch, it probably doesn’t hurt to use AP Style to establish a voice of authority – the idea being that if you use proper grammar and punctuation, maybe your opinion is informed, as well. Write professionally because, believe it or not, the stable blogger has more influence than the ranting one.

It’s important for persuasive blogs to link to objective sources, like informative blogs, to reinforce credibility. If your blog is encouraging readers to support a cause, for example, link to a news article that offers an unbiased perspective.

For a persuasive blog post, you want a mix of concrete information and anecdotal evidence. If your goal is to persuade, it’s important to keep your readers engaged and interested so they don’t turn away at the get-go. Use easy-to-digest graphics and visuals to help you make your point. As a blogger, you could have a persuasive edge over, say, a newsletter, in which interaction is limited.

The Personal Blogger

You’re not trying to make money. You might even be in it for fun. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a basic plan for how you want to present your blog. Are you blogging for your family? Your in-laws? Your classmates?

And then there’s the tone you’ll set. You could be humorous or serious. Perhaps you’re blogging poems and artwork, or maybe you’re posting pictures of the new baby for distant relatives to see. All of these factors will affect how you present yourself, both style- and content-wise.

Personal blogs make for good practice, as well, especially if you’re considering using a blog for business purposes later on. Use a personal blog as an opportunity to try new things. Post photos, videos, polls or surveys. Get a feel for how readers respond so that you’ll know what to expect when you take your show on the road.

We hope you’ll find these tips helpful as you establish yourself as a blogger. Feel free to leave comments if you have any tip you’d add.

Straight North provides a full range of online marketing services, including its innovative Chicago Web design group and highly experienced Chicago SEO team. Straight North develops strategy and executes marketing programs for clients ranging from credit card processing service providers to leather safety glove retailers. 

More and more businesses are setting up pages on Facebook these days.

But they are also discovering that getting the type of visibility they want isn’t as easy as they thought.

We all know about the constantly changing Google algorithms that keep us on our toes with our website SO, but did you also know Facebook as algorithms too?

Now, before you get too excited, this post is not going to let you into their deepest secrets and unlock the key to successful Facebooking, but it will help you increase your visibility.

4 Tips to Boost Your Visibility

If you’re a regular to my blog, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of SocialMediaExaminer.com who offer a wealth of hints and tips for everything social media.

Well, Facebook page visibility is something I’ve been struggling with for my copywriting page so I was relieved to find this post: 4 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Page Visibility

In it the guys advise on how to train, educate, encourage favouriting and subscriptions to boost your Facebook presence.

It’s well worth a read, so grab a coffee and follow the link above.

As a freelancer (whether a copywriter, designer, social media adviser etc.) you love your clients. After all they are the ones that help you keep your business afloat and pay your bills.

But there comes a time – every now and then – when you have to say goodbye.

We’ve all been there – at first the relationship with your client is good, but as time goes on, cracks begin to appear. They are taking up more and more of your time, arguing over everything, they take an age to pay their invoices and they start to quibble over your fees (which they were perfectly happy with).

The time has come to part company to save your sanity. Not an easy decision as your livelihood will take a hit, but what’s more important, cash or your mental wellbeing?

So, how do you do it? How to you sack a client?

Stage 1: Always be professional

No matter how tempting it may be to tell them exactly what you think of them and that you never want them to darken your door again – don’t.

You are a professional and that is how you must remain at all times. And yes, in this type of situation it may mean you taking the blame for something that has nothing to do with you. Tell them you don’t feel as though you’re the right person for the job, or perhaps you don’t have the time to give the project that it really needs. Another good one is that you have to put your prices up and therefore your services no longer fit their budget.

Whatever reason you come up with, make it sound as though really you’re doing them a favour.

Stage 2: Be ever helpful

Once you’ve made your excuses to terminate the relationship, go that extra mile by suggesting someone else who may be able to help them.

How great will you look? Not only have you pointed out that you are no longer able to do their project justice, you’re also helping them find someone else who can – God you’re good.

Stage 3: Tidy up

After cutting the apron strings and making a few suggestions for alternative suppliers, make sure everything that should be completed is completed – you don’t want to leave anything half finished. Go to whatever lengths are necessary to make sure all the ‘I’s are dotted and ‘t’s crossed.

No one likes to end a business relationship, but there are times when you have no choice. Just make sure you come out of it holding your head high, knowing you’ve done everything you could to help your client.

Twitter – a social networking platform where you can communicate in 140 characters, which amounts to relationship building in a literal nutshell.

Take a good a look at the third word in that opening sentence – social.

How can you automate being social?

Social is relationship building, spontaneity, conversation and all those things you need to be present to do.

And yet people still profess that automating your Twitter usage is the way to go – but why?

The Pros of automated tweeting

Those in the ‘pro’ camp will try to convince you that automating your tweeting will:

• Save you time
• Give a constant presence
• Give your followers a stream of tweets to keep you in their mind
• Provide your followers with timely offers
• Help you plan your strategy to target potential customers

But there is a problem with that. Sending out random tweets isn’t always constructive. Plus, some people who automate will schedule the same tweet to go out at weekly or monthly intervals. They may think it saves them time, but it’s not long before their followers get fed up with seeing the same message. And that type of repetitiveness highlights the fact that you’re an absent tweeter.

The cons of automated tweeting

So, that brings us to the cons of being automated:

• There is no engagement with your followers
• Your tweets can appear random and disjointed
• If you’re not there, you can’t respond to replies or RTs (retweets)
• There is no conversation
• You can’t react quickly to someone else’s tweet

The ideal strategy

I am no Twitter guru, but I have been using it for a while now.

For me, the best strategy is to be there in person when I’m tweeting. The only automated tweets that go out are those showing my latest blog posts when they are published – everything else is me. That way I can react to other people’s tweets, join in with conversations and offer help and advice when needed.

Over to you

What’s your take on this?

What strategy do you use?

Leave a comment below and have your say about the pros and cons of automated tweeting.

Sally Ormond – Copywriter