Getting your freelance WordPress business up and running can be an exciting time. Itβs your chance to break out of the nine-to-five grind and build something you can be proud of.
But the feeling of excitement is often short-lived. It usually doesnβt take more than a few days for the realization to sink in that building a freelance WordPress business is going to take way more time and effort than you first imagined. Youβre going to need a way to attract and retain new clients as quickly and as consistently as possible.
You might be wondering, βWhich marketing activities should I be focusing on and which efforts are most likely to help me grow my business?β.
Well, youβre in luck because thatβs exactly what weβre going to be covering today β a closer look at a few different big picture marketing strategies you can employ in your quest to grow your freelance WordPress business.
What Do You Stand For?
Before you spend even one second trying to market your services, you need to figure out what you do. I donβt mean βIβm a WordPress developerβ or βI design WordPress websitesβ. I mean what do you really do to provide value to your clients? How do you help their business?
A quick search on Upwork for WordPress developers produced thousands of possibilities. I stopped clicking next at around page 200. With ten people per page, that puts the list of potential freelance developers at well over 2,000 on this site alone. The point being, there is a lot of competition.
One of best ways to rise above the competition is to clearly differentiate yourself and your services. Instead of being a WordPress developer or designer, become the go-to person in a specific niche market.
Once you narrow down your niche and become more focused on providing a value to a target clientele, the number of competitors decreases exponentially. If youβd like to focus more on this aspect of your marketing strategy, you can do so by learning how to make your competition irrelevant.
Be Everywhere, But Be Smart
Marketing in obscurity doesnβt work. However, neither will spending your time marketing where your potential clients canβt be found. Letβs not dismiss this strategy quite yet, though, because itβs still relevant when applied correctly.
If you literally try be everywhere, youβll stretch yourself too thin. Do you have time to manage Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and your blog? Probably not. The thought of managing all those different channels can make even the most efficient time-management expert nervous.
The good news is you donβt need to be on all those different platforms because your customers arenβt either.
This brings us back to our initial task of deciding what you stand for and picking your niche. Part of that process involves learning where your customers spend their time. Which social media platforms do they hand out on and how do they interact with the people, places and entities that are important to them?
Once youβve figured this out, your objective is to be everywhere that your potential clients are. Pick the top two or three platforms and focus all your efforts there. Provide value, be helpful and interact with your audience. Be everywhere, but be smart about it.
Donβt Aim for a Perfect Online Presence
Obviously, having a website is important. However, itβs only one small piece of your marketing plan. The speed of execution is critical in getting your freelance business off the ground. Unless youβre generating revenue and profit, the lifespan of your business will be short-lived.
Too many freelancers spend an inordinate amount of time in the planning phase β designing the perfect website, messing with their pricing structure and writing the ideal about page.
One of the best ways to develop an awesome digital presence for your business is by committing to improvement. Given the importance of an online presence, donβt you think it makes sense to spend time improving your digital presence each week?
Instead of aiming for perfection right out of the gate, commit to making small continuous improvements on your website copy, your sales pages, your auto-responders and your social profiles. Spend a small, predetermined period of time each week improving just one thing.
Can you imagine the difference youβll be able to make after 52 weeks of small improvements? Plus, youβll have the added bonus of being able to spend more time sooner on the things that are most important β attracting and retaining new clients.
Work for Free, but Never at a Discount
The idea of working for free or even pro bono is something that should be undertaken with great caution. Itβs a slippery slope and not one where you want to risk getting stuck for any length of time.
To be avoided at all costs is the habit of discounting your services based upon a clientβs inability to afford your fees. Itβs one thing to reduce your fees in conjunction with deliverables; itβs another to reduce them because a client canβt afford you.
The day you begin offering to discount your services is the day youβll begin fostering your reputation as a WordPress professional who will negotiate on price. If thatβs how you want to market yourself, there is nothing wrong with that. However, I would suggest that in the long term a strategy which aligns your fees with your value will provide more longevity.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that any unpaid work should be on your terms. An altruistic approach is fine as long as itβs done for the right reasons. And as bad as it may sound, sometimes taking on work pro bono can provide great exposure β putting your best foot forward for a great cause can be time and energy well spent in terms of marketing.
Reach Out to Your Networks
Nothing beats good old-fashioned elbow grease. Sometimes itβs much easier to gravitate towards the marketing activities that require more of a passive effort. Itβs perfectly normal, we all do it. However, if you want to make real progress, especially when youβre first getting started, focus on the marketing activities that are not so easy.
When it comes to marketing, hitting the pavement or picking up the telephone will produce results that far and away exceed anything that is more passive in nature. In a digital world, a lot of people have forgotten what this really looks like.
Reaching out to your networks means calling people who you think might be open to the value that you provide. It means calling the people in your circle of influence who are natural networkers to let them know youβre freelancing.
Networking can also mean meeting with people in person over lunch or coffee β or taking an influencer in your field out to dinner. Donβt just focus on target clients either, as a freelancer, becoming friends with the big player in your market can produce some interesting opportunities.
Networking is rarely easy, compared to a tweet or status update, it takes a lot of time and effort. However, in a digital world, it can go a long way towards growing your WordPress business more quickly. Too many people seem to have forgotten that service businesses are built on relationships.
Be Present on Job Boards
The thought of listing your services on various job boards may send shivers down your spine. With so much competition in one place it can be difficult to stand out from the pack β but donβt waste your time worrying about that. Itβs more important to just be in the game. Look at it from the perspective of a fisherman. If you donβt have your line in the water, your chances of catching a fish are zero.
Listing your freelance business among hundreds of low-cost operators can make it tempting devalue your services but donβt make that mistake. In fact, donβt change a single thing about your marketing approach.
Stay true to your well-defined target market, your core services, your pricing structure, and your sales copy. Donβt become something youβre not just because the platform has changed.
Promote Your Content
Content creation is one of the marketing strategies that too many WordPress freelancers get wrong. Left to its own devices, content marketing is slow to yield results. It can be so slow that many people abandon the strategy altogether β but thatβs not the right answer either.
Creating content in an effort to market your services requires a more proactive approach. Itβs one thing to write a post or create a video and click publish. However, if a tree falls in the forest will anybody hear it? The same question applies to your content β it needs to be promoted through the connections youβve established and the various channels that you participate in.
As a WordPress freelancer, there is a good chance that time isnβt on your side. You need to generate cash flow and you need to do it quickly. Being proactive about promoting your content means youβre no longer waiting for people to discover you on their own time. By sharing your content in situations where doing so is appropriate and helpful youβll increase your odds of getting in front of people who need your help.
Conclusion
Weβve covered six different ideas in this post β many of which are things that most WordPress freelancers donβt give much thought to. Itβs easy to get caught up in marketing activities that do little to grow your business.
The strategies that produce the greatest results are focused and proactive. Be crystal clear about what you do and who you do it for. Take action quickly β donβt spend too much time on things like getting your website perfect.
With those initial big picture details sorted out, itβs time to make sure youβre getting in front of the right prospects, but donβt wait for them to come to you. Instead, network, produce and share helpful content, be in the places where work is available (job boards). If youβre going to take on pro bono work, be selective and find something that not only benefits a great cause but provides you with exposure too.
If you frequently network as a way to promote your WordPress business, how do your results compare to your more passive marketing efforts?Β Do you do any pro bono work for charitable causes and if so, have you found it beneficial your business?
Image credit:Β Tarchyshnik Andrei / Shutterstock.com
Disclosure: If you purchase something after clicking links in the post, we may receive a commission. This helps us keep the free content and great resources flowing. Thank you for the support!
This article has great value if applied in right direction. Thanks for sharing it.
Content promotion is one of the hardest thing to do. It is time consuming but the dividends are substantial when the results starts pouring in.
This line is awesome ” donβt spend too much time on things like getting your website perfect.”
Totally agree – find a niche and become the go to person for everyone in that niche
No one can obtain a perfect online presence, instead i suggest every new freelancing business to focus on small footsteps and set it live one by one. well, your idea and suggestions will be useful for us, because we’re launching our WordPress freelancing business within a week.
Great Tips. Upwork is very competitive today, targeting specific niche will really lower the competition.
The great 80/20 rule applies when it comes to content marketing. If you’re creating content for 20 units (time,money etc.) spend 80 to promote it.
Simply marvelous post . Most of the people think being a freelancer is very easy . They should read this article. Any way love the idea, work for free but never at discount. Definitely going to follow this tips.
Very good guideline for freelancing, work for free but not for discount. know your worth!