Do you have a freelance gig that you are wanting to start or want to market to more potential clients and customers? Whether you are just starting out with a small budget or are looking to scale your freelance gigs, you don't want to have to spend a ton of money to make money! I get it! I want to share what has worked for me as well as what I am looking into that won't cost a ton in advertising. Here are the top 5 ways to save money on marketing your freelance business.
1. Sticker Marketing.
Sticker marketing is very affordable and even free advertising. The only thing you need to pay for are the stickers themselves. I trust Sira Print with all of our sticker marketing campaigns. and share why in this blog here. Where it gets free, is where the marketing compounds. That is, it goes beyond your initial customer's eyes and now is seen by all their like-minded friends and family. Talk about a ton of brand exposure for pennies on the dollar! Plus, Sira Print always has MASSIVE 30% off deals when you subscribe to their free newsletters - so definitely give them a shot with your stickers and decals. You will not be disappointed!
You can create stickers that are your brand logo or motto, but just keep in mind you want to share something that is encouraging or amusing to your niche audiences - not solely your brand logo. So opt for popular and trending designs, mottos and phrases with a brief little area dedicated to your website or IG handle where they can send you more traffic or frequent your site themselves.
2. Utilize free social media sites such as Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube to build a network of followers.
Admittedly, I only use Pinterest really and that's because I have seen so much exposure organically to websites from really quality blogs and images posted there. It will depend on your niche, of course. But there are still some social media options that allow you to post freely and still link your site without having to "pay-to-play" or spend ad money for exposure.
Long ago, all I did was social media creation and management. Now, it is but maybe 5% of my actually marketing. Still, that could just be me and the way I roll. I am a big fan of networking in person so I use this resource, but not solely.
If you're going to go this route, keep in mind that posting from passion - not pressure - is your best bet. Be you. Find some super cheap but beautiful designs on Etsy (I shop there for templates all the time because they have months worth of customizable Canva templates for $9 often!)
3. Write a free report or an ebook on your area of expertise to help promote yourself.
For example, if you're in the wedding industry, write out what makes the perfect proposal happen for couples - tips, tricks and all! This will not only draw people to your website but also they will browse your services and products once they are done reading your blog.
You can create an ebook for anything! All you have to do is go to Canva and choose any one of their customizable presentations OR again, shell out $10 bucks max for a nice Etsy created template you like and start making the content yours!
Once you have it done, look up other templates like lead magnets in Canva or on Etsy and use those to also create a flyer or pop-up image that you can use across social channels or on your site. Within seconds of being there, people will get a little "poption" ( a pop-up option - I shall copyright this, lol) to opt in with their email address to get your free e-book.
In it, give a ton of the goods with the end focused on either a consultation or discovery call. It could also have a coupon with thank you code for opting in and reading the e-book, as well as, an upsell option for one of your billable items.
4. Claim your free listings on sites like Google Places which have free visibility.
Google owns Google Places so it's free to build your listing (and free to update, too) but it takes some time before you see the benefits. Make sure to claim yours today so that when people search for service providers in your niche or an area of expertise, they can find YOU!
Google favors its own platform tools fist, so having a listing there is sure to populate when people are searching Google for your particular service.
I personally stay away from Yelp. I have nothing against platforms trying to make a dollar. But, their approach has not proved profitable for me and their reviews show that I am not the only one. Don't waste your money. If you want to have a free listing there, you can of course do that as well, but be advised, the calls won't stop coming in from their sales team to get you to pay to advertise with them.
In my professional opinion, until they change things (and if they even do) I would not consider a free listing there worth it.
5. Try out third-party sites like Fiverr or Upwork where you can create a profile and only pay a small fee after you've earned clients!
I like this option a lot! In fact, when I first started out blogging, I did 500-word blogs for just $15! It doesn't seem like much money, but I personally found that Fiverr, spending MILLIONS in advertising dollars to promote their site and use freelancers on it was basically a free marketing strategy for me!
All I did was show up, make a high-quality profile and delivered the best content I could with an equally quick turnaround. That first year, I made $11,000 freelancing (and that was after Fiverr took their cut).
Before I knew it, I was able to increase my pricing with all those 5-star reviews and I had their reviews encouraging more and more people requesting my work. So more pay and more clients. Just like that! The second year on Fiverr, I made $30,000!
The same thing the third year because I wasn't looking to scale, but instead enjoy working half the time of a full-time job but stay at the 30k annual income!
I then decided to leave Fiverr and freelance all my own! Since, it has been an incredibly fruitful endeavor! I work solely with word-of-mouth referrals and clients I got way back when from Fiverr.
I do have to note that when on the Fiverr site, they require you not do work outside their platform with clients gained through them. It is meant to protect both parties. They get their cut for providing clients and you safely get paid. I have integrity and never once told others about me leaving Fiverr. And, by the grace of God, when I disappeared, I have about a dozen clients FIND ME by my name and write to me on my website asking me, "Hey, I didn't find you on Fiverr but I found your website here. Will you still work with me." To which I fully honored!
Some things started to get interesting with Fiverr and admittedly I haven't been on since. Namely, because people were paying through PayPal and PayPal has or had a no question policy when it came to "fraud" or what not. Basically people were paying the freelancers on Fiverr but then within 6 months would argue with PayPal that is was fraudulent or they didn't receive what they expected. This blew my mind because even those who had PROOF of 5-star reviews from the folks doing this, still got their money back from PayPal. And not from Fiverr's pocket, but instead from the freelancer's account that was connected! Crazy! It was few and far between that I heard about this in our Freelancer Forum on Fiverr and it may have been fixed. But nonetheless, my point is to consider these third-party platforms only after you do you research and read the reviews from those using them.
I have yet to use UpWork as a freelancer, but I did use it for a client whom I was managing their marketing campaigns. I saw that UpWork does a much better job of vetting the talent and setting expectations for each client. It appears as though the freelancers also have a lot of say in what they get paid (hourly or per project) prior to starting. That said, this could be another third-party platform where you can get started for no cost up-front and instead just a little off the top from the clients and pay you otherwise would not have had.
I hope that these ways of saving money on marketing your freelance business help you get started or scale your already-existing clientele! I look forward to sharing with you all the other tips I have and even the results of some upcoming marketing campaigns I am looking into (digital billboards!)
Have questions? Can I elaborate more? Let me know! Happy to help! God bless you and your freelancing business!
