Increase Your Chances of Success by Making Smarter Attempts (Part 5)

As I round up this six-part article series, I will suggest several feasible ways for you to eventually have a couple of specialties as you progress in your career as a freelancing professional, and how you can present yourself in the best possible way.

Consider the following:

The first thing you have to do is to check your records and carefully examine any recurring pattern, where you took in projects that are similar in nature. Narrow down your focus to two to three fields. You can assess their value in three ways:
 

• Projects that require quick turn-over rates, like writing corporate resumes, editing sales and collection letters, proofreading documents, or ghostwriting. There is a huge demand for workers with these skills, and if you can work on an average of five to eight projects of such nature in a week, that would total to a very handsome amount of freelancer's fees after a month.
• Projects that may stretch for several weeks or even months, where you choose to charge on an hourly rate. Hourly rates are considered "competitive" if they start at USD30 to USD35.
• Collaborating with another freelancer and collecting a certain percentage as payment (e.g. taking photos and selling them to a writer who queries travel magazines, doing graphic design for a blogger, or keeping tab on the latest products or services for someone who writes reviews). 
  

Now, once you have these things down pat, here's how you should tweak your marketing strategy to get more projects within your chosen fields:

For your website

In your web pages, incorporate keywords or phrases that are highly likely to be found by search engines. For example, if you're a freelance copywriter, the words "print ad," "social media marketing," or "direct mail advertising" may come to mind. If you write copy for a particular group of clients, say, veterinarians, dentists, personal trainers, or fitness instructors, make sure that you have a firm grasp of the jargon used in these professions. 

The next thing you would have to do is engage your online visitors by including brief (between 250 to 400 words), informative articles that will serve as "teasers" to entice potential clients. You don't have to worry too much about baiting possible clients with sales pitches if they can already get a piece of the pie, so to speak, just by reading articles from your site. 

For your brochures, flyers, and business cards 

You can use built-in publishing software, like Microsoft Publisher, to save time and money, and to come up with personalized marketing materials that still have that professional touch.

Adopt a two- or three-font scheme that is no smaller than a size 12. Arial, Book Antiqua, or Times New Roman work best for these. Keep your template simple, and provide enough "white spaces."  

Your full name should be spelled out in a size that is slightly larger than the rest of your fonts (about 18 to 22 is ideal), and underneath, put your title, such as "Freelance Copywriter," "Multi-media Artist," or "Blogger Raising Consumer Awareness." 

Also, a good number of freelancers choose to market themselves by coining catchy phrases that cause potential clients to drum up an image in their minds about what the freelancer would be like, such as "Sally Fields, Book Doctor" (for an editor/proofreader of book-length manuscripts), "Jerry Redgrave: 'I Will Get Your Site (or Blog) on Top of Google -- Guaranteed!'" (for an SEO specialist),  or "You May Be All for Low-Cost Generic Brands, But Writing That Sounds Generic Will Hurt Your Sales" (for a pharmaceutical copywriter).

Lastly, giving away freebies or discounts have always proven to be one of the most effective ways to attract more clients. Allot a portion in your marketing materials where you place a glaring ad that's sure to get noticed, like "FREE: One-Hour Consultation," "Avail of Year-End Cut-off Rates," or "Get A 10-Percent Discount for An Article Set!" 

I will cite additional advice as an end-of-the-week treat for tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Increase Your Chances of Success by Making Smarter Attempts (Part 4)

The previous two cases of "missing the mark" as a freelancing professional had more to do with taking a proactive approach to landing a project, and yet, still getting turned down for reasons like not having the right credentials or the prospective client not needing your services at the moment.

Here's the next and last reason that points to the greatest flaw in a freelancer's self-promotion:

Case Number Three: Clients not having you in mind because you don't have a specialty

I've talked about the disadvantages of being a "one-stop shop," or generalist, in freelancing. Spending your first few years taking in every job outsourced to you is not bad, provided that you will soon figure out which tasks you found most enjoyable or which ones allowed you to prove your competence the most.

But if you still haven't developed a specialty on your third or fourth year as a freelancer, see that as a sign that you may be scattering your efforts in different directions and not assessing the value of each project that comes your way.

That would also mean a delay in having a regular cash flow. One of the best ways that freelancers can be assured of an almost steady income is to have around six to eight, or more, repeat clients who would need their services throughout the year. This will lessen their need to make cold calls, or email, absolute strangers.

Lastly, probably the greatest disadvantage of being a generalist is you creating less of an impact to potential clients through your marketing materials, like your website, brochures, flyers, even business cards.

To illustrate, I once stumbled upon a website that advertises the services of a talented pool of resume writers. They claim that they can get their clients hired in 30 days after they have created or polished their resumes, and even offered a money-back guarantee if clients found themselves still unemployed in 30 days.

I was mildly surprised after reading their claim, because it sounded like they were putting everything at stake. But their no-nonsense approach to creating resumes, backed up by years of experience and plenty of glowing testimonials from satisfied clients, are more than enough to bait more people to have their resumes done by them.

It never dawned on me before that by narrowing their specialty down to just one -- resume writing -- a thriving business would have evolved, and they price their services at competitive, although still reasonable, rates.

As I round up this article series in my next post, I'll cite feasible solutions to being a "one-stop shop." 

Increase Your Chances of Success by Making Smarter Attempts (Part 3)

In my previous article, I have cited another possible instance of "missing the mark," or a situation where you weren't exactly rejected by a possible client, but you won't be working anytime soon for them, either.

Of course, you want to remain productive while waiting to get some outsourced projects. If this is the case, making smarter attempts may mean any of the following: 

First, carefully examine the articles published in the website you found and try to gather any ideas that could be developed into articles. Maybe there were some aspects about the advocacy that haven't been fully discussed. You can turn them into feature articles and have them slanted towards another market: health magazines. 

Second, look for other sites with a similar "Fitness for Less" advocacy through Google or other search engines. Check to see if they have a Submissions or Write for Us page, and then email them a query.  

Third, if you can write effective copy and sales pitches, get in touch with health club owners or fitness instructors that organize classes. Some of these classes are advertised online, and owners of fitness clubs are constantly looking for ways to get more people to enroll. 

Keep in mind that incorporating a few widely accepted facts about the benefits of physical activity and presenting them in a way that sounds enticing to the layman has proven to be a foolproof marketing strategy. 

Also, enrollment rates will likely increase if fitness classes will be made more accessible and affordable. In your email, cite several feasible proposals like giving discounted rates to people who will sign up by groups or slashing 30 percent off on a person's fee if he were referred by someone who's already participating in classes.