You may hate your job and want to take on more digital marketing projects with the ultimate goal of becoming a full-time freelancer. You might be a freelancer already but are looking for tips and tricks to help your business grow. We have the Ultimate Guide to Freelance Digital Marketing for you!

This guide will walk you through the steps:

• What does freelance digital marketing look like?
• What are the pros and cons of freelance digital marketing?
• Here’s a day in the life of a freelance digital marketer.
• How to start a freelancing business in 6 steps

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

What is freelance digital advertising?

You help companies market their products and services online through freelance digital marketing. Your task is to reach your client’s target market, drive them to their site, and convert them into paying customers. It’s easy.

Get started in freelance digital marketing.

Are you ready to start your freelancing career? This guide will show you how to get started in your freelance career.

Step 1: Manage your expectations.

Digital freelance marketing is a great career. However, it’s not easy, and there will be challenges.

Let’s take, for example, managing stress. Many people believe that digital freelance marketing is a stress-free job. This is far from true. Although you may not have a boss or manager to guide you, your clients will still be your boss.

What happens if you try to do too much at once and realize you won’t be able to meet your deadlines? You might also find yourself in a situation where your client changes the scope of your project, which can cause you to waste days of your time. You’ll never have a stress-free job. Learn how to handle unexpected situations.

Understand that you will need to continue building momentum. You won’t get your first job immediately. Sometimes it can be very frustrating to keep applying for jobs day after day without receiving any response. But you can keep trying and persevere. It will be easier to find new clients once you have a portfolio and testimonials on your online profile or website.

Step 2: Identify your talents, skillsets

Step two will require you to take a seat and compile a list with all your possess skills. Are you able to manage a PPC campaign using Google AdWords? Are you familiar with managing Facebook pages? Are you able to set up an automated email campaign using MailChimp?

Next, consider other talents and soft abilities that you may have. Are you a great storyteller? Are you good at problem-solving and identifying strategic solutions? Are you an expert in a particular industry?

Step 3: Choose a niche

After you have identified your strengths and talents, it is time to pick your niche. This is the biggest mistake many freelancers make. They don’t give enough details.

Many freelancers decide to work with small- and medium-sized business owners or startups. This group includes many clients, so targeting them will increase your chances of landing a job.

It doesn’t work this way. It’s not possible to reach clients in the same way. They might be small-business owners, but they are all in different industries and have different products and target audiences. And they’re trying to achieve different goals.

It’s impossible to target your pitch in a way that is relevant and hyper-targeted to clients. You’ll also have difficulty convincing them that your marketing skills can help their business.

Finding Your Niche

Don’t stick with one niche. Instead, narrow your focus and pick something more specific. This can be done by asking the following questions:

• What is the company’s size (in terms of revenue or employees)?
• Which industry is this company located in?
• Is the company located in?

You should also consider the type of service you wish to offer, in addition to defining your niche.

Your skills will determine the services you offer. Search Engine Marketing is not possible if you have no experience with PPC ads. Consider how much time you have available for freelance digital marketing and how you would like to organize your day.

Examples

Let’s say you need to run AdWords campaigns or social media marketing for clients. If you don’t have the time or ability to travel, you might not take a vacation or travel as often as you would like. You can schedule the social media posts of your clients in advance, but you will still need to respond to any inquiries that come in.

What about the AdWords campaign? AdWords campaigns are very “high-maintenance,” so you will need to monitor them and optimize your ads frequently. Your client may run promotions during holidays or other celebrations, so you will need to be available during those times.

We recommend working on ad-hoc projects like SEO work if you are looking for more time flexibility. You might use SEO to optimize the pages or blog posts of your client for Google ranking. You’re done. Your client may re-engage you to do further SEO work. However, you won’t need to continue checking on the existing project or tweaking it.

Combining Types and Niche

After you have decided who you want your digital marketing to be and what kind of digital marketing you want, you will likely have found a more niche. This could be:

• Social media marketing in Asia for FMCG brands
• Content marketing in the US for SaaS platforms
• SEO strategy for Australian healthcare companies

Okay, let’s move on to the next stage of the process.

Step 4: Create a personal brand

Many freelancers believe that being good at what you do is the key to success. This is just one piece of the puzzle. You don’t just need to be a skilled freelancer.

What do you want clients to think about you?

How can you create your brand? It’s simple. Think about what you want to be described by your clients and then go from there.

Imagine that I want my clients to see me as innovative and not afraid to push the limits. This might be communicated by me doing the following:

• I can design a website that is sleek and professional or hire someone to do it.
• Instead of manually setting up meetings with clients using a manual process, use an AI scheduling tool.
• My proposals and pitches should include newer, more game-changing strategies than the tried-and-true methods.

I wanted my clients to see me as someone with expertise, and who brings a lot to the table? The following is what I would do:

• Keep up with the industry’s latest trends by writing regularly.
• Find guest posting opportunities on websites in my industry.
• Create an eBook I can distribute to potential clients.

Personality is a great way to add some personality.

Don’t be afraid of expressing your personality when you create a personal brand. While professionalism is important, you don’t want your brand to be too corporate or robotic. Your potential clients should leave your interactions with you feeling impressed and inspired. I would love to offer them a freelancing marketing project!

Your personality is important, but so is communicating your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Although it sounds fancy, this is just a way to describe what sets you apart from the rest.

Salesforce is a well-known company so that you can make that memorable. This will not work if you portray yourself as “100% reliable” and “Never misses deadlines.” Freelancers must adhere to deadlines and be prompt.

Websites

You might consider creating your website. It is important to take the time to create your website. Many free website builders are easy to use and don’t require any HTML or coding knowledge. It’s not necessary to have your freelancing marketing website set up right away.

This is why? When you start, you will likely rely on freelancer websites. These platforms allow you to showcase your work and portfolio. As you become more experienced and clients refer other companies to your services, having your website for freelance marketing will be a great asset.

Step 5: Search for clients.

There are several ways you can market your services or look for clients. We’ll cover each one in detail in this section.

First, what most freelancers do is rely on platforms such as Upwork. This is basically where companies outsource certain tasks. After creating an account, you can view job advertisements posted by companies and submit proposals to land your first digital freelance marketing assignment.

The pros of Upwork

• Upwork has 5 million clients, which means there are many freelance jobs available.
• Check out the profiles of potential clients to see what other freelancers have to say about working with them.
• You can track your progress and get paid using the platform’s features. Your clients will be automatically invoiced for the hours you worked on an hourly job and billed at the end of each week. Your client must deposit the agreed-upon amount with Upwork before you can start a fixed-price project. If they are absent, you can recover the money from Upwork.

Cons of Upwork

• Upwork has 12 million registered freelancers (and counting!) That’s a lot to compete with.
• Upwork takes a percentage of your contracts. It starts at 20% and drops when you reach certain revenue milestones.

Overall, Upwork is not a perfect platform. However, it can be a great way to connect with potential clients, especially if you’re starting.

These resources will help you maximize your Upwork results

• How to create a rockstar Upwork profile that attracts clients in droves
• Top 10 Upwork proposal tips: How to win Upwork jobs in 2018
• Eight surprising Upwork proposal mistakes I see every day (and how to avoid them)
• How to land your first job on Upwork

Websites for Job Opportunities

You don’t have to use freelancing platforms. Traditional job boards are also available.

These job postings are full-time, but it’s surprising how many companies will also consider working with freelancers. A freelancer can save a company on training, onboarding, and other costs. Plus, there are benefits and taxes.

Here’s a template to help you get started.

Higham Company name,

It was nice to meet you electronically! I found your job posting for Digital Marketing and wanted to contact you to see if you are open to hiring freelancers.

I am a freelance digital marketer with a specialization in the skill set. I am familiar with the platform/tool and have helped companies like Company Name get result em>

If you are interested in exploring, please get in touch. We look forward to meeting you!

There are many benefits to using traditional job sites.

• You have less competition, and the space is less crowded.

There are cons to using traditional job sites.

• All companies might not accept freelancers.
• You run the risk of being hired to work for a company and not getting paid. We recommend that you charge 50% upfront and collect the remaining half after the project is completed.

Other platforms

The last option is to advertise your services on social media platforms and forums like Facebook, Quora, and Reddit.

This is a tricky issue. With platforms like Reddit and Quora, you can’t just plug your services. You will be banned. You can answer questions from other users about digital marketing and link to case studies or blog articles that you have published on your website/LinkedIn profile. You should be able to provide value to other forum members and platform users. If you do this well, you will likely get inquiries about your services from potential customers.

These are some resources you might find useful:

• How to Market Yourself on Quora Without Getting Your Account Flagged
• A Content Marketers Guide To Success On Reddit

Step 6: Determine the price to charge

Several companies might approach you if you are new to freelancing. They may ask you if you would work in exchange for exposure. Should reject these offers. The following comic explains why…

Only work for free if you work for a highly respected company you wish to be associated with. MailChimp may be looking for a freelancer to manage its Facebook page. If this is the case, it’s okay to approach them and tell them that you are happy to accept the job at no cost. You can tell your clients later that you have worked with MailChimp, and they will know you are legit.

Let’s now talk about how to determine the price you should charge.

Take a look at the market.

First, take a look at the prices that others are charging for similar services. You can check out the profiles of other freelancers on Upwork or browse job boards and forum postings. When you first start, it’s a good idea not to stray from this figure. You don’t have much experience, so your first clients won’t be inclined to pay you a premium.

Hourly Rate

Once you know what you charge, calculate your hourly rates based on your total income. Let’s say you are a marketing executive and earn $3,500 monthly. If you assume that you work 8 hours a day and take time off weekends, you will make $22 an hour. This is your base, so don’t price your digital marketing services below it.

How to charge

You can’t charge an hourly rate. You can also charge a fixed price per job or a retainer fee. Let’s look at each option.

Fixed price projects

• Your client pays you a fixed amount per project.
• Use this tool best for projects with defined scopes and deliverables. For example, if you manage a client’s Facebook page for the client, make sure you clarify whether
• they only want you to post to it or if you must also respond to customer inquiries that are sent through their page.
• Fixed-price projects can be more lucrative if you can work efficiently and quickly than on hourly jobs. Clients pay you for the value that you offer, not how many hours you work!

Projects for retention:

• Your client will pay you a fixed monthly fee. They’ll also reach out to you for various tasks throughout the month. A retainer project is a great fit for a small business marketing consultant or freelance marketing consultant.
• You’ll be paid the same monthly amount, although your workload may fluctuate depending on the client’s schedule or busy periods.
• This is a great way to “lock-in” clients for the long term. However, it cannot be easy to find retainer clients when you first start.

Resources and tools that are useful

There are many resources and tools that freelance marketers can use. These tools will reduce your time spent on administrative tasks and help you with specific aspects of your marketing projects. These tools will help you increase productivity and boost your digital marketing efforts.

Generating leads/getting more clients

• SEOptimer’s Embeddable Audit Tool to generate SEO and website improvement-related leads directly from your site.
• Hotjar will help you optimize and analyze your website.
• SumoMe can help you increase your email list.
• Wix allows you to build a website.

Marketing projects

• Pixabay offers royalty-free images
• Canva social media templates
• Blog Title Generator to help you come up with headlines
• Hemingway will improve your writing

Invoicing and billing

• Bonsai will generate freelance contracts
• Harvest can generate invoices for clients