*Please pardon the un-styled mess why I am rethinking and re-designing my blog!*
This week we are discussing how you are currently marketing yourself – as a freelance designer, as a designer looking for a job, on twitter. Wherever and however you are marketing yourself ! Leave a comment and lets get a discussion going. Share links to your resources for marketing tips and strategy.
[14] Comments
Posted in design, design ethics, Graphic Design, Question Of The Week, Web 2.OH, Web Design
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Aaron says:
Because I am currently working at a company and not freelance I am not marketing myself actively. However, I am constantly trying to network and prepare myself for the possibility of work outside of my company. This includes, but is not limited to online social networking, redesigning my portfolio and working on creating a blog of my own.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:21 am
BebopDesigner says:
I’m doing a permanent inhouse gig too. It’s really hard to move around with the little time I have.
But still, rat racing at night has been fun. I’ve relied too much on word of mouth… but now I’ve started using facebook ads and google ads and my site visitation has increased dramatically.
Word of mouth still is the main source of people approaching me. Handing out business cards helps a lot.
I’m currently preparing a blog, hopefully to have it ready by mid September.
I wanna go more agressive, but I’m being cautious because I can only take a small number of projects at a time. (having people on queue can seem flattering and all, but is not good for business)
What do you reckon?
Cheers!
August 28th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Liz says:
My blog is also a big part of my marketing. I mainly started it though to get more involved with other designers / freelancers like me, it wasnt until later that I realized even if the blog itself isnt geared toward my client base, it still really helps to get their attention! It shows that you are a respected part of the design community and helps a lot with getting people to find your easier, via search etc.
Its word of mouth marketing that has been my biggest tool though. There is no real set formula on how to do this, i guess you just do good work and your clients will want to talk about it.
I think the personality thing you mentioned Niki, holds a lot of weight for people. Those who are looking to freelancers are choosing us many times because they value that personal connection we give. We’re real people and we care about our clients and their business, it’s a lot harder to get that warm fuzzy hand holding feeling from a large firm.
i guess thats my 2 pennies on the subject
August 28th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
chris baunach says:
I’m not looking for freelance work, so I am doing almost no marketing right now, don’t even have a website. However, word-of-mouth brings me work. I guess it’s partly due to naturally networking.
August 30th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Arron Lock says:
I must be one of the few designers that isn’t getting a big marketing boost from my blog. Maybe its because I just don’t write as often as I should.
The way I have found that works for me is to market the old fashioned way and join the local chamber of commerce, go to business networking events and meet people in the community. In the city I live/work in there are a lot of less than technologically savvy people so that may be why the “analog” approach works better than my online presence.
Good discussion Niki! I look forward to seeing the other answers.
August 30th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Lauren K says:
Since I specialize in Equine Advertising, I mainly market by giving out gift certificates and sponsoring equine events (shows, sales, etc.), and mostly it’s at no cost to me. It lets me get my name out there.
I also work with some of the industry’s leading trainers and give them good deals on advertising, again, just getting my name out there helps a lot.
lauren
August 30th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Grace Smith says:
I targeted the local market to begin with as when i started as a freelance web designer a few years back there were very very few in my local area so i had a pretty decent sized audience to target which continues to work very well.
After i began working with several social media individuals, bloggers and entrepreneurs in the USA i found a lot of my business came through referrals which did make me relax a little too much on my other marketing activities. So at the start of this year i started a design blog and so far it’s been a great marketing tool, allowing me to reach a wider audience and promote my design services further.
It’s also important not to forget about offline activities such as Open Coffee, conferences and twitter meetups, it’s amazing how opportunities can arise from getting involved in local networking events.
It’s a great discussion and i’m looking forward to seeing how others market themselves
August 30th, 2009 at 10:46 am
David says:
I am 4 months into a web design business, like grace I have a large community without many websites.
I would like more natural word of mouth, but that will come.
I prepare proposals for each business I approach. A couple of pages addressing what I could do for them for how much.
Something not mentioned yet is create a directory website for your community or niche. Good introduction to the benefits of the web. Also good SEO tool for your new websites.
Here are some of my other ideas –
August 30th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Marie Poulin says:
Admittedly, I’ve been avoiding actively marketing myself because I’ve been so busy that I can’t really afford (timewise) to take on more work.
That being said, I do think it is important to establish yourself in the design community, and I have started to do so by contributing articles and tutorials.
I am currently contributing to Fuel Your Coding, which has a great community behind it, and is a way to share tips and advice with others, and get known as an expert.
I also started offering workshops for super cheap. The demand kept up, so I had to raise my prices, but word of mouth as well as online web galleries have been really helpful in terms of spreading the word about who I am and what I do.
I also try to be super helpful to friends and colleagues, and throw in a few favor jobs here and there, which always leads to recommendations and more work.
I also do volunteer design work for a few not-for-profits that I feel strongly about, and again, it gets your name around
August 30th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Peter says:
I’ve been out in the market by myself part time for about two years. I found that a lot of my clients were all word of mouth.
Going to networking sessions, parties and lots of business functions really got the word out there about what I do. Also about 70% of traffic to my portfolio is all search engine traffic looking for my particular skill set.
I quit my 9-5 in April this year and haven’t looked back since. Averaging a new client a week and loving it.
August 30th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Phil says:
Could someone please answer a silly question…
I know quite a bit about creating web sites and about design etc… but define blog… is a blog usually a type of feed or can it be a static site that is just updated regularly… or what? Is there a special tool like RSS that one should set up as a blog feed?…
Any help would be appreciated. :-p
September 1st, 2009 at 7:29 am
A different Phil says:
In answer to the blog post, I’ve been freelancing for quite a lot of years, shamefully iv never opened a website to sell myself. I’ve been pretty lucky that I know people who have connections with various small buisinesses who also has various business ventures. And this has given me a lot of work since starting freelancing. But even on that note I do find that blogs and websites are still the best way to market yourself as a freelancer. Twitter is supposed to be a huge way to market yourself. It definately depends on the individial for twitter marketing, as I’ve tried but find I dont have enough interesting things to talk about every few minuites of every day. But if used correctly can generate a lot of interest in your freelance work and also any websites that are linked.
In the long run the best way to market yourself is to build great websites with good content. Niki you seem to already have that so I would suggest websites like twitter and to keep pumping out unique content apart from that Im not sure of what else you can do apart from be more involved in the community, do interviews and what not on different popular blogs.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Becky says:
I’m, slowly, working on my freelance persona as it were, but I’m in the lucky position of being able to advertise for free in my local newspaper (as I work in the advertising dept. there).
I’m intending to have a small display advert and a classified advert. in there on a regular basis. Nothing big and flashy, but hopefully something to get some local business rolling in.
Other than that I’m guessing it’ll be word of mouth and depending on how my new site/blog turns out I’ll go from there
September 6th, 2009 at 1:23 am