How to Market Yourself as a Freelancer

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | FreelancerIf you have a talent in a particular industry and you have the determination required to work for yourself successfully, then there are plentiful opportunities in the freelance sector at the moment. Freelancing has several advantages over setting up a business, because it requires a far lower level of investment and you don’t have to employ anyone else. All you need are the skills, computer facilities, and the will to succeed.

There are many jobs that lend themselves to freelancing; in fact, there are very few specialties that don’t have some kind of online application. For example, even the most practical, hands-on jobs such as construction, teaching, and medicine, all need web-based services such as training and consulting. If you have the urge to go it alone, there’s very little holding you back – but the critical difference between success and failure will be your ability to market yourself effectively.

Why marketing matters for freelancers

You may consider marketing to be more appropriate for a small business than a freelance enterprise, especially if you have good contacts and can start off with some ready-made clients. While it’s always advantageous to have a couple of clients on your books before you take the plunge into full-time freelancing, there are a couple of points you should bear in mind.

Firstly, if you’re planning to take clients with you from your present job, you could be heading for trouble. Somewhere in your employment contract, it will probably say something along the lines of employees aren’t permitted to poach clients from the business if they leave for a period of six months or so. You may not have such a clause, but it’s still considered underhand to take contacts with you if you leave a business.

Whether you have such a clause or not, you may feel that there’s very little your previous employer could do anyway once you’ve left, but regardless of whether they seek to claim damages against you, which they could well do in some instances, they do have the power to sully your reputation. Businesses live or die on their reputation, and if you become known in the industry as someone who can’t be trusted, your future will be bleak.

Furthermore, you can’t rely on the handful of clients you start with to keep you going or generate new business for you. To build up a sound, stable business, you need to master the art of marketing yourself.

You are the product

In a business, you’re selling a service or a product, and while you would do well to include yourself as a valuable part of the package, you wouldn’t necessarily be the focus. However, if you’re a freelancer, you need to be selling yourself – in effect, you are the product. The only difference between you and all the thousands of other bookkeepers, writers, tutors, or whatever you specialize in, is yourself. All the other freelancers in your sector will be offering broadly similar services, so the only way you can stand out from the crowd is to promote the benefits you offer potential clients.

Some people have no problem with this at all, and happily talk themselves up; others find it hard to sell themselves and promote their abilities. Being over-confident can be off-putting, as you can come across as arrogant; but failing to market yourself as one of the best in your field isn’t likely to impress prospective customers. A middle ground is usually the best approach, showing confidence in your skills without being too full of yourself. If you do struggle with self-confidence, it doesn’t mean you can’t succeed as a freelancer, but you’ll need to put a concerted effort into learning how to present yourself in your marketing.

Marketing tools for freelancers

Many freelancers underestimate the importance of having a website. If you think it’s a bit over the top to create a website just to promote yourself, think again. A website impresses potential clients and reinforces the idea that you’re a serious, committed expert in your field. You can use the website to provide full details of the services you offer, host a portfolio of previous work, and display customer testimonials. It’s a good platform to introduce yourself and help clients get to know you as a person so they make a connection with you, and it’s invaluable for being found in web searches.

If you’re not sure how to create an effective website, find out more about using a design service to create the optimum site, and compare the pros and cons of using a website builder compared to a design service. Your site doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated, just well designed, easy to use, full of relevant information, and updated regularly. In addition to your website, listings in directories not only make your business easier to find, but improve your rankings in search engine results lists too.

Social media can also be a powerful tool if used regularly, but don’t overwhelm yourself by signing up to every possible platform. Have a look at the usage statistics for each one and select one or two to start with. You want to get the hang of posting regularly and managing your accounts effectively without having too many different ones to worry about. Once you get accustomed to writing a daily FaceBook post, or tweeting a few times a day, you can always expand onto other platforms. You should also look at specialist websites and publications that focus on your field of expertise, as a presence in these will be perfect for reaching your target customers.

Many people make a very decent living from going freelance, and have a better quality of life working for themselves. Some go on to establish a fully-fledged business based on their freelancing, but you can follow whichever path appeals most to you. The important thing to remember is that you need to sell yourself, and take the task of marketing yourself very seriously if you want to bring in the right clients.

5 Business Tips to Help Orthodontists Get More Clients

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 5 Business Tips to Help Orthodontists Get More Clients

Whether you are a new orthodontist opening a dental office or want to increase the number of patients you see, implementing new marketing strategies will boost your revenue and growth. With so many dental clinics popping up, it is also an excellent way for dental specialists to stand out from the competition. Here are five business tips that will help orthodontists get more clients.

1. Build a Visually Pleasing and Informative Website

Did you know that about 90 percent of consumers visit websites before going to a local business? It is the best indicator as to why businesses need to pay attention to the aesthetics and engagement of their websites. Most especially in the healthcare industry, there is not enough consideration placed on website aesthetics even when it is the most significant avenue businesses have to convert their website traffic into patient sales.

A great example of such a website built for patients is Baum Orthodontics as the website is aesthetically pleasing and provides patient tabs that make navigation accessible.

2. Use Strategic SEO to Rank on SERP

When Google updated its search engine results page (SERP) algorithms, search engine optimization (SEO) was no longer an easy process as there are now more than 200 factors that web pages are scored. Optimizing pages using a variety of keywords is now a critical component to ranking which depends on authoritative backlinks, content variables, keyword clustering, user experience and page load speed. A local SEO strategy will also promote conversion rate optimization, which will boost your traffic in your local area.

3. Use Google My Business

As you are a local business, you must use Google My Business as Google Maps only displays the top three businesses in one-mile radius as there is a push for mobile accessibility. You want to claim your free listing and use location-specific keywords that show location like city or neighborhood dentist, long-tail SEO services like ophthalmology or specialty service and contact information that target customers searching for services.

4. Use Word-of-Mouth Advertising

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most influential advertising tools available whether it is from your patients or from comments on your social media page. Nine out of 10 consumers will trust a recommendation from a friend or family over another form of advertising. Their testimony will also convert a customer faster because of experience, which is something you would not be able to do in just one conversation. Set up a patient referral program to build your clientele as it will convert to sales quickly.

5. Use Pay-per-Click Internet Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising, such as Google AdWords, is a valuable tool that allows your keyword specific ads to appear on the same page as organic search results which helps if your page is not ranking because of SEO. You also do not have to buy the ads but rather pay a click-through-rate when a potential customer clicks on your advertisement.

Many of these marketing tips are affordable and easy to implement in-house. Even if you must hire a website or SEO specialist, the new patient return-on-investment potential is worth the investment.

5 Powerful Ways to Generate More Business Leads

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 5 Powerful Ways to Generate More Business Leads

Never undervalue the power of promotion when it comes to selling a product. You could have the best item on the market, but it doesn’t mean a thing if your target audience doesn’t know about it.

To generate a substantial revenue year after year, you need people to take notice of your brand and product. Carve a place for your brand in an industry by checking out the five powerful ways to generate more business leads.

1. Publish & Optimize Your Content

Experienced digital marketers will be the first people to tell you about the importance of high-quality content on your website, as it can serve as a superb source of web traffic, which can consequently result in more leads.

To drive visitors to your site, you must regularly publish informative, entertaining copy that is unique to your competitors. You also must optimize your content with stunning images, insightful videos, and professional infographics, which will increase your readership, share count, and backlinks to your website.

2. Apply for Tenders

Amplify your profitability by applying for tenders to secure a bid to supply a company with your products or services. Whatever industry you are in, the experts at Executive Compass can help you to produce winning tenders to receive large or small contracts, which, in turn, can help your business grow at a rapid rate.

3. Use Email Marketing

Engage your subscribers with an effective email marketing campaign. It can help you to connect with past customers and those interested in your brand, so it is a viable way to generate leads.

Ensure a subscriber opens your newsletter by writing a compelling subject line that makes them want to find out more about what’s inside. Also, don’t forget to feature a call-to-action button to convert a subscriber into a customer, as it can help to guide them to the checkout.

4. Focus on Direct Engagement

Rather than talking to the masses, which can make your customers feel like just another number on your database, you should focus on direct engagement. While FAQs can be an effective way to answer a potential customer’s questions, it lacks the personal touch.

Give your demographic a reason to want to buy from your brand by focusing on direct engagement tactics, such as a live chat facility, forum, and help center. Make sure you regularly have friendly and welcoming customer service representatives available to answer their questions, which could lead to more leads and a positive reputation in your industry.

5. Market Your Brand Via LinkedIn

LinkedIn is more than a social platform to connect with your past and current colleagues. It provides a space to strike up relationships with new clients, as you can personally reach out to business owners, directors, and managers in a friendly, laidback manner.

Not only should you communicate directly with busy professionals, but you also should regularly publish exceptional content on the platform to engage LinkedIn members and establish your business as a thought leader, which can lead to potential customers and clients reaching out to your company.

Here’s Why Your SEO Strategy Isn’t Working

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Here’s Why Your SEO Strategy Isn’t Working

In modern business, there is one thing that can either make or break your business: marketing. More specifically, digital marketing.

If you don’t get it right – and a lot of businesses simply don’t – it can mean the loss of profit, poor brand exposure and ultimately stilted business growth. As simply put, people are more and more interested in what a business is doing online in the modern age. So failing to put forward an effective digital footprint can be a real hindrance to your business efforts.

At the top of these failures tends to be a business’s approach to SEO. They understand that good SEO can push their business website forward, but don’t particularly have the right approach to make it work and actually gain the benefit that SEO presents. It’s a big issue and one you want to prevent from Day One of your digital marketing exploits – or at least very early in your campaigns.

So, if you are frustrated with the SEO aspect of your digital marketing then here are some sure-fire ways you’re going wrong. And, more importantly, how to fix them!

Outdated Tactics

The best practice when it comes to SEO changes every day. Largely because Google will cotton on to a new technique, view it as ‘spammy’, and update their algorithms accordingly. Some of these tactics may even be considered to be Black Hat SEO. Take the recent August update, for example. It saw a big problem that many people were exploiting – long, advice based, content that may or may not has been actually helpful – and made it more sustainable. Ostensibly, to better both user experience and help legitimate advice sites prosper.

For this reason, it is very important to keep on track of Google’s and other search engines guidelines. Be aware of the different tactics and what may be considered ‘spammy’. Otherwise, you may find that your site faces punishment as a result of not actually following the right rules.

On the whole, SEO tactics vary from person to person. Some people swear by link building, others value content and even more think the technical side is where the future of SEO is heading. Test out what you think might work, but then don’t be afraid to change tactics if something isn’t working for you.

Technically Incompetent Website

Yes, the quality and ‘technical’ backdrop of your website actually have a big impact on your SEO and subsequent rankings. If you have a website that isn’t particularly good, has thin or weak, or poor user engagement then it simply won’t help to convert for your business. In fact, you could even find it more of a money drain and hindrance than anything else.

If your website is poor, then you’re going to struggle both in terms of ranking and conversions when users actually do go on site. Also, bad sites simply turn off users; so, having the right level of ‘polish’ to a site is simply necessary. Otherwise, you will find your site filtered out by the masses who simply expect better from their online experience.

Misunderstanding Data

A lot of SEO is incredibly data-driven. You have to understand the traffic your site is gaining, what this means about your acquisitions channels and ultimately how to generate more. All from a few numbers and line graphs that Google Analytics presents.

It’s easy to see all of the data presented by Google Analytics or other sites, then feel disheartened or as if your efforts aren’t quite there. However, it’s not necessarily about the data. It’s much more about your interpretation thereof. Interpret right and you could end up generating thousands of more users, better conversions and overall have a better website. Whereas interpret it wrong and it will simply sit there with very little views and traffic.

If you’re confused about analytics, there are plenty of resources to help you become a Google Analytics expert.

Terrible Keyword Targeting

You understand keywords. Which means that you know how to research them, implement them on your site and the supposed results that this should bring. However, it simply doesn’t. Your rankings remain a flop, even with the ‘right’ implementation of keywords. Chances are you have really miscalculated your keyword targeting.

This miscalculation can come from a number of different issues. Targeting keywords with too much search volume, targeting those with too little and sometimes you may target the wrong keyword altogether. It really is a mixed bag of reasons on a good day.

Try changing your tactics. Pick two targets; one long-term and one short-term. From there, you can decide whether your strategy is working in the short term, then make adjustments to ensure it continues or begins to do so in the long term. Thus, hopefully, removing the issue of wasted time potentially.

Impatience

One of the worst things, in terms of your SEO campaigns, can be a level of impatience on your part. By no means is SEO a get rich fast tactic. In fact, when done right SEO is a slowly building organic process and gradually improves over a long period of time (though this differs from business to business, good SEO can take up to a year or more). It’s all about sustainability and not appearing ‘unnatural’.

This level of impatience is why many clients and marketing agencies fall out, as the client is often impatient for quick results. Some of these situations even lead to the involvement of mediation solicitors. However, this is unfair in many cases as SEO is a slow method for achieving great results.

For that reason, even when your SEO strategy doesn’t seem to be working the best thing to do is to not panic. Simply look at what you’re actually doing and look to adjust. Make beneficial, smart, changes and you can easily find a strategy that does actually work for your website and business.

10 Signs Your Website Is Not Working Anymore

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 10 Signs Your Website Is Not Working Anymore

A business’ website is the basis of their online presence and marketing strategy. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that it is effective and up to date. The set up and initial design of your website is important, but so too is the website redesign. After all, what was effective several years ago is not going to be now. The following ten points are indications that it is time to engage in some redesigning.

  1. First and foremost, you should never leave your website for longer than two years without an element of a redesign. The reason for this is that your website will almost certainly be out of date and old-fashioned if you leave it unedited for such a lengthy spell.
  2. The second telling sign that you need website redesign is if you are suffering from a lack of visitors. This means that you have lost a connection with your viewership; this is likely to be as a result of the fact that you no longer offer them anything new.
  3. In addition to this, you should consider redesigning your website if it is entirely based on flash. This is because search engines view flash as one page and so you are missing out on a whole host of visibility and traffic possibilities. Moreover, flash can take a while to load and this also impacts your search engine ranking.
  4. A fourth reason why you should consider a revamp is simply if your website looks old fashioned. It is advisable to keep up to date with the latest trends in regards to colours, patterns and fonts.
  5. Another factor you should consider is how high you are ranking on the search engine pages. If you are not ranking high up then some changes need to be made.
  6. If the navigation of your website is slightly complicated, then this is a massive indication that you need to engage in website redesign. After all, convenience and ease of navigation is everything. You will lose customers if you have a complicated interface.
  7. The seventh reason why you would need to revitalise your site is if you have a high bounce rate. This is when someone visits your website but then leaves it from exactly the same page. This indicates that your website was not engaging enough. A slow website is one of the main reasons for this, and switching to VPS can assist.
  8. Furthermore, if your site is not compatible with all browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.) then you need to redesign it so that it is.
  9. The ninth reason in the list as to why you may need a redesign is if you are benefitting from high visitors but are still suffering from low sales. This means that your design is not effective with regards to e-commerce and directing people to the sales section.
  10. And finally, if your website is no longer reflective of your business image and aims then you need a change. After all, companies’ objectives are constantly changing and thus your website will need to adapt to this too.

To conclude, if your website falls into some of the categories mentioned above then it is highly recommended that you consider the prospect of website redesign.