Issue #46 - August, 28th 2015 - Freelancing Digest

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve made a change to your business that forces you to start over again, it’s difficult to find those first few clients. I’m of a fan of teaching people to proactively go out and dig for clients. Cold email, cold call, talking to your network, whatever tactic you can use to find those first people to get started.

But in the long-term that strategy puts you at a disadvantage. Mojca Mars discovered this in her business. Her early direct outreach efforts landed her okay clients and got her started. But since she went to them, they weren’t as motivated to work with her. In their minds everything was just fine before she showed up. On the other hand, once she built up her authority, clients would come to her and want to work with her. She had what Alan Weiss calls Marketing Gravity. She was attracting clients to her, which made her more desirable, which resulted in better outcomes all around.

While hustling and do whatever works to get started is great, don’t forget to build up your marketing gravity.

This year I’ve been focused on building up the marketing and sales processes for my consulting business to make it more predictable. On the marketing side I’m using content marketing but it has become hard to prioritize the time required to do it. I ended up hiring a writer to help out but Philip Morgan has great ideas if you want to go the more DIY route for content marketing, while on a time-budget.

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Quick Links

5 Major Ways Freelancers Will Change The Economy By 2040 (www.fastcompany.com)

"More" Is Not A Business Plan (ittybiz.com)

Marketing Automation: Sell While You Sleep (doubleyourfreelancing.com)

Kai Davis & Philip Morgan: What’s the Deal With Active Listening? (consultingpipelinepodcast.com)

When is it okay to work for free? (freelancersunion.org)

How to offer retainers, the holy grail of consulting (creativeclass.io)

Finding Freelance Clients on Facebook: A Non-Traditional Marketing Approach (freshbooks.com)

Apples to elephants (pjrvs.com)

7 Ways to Maintain Work-Life Balance (curtismchale.ca)

6 Reasons You Should Use Visual Content to Capture and Grow a Loyal Audience (And How!) (bidsketch.com)

The Only Sure Thing In Business Is… (ittybiz.com)