Freelancing digital marketing as a service

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Freelancing digital marketing as a service

Freelancing digital marketing services is a great way to make a living. If you got digital marketing skills and you dream of going freelance, I’m going to share with you how you can earn yourself a living working from home!

Hello, I’m your host Kaycinho, I’m a digital alchemist, and today I want to share with you how your digital marketing skills can help you break away from the 9 to 5 and earn yourself a living.

Thinking about freelancing ? Digital marketing could be your way out

We often think that we must be absolute experts before we can help others, and that is a mistake we’re all guilty of. The truth is that of course, it’s better if you’re an expert, but nobody was born an expert of anything: you become an expert by practicing, by diving into it, by being obsessed about something and by experience. The combination of these factors will determine whether you get there sooner or later, but the point is: if beginner is graded at level 0 and expert is graded at level 10, then if you are a number 2 or 3, you can already be of great help to a level 0 beginner. It may even be easier for that person to progress with you because you were in their shoes not that long ago. In the meantime you if you keep on progressing, you will climb up the expertise ladder and be able to help more advanced candidates.

And the same principle can be applied to business opportunities, as long as you aim at the right target. So, falling back on the topic of this post, let’s say you have some experience in digital marketing, that you may have learned by trial and error or by working in an agency and you’ve already helped businesses progress online.

At some point, this will become normal for you, so you may not see the value in what you do, because you are expected to deliver results, and it becomes a routine.

Now I’m not saying that you have to have delivered multi-million dollars viral campaigns, I’m just saying that you are assigned a client, you work on a specific online campaign, and your client gets qualified leads with the metrics indicating that if your client does his part the right way, then your work has provided value for them.
That’s what I’m talking about.

Now, something I’ve noticed in agencies, is that either they are very expensive, and that’s because they have a wide team of very qualified people that they have to pay, or you will find very cheap agencies, but you will get what you pay for: they will only provide you with basic functionalities, that are probably automated, or performed by people who have no clue what they’re doing, and usually you spot thoses low-end agencies because the only word they keep repeating over and over, before you do business with them is the word “YES”.

I’ve experienced that myself in a project where I had to outsource because we just had too much work and crazy deadlines, so we found an “agency” that promptly replied to our inquiry. They were willing to do the work. And it went something like this: “Can you deliver this in 7 days?”. “Yes”. “For that price?”. “Yes”. “What if we want this option?”. “Yes, we can“. It sounded great, but when the time came to harvest, although they were willing to do good, the work was very very amateur.

There was no way on earth we could deliver that to the client, so the consequence is that we had to work double shifts in order to be able to make everybody happy – except us of course.

But that my friend is an opportunity, because only medium to big companies really have the budget to work with quality agencies, and on the other end of the spectrum, solopreneurs and small businesses have to deal with cheap “Yes” agencies which are just a waste of time and money.

So that’s where you can fit in: by targeting solopreneurs and very small businesses that are quality-conscious (which means that either they’re naturally conscious that quality comes with a price tag, or because they’ve worked with low-end “Yes” agencies in the past and they want to step up).

So how can you position yourself, so that you can offer both quality and a fair price point?

1. Build yourself a portfolio

Building yourself a portfolio before you start offering your services, will help you tremendously down the line and your portfolio may become your best salesman.

As I’ve shared in another video, before you start freelancing it’s a bit like the story of the egg and the chicken: you need a portfolio to get clients, but you need clients to build a portfolio.

So instead, what you’re going to do is to chose a handful of businesses you want to work with, and you will make them an offer they can’t refuse, by offering them your services free of charge, for a specific time and purpose, for example 2 months and one online campaign, making them sign an NDA stating that they may not disclose the fact that the services were provided free of charge.

And very important, you will actually quote them the price they would have had to pay without that opportunity. This has the advantage of not lowering your work and instead giving it value, and also, the day they want to hire you, they know what to expect.

2. Niche down

Let’s say that you worked for an agency where you learned your craft in digital marketing.

And let’s say that you noticed projects from the plumbing industry were the easiest for you to help and develop online, while project from the pharmaceutical industry paid better but involved a lot more work, then you could start with targeting plumbers because that’s where you will be most helpful for your clients, and for yourself, because you will be efficient while spending less time on each project, thus more profit, and more happy customers and testimonials.

Of course, you can experience with different niches, especially when starting out, and focus on the ones where you are most helpful, that you enjoy the most, and that bring you good profit.

3. Create systems

If you start a one-person-operation, you need to be tactical, because contrary to the agency life, you will most than likely be on your own when starting out. And every task, every hour, every minute will have its importance.

So creating systems, or processes that can streamline your work will help you big time and the hidden advantage is that the day you need to hire someone or outsource to serious freelancers, you will have easy to follow guidelines that will help anyone you take on-board get started in no time.

So for example, for my Youtube channel, I actually spent quite some time figuring how to organize content research, naming conventions, folder structure, project naming, content schedule, video shooting, video editing and so on, so that I always know what to do next and could bring anyone in the process should I need some help.

So you will need to spend time figuring that out for yourself and your business, but you’re not alone on this road, and on this blog, I will share with you the tools and processes that help me speed up my work and not feeling completely overwhelmed.

Sometimes, a single tool can cut your workload in half if not more!

4. Network, but not the way you think.

You may think that the only way to network is to use your own craft, and market yourself online. Sure you should do it, especially if its your core business. But one way to get started and get better qualified leads is to join local meetup groups where you meet people face to face.

I came to this conclusion after being invited to a few local events, and being introduced to business owners that needed digital services, but because they’re always so busy, or are afraid of being taken advantage of, they never really took the time to search for professionals that could help them hop on the digital train.

Now don’t forget, that although you may be all-in in the digital age, many people still don’t know much about the digital world, apart from Facebook and Twitter.

So when you are being introduced face-to-face in such events, it creates trust because they get to meet a real person, and they make themselves an opinion about you.

And something I’ve noticed is that, often times, those leads convert much better, do repeat business with you, are more focused on quality than on price, and refer you to their own networks.

So, especially when starting from scratch, this is a source for potential clients that is often overlooked and that you should definitely not underestimate.

And networking in such a way has another advantage which I will develop in my next point.

5. Build partnerships

We’ve talked about “cheap yes” agencies, that you should never partner with, but on the other way, when you find valuable partners, they should be treated as gold because they can become a true asset for your business and help you build a real business instead of a job for yourself.

So for example, if you are providing excellent digital marketing services that help plumbers reach new leads online, you will need professional level graphics that will be used in ads. But let’s say that you completely suck at graphic design: instead of finding new graphic designers for each project, it would be much better to partner with a graphic designer that aligns with your values and that you can rely on.

It will give you peace of mind, letting you focus on your craft while they take care of the design, and it will ensure design consistency throughout the various projects for a specific client.

So where do you find such partnerships?

Well on one hand it’s you and your luck, but as I touched on the previous point, local meetup group can definitely help you find such partnerships, because there is a sense of trust that is essential in these kind of business groups.

Now I’m not saying it’s all perfect, but at least in my experience, it’s way easier to find trusted professionals in those groups, than behind the somewhat anonymity of websites like Fiverr, Upwork and so on.

Now it is totally possible to find great partners on websites like Fiverr and Upwork, but it takes different strategies and the luck factor is way higher in my opinion.

So, I hope that this post inspired you to start thinking about building your own digital marketing services, because freelancing in digital marketing can be very rewarding if you love doing that and if you can help solopreneurs and small businesses that need the help of someone just like you.

Question of the day:

Are you thinking of starting your own digital marketing services or did you already take the big plunge and what’s your experience about it? What are you struggling with? Let me know in the comments below.

If you watch the companion video and if you liked it, please give it a thumbs up, as it really helps growing the channel and if you know someone that could benefit from it, I’m going to ask you if you’d like to share it now, because let’s face it, there are so many things to do in a day that if you don’t do it now you’ll probably forget.

Now if you want to brand, market and grow your business it in the Digital Age make sure you subscribe to my email newsletter so that you never miss your share of digital alchemy as well as tips, tools, services and case studies that can help you grow your business online.

So I hope to see you around here or on the Youtube channel, and in the meantime, do you know what time it is? I think you do, it’s time to invest in your success!

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