It is not enough to be creative and technical person, if you are a freelancer. You have be a clever businessperson as well. Although you have a lot of talents, but if you do not build your own path to clients, they won’t get you. But it is possible that you don’t have the time or money to engage in any sophisticated advertising campaign. Luckily, now days there are plenty of ways to market your business for small or no cash.
Twitter definitely has its own drawback that not everyone wants to hear you describe your work in 140 characters or fewer. But Twitter is an exceedingly searchable tool which is free and takes a very little time to manage.
After you have set up your account, look for for your favorite designers and studios as well as friends, businesses you are interested. This aware potential customer to your existence. As a result they might follow you and hunt for you out for future jobs. Tweet your blog, news related to your business, project you’re working on, artwork you find inspirational, a handy tutorial, but keep in mind that your tweets should be short and informal.
Twitter is not the place for deep copywriting, though it may become a great place to offer exclusive deals for you, if you use it wisely.
Facebook
There is no sign that Facebook is going away anytime soon like Friendster and MySpace. Hence like Twitter, here is another social networking tool which is completely free and trouble-free. But while using Facebook as a business tool, you have to sure that you must setup a business page instead of a personal profile. Facebook can be strict with rebellion and take down profiles that do too much endorsing if they’re not billed as businesses. Is should contains all your contact information, some photos of your office space, your logo and selected works. You can insert tabs to the top of your page. For example, you might want to add one for your works in development or portfolio.
You can link your blog to your Facebook page with NetworkedBlogs, so that it automatically becomes visible on your page and in your follower’s news feeds. Encourage remarks by putting some questions, be chatty, not rigid.
Gowalla and Foursquare
Into these location based social networking games; players are allowed to “check in” with their phones at businesses, public sites and homes. Check in adequate places, and users earn “badges” and other items. You will definitely think that how can you promote your business here?
Businesses can be done with players when they check in. With these types of location based social networking, you can contribute on both sides make yourself seen by checking in places as well as present your own rewards. Then use Gowalla and Foursquare for promoting your business using social network based game.
Yelp
While using Yelp you can at least observe your business profile. Look frequently to be sure your contact info is accurate and a link back to your site works. And most imperative thing is to read the reviews posted regarding to you or your business. Tweet the good reviews on Twitter and ask those visitors if they would like to give a testimonial for you.
Reply to negative reviews to make sure if you can make things hopeful. Remember that for many groups of peoples, Yelp is new way to provide Yellow Pages, and your business profile might give a sense to your potential customers.
Postcards
Sometimes not all promotions need to be web based or online. You can use some effective offline ways to promote your design business. A postcard was and still is a versatile advertising tool. Firstly you should have to design a postcard with few of your best works on one side and contact information on the back side. Printing a set of hundreds is economically effective.
Then ask to depart these postcards at businesses such as cafes, bars, clubs and gyms. Your noticeable design should attract new customers, may be they contact you instantly or come across your postcard they are now using as a bookmark. In any of these situations at least your advertising will be done in inexpensively.
Summary
Although doing freelancing can give you freedom from the conventional cubical job, sometime it becomes unsteady trade. Freelancers always not have a lot of extra time or money for promotion. Still with Internet they have got a great opportunity to advertise their business cheaply. But they should take a risk with different types of marketing. If one campaign doesn’t succeed, try another one. If you are creative professionals, so why not have some practice with creativity with exceptional promotions?