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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

I f you want to avoid the feast-or-famine problem that plagues many

freelancers, you need to commit to consistently marketing your business.
As a freelance writer for more than 35 years, I’ve learned that it takes a lot
of work to establish your brand, promote your business, land good clients,
and build a robust project pipeline.

• In Issue #2 of Expert•ish Freelancer newsletter, I outlined how to

find steady work.
• In Issue #3 of Expert•ish Freelancer newsletter, I discussed
marketing smarts for freelancers.
• Now, in Expertish Freelancers Marketing Toolkit, I highlight
dozens of tactics to help you craft your ideal marketing mix. This is a
newsletter subscriber-only bonus—please do not share or distribute.

Discovering the right mix of marketing tactics might take some trial and
error. What works for one freelancer might not work for you. Try a variety of
activities to see what delivers the results you’re looking for.

And—perhaps just as important—identify what activities you actually enjoy

undertaking on a regular basis. If you hate something, you won’t
consistently do it.

The following list covers both inbound (pull) and outbound (push)
marketing, where you’re both pulling/attracting prospects to you and
pushing/initiating outreach to prospects.

© 2024 Lisa A. Beach www.ExpertishFreelancer.com Page 2

Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

These tactics include prospecting, outreach, client engagement,

networking, content marketing, public relations, and organizing and tracking
your efforts. You should do a mix of both inbound and outbound marketing.

Rule of Thumb: The general guideline is to allocate about

10-20% of your working hours to marketing activities. So, if
you work 40 hours every week, then dedicate four to eight
hours a week to marketing. (This just gives you a guideline—
tweak it to your needs.)

Choose a variety of these marketing activities to do every week. Some will

take just a few minutes, while others will take longer. Some will yield
immediate results and some might take weeks or months to be fruitful.

1 Identify your ideal client you’d like to work with, nailing down the
media outlet or industry, audience, product/service, types of content
they produce, company size, budget, etc.

2 Research brands you personally love and find the correct person to
pitch.

3 Research nonprofits and organizations that represent a cause you’re

passionate about and find the correct person to pitch.

4 Research associations in your niche and find the correct person to

pitch.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

5 Create (or update) a prospect database to store the information for

these prospects, using an Excel file, customer relationship manager
(CRM) tool, Outlook address book, Google sheet, etc.

6 Create (or update) a simple system (such as an Excel spreadsheet)

to track your marketing outreach efforts, including prospect
information (name, company, email), outreach details (date, contact
method, message summary), and follow-up actions (date, follow-up
method, response, next steps).

7 Create (or update) a writer website to showcase your experience,

services you offer, clients, writing clips, and testimonials.

8 Add a Work With Me page to your website highlighting how you can
help prospects and how to start working together.

9 Brainstorm ways to diversify your business, such as offering different

services, creating a product (such as an eBook), adding a new niche,
adding B2B clients instead of only consumer-focused clients, etc.

10 Create a fee schedule (for internal use only—don’t share with

prospects/clients) that you can quickly refer to when pricing for
projects (like writing blog posts, white papers, case studies, social
posts, etc.).

11 Write a Letter of Introduction (LOI) that you can use as a template to

customize for different industries and prospects.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

12 Email customized LOIs to prospects, briefly highlighting your

experience and services you offer.

13 Follow up with LOIs multiple times over several months or more,

spreading out your frequency of follow-ups (such as initial email,
follow-up one week later, follow-up one month later, then follow-up
quarterly depending on prospect’s response).

14 Send a note to the editor of your college alumni magazine

announcing that you've launched your own business.

15 Send a press release to local publications announcing that you've

launched your own business.

16 Send an old-school direct mail piece (a letter works fine) to key

prospects you’d like to work with, introducing yourself, showcasing
your experience, and highlighting how you can help.

17 Send a handwritten thank-you note (to an editor, client, freelancer,

referral source, etc.).

18 Get testimonials from current/past clients to add to your website

and/or LinkedIn profile.

19 Write testimonials for current/past editors and clients you’ve worked

with.

20 Set aside time every quarter to assess what’s working and what’s not
working so you can tweak your efforts for the remainder of the year.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

21 Research relevant consumer and business-to-business (B2B)

publications in your industry, tracking down the appropriate editors to
pitch.

22 Create (or update) a media database to store information and pitch

guidelines for these editorial contacts, using an Excel file, CRM tool,
Outlook address book, Google sheet, etc.

23 Look through your mail for custom publications you receive (from
your hospital, your insurance company, your local AAA, etc.) tracking
down the appropriate editors to pitch and adding this info to your
media database.

24 Study previous articles published by media outlets to get a feel for

topics they cover, audience, article lengths, tone, style, structure, and
types of articles (first-person narrative, listicles, etc.).

25 Pitch targeted article ideas to editors at any of these media outlets.

26 Follow up with any pitches one week later.

27 Ask a trusted fellow writer for feedback on a pitch that’s not

generating interest and tweak the pitch as needed.

28 Keep pitching your article idea until you get an assignment.

29 Dust off an old pitch that never landed an assignment, add some
fresh stats/info if needed, and re-pitch it to additional publications.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

30 Note successful writers in your niche and see what media outlets
they’re getting published in to broaden your own database of media
outlets.

31 Create a freelance portfolio on platforms like Contently, Skyword,

NewsCred, or TravMedia.

32 Refresh your website.

33 Craft a short elevator speech to communicate quickly and succinctly

who you are, what you do, and why it matters.

34 Connect with prospects on LinkedIn with a personal note.

35 Engage with editors, clients, and prospects on other social media

platforms where your clients and prospects spend time—and that you
enjoy—whether that’s TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

36 Update your LinkedIn profile (tweak your bio, add new services or
skills or clients, add new certifications, etc.).

37 Add fresh clips or upload your latest projects to your LinkedIn profile,
website, and/or portfolio platforms.

38 Create a social media calendar to ensure a consistent posting

schedule.

39 Schedule social media posts using services (many with free plans)
like CoSchedule, Hootsuite, Later, Buffer, and Loomly.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

40 Share a recently published article on your social channels and tag

expert sources interviewed for the piece.

41 Reach out to current clients for additional work.

42 Reconnect with past clients to check in on their freelancing needs.

43 Let current and past clients know about unexpected pockets of time
in your project calendar, opening up your availability to help them.

44 Ask current and past clients for referrals (including colleagues within
their company/agency as well as external professional connections).

45 Reach out to your network of friends, family, past colleagues, etc.,

sharing that you’ve launched a freelance business, highlighting the
services you offer and the types of clients/projects you’re looking for.

46 Reach out to companies that post relevant jobs, asking if you can
help with projects on a freelance basis until they fill the role.

47 Reach out to appropriate agencies that serve your industry, directly

contacting the relevant person likely to hire freelancers.

48 Create a lead magnet (like a checklist, tip sheet, or eBook) that

provides value to prospects in exchange for their email address,
which you can then use for future marketing efforts.

49 Create an editorial calendar for your blog or newsletter to queue up

ideas.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

50 Write a blog post or newsletter, add relevant graphics and links, and
schedule it for publishing.

51 Attend virtual and in-person networking events, webinars, and

conferences to make connections with editors, clients, prospects, PR
pros, writers, etc.

52 Attend in-person networking events with local business leaders and

industry pros.

53 Cold-call local businesses and agencies that you’d like to work with to
introduce yourself and briefly highlight your services and how you can
help.

54 Build relationships with referral sources, such as writers, editors,

graphic designers, translators, transcriptionists, consultants, and
other freelancers.

55 Hop on a discovery call with an interested prospect to talk about how

you might work together.

56 Meet for coffee with local writers, editors, clients, and (if they’re
willing) prospects to nurture relationships and meet face-to-face.

57 Find an accountability partner (preferably another freelancer) to set

up regular check-ins, discuss goals, brainstorm, share leads, and
provide encouragement.

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Expertish Freelancer Marketing Toolkit Please do not share or distribute.

58 Join online communities (on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) in your niche

for support, advice, networking, and sharing job leads.

59 Be a guest expert on an industry podcast to share your expertise and

insights.

60 Speak at a virtual or in-person event to share your expertise and

insights.

More Good Stuff for Freelancers!

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packed with practical tools, actionable tips, expert insights,
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