When I started my own business, I knew that marketing would be the biggest challenge. This is due to my lack of understanding of marketing and my feelings about marketing. I’m not a salesperson, never was and never will be, until now. I have had to come to terms with the fact that to have a successful business I need to embrace Marketing.
It is easy to see marketing as sleazy and cringey. Selling things to people who probably don’t need it. The snake-oiled salesman and the used-car salesman making selling dirty. This is a perception that has persisted since money first changed hands. I realised that it wasn’t so much that selling was a bad thing. It was how you went about it. Tom Ross of @tomrossmedia illustrated the point well in an Instagram reel. He said we need to reframe marketing from being sleazy, pushy, uncomfortable, selling and money-driven to creative, helping people, relationships, empathy and community. I found this to be extremely helpful in not only changing my attitude towards marketing. But also be able to focus on what's important as I move forward into the world of marketing.
I must point out that I am by no means an expert, just a learner, travelling and navigating through the world of freelancing. As anyone starting out knows you hit Google search for knowledge, advice and help. This can be helpful but you can become overwhelmed with information. Sifting through the mass of information, advice and tips. I distil things down to a nice simple approach. I am not sure whether my approach will work or even if I’m walking the right marketing path. Yet with time and experience comes a better understanding.
My marketing strategy aimed to keep it simple and easy to manage. The way I see it, correct or not, is that you need to get noticed and then get engagement. This at times seems like an impossible task when you are swimming in a sea of a lot of talented people. This is something that I try to put out of my mind, whilst also allowing it to inspire me.
One of the first things I needed to do was work out who I am going to market to and how. As a web designer starting I figured that I needed to focus on small businesses and start-ups. I assumed that this would be the easiest way to find clients. Somehow, I feel that this may not be so easy. The ‘how’ has two parts, the first being the message and the second is the delivery method.
The message that I want to deliver is based on my tagline of Discover. Create. Build. I want to help people to improve their businesses through visual design. Whether that be a logo or a website design. I want to help businesses improve and grow by helping to identify problems and provide solutions. That is my message and now I need to get it out there to the people I want to help. How do I do that?
To get my message out there, social media seems like the obvious choice. I decided to focus on three, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Groups and LinkedIn. I plan to start by posting the same content to all three platforms. The idea is to establish a baseline of information. All the above platforms have tools and analytics that can be used to understand how you’re swimming in the sea. Once you have these numbers coming through you can then adjust your campaign and test different things. As I learn more about marketing and coupled with the analytics I will be able to increase the effectiveness of my campaign and begin to get leads.
The trick is not get to too obsessed with the numbers. What you are after is to see what works and what does not. Also, you must give your campaign time to work. Planning is also an important aspect of marketing. I am guilty of being a tad lackadaisical in this area. I have been refining my steps and devising a more detailed process.
Define my message. This with include several variations of the copy that will address different problems potential clients may be facing. Also, more importantly, how I will endeavour to help them.
I will create several posts that will visually appeal to my target audience, as well as containing my message. I think of these as ads. I will create single images, carousels and video/animation. I plan to create enough for a four-week campaign, posting once a week.
I use Adobe Express to create my posts and post them to a schedule, every Monday.
At the end of the four-week campaign, I will check in with the analytics for each platform to see what working on what platform. Armed with this information I should be able to adjust my next four-week campaign to take advantage of the ‘numbers’. The back to step one.
Email marketing is another approach I am trying. I use Mailerlite to send out emails. It has tools that give you information as to whether the email has been opened or a link clicked. Which is super helpful. My basic approach is to google local businesses that I feel might need help with their website or other design-related assets. I then did a basic analysis to determine what problems they may have and how I can help them. Then I add them to a mailing list and email them. I have done this only once and it has proven to not be very effective yet. I sent out 22 emails and only 3 people opened the email. There could be several reasons for this, but with limited data, it would be mere speculation. I will need to decide whether I email them again with a different email. We will see. I will keep building my database of local businesses and trying different campaigns.
I am unsure how effective my marketing strategy will be, but it is a start. As I start building up a better understanding of marketing and what works and does not. Then I will be able to further improve my strategy. I am aware that there are several gurus and plenty of people offering marketing advice. But with all the information out there it is truly overwhelming and can be counterproductive. At the end of the day, it comes down to action, trial and error.
Thanks for your ears.