10 MARKETING TACTICS FOR FREELANCE DESIGNERS

Naijaultimateblog is a huge part of being a Freelancer.
Naijaultimateblog is also a great way for creative people to show just how creative they can be. Sure, you can buy ad space online or newspaper/magazine advertisements, but let’s be honest with each other, these things are seriously old school when it comes to marketing.

So how do we go about creating guerrilla marketing campaigns for ourselves that will not only gain attention but also help generate sales and future business for our freelance businesses? The answer to this might be a bit simpler than you think.

You may not have the big budgets to run 1,000 television commercials at the 6-8pm slots on channel 2, 4, or 7, but I bet you’ve got the creative mind to come up with a simple solution to generating more buzz for your company. And if all else fails, read the 10 guerrilla marketing tactics below and try to branch out off of them and generate your own list as well.

The ideas are infinite as long as you apply your creativity to them.
✔Offer free hosting for every 1st time client meeting – The main goal is to get time with the prospect and sell them your services right? A 2-3 minute conversation might not get them to buy, but a 30-60 minute meeting with them could definitely persuade them into hiring you. So offer every prospective client free hosting (3 months, 6 months, your choice) just for having the meeting.
 

✔Give something else away for free – Do you create custom blog designs? Why not create a free theme and give it away? The publicity from it, the link backs and the traffic are sure to land you some new leads/sales. The same can be true for texture packs, brush sets, free fonts, etc.
 

✔Cover your car in vinyl – You’ve got the design skills right? You’re a designer after all, so why not create the design for a kickass vinyl piece to cover the back half, side or entire car! It’s in expensive and will be advertisement for you wherever you go.
 

✔Business Cards in Library Books – Find the beginner xhtml/css or web design for dummies books and put your business cards inside them in every library you can get to. This way, anyone looking for them books to do their own website will instantly be met with a way to get out of reading the book and trying to do it themselves.
 

✔T-Shirts for the homeless – Take your design skills and create a design for some t-shirts, get them printed and then go pass the mouth to the homeless. If you’re able to do 100 or so t-shirts you could probably even get media coverage for doing it.
 

✔Stickers EVERYWHERE – Bands and record companies use stickers a lot – and for good reason. They’re relatively cheap, easy to place and can be everywhere you want them to be. Pass some out to your friends/family and have them put them up as well. Have family in a different state? Send them some in the mail and have them place the stickers around town.
 

✔Customer of the Month vouchers – Design some nice coupons you can print out (use a business card printer as they’re perfect size for people to carry around) and allow them to use it for a discount or pass them out to others so their friends/family can get the discount.
 

✔Display your toolbox – Taking a tool box (a real one for hammers, screw drivers, etc.) and placing it open in an area your target market will frequently come with different tools of your trade (i.e.: business cards so they can contact you, pencils &paper, computer mouse, etc.). This will work especially well if a toolbox is something not found normally where you have it (i.e.: coffee shop). Inside the top of the toolbox that’s open and facing the people coming up to it, you can have a note similar to “The tools of my trade – Custom Web Designs”.
 

✔Show off your package – No, not that package. For those of us who design packaging for clients (i.e.: boxes for products, etc.), why not create a mock up box and get a bunch of them printed up and place them inside different grocery stores or places where your target market will frequently visit.
 

✔Free web consulting – Allow potential customers to have 30-60minutes of your time for free. Absolutely free, no questions asked. Do not push your services on them at all. Leave them with a business card and notes from the conversation and be on your way. This selfless giving will leave an impression on the potential client and will also showcase your knowledge of the web and what you COULD be doing for them – if they were to hire you.

They’ll most likely feel so happy with the conversation that they almost feel obligated to hire you for their web design as a way to pay you back for your time you gave them.

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To you success!!!