Why Inbound Marketing Is Amazing For Freelancers (And Freelance Writers)
Some advantages inbound marketing has to offer for micro business units
The most significant business pivot I’ve made probably since I started freelancing is shifting from an outbound-first marketing methodology to an inbound-first one.
Think a lot less cold emailing (I don’t miss it!) and a lot more blog post writing.
My inbound marketing efforts haven’t always been as focused or strategic as they could be (for those wondering, nothing I write about freelancing is part of that strategy!). But they have already begun to pay dividends in the form of a steady trickle of leads into my marketing and sales pipeline.
For those not au-fait with the marketing vocab. I blog, podcast, and YouTube about my ghostwriting business. Now some people find me through the internet.
Inbound marketing is powerful for many businesses. But I think that it holds some unique advantages for those at the most diminutive level of scale: the solo freelancers of this world.
It Works While You Sleep
As solo business units we have to be very judicious about how we spend our time.
In freelance writing, time is money. That hour you spent trying to track down the contact email for a prospective client could be spent doing your taxes, issuing your monthly invoices, or …. you know, actually writing.
Against this constant backdrop of “a lot to do, not a lot of time to do it in,” inbound marketing provides an excellent solution that allows writers to get more done marketing-wise … while they sleep (literally).
How does that work exactly?
Cold email pitching — a mainstay of some freelance writers’ client acquisition approaches — diminishes in value rapidly over time. You send out your pitch and it either sparks interest or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, it’s likely to quickly become deluged under a pile of more time-sensitive email.
Inbound marketing assets — like blogs — increase in value over time. Your website increases in SEO value. You gain subscribers and followers and your audience grows.
For freelance writers short on time but high on …. urgent priorities, inbound marketing is an ideal way to get your daily marketing done without you actually doing anything at all.
Want to learn more about inbound? Hubspot’s certification is a great starting point and also a fitting accolade to sport as a freelance writer, particularly if content marketing rather than journalism is your jam.
It Can Dredge Up Surprisingly Big Fish
Pitching medium to large organizations can be extremely tricky.
Trying to land Microsoft as a client for your (solo) freelance writing business?
Believe me, if they work with freelance writers at all making that sell without a warm introduction is going to be a massively uphill challenge.
One of the particular beauties of inbound marketing for freelancers and other micro business units is that it can allow you to punch vastly above your weight when it comes to client acquisition.
Why?
Because the world of organic SEO is a beautiful meritocracy of sorts. If you know what you’re doing and how to rank for keywords, you can manage to steer traffic away from agencies with waay more budget for you.
The result? Using inbound marketing it’s possible to capture some really oversized clients. Even as a humble solo freelance writer.
It’s Sustainable
I don’t know about you (fellow freelance writer on Medium), but I find that writing is a energy and focus sapping endeavor.
So is cold pitching and managing digital advertising spends in a way that attempts to score ROI without sapping vast amounts of budget.
At some point the prospect of sitting on a beach while sipping from a cold beer / cocktail is going to sound a lot more appetizing than fishing for the email address at your latest prospect or trying to work out their internal email structure using Hunter.
Another facet of inbound marketing that I love as a freelance writer is the fact that it’s sustainable.
As mentioned previously, assets like blogs and podcasts are — to an extent — evergreen. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to update the content you publish to keep it fresh and relevant or keep your audience engaged. But you have more leeway than you do with cold pushes.
Inbound marketing is the gift that can keep giving. Both when you’re at the coalface working on more compelling writing to attract leads and when you finally manage to take some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
