How to Make Marketing as Easy as Tying Your Shoes

Consistent marketing can be easy

Without consistent marketing, it’s really hard to build and sustain a stable, successful freelance business. You can make marketing your freelance business as easy as tying your shoes—and you don’t need willpower or motivation to do this.

If you’re like most freelancers, finding time to consistently market your business is a major challenge. But if you don’t find time for marketing, you’re likely to struggle to build and sustain a stable, successful freelance business. Even if you’re already successful, without consistent marketing, it will be harder for you to replace clients you lose or fire.

Why You Need to Market Your Freelance Business

Clients don’t just fall into our laps. We need to do consistent-client-focused marketing to attract them. Even if you get referrals, clients will check out your LinkedIn profile and maybe your website before deciding whether to contact you.

Freelancers who do consistent-client-focused marketing rarely if ever face famine. We have a steady stream of clients and work (an endless feast). And when we need more work, we know what to do to get it.

If you want to choose the steady, high-paying clients you want to work with instead of taking whatever work comes along, then you need to do consistent-client-focused marketing.

Why it’s so Hard to Make Time for Consistent Marketing

Most freelancers never have a chance to learn about marketing. That’s the main reason it’s so hard to make time for consistent marketing.

We’re all uncomfortable with things we don’t know how to do. So not knowing how to market your freelance businesses makes you reluctant to do this.

Making time for consistent marketing is also hard because our brains are wired for immediate gratification. And it takes time to get new clients even if you’re doing the right things.

When clients don’t hire us, we tend to take this as rejection. It’s not.

Grow Your Grit

But we all have the power to learn new things and do hard things. Less than 30% of what we achieve is based on how smart we are, according to Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

Also called determination or mental toughness, grit is the perseverance and passion to achieve our long–term goals. Duckworth’s research found that grit is responsible for 70% of what we achieve.

You can grow your grit. And when you do that, you can conquer the challenges of marketing your freelance business.

Consistency is key to building grit, says James Clear, author of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.

If you put in consistent effort, then you’ll get a little bit better every day.

Learn more about grit
The Superhero Power You Need to Know About: Grit

Build the Marketing Habit to Do Consistent Marketing

Habits make doing hard things—like marketing your freelance business—easy. Clear defines habit as “. . . the small decisions you make and actions you perform every day.”

Tying your shoes is an example of a simple habit that we learn when we’re young.

Clarks, a shoe company, posted this 5-step process for tying your shoes.

consistent marketing is easy

It looks complicated right?

But when you were young, you learned the steps for tying your shoes.

And you kept practicing tying your shoes until you got it right—and it became automatic. Tying your shoes became a habit.

Create Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions will help you build the marketing habit. You state what you will do, the BEHAVIOR, and when you’ll do it, the TIME.

Hundreds of studies have shown that implementation intentions help people stick to their goals. Here’s the formula:

I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME].

And here’s an example of an implementation intention for a simple marketing action:

I will WORK ON MY LINKEDIN PROFILE at 1 PM ON FRIDAY.

Habit stacking is another type of implementation intention. After you do something that you already do regularly (a current habit), you practice the new habit. Here’s the formula:

After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]

Here’s an example:

After I HAVE LUNCH ON FRIDAY, I will WORK ON MY LINKEDIN PROFILE.

Clear says that habit stacking “allows you to create a set of simple rules that guide your future behavior.”

Focus on the Science of Your Day to Do Consistent Marketing

consistent marketing

Daniel Pink says that when you practice a new habit makes a big difference.

It’s easiest to build new habits when you have the energy to do them, and your energy levels largely depend on the time of day.

Pink also says that the difference between our best and worst part of the day can be huge. And at certain times of day, we’re better at some things than others.

Pink calls this the science of the day. He divides the day into three parts: Peak, trough, and rebound.

For most people, they occur in this order. Night owls tend to rebound, trough, and peak.

consistent marketing

How to Use the Peak

Since focus is best during the peak, that’s a great time to work on strategic things like developing your marketing strategy or plan.

How to Use the Trough

The trough, which Pink calls “the Bermuda Triangle of our days, is where “our effectiveness and good intentions disappear.” Do easier work like searching for relevant contacts to invite to be part of your network on LinkedIn or developing your prospect list.

How to Use the Rebound

The rebound is the best time for more creative marketing actions like writing your website content or LinkedIn profile.

Focus on What Works Best

Now you know how to build the marketing habit. But what should you actually do?

If you focus on what works best and the needs of your clients, your marketing will be easier and more effective. What works best for most freelancers, especially freelance medical writers and editors, is networking and LinkedIn.

This is based on my experience in my own freelance business, from coaching hundreds of other freelancers, and from my survey on How Freelancers Market their Services.

Focusing your marketing on what your clients need and how you can help them meet their needs works much better than focusing on yourself. And it’s more comfortable because you won’t feel like you’re bragging about yourself.

Make Networking Part of Your Consistent Marketing

Getting clients, especially through referrals, is the top reason to network. Referrals are the easiest way to build your freelance business. Because clients want to work with freelancers they can trust. So when they need a freelancer, they usually ask colleagues for recommendations.

When you get a referral, the client is ready to hire a freelancer and predisposed to like you and to hire you. You can also meet clients through networking.

Having a strategic network of freelance friends helps you get more referrals. Many of us hear about opportunities that aren’t right for us that we can share with other freelancers. And some of our clients work with multiple freelancers.

There’s plenty of freelance work for all of us, and collaborating with other freelancers always beats competing with them.

Your freelance friends can also:

Support you in dealing with difficult clients and other challenges
Help you better manage your freelance businesses
Relieve the isolation of freelancing.

Join Professional Associations

Professional associations are where you’ll find other freelancers who can give you referrals and people working for the clients you want to work with. But it takes more than casual interaction to get referrals.

Volunteering is the quickest way to build trust and strong relationships and show your competence. When you volunteer, you often meet—and have the chance to impress—leaders in the association. Leaders have large networks.

Develop the Right Networking Attitude

Many freelancers, including me when I started out, are more comfortable sitting in our offices working than networking, especially in in-person. Networking is stressful or scary. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Developing the right networking attitude will make networking much easier.

When we think of networking, many of us think we’re supposed to “sell ourselves.” But that actually pushes people away. Networking is about getting to know people. And when you focusing on learning about them, networking is much easier.

Giving more than you take in networking makes networking easier and more effective. And when you help people without expecting anything in return, they’ll want to help you too.

There’s evidence that nice people can finish first, not last. In “Give and Take,” Adam Grant reported that:

“people who give their time, knowledge, ideas, and connections to others without expecting anything in return (“givers”) are more successful than people who think it’s a dog-eat-dog world and focus only on self-promotion (“takers”).”

Learn more about how to give more than you take
What Happens When Freelancers Play Nice (Are Givers, Not Takers)

Go to Live Meetings and Conferences

In-person networking is the best way to build trusting relationships. Meeting people in person makes it much easier to build a trusting relationship, even if most of your interaction after you meet is through email, Zoom, phone, and/or social networking.

Networking events are especially important for meeting other freelancers.

The real results of networking don’t come from going to events. They come from the relationships you build afterwards. Soon after the event, follow up with people you think could be helpful to you (and you to them):

Invite each person to join your LinkedIn network and/or
Send them a “nice to meet you” email.

Follow up and stay in touch regularly with the people you’re meeting. Be polite and professional, and focus on giving more than you take. Send your contacts useful information and resources. Once or twice a year, you can mention your freelance services.

Learn more about in-person networking
12 Ways to Make Networking Events Amazing, Not Scary

Make LinkedIn Part of Your Consistent Marketing

LinkedIn is the #2 source of clients for many freelancers. Clients are using LinkedIn to search for freelancers and to check us out when they hear about or meet us. You need 3 things to get more clients on LinkedIn:

A complete, client-focused profile
A big, relevant network
To be somewhat active.

Profile completeness and relevant keywords in the headline matter most when clients are searching for freelancers on LinkedIn.

Complete Your Profile

A complete profile is a LinkedIn term. Only 51% of LinkedIn members have complete profiles. So just by completing your profile, you’ll stand out in a sea of freelancers.

Completing your profile is super easy. Include the right content:

Profile photo
Location
Industry
Education
Current and 2 past positions
5+ skills

Also, you need to have and at least 50 connections. Connections aren’t actually part of your profile, but LinkedIn still includes this as part of a complete profile.

LinkedIn gives you up to 220 characters with spaces for your headline. But that’s too long for a compelling, client-focused and scannable headline. I recommend using about 120 to 170 characters for your headline.

Write a Client-Focused Headline and About

Show that you understand the needs of your clients and how you can help them meet their needs in your headline. Clearly describe what you do and how you help your clients.

Clients often search for keywords related to titles, so use “freelancer” instead of “freelance services,” and “freelance writer, editor, etc.” Use other keywords such as the:

Type of work you do
Type of clients you work with
Key services.

Here’s one easy formula you can use to craft your headline:

[Freelance] writer [or editor, etc.] | Helping X do Y

Here are 2 examples:

Freelance Medical Writer | Helping clients produce accurate, evidence-based, and compliant CME to enhance knowledge and improve patient care

Freelance Copyeditor | Helping clients produce accurate, clear, and compelling content about finance

About is the second most important part of your profile. The first 220-270 characters count most on desktop and the first 102-167 characters on mobile. That’s what people see before they have to click “see more.” Make sure the beginning of About:

Flows with your headline
Offers a clear, concise client-focused message.

In the rest of About, include just enough content to show clients that you’re a good choice for them. Briefly summarize your relevant experience and background.

At the end of About, tell clients what you want them to do with a call to action. You can invite clients to call or email you, visit your website, connect on LinkedIn, or any combination of these.

Write About like you’re having a conversation with a friend. Make it interesting and easy to read:

Write short sentences and short paragraphs.
Use subheads to highlight key messages.
Use bulleted lists for anything that works well in a list.

Learn more LinkedIn profiles
The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile for Freelance Success This Year
Ultimate LinkedIn Checklist for Freelancers

Build a big, relevant network

When clients search for a freelancer, a big relevant network helps you rank higher in search results.

And having connections in common with the person who is doing the search, especially 1st-degree connections, is most important.

LinkedIn has chosen 500 as the “magic” number of connections. Once you reach that, your profile will say “500+ connections.” No one knows whether you actually have 500 or 30,000—the maximum—1st-degree connections. Relevant connections are people who:

Work in your industry(ies) and specialties
Do similar work
Are related to you and your work in another way

When you invite people to connect with you, always send a personal invitation. People are much more likely to connect with you if you do this. Be professional and friendly and say what you have in common. Here’s an example:

“Hi Lori. I see we’re both freelance medical writers [OR EDITORS]. Please join my LinkedIn network.”

Learn more about LinkedIn connections
10 Ways to Get 500+ Connections on LinkedIn Fast

Be active

Activity is LinkedIn’s #4 in search algorithm criteria. The more active you are, the more people who will see your content. This will help you rank higher in search results and build your network.

The key parts of LinkedIn activity are your comments on other people’s posts, your posts, and your responses to comments on your posts.

Commenting on other people’s posts is an easy way to get started. LinkedIn’s algorithm favors meaningful comments related to the post’s content. Meaningful comments share your experiences, insights, or opinion or show support.

Once you’re somewhat comfortable on LinkedIn, write your own posts once or twice a week.

LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes relevant posts that offer knowledge and advice. They want to see perspectives and insights, not just generic content.

Many people behave badly on LinkedIn. Never:

Be blatantly promotional
Ask people you just connected with for work
Ask people you just connected with for extensive help.

Learn more about being active on LinkedIn
How to Increase Your Visibility on LinkedIn

10 Consistent Actions to Build Your Freelance Business

Here are 10 simple marketing actions you can take to start building the marketing habit:

Write down the reasons you don’t make time for marketing.
Create an implementation intention.
Stack implementation intention on a current habit.
Decide the science of your day
Choose 3 freelancers to build relationships with. Reach out to each by email. Schedule a Zoom meeting to get to know each other or if you already know each other, build your relationship.
Complete your LinkedIn profile.
Write your compelling, client-focused headline.
Invite 10 people to join your LinkedIn network each week.
Comment on 3 posts each week.
Write your own post once a week.

Learn more about the Fearless Freelancer mindset, building the marketing habit, LinkedIn, networking, and more in my free ebook.

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You Can Do Consistent Marketing

Building the marketing habit will make it easy for you to do consistent marketing. It will take time to do this. But if you keep doing your marketing, it will become as easy as tying your shoes.