How to Use Free AI Tools Like ChatGPT and Perplexity to Market Your Freelance Business

AI tools for marketing

AI is now a handy shortcut for marketing a freelance business. And free AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity can make marketing easier—even if you don’t know much about tech. From building a prospect list faster to creating a professional headshot to developing compelling, client-focused marketing messages, discover how AI can help you. 

Whether you’re juggling clients, pitching for new work, or just trying to stay visible online, free AI tools can help.

So you’ll have more time for client work.

And by using AI for marketing, you’ll build tech skills you can use in your client work.

Why Use AI for Your Freelance Business Marketing?

Free AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity help you get to know clients in your target markets without spending hours doing research—even if you don’t know much about tech—like me.

While marketing does come naturally to me, working with new tech doesn’t. If I could learn how to market a freelance business using AI tools, you can too—especially since  this post shows you what to do.

Using AI tools, you can:

  • Build a list of prospects in less time.
  • Gather details on your prospects to personalize outreach through direct email.
  • Polish a value statement to develop compelling, client-focused marketing messages.
  • Find out what different clients need most so you can create compelling, client-focused marketing.
  • Create a professional headshot, even if you hate having your picture taken).
  • Spark ideas for business names.
  • Develop an AI policy statement to show clients you use AI ethically and responsibly.

Use both ChatGPT and Perplexity for marketing tasks and choose the best results from each.

I like to use both ChatGPT and Perplexity, which usually provide different ideas. ChatGPT seems to be better at some marketing tasks and Perplexity at others. And often, combining ideas from both responses results in the best marketing.

While both AI tools have free and paid versions, the free versions are all most freelancers need for marketing.

This post has sample prompts. Usually, you’ll need to use follow-up prompts to get the best results. ChatGPT and Perplexity both give you some ideas for follow-up prompts. Write your own follow-up prompts to ask for more details or clarify instructions.

Always review and tweak results from AI tools.

Build Better Prospect Lists with Free AI Tools

AI is a huge time-saver for building prospect lists of the right people fast. You can use ChatGPT and Perplexity to identify who hires freelancers, create prospect lists, and more.

Find Out Who’s Hiring Freelancers

One of the hardest parts of marketing is figuring out the right contact for your marketing without hours of research. AI can help you do this.

Sample prompt
What are the titles of the people in communications or marketing in hospitals and health systems who hire freelance writers?

Once you have the right titles, use them in your prompt to find prospects.

Sample prompt
Create a list of 20 well-known hospitals in the United States. For each hospital, include the full name, the name and title of the director of marketing or communications, and their professional email address if available. Use trusted public sources and do not share private or unverified information. If you cannot find an email address, leave that field blank.

If you have clients you really like working with, try a prompt that will help you find similar prospects:

Sample prompt
One of my favorite clients is a U.S based global nonprofit investment firm that helps all types of investors and financial professionals invest in solutions that people and our planet need. Can you give me a list of 20 organizations, non-profits and foundations just like them?

AI can’t always find the right contacts and it rarely offer email addresses. But it’s still the fastest way to build a prospect list.

ChaptGPT and Perplexity seem to work best for prospect lists when you prompt it to give you a small number of prospects. Then repeat the query until you complete your list.

Sample follow-up prompt
Create a list of 20 more well-known hospitals in the United States. For each hospital, include the full name, the name and title of the director of marketing or communications, and their professional email address if available. Use trusted public sources and do not share private or unverified information. If you cannot find an email address, leave that field blank.

This is the same prompt as earlier with the word “more” in the first sentence. Also check out the suggestions for follow-up prompts from the free AI tool below the results.

Get Email Addresses for Contacts

Since free AI tools rarely offer email addresses, you’ll need to find them on your own. There are several ways to do this:

  • Apply the organization’s email format to the person
  • Use your professional association member directories
  • Look them up LinkedIn
  • Use free email lookup tools
  • Try Chrome extensions.

My favorite trick, which almost always works, is to apply the organization’s email format to the person. If you look on the organization’s newsroom, press, or similar page, you’ll usually find at least one contact person with an actual email address. Apply this to your contact person.

Example
Lori De Milto, Public Relations Director: lorid@greatcclient.com 
Contact person: Mark Jones
Mark’s email address: markj@greatclient.com

It’s also worth taking a few seconds to look the contact person up in your professional associations’ member directories and on LinkedIn. People choose whether to list their email addresses so you may not find them. On LinkedIn, few prospects include their email addresses.

Free AI tools for email lookups like Hunter.io and VoilaNorbert can help, but the number of searches you can do each month is limited. You can also try Chrome extensions like GetProspect for email lookups by name and domain.

Develop Your Value Statement with Free AI Tools

A value statement says what you do, who you help, and why clients should hire you. It’s a behind-the-scenes marketing tool that you’ll use to:

  • Show off your strength, skills, and personality
  • Create key marketing messages for LinkedIn and your website
  • Write direct emails that will help you attract the clients you deserve.

Start by answering 3 questions:

What do you do [TYPE OF FREELANCER AND TARGET MARKETS]?

How do you help your clients meet their needs? [CORE VALUES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS]?

Choose 3-5 core values and personality traits like accurate, adaptable, collaborative (team player), and dependable.

What do you want to be known for? [RELEVANT EXPERIENCE LIKE DEGREES and YEARS OF EXPERIENCE. IF YOU’RE A NEW FREELANCER, INCLUDE OTHER TRAINING AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE].

Next, choose the tone and writing style that’s right for your target markets, like casual, formal, or persuasive.

Then write a prompt to develop your value statement.

Prompt formula:
Create a value statement for my freelance business based on this information. Use a [XX] tone.

I am a freelance [TYPE OF FREELANCER] who helps clients [HOW YOU MEET CLIENT NEEDS]. I work with [TARGET MARKETS]. [Optional] My work is for [AUDIENCE(S)].

I [MORE ON HOW YOU HELP CLIENTS MEET THEIR NEEDS, INCLUDING YOUR CORE VALUES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS].

I want to be known for [KEY RELEVANT EXPERIENCE LIKE DEGREES, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, AND FOR NEW FREELANCERS, RELEVANT EDUCATION AND TRAINING].

Here’s the prompt I used for my value statement.

Prompt:
I am a freelance medical writer who helps clients by writing targeted medical content. As a freelance writer, I work with hospitals, disease-focused health organizations, and other health and healthcare organizations. I write for consumers, patients, physicians, and other audiences.

I write targeted content to help my clients attract, engage, and motivate their audiences, and deliver content on time, every time.

I want to be known for my Master’s Degree in Journalism, 20+ years of experience in medical writing, being trustworthy, and making my clients’ lives easier.

Review your ChatGPT and Perplexity results. Refine your value statement, based on one or both answers to fully reflect your freelance business.

Here’s my value statement, after I edited the AI responses and added  my personal touch.

My value statement
As a freelance medical writer, I help clients connect with their audiences through clear, targeted medical content that attracts, engages, and motivates. I believe in delivering content on time, every time—because reliability matters. With over 20 years of experience and a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I know how to take complex health information and turn it into content that connects—whether the goal is to inform patients, engage physicians, or inspire consumers.

I bring trustworthiness and expertise, and focus on making my clients’ lives easier. Whether writing for hospitals, health organizations, patients, or physicians, my work is focused on creating meaningful impact and building strong connections.

Understand What Clients Need Most with Free AI Tools

Generic marketing doesn’t work. When you understand client needs, your marketing—and you—will stand out in a sea of freelancers.

Free AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity help you figure out what matters most to your target markets and individual clients in those target markets. A target market is a group of similar clients, like medical education companies.

Sample prompt:
What are the key marketing needs of hospitals in the United States that a freelance writer can help with?

Personalize Your Direct Emails (and Save Time Drafting)

With free AI tools, writing compelling, customized direct emails is easy and fast. ChatGPT and  Perplexity can help you:

  • Quickly identify client needs
  • Craft great subject lines, the most important part of your direct email
  • Write calls to action to motivate prospects to contact you
  • Do rough drafts

But I found some big problems with AI-generated direct emails, including:

  • No clear, compelling first sentence, the second most important part of the direct email after the subject line
  • Lack of my key marketing messages
  • Marketing fluff, e.g., “I pride myself on.”

While ChatGPT and Perplexity can help you draft direct emails, you need to make sure your emails have the right information and sound like they came from you, not a bot.

Create Professional Headshots Fast with AI Tools

AI based tools like Aragon AI let you create professional headshots fast and easily—without sitting in front of a camera or paying for a pricey photo shoot. The process is simple:

  1. Upload a few clear photos.
  2. Answer some questions about style or setting.
  3. Pick your favorite headshots from the results.

Most tools deliver results within hours, sometimes even faster.

Generate Business Name Ideas with AI Tools

Coming up with a business name can feel impossible.  While you may not find the perfect name on AI, you will get ideas for a good business name and words you can use.

To use AI for business name ideas, write a prompt using your value statement. Say what you do, who you do it for (types of clients), and how clients benefit from working with you.

Sample prompt:
Create a list of 20 business name for a freelance medical writer who helps clients engage their audiences through targeted medical content. I work with hospitals, disease-focused health organizations, and other health and healthcare organizations. I write for consumers, patients, physicians, and other audiences.

Create Your AI Policy with AI Tools

Having an AI policy shows that you’re a professional and builds trust with clients.  It shows client that you know how you use AI to add value to your work and are aware of possible ethical issues, like plagiarism and copyright issues.

Use the term “AI-assisted writing” to show clients that you’re using AI as a tool, not to do the writing or editing for you.

Emphasize how AI-assisted writing or editing helps you be more efficient, which adds value for your clients, and that you use AI ethically and responsibly. Include:

  • What you do and don’t use AI for
  • Benefits and limitations of AI-assisted work
  • How you combine AI with your experience and expertise to deliver quality work.

Know When AI Tools Aren’t Enough

AI brings a lot of benefits for freelancers, but it can’t do everything:

  • AI usually misses details about your brand or voice.
  • AI often produces generic content.
  • Free versions:
    • Have limits on usage, like number of prompts you can do each day.
    • May have less current or detailed information.
    • Are more likely to raise privacy concerns.

While there are limits to what AI can do, when you know how to get the best out of it, you can make marketing easier and save time. Use AI for repetitive, time-consuming marketing tasks, and always include your own voice and experience.

Always review what AI generates and tweak it so it sounds like you—not a robot.

Review and Edit All AI Output

Watch out for factual errors, outdated information, or robotic-sounding sentences. Always:

  1. Read through everything AI writes for you.
  2. Check key facts against current websites or official sources.
  3. Edit for clarity, personality, and warmth before sending or publishing.

This small step can mean the difference between landing a client and missing out.

Conclusion

AI tools make freelance marketing faster, easier, and more creative. With free tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, you can find better leads, speak directly to client needs, write emails that sound like you, pick out business names, and even snap a professional headshot without leaving your desk.

Balancing the convenience of AI with your natural style and your voice keeps your marketing genuine—and helps turn prospects into steady, high-paying clients.

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