You do your thing: you design awesome logos and post them on Dribbble and Behance. You write blog posts and publish your own newsletter. You play music and have just released your first album. In each case, your work is out there. But your customers don’t know about it (yet). How do you reach them? How do you make that first step? It all has to do with asking yourself these four questions.
1. Who do you do it for?
Your work is not for everyone. You will not work with each and every person on the planet: you have to choose. Who do you really want to work with? Let’s take three examples: 1. a logo designer for vegan restaurants 2. a blog writer about sustainable electronics 3. a musician in a rock band.
2. Where are they?
Now you know who your customers are. But they don’t know you yet. To get noticed, you need to show up where they are. And they are in one place for sure: social media. Because everyone is. The older generation is on Facebook, young Gen Z-ers are on TikTok and Instagram and gamers and nerds are on Reddit.
To go back to our examples: vegan restaurants are on Google Maps. The app shows all the local shops with pictures and reviews included.
Involved in Green tech? It is all about politics. And politics are on Twitter. Journalists and writers are also there. One stone, three birds.
Finally, where do people listen to music? On Spotify. Sure. SoundCloud. Sometimes. And YouTube. Yes, that’s it. YouTube has a much stronger social aspect than most other platforms and is the tool of choice for new musicians.
3. How to share your work?
Now is the time to act. Consistency is key. We have to be there, again and again to show how professional we are. For that, we need a schedule. Every day, at the same time, post something. Add it to your calendar. Set up an alarm. It only takes 5 min.
What will we post in only 5 min?
On Twitter, writers can post:
- published blog posts
- current drafts
- ideas for new blog posts
- how we’re editing
- experiments we’re trying
- the latest thing we learned
- past projects we worked on
On YouTube, musicians can post:
- a video of the latest concerts
- a picture during training
- some covers
- trials and errors
- inspirations
- pretty much anything backstage
It will take time. You will need to stay consistent and do this for at least 6 months. By then, your customers will remember you, expect your posts and chat with you. It will have become the new normal.
4. How do you stay in touch?
Message your customers. Send one, no, send two messages. Always follow up about a week later. Because most won’t reply. But some will. The conversations you’ll have then will be worth all the hard work you’re doing here.
For that, you need to write two short scripts. In those, make sure to include:
say hi
ask how they’re doing
add a comment about the person you’re sending the message to
present what you do with a link to your portfolio
ask if they: need your services (if they’re a potential customer) or can feature your work (if they’re an influencer (blogger, journalist, magazine, festival)
say bye
Or are you struggling to get the conversation started? You can check out Fanny’s previous article on sparking conversations here.
Look for all the profiles that match your ‘who do you do it for?’ Copy-paste your scripts and adapt the ‘add a comment’ section. Bit by bit, you will:
- post
- connect
- get known in your industry
It is through these small steps that writers, designers and musicians can reach an audience and engage with it. The key is to remain consistent–and nice.
Hi, thanks for reading my article! I’m Fanny and help busy freelancers simplify theirmarketing, and finally relax. Check how I can help you: www.fanny-marcoux.com/
Read more about marketing basics: https://www.thefreelancerjungle.com/
