As a creative professional, you’ll no doubt always be looking for new ways to get freelance clients and improve your prospects, but in today’s competitive market with more freelancers than ever before, that can be challenging.

Below, we’ve put together a few ways you can use content marketing to boost your profile as a freelancer, stand out to businesses and bring in new leads and clients.

Related reading: Establish Yourself and Get Jobs on Upwork

Are you looking for ideas on how to grow your freelance career? We put together the best ideas from across Nation1099 into an ebook — 15 Easy Hacks For Finding More Freelance Clients. Even better, this ebook includes two fantastic giveaways to valuable services.

Click here to get the ebook.

1. Launch your own blog

If you’ve yet to build a website for your freelancing career, now is the time to do so. Not only can you showcase your previous experience and work, but you’ll have a home for your contact information and give businesses and potential customers an insight into who you are.

After all, why should a company trust your word on LinkedIn when there are hundreds of others trying to get freelance clients by offering the same services at better rates?

A professional-looking website will help you stand out, and can showcase your knowledge with a blog. Make sure you sign up for a web design builder like Squarespace or WordPress and enable blogging functionality as soon as you can.

Related reading: How To Make A Great Consulting Website

2. Post valuable content and tutorials

 Now that you’ve got a website and a blog to call your own, it’s time to start populating it with high-quality content that your potential customers will want to read. There are a great number of benefits of content marketing for any business trying to attract new clients.

One of the biggest is its ability to position you as an authority figure in your niche. If you’re consistently producing valuable, informative posts that answer questions and provide information that can’t be found elsewhere, individuals and businesses will see you as a “thought leader” and be more inclined to recommend or reference you online.

Tutorials and how-tos are the most popular forms of content marketing for freelancers, but you could go down a different route and blog your freelance journey.

Indeed, companies like Buffer and GrooveHQ have shared their secrets to finding customers and success and attracted the attention of thousands of newsletter subscribers and social media followers in the process.

3. Start guest blogging

Guest blogging is a great way to get freelance clients by putting yourself in front of a new, engaged audience. (Oh, and before you go any further, keep in mind Nation1099 is looking for contributors to submit content).

If you’ve got knowledge and a flair for writing, the chances are that blog owners and webmasters will want to hear from you and publish your stuff.

Start small. Reach out to bloggers in your niche with small to medium audiences, and ask if they are currently looking for contributors. As your confidence in writing and guest blogging increases, you can reach out to bigger websites with larger, more impactful audiences.

These websites include the top blogs in your niche, and news websites like Forbes, The Huffington Post and Inc. If your name is in the byline of an article on one of those websites, you’ll find it much easier to attract clients and prove your authority in your niche.

4. Take part in expert roundup posts

 Expert roundup posts have exploded in popularity in recent years. Just in case you’re yet to hear about them, they go a little bit like this: a blogger will interview 20 or so experts and influencers about a particular topic, and then share the best thoughts, insights and opinions in one article. Here’s an example from Shane Barker, who interviews 91 experts on web traffic.

Related reading: Advice for My Younger Self: Independent Contractors Share What They Wish They Knew Starting Out

Spend time online building your persona, commenting on blogs, engaging with bloggers and posting your own material. If you’re good enough, you’ll naturally be asked to appear in these expert roundups. Sure, they might take half an hour, but they can result in your name appearing in an article, a link back to your website and an increased authority in your niche.

5. Offer a lead magnet

Perhaps one of the most common reasons  businesses create content for their website is to generate organic traffic and push those visitors through a sales and marketing funnel.

While it sounds complicated, you could easily apply the same tactic to your get freelance clients – and to generate leads to take your freelancing career further.

As the prospective client already has an interest in your niche – and they downloaded your content – they’ll likely be more inclined to take you up on your offer of work.

Related reading: You Can Do It! Get Freelance Writing Jobs For Beginners In Just Weeks

Bottom line: Get freelance clients by showing off your passion

Content marketing requires patience and hard work, but with the right strategy, you can transform your prospects as a freelancer and find new clients around every corner.

Simply put, every article you write gives you the opportunity to showcase your passion and knowledge for your industry, whether that’s in marketing, admin, sales or construction.

By starting a blog and making content marketing part of your strategy, you’ll soon find success. Good luck.

 

Max Greene

Max Greene

Max Greene is the Managing Director of Muffin Marketing, a marketing agency specializing in content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization.