This week we have a guest blogger, Louise Wright, a freelance copywriter from Birmingham. Louise describes some of the methods that have helped promote her business on a shoestring budget.
As a freelance copywriter just starting out, it can be hard to know what direction to go in. You will have plenty of people telling you which is the best way to go and I can guarantee that no two pieces of advice will be the same. So what do you do? I have always found that it is always better to go with your own gut instinct. Just because it has worked for someone else does not necessarily mean it will work for you. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably means it isn’t.
Here are some tips that I would suggest, whether you decide to follow them up is up to you, and I promise I won’t be offended if you don’t.
Social Networking:
Think Facebook and Twitter are only for kids and people with nothing better to do? Then you’d be wrong. It took me a while to notice, but there are hundreds of business pages on Facebook now and all you need to do is get all your ‘friends’ to like your page for it to start getting noticed. On Twitter, start yourself off with a personal account and then link to a business one. Some of your followers may be in the same line of work as you so will be keen to follow your other account. Make sure you update the right account though; you don’t want to be a personal update about how hungover you are and accidentally put it onto your business account. It might just come across as a tad unprofessional.
Network Events:
This can be very beneficial or a complete waste of time. I once got invited to a network in Bath (I live in Birmingham) but as it was one of the few positive responses I’d had to my enquiry emails I thought, why not? So I took the two hour journey down at the most ridiculous time in the morning ever, I tend to look like night of the living dead at 4.30am, and found myself surrounded by plumbers and electricians. Not much use to a copywriter but I did find out this event had similar chapters in my local area so at least that was useful.
Publicise Yourself:
Get a website set up. It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune or you could get them done for free, though make sure you research the free ones.
Use your Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep people updated on your business and put links to your website on there as well.
Business Cards:
I used to think people who carried business cards around with them were quite pretentious but I now see it as a useful tool. There have been occasions where I have met someone completely by accident and didn’t have any cards to give them. Writing your contact details on a napkin doesn’t have the same business-like spin you should be creating.
Use whatever fits you best so some of these suggestions may or may not be what you want.
Of course, if you need any help with promoting your business then drop us a line!
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