Digital marketing is any freelancer’s road to riches but finding your way down that road isn’t always easy. Take LinkedIn for example. You’ve probably dabbled in it from time to time, picked up a few connections, maybe even posted content once or twice. The truth is that for freelancers, LinkedIn holds far more potential than most folks realize.
How do you squeeze every drop of success you can from the platform? Start with these core strategies.
Build Your Network
Every social media platform has its own specialty or personality, and LinkedIn is the ultimate cornerstone for networking. It’s all about reaching out and making new connections in a mutually beneficial way.
Don’t be afraid to connect with people you’ve never met. Send connection invitations to other freelancers in the area, business owners or other potential clients in your niche, anyone with some relation to your services. The key is to take it slow and build genuine professional relationships, rather than jumping in with a sales pitch from day one.
Gain a Portfolio of Testimonials
While researching businesses or products, you probably look for reviews, right? Clients do the same thing, and you can meet that demand through LinkedIn. The platform lets anyone post a recommendation (essentially a testimonial but for an individual rather than a business) on your LinkedIn profile. That means you don’t need a company page, just your personal page.
After completing any client’s project (and after you know they’re satisfied), email them asking for a LinkedIn recommendation. When future clients research you, they’ll find a healthy stack of glowing testimonials.
Establish Your Brand
LinkedIn is a terrific brand-building opportunity if you post regularly. Post your insights into your industry, helpful tips from your expertise, updates about recent trends within your niche, you name it. The key to this marketing strategy is to have a specific brand or personality and make sure all your content is in that brand voice.
Aim for engagement-driving content too. When people see others interacting with you, the social proof kicks in and they become interested in you too. There are many LinkedIn content ideas to get you started, but be sure to keep posting at least several times each week. It’s basically a way of advertising on LinkedIn for free.
Showcase Your Expertise
The most successful freelancers get clients to come to them by having a strong professional reputation and online presence. That starts with publishing content in multiple places but getting started is challenging. No one wants to publish your content if you don’t have a reputation, but you need to publish content to get a reputation.
LinkedIn, however, lets you self-publish blogs or articles on their platform. Similar to your LinkedIn posts, these blogs are longer pieces where you can share your expertise with the world.
This gives your brand visibility. It also shows that you’re an expert in your field and that you’re willing to help by sharing your knowledge. All that adds up to make you more visible and appealing to clients.
Gain Valuable Knowledge
There are always new things we can learn to enhance our freelance businesses, whether you’ve been freelancing for twenty days or twenty years. LinkedIn Learning is a terrific way to get that knowledge.
LinkedIn Learning is full of courses by varying experts. They’re all digital courses accessible from anywhere and the cost is very reasonable if you’re using the service regularly. Ideally, specifically look for courses for freelancers and small business owners.
Get Involved in Groups
LinkedIn groups are among the many ways to make profitable connections on the platform while also learning along the way. Check out business owner or entrepreneur groups, freelancing groups, groups for your industry, and so on.
These groups allow you to make that first contact with people who would make great additions to your network. These groups often center around knowledge sharing, so they’re also excellent places to learn fantastic tips for growing your business.
Advertise Your Services
Not all freelancers realize this but LinkedIn has a setting allowing you to specify that you provide services. You can select the exact services you provide and it displays this on your profile.
While it’s great that this appears on your profile, the especially helpful part of this is that potential clients can search for “freelance graphic designer” or another keyword and your profile will appear.
Find New Opportunities
If you started out in the traditional employment world, you probably know that LinkedIn has a job board where employers can post job opportunities. Did you know that the job board offers freelance opportunities, too?
You can specifically search for freelance or contract work on this job board and apply for those opportunities directly. Not only is this an easy way to find new business on LinkedIn, but your application will be tied to your profile where you’ve been building engaging content, spectacular recommendations, and informative articles which will impress the potential client even more.
Using All LinkedIn Has to Offer
LinkedIn is a far more profitable platform than most people realize, with features galore that help freelancers build their businesses. You just have to know about the beneficial features and leap in.
