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We live today in a cacophonous tumult of corporate messages. Advertisements assault us from all angles, all the time, so for freelancers trying to launch their relatively tiny enterprises, creating a voice that can be heard amidst a sea of aggressive marketing can seem an insurmountable challenge.
Fortunately, however, online communities provide a vital resource for web designers and developers but finding freelance success is only possible for those dedicated to advancing a thoughtful and well-executed branding campaign. To succeed, you must create a professional identity for yourself that impresses potential clients and showcases your talents in the most compelling way possible. Here’s how:
Learning From Non-Profits
Although not profiting is precisely the opposite of what you want to do with your freelance career, you can nonetheless learn quite a bit from the non-profit branding model. First and foremost, non-profits offer value on every level of their organizations. Their marketing material aims to educate while it promotes. Their mission is one of social development that people can feel good about becoming involved in, and perhaps most importantly, non-profits seek to build communities rather than customers.
Mirror these qualities, and you will be amazed at the results. Do offer value by creating promotional content that serves a useful function that potential clients will recognize immediately. To do so, promote yourself through either education or entertainment. Demonstrate a platform or web function they didn’t know existed, show them how it can benefit their business, and offer your services or simply entertain by telling a compelling, charming, or hilarious story through a sample of your work.
But no matter how compelling your marketing content may be, it is doomed to fail unless presented to the correct audience; this is where networking comes in. Rather than broadly advertising your skills to the masses, follow the non-profit model by connecting with small interest-based communities that you are interested in working with. Social media provides the ideal platform for reaching out to these targeted audiences.
Establish An Identity
So, to best utilize social media, you will need to develop a unique identity. Ideally you should use your own name to define your brand rather than a nickname. Then become involved in a number of social media platforms (all under the same name) and use them to steadily showcase your work, craft your image, and connect with those in your industry. Learn from those who are doing what you do and connect with those who might need your services. Establish yourself in a niche that relates directly to your personal aesthetic and style. Branding is about consistency, if you want to be recognizable you need to develop a consistent aesthetic in everything you do and everything you post online.
Be Genuine And Patient
Above all, self-branding requires a consistent and persistent approach so don’t expect to find immediate success. Building a brand takes time and can only be achieved through repetition and refinement. Keep in mind that every piece of content you publish online is ultimately a reflection of who you are and what you do. This means that your business identity, particularly as a freelancer, must become inextricably intertwined with your online image. This, of course, is why the most passionate designers and developers are also the most successful. When you love what you do, it shows in your work and reflects itself at every level of your brand so invest yourself as much in developing your brand as you do in your work, and you cannot go wrong.
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