Member-only story
Your Marketing Skills Matter More Than Your Writing Skills
You can’t help anyone if nobody knows you exist
For many freelancers, the hardest part of the job isn’t the work. It’s finding clients to do the work for. The reason most freelance writers fail isn’t that they don’t know how to write. The reason they fail is that they don’t know how to market themselves.
Your Marketing Isn’t About You
If you want to have a successful career as a freelance writer, you need to stop thinking of your writing as something you do. You need to see that your writing is a professional service. You have a writing business.
You are part of the business to business (B2B) marketplace. You offer your services to other businesses.
Many writers never get their business off the ground because they are too afraid to market themselves. They often use excuses like, “I don’t like to seem like I’m bragging,” or “I’m not comfortable talking about myself.”
However, successful marketing is not about you — it’s about your clients. Think about the last commercial that you watched or the last sales email you received. Does Coke spend a lot of time telling you about how great it’s secret formula is?
