Even with a background in marketing, I was just chatting with another solopreneur about how I’m feeling stretched thin. I’m in a busy season, so I’ll adjust my marketing to be more sustainable later, but what’s working is that I’m energized by it, and that’s really important.
When it comes to promoting ourselves as freelancers, what we’re sharing marketing-wise not only has to be of interest to the intended audience, but needs to be energizing to you. A level of enjoyment in what you’re sharing helps make self-promotion far more sustainable long-term. It’s supposed to be fun, at least to a degree. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Energizing marketing consists of promotional activities on topics of interest to you, that you’re eager to discuss, clearly meet a demand in the market, and are a doable part of your routine.
Done wrong, marketing yourself can feel taxing, fake, or ineffective when you’re forcing yourself to show up on topics you’re half-interested in or when it’s simply burning you out.
Let’s avoid that circumstance, and instead intentionally take the time to develop energizing marketing that impacts the right people, supports your business, and feels enjoyable for you.
Pick a topic area you’re excited about that ties to your business
It’s one thing to put yourself out there, publishing your ideas and highlighting your work publicly for six weeks in a row, but what about the next six months or even six years? While you’re not married to discussing the same topics forever, you’ve got to pick topics you’re thrilled about covering for the long haul.
This is where a lot of solopreneurs fall short when they decide to cover something in their industry because it’s of interest to others, but eventually they lose interest themselves as they were never that ecstatic about the subject and fizzle out on their promotional efforts.
The “thrilled” part of your topic choice is essential as excitement is what’s necessary for you to stay committed to repeatedly covering it publicly. A genuine interest in what you’re sharing will help you show up with better ideas that people can see you’re passionate about. Plus, a strong connection to the topic will help you show up in those moments when you’re less motivated to spend the time on marketing.
With excitement for the topic, you need to land on a topic area or two where there’s a larger category tying together tons of subtopics, so there’s no shortage of angles to address.
For instance, a topic area could be “design in healthcare” as that’s specific enough, given it’s discussing the intersection of the discipline of design as it relates to a particular industry. And it’s broad enough where there’s plenty of ideas to explore within it, like design thinking in healthcare, accessible design in the context of wellness, or service vs product design at healthcare facilities.
Some solid examples of self-employed folks who cover expansive, yet specific topics they care about are Melissa Doman, an organizational psychologist, covering mental health in the workplace, and Jeff Toister, a keynote speaker who discusses how leaders build service cultures rooted in remarkable customer service.
And this topic area needs to relate to your business in some capacity, so buyers can easily make the connection between your expertise and your offerings. This topic has to speak to the needs of your ideal customer, so the insights you’re sharing encourage a portion of your audience to purchase your product or services as you’re a credible expert in this realm.
Publish at a cadence you can actually maintain
In an attempt to be consistent with marketing, it’s common to overcommit. You want to aim to publish engaging messaging regularly, as repetition is key, but at a frequency you can maintain.
I know freelancers who have started podcasts, newsletters, or built an ambitious social media schedule, only to give up after a few months or a year, as it becomes burdensome to sustain it.
You’ve only got so much time, energy, and resources to dedicate to marketing, so I want you to really consider what level of commitment you can make here before diving in.
My recommendation is to start at a reasonable cadence of publishing once or twice a week, depending on your bandwidth. Scaling up or down from there based on what kind of results you’re seeing and most of all, as you get familiar with the process of regularly drafting content.
Think of the first few months as a trial period to figure out how long it takes to create content you’re proud of, what tools help streamline, gain some feedback, and get a feel for the process.
The intention here is to publish often enough that your ideas don’t get lost and you’re showing up consistently so the right people come to expect to hear from you.
But at a frequency that’s a planned part of your routine, not a last-minute task that isn’t properly prioritized and that you come to resent because it’s overextending you.
Stretch a weekly tent-pole concept into different marketing moments
You’ve heard the advice “repurpose your content,” and that still stands. I recommend creating new iterations of what you’ve already published as an extension of the original idea.
The thinking is that not everyone will see what you’ve shared the first time, so showcase aspects of the same idea in different formats on a mix of channels to reach more of the right people. This still requires effort, but will save you some time as work was already put into the idea you’re building upon.
One example of this was an article I wrote for Inc about how to start a consulting practice, which I created a TikTok video and a LinkedIn post about, extending the original concept.
For this to work, aim to start with a tent-pole concept, or a strong idea that’s reflective of your perspective, important to your audience, and expansive enough for continued conversation.
That’s when the content you’re creating as an extension of the original idea is far more likely to be a helpful and effective resource for the intended audience, given the foundations are there.
I say “aim to start with a tent-pole concept,” because it’s not always possible to regularly come up with a really strong idea each week. Sometimes you’ll fall short and that’s okay, because forcing these ideas is often worse.
Follow positive signals for direction and to keep you energized
Earning positive signals from what you’re putting out there is helpful motivation to keep showing up, especially in the early stages.
These signals can be a review of your course, a comment on your post, or someone buying your digital products. Indications that others are enjoying what you’re publishing can inform your future coverage and even help build up your confidence.
For early signals that your message is reaching the right people, show up in front of the audiences of established, trusted voices and institutions. Whether you’re interviewing another practitioner in your field or writing for an industry publication, this is the fast track to gaining relevant exposure and impacting the right folks. One ideal outcome is that a portion of this audience decides to follow along and get future updates from you.
You’ve likely heard the advice that you shouldn’t build your platform entirely on “rented land” like social media, where you don’t have full control. It’s not one or the other, but both.
Stay active on public and private forums where people can discover you and your message, at the same time growing your own audience on your website, newsletter, or podcast. This way, you’re proactively protecting the distribution of your IP from being overly beholden to just being available on the channels you don’t own.
Outsource the process, not your thinking
Not every part of marketing yourself is going to be enjoyable. I like most of it, but I’m a nerdy marketer. Outsourcing certain parts of the process to a contractor or automating it with the help of a tool can make it much more manageable, just don’t pass off your original thinking.
Formulating compelling ideas, arguments, and solutions supported with your experience, skills, and data is what’s unique to you and how others will likely connect to your expertise. It’s the difference between your marketing making an impact and just adding more noise.
You have to be the one to both draft and present the original insight, like writing a script and presenting the concept over video. It’s the other parts of this process, like editing the video and distributing it, that are a better choice for outsourcing. This can save you time and effort without diluting the concept into something generic that’s no longer reflective of you.
[This article was originally published in my newsletter: Career Freelancer.]
