Many graphic designers end up going the way of the freelance gig for lots of great reasons. Schedules are more flexible, the pay is often better per project, and the work can be more interesting since you will often be handling a design concept from cradle to grave. It’s a rewarding, challenging path, but it can be tough to go from no clients to being so busy that you have to hand-pick who you want to work with.

The key to taking your freelance career over the top is to start today with a plan. The following are a few simple tips for getting your name out there and start landing some clients. There are many more ways you can market yourself, but these are bit less costly and less time-consuming. Start small and eventually move to the bigger marketing tasks. It takes time, but with a little work you can develop a client base that keeps you as busy as you want to be.

Pick a Customer, Any Customer

Before you can really get out there and build your customer list, you need to know who your clients are. Most designers make the mistake of marketing to other designers, but what are the real odds that they’re going to hire you?

Instead, take the time to think through a few different customer groups and how you might interface with them. Where do they hang out during lunch? Are there online communities where they discuss issues? How would you best present yourself as the ideal person to bring their design concept to life?

Once you know who you want to connect with, it gets to be a lot easier to build a plan for marketing to that group. More importantly, it’s better to know on whom NOT to be spending valuable time and energy with your marketing efforts. So find a target customer, find out where they spend their time, and focus your marketing efforts on this information.

Quality Work

Hands down, the most effective way to build a reputation is to do great work. Meeting and exceeding expectations is the key, but that also means you have to set expectations. Creating clear goals and understanding client needs is how you start. Finish by providing more than they ask for. Your reputation will proceed you when you have this work ethic and you’ll be as busy as you want to be before you know it. But how do you get those first few projects so you can show the world your amazing awesomeness?

Get Out

The key to making people want to want you is personal engagement. Your best tool as a marketer is yourself. Therefore, when trying to get your name out, go to a public place like a mall or an outdoor shopping center and meet people. Or, go to places where there are more artistic people like coffee shops or outdoor markets. Shake hands and engage with people. Tell them who you are, what you do, and give them a little something to remember you by like business cards with a discount printed on the back, a free gift printed with your contact info, or a brochure showcasing your work.

Freebies

Freebies can be anything from a bumper sticker to a bookmark to a magnet. Feel free to change up the designs on each item to show a broad range of your artistic abilities. With the combination of a bright, cheery, engaging face and a smashing show of your creativity, you will be sure to gain interest in the public sphere.

Bulletin Boards

Make use of public bulletin boards. If you start looking around, all kinds of places from libraries to grocery stores to coffee shops have a bulletin board up with flyers pinned to it. Create a memorable looking flyer, include your contact information and where to find you online, and pin it up!

Social Media

Make use of free social media marketing like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. It will only take a few minutes to set up those accounts. On Twitter, post updates about where you’re headed to meet people, what kinds of things you’re doing to further your business, or some other fun bits about you and your work. Facebook is great because you can make a page (with a picture of your logo) and have all your friends and clients “like” it. This can actually give you credibility as a company because people are more inclined to like companies that they know a lot of other people like.

Don’t forget the importance of LinkedIn. While Twitter, Facebook, and G+ are great, consider setting up a professional LinkedIn page and building connections through this networking tool. More and more companies are searching through LinkedIn and hiring based upon referals through that network.

Online Portfolio

There are literally hundreds of sites that you can use to display your work. These online portfolios are a wonderful way to make sure people can find your art. And there are lots of different sites for different kinds of pieces. For example:

• Use DeviantArt for your more adult/mature content.
• Put your logo work on BrandsoftheWorld.com.
• Use Behance.net for your business card designs and posters.
• Keep a running blog with Tumblr.com.

Website

At this point, you may be wondering why you need so many different online marketing avenues. Some may not need to have a website along with an extra portfolio site. However, if you want to look professional, a website is a necessary marketing item to have. You may want to reserve your website for displaying your more commercial, professional designs and place your personal projects and concepts on Behance.net or other portfolio platform. The important thing to remember is to connect it all: your website should be accessible from social media and portfolio sites and your social media and portfolios should be accessible from your website.

Guest Blogging

Once you have an online portfolio or a website set up, you can increase awareness of your portfolio through guest blogging. Just make sure that blog owners will allow you to place a link to at least one of your sites either in an “About the Author” section or by embedding the link into a keyword in the content. If you use a keyword, choose one that your audience uses to find work like yours; for instance “logo designer” or “logo design services” for those within the logo niche. Do not use a link to your home page; for the best results, use a “deep link,” meaning a link such as “http://www.yoursite.com/services”.

The marketing benefits of guest blogging is two-fold. First, you will build up backlinks to your website and/or portfolio sites and thereby raise your search engine ranking. Second, as you publish more and more articles, you will become known as an expert in your field, especially if your articles include helpful content for the design community or show some of your design processes.

Use your Body

Again, you are your own greatest asset and don’t be afraid to shamlessly market yourself. Take every opportunity to spread the word about your graphic design work. Create a cool logo for yourself and get it tattooed on yourself (Or use henna. Way less permanent). Another fun thing to do is to make an eye-catching t-shirt or hat with your logo and name. Get creative and show prospective clients just how talented you are.

10 Top Marketing Methods for Graphic Designers is a post from: denbagus blog

If you’ve been marketing yourself on the Internet and want to learn more about how print media can help you, then you have come to the right place. In this article, you’re going to learn about some of the things that can powerfully multiply your marketing efforts. To begin, you will first learn how your power is multiplied. After that, you’ll learn the importance of using direct response marketing instead of brand building marketing. Then, you will learn how to leverage your off-line print materials to make more online sales. So read on to discover how you can get the most out of print media by adding it to your arsenal of marketing tactics.

Your Power Gets Multiplied

The first thing you need to know is that offline marketing multiplies the power of your online marketing. Specifically, when designed correctly, it should work hand-in-hand with your online efforts. Try to stay away from traditional brand building and think more in terms of direct response. You want to get people taking action. It is also important to take note that many advertising representatives are really sales people whose job it is to get you to buy more. Remember, you only need to buy as much as is necessary to get a direct response.

Think Direct Response

Now that we’re talking about direct response, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details. First of all, remember that it is more important for you to get a direct response than to build your image and brand. Many sales representatives know how to play to your ego and pride. The types of advertising that boost your self image and pride will end up costing you much more than they return. This is why you should stick to direct response marketing even when you’re marketing offline.

Consider Direct Mail

One of the first options available to you is direct mail. If you use squeeze pages or sales letters, you can reuse much of the same message in a direct mail piece. This saves you from having to pay a copywriter to produce a new message. Remember, you can test your marketing materials on just a handful of people on a mailing list. You should always test before you pay large amounts of money to send out many pieces of mail. After the testing phase, you will know what percentage of people will respond to your direct mail letters.
Then, you can “roll out” the package and know it will bring you a substantial return on investment.

Try Door To Door

Another one of the options that you can consider is going door to door and leaving information behind. This may be an unpopular technique with most people, but the key to successfully marketing yourself is getting exposure and the more your brand is seen, the more likely it is to be recognised. Be sure to make your print media colourful, attractive and uninvasive, in order to ensure you don’t inconvenience people with your information.

Consider Retail Areas

Another idea is leaving print media in areas with high traffic. Do you know of some friendly neighbourhood shops in your area? They may be willing to put up a poster or tolerate a display of business cards at their counter – it doesn’t hurt to ask. This effectively gets your message out to people, and they may be more receptive to your marketing ploy as they’re out and about and willing to engage.

Try Public Venues

There are other places that people regularly frequent that you can use to get your message out. Public places like libraries and post offices are notorious for their message boards and public forums, so take a look around your neighbourhood for areas to advertise. Putting a poster up will ensure that hundreds of people get exposed to your message daily.

Hand Out Flyers At Gatherings

Is there a large gathering happening in your neighbourhood any time soon? Gatherings are a great opportunity to hand out flyer printing and ensure that a large concentration of people get exposed to your message in one shot. Concerts, rallies and conventions are great places to give it a try. Additionally, you can also set up poster boards to ensure more solid receptacles of information.

Get Business Cards

Business cards are small, easy to transport and great for leaving just about everywhere. Ensure that you have a large batch with you at all times so you can hand your message out. People are also much more likely to carry a business card around with them, as the small size is so convenient. Handing it out when someone asks what you do is a great way to look professional and impress potential clients.

Include a Printed Newsletter

Another useful item to include in printed material is a newsletter. If you blog, then you already know how to write a newsletter. A newsletter is essentially the same thing as blogging only in print. You want to give your readers updated information or newsworthy material. You can also include newsworthy material about what you are doing and what products may be offering in the future. The fact that it is printed on paper makes it seem more official. So they are more likely to want to go to your website and check out what you’re doing. And that brings us to the next item.

Send Them to Your List

You should always be directing them back to your website in your printed materials. If you have not started building a list of e-mail addresses, then now would be the time. If you have them both on a snail-mailing list and an online mailing list, then you continually bounce them back and forth between your marketing messages.

This is where you gain significant power. As you know, many people have to hear the same message seven times before they ever pay attention. So if they are receiving your offline materials, direct them to a page where they can sign up for your e-mail list.

And there you have it. These are the top ten tips that any online marketer or blogger can use to leverage the most power from offline printed materials. Be sure to print this out and read this list as often as you need. When you commit this information to memory, you will be able to get the greatest return from your offline marketing dollars.

keyword : marketing

10 Tips for Marketing Offline With Print Media is a post from: denbagus blog