The economy is continuing to shift towards individuals helping and creating for other’s within their expertise. Known as the “gig economy” it’s become as easy as clicking a button on a screen to have expert help across a variety of different functions including content writing, social media management, website and graphic design.
The convenience, affordability and short turnaround times are particularly alluring for customers. However, the demand can make things difficult for a freelancer to have their work stand out in such a crowded space. Early reports in 2015 measured the number of Americans working as freelancers to be as much as 44 million, or nearly 30 percent of the total workforce at the time- a number that has surely exploded since then.
Personal branding is crucial to cutting out the noise, differentiating yourself from your competitors, and is a direct line to increased revenue through a steady stream of new and repeat customers. Check out a few tried-and-true methods below!
Create a personal website
If you’re a web or graphic designer, this is your opportunity to showcase your technical skills through a personal site, as well as display a portfolio of past work from satisfied clients. It may also help to run a blog where you post consistently on themes that are topically relevant to your industry. Sharing your baseline knowledge and opinions on trending topics is a great way to position yourself as an expert, especially in a more tech-focused niche.
Maintain a strong social presence
It’s impossible to escape social media in this day and age. Since about
80 percent of all Americans have at least one social media profile, inserting your product or service into that online conversation means increased exposure and potentially more sales than through traditional forms of earned media and paid advertising.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all great platforms to build up your brand story and engage potential customers. A good rule of thumb is to use consistent messaging and imagery to convey a coherent image that helps set you apart from the pack. It can be hard to keep up with consistent posting on a busy schedule, but free auto schedulers like Hootsuite help by allowing you to write and schedule posts in advance.
Inject personality into your service
What about your service is memorable? According to experts, after making an initial purchase, a customer has a 27 percent chance of returning- but when coming back a second or third time, the likelihood that they will repurchase shoots up to
as much as 54 percent.
The lifetime value of repeat clients is worth so much more than just the dollars they spend, but creating a positive, engaging experience is appealing to old and new customers alike. Many of the most successful workers on sites like Fiverr imbue their gig descriptions and client communications with warmth, humor, and a genuine concern for their client’s end result. This is directly reflected in the quality of their work as well as the degree of repeat business.
Leverage your reputation
Reputation is a powerful currency in the gig economy, and crowdsourcing reviews on freelancer marketplaces is a direct line to increase your credibility in the eyes of a customer looking at your offering for the first time. Having others vouch for the outcome of working on a project with you is also more believable coming from a recent customer.
Though reviews do trickle in as a result of a job well done, it’s good to be proactive. Ask past clients for recommendations to display on your website, incentivize people to leave honest reviews on social media, and encourage those buying your services through Fiverr or Upwork to leave reviews after a finished job.
Network with other freelancers
The unstructured nature of freelance work means there is plenty of opportunities as long as you’re enterprising enough to take advantage of it. When out from under the umbrella of an employer with established connections, it’s up to you to network with other professionals in your field in order to create meaningful business relationships, hone your skills, and develop leads that could lead to lucrative long-term deals.
The freelance economy allows individuals to take initiative, set their own price, build a diverse body of work, and work on their own prioritized schedule. This incredible freedom attracts a lot of hopefuls, but hard work, good results, and a strong brand presence ultimately determine the winners.
So, whether you’re offering custom web design for the everyday bootstrapped entrepreneur, or just offering to make people look bald in photos (yes, that is a real gig that you can find on Fiverr), personal branding plays a huge role in your success.
Author: Maddie Davis, Co-Founder/Editor at
Enlightened-Digital
