It doesn’t matter if you’re a freelancer starting in email marketing, or if you’ve been at it for years, one thing is certain: the only way to make money as a freelancer is by getting clients.
But where do you find them? How can you land your first big email marketing contract? It might seem like an impossible challenge, but we’ll show you how to get started. We’ll walk you through everything from finding clients and sending emails that convert to charging what your services are worth and ensuring they pay on time.
| Takeaways |
|---|
| – Effective communication is key to ensuring timely payments from clients. |
| – Clearly outline payment terms and expectations before starting a project. |
| – Use professional invoicing tools to create transparent and organized invoices. |
| – Follow up on overdue payments with polite reminders and open discussions. |
| – Building strong client relationships can lead to smoother payment processes. |
1. Always Deliver On Time
One thing that I learned from managing my team is that there will always be roadblocks, but if you’re always delivering on time and never late, then you won’t have to worry about these issues. I was once hired for a large project by a company that does not want its name mentioned.
The scope of the project required me to do 1000 blog posts in 60 days. Within 45 days, I had delivered all the blog posts and it wasn’t easy! During this time one of my writers got sick and couldn’t work so he passed his work over to another writer who also got sick later on.
This meant we had to write almost everything ourselves while delivering each batch of content on time every week without fail until completion, which we did.
Crafting engaging and effective email marketing campaigns is essential for freelancers. To enhance your skills, follow these valuable tips for writing successful freelance email marketing campaigns and improve your client engagement.
2. Do Your Research
Identify the target audience. For example, if you’re working on email marketing for a yoga studio, your primary group will be singular (individuals with interests in yoga). However, many businesses have more than one audience. The yoga studio could also have a family-oriented class that appeals to parents and their children.
Write down their questions. What questions do your audiences have? What are they looking for? For example, “what is the best type of yoga mat?” or “how much do classes at this studio cost?”
Think about what kind of content you can provide that will answer these questions. Think about how to address a target audience’s goals through email marketing. How can you provide additional value? For instance, maybe you can write an article on different types of yoga mats and include photos of them in use. Or maybe you can talk about pricing plans available through the studio’s website and how they work.
3. Present Your Rates As A (Discounted) Package
Presenting your rates in a “package” is particularly powerful when you offer a discount to entice clients. For example, if you’re charging $200 per month to write three blog posts, plus $100 per month to manage Facebook advertising, consider presenting your rate as “$300 per month for both services.” In this case, it’s not upselling as much as it’s simply presenting the price of buying both services together.
This is also where you can be creative and present different packages based on how many emails or blog posts your client wants. As an example, let’s say you charge $600 for six blog posts. You could create a “light” package for four blog posts at $400 and a “super-duper” package for eight blog posts at $750.
These are just some examples you can get creative with packaging and discounts!
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4. Keep It Simple
Don’t hide your rates. People don’t have time to search around for them, so put them on the front page of your website. If you write a blog and discuss your services, make sure every post has a link to the relevant info page on your site.
Make it easy for people to get in touch with you. Put up contact links on every page of your site, or better yet, put up a contact form that they can easily fill out and submit rather than having to open their email client.
Use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). You know what I mean. Don’t overdo it with fancy graphics and fonts that might take forever to load online, don’t use text too small for anyone but teenagers with excellent eyesight to read without squinting; don’t underestimate the importance of white space in making things readable; don’t overload any given webpage with too much content keep it simple and clean-looking so that potential client’s attention is focused on what’s important: namely you, and how you can help them.
5. The Importance Of Communication
Communication is important in every business relationship, but it’s particularly crucial for freelancers who are likely dealing with multiple clients at a time. If you stay in touch with your clients, you’ll be able to learn about their needs and respond quickly whenever they have questions or concerns.
The best way to communicate with your clients is through email templates. At the start of each project, you should let them know what you’re planning to do and how long it will take for them to see results. Then, check-in regularly so that they’re always up-to-date on what’s happening within their account.
6. Never Stop Learning New Things
Continuous learning is one of the most significant assets you can have as an email marketer. There are always new things to learn about this industry, such as:
- What your competitors are doing well and how you can improve upon their strategies.
- The latest trends in email marketing.
- New software and tools you can use to streamline your work process and gather more useful data.
- New strategies are being used by successful marketers that could be implemented into your campaigns.
- What your customers are looking for from your company’s emails so you can meet their expectations and improve customer retention rates.
- The newest laws and regulations have been put into place regarding email marketing practices (such as GDPR).
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7. Set Up A Website
Having a website is essential for freelance email marketing. And if you’re a freelancer, it should be the first thing you do after learning how to write emails.
A website can serve as a one-page site that simply has your contact information, like an online business card. Or it can be a multi-page site that showcases all of your projects or services and tells readers more about you and your expertise. Even if you don’t have any clients yet, you can use the website to showcase your talent by writing blog posts and creating email templates for businesses in industries other than yours.
This is also a great way to generate traffic to your site so that when potential clients visit, they see samples of your work (and this will increase trustworthiness). Another option for getting traffic is guest posting on other blogs in exchange for links back to your website. But please don’t create fake links; those are easily spotted by Google.
8. Provide Extensive Information About The Services You Offer On Your Website
Adding information about your services to your website may seem counterintuitive the more you tell clients and prospects, the less they’ll need you, and the easier it will be for them to see exactly what they’ll be paying for.
But this is a false assumption; in fact, the opposite is true. Clients pay people who they trust and feel comfortable with, not just those with the best products or services. If you explain in detail all of the things that you do and how you do them, prospects are far more likely to trust and hire you than if your website simply says “I’m an email marketer who does awesome work”.
9. Consider Offering A Money-Back Guarantee
Offering a money-back guarantee can be a great way to build trust with potential customers and make them feel safe about buying your services online. The more complicated or expensive your product or service is, the more helpful it will be to give people a guarantee.
That said, you do need to make sure that you are offering this kind of guarantee with the intent to follow through on it. You should always clearly state what the terms are and what the limitations are before you set out the guarantee. If you break these terms, or if someone tries to abuse the system by demanding their money back without good reason, then your reputation could suffer accordingly. This is something that is not good for business.
So do keep in mind that this is something you should only really offer if you know for sure at least 80% of all clients will be happy with your work.
Building a successful freelance email marketing business requires a solid foundation. Delve into the key steps and insights offered in this guide on how to build a freelance email marketing business, and pave your way to sustainable growth.
10. Give Them Concrete Numbers Of Results You Have Achieved For Other Clients In The Past
Give them concrete numbers of results you have achieved for other clients in the past (including statistics). Also mention what kind of companies you have worked for in the past, and include testimonials from satisfied clients on your website.
This will give potential customers things to relate to and identify with, which makes it much easier for them to trust you. Include concrete numbers of results you have achieved for other clients in the past (including statistics).
Mention what kind of companies you have worked for in the past and include testimonials from satisfied clients on your website. This will give potential customers things to relate to and identify with, which makes it much easier for them to trust you.
11. Make Sure Your Website Is User-Friendly
You want to make sure that your website is user-friendly. That means making it easy for potential clients to find what they’re looking for and not being too cluttered. If they look at the site and find it hard to navigate, or if you don’t have any kind of navigation at all, then you could lose them. There are so many freelancers out there who have websites that look like they were designed in the 1990s.
The most important thing here is having a professional-looking site with clear navigation and large fonts. You also want to make sure that your website has plenty of white space and doesn’t have too much clutter on it — because clutter can be distracting for users.
12. Focus On Long-Term Relationships With Your Clients
This is key to not only retaining clients but also attracting new ones. When your clients trust you and know that you have their best interests in mind, they’re more likely to give you repeat business. If a client knows of someone who could use your services because he trusts you and is satisfied with the work that you do for him, then he’s more likely to recommend you to others.
In addition to that, here are four simple things that you can do for your clients regularly:
- Ask them for feedback about the type of emails or campaigns that they want from their email marketing efforts
- Offer them new suggestions on how to improve their email strategy
- Show them examples of other companies doing similar things successfully through email marketing
- Send them a monthly or quarterly report where they can see what kind of results they’re getting from your work
13. Create Genuine Content For Your Website
You want to start by creating genuine content for your website that can help educate people about email marketing. This could be a blog post, a video, a podcast, etc. The purpose is to share your knowledge and expertise with the world.
Just make sure not to focus on selling or promoting your services. Your content should provide value so that people will have a reason to visit and come back to your site over and over again. You can give them actionable tips about email marketing, share best practices in the industry, or even talk about how certain campaigns are performing for other businesses. It’s up to you!
The key here is to avoid copying other people’s content because this won’t help you build trust with Google or your audience. You need something unique if you want organic traffic from Google so try to create something of value instead of providing advice that helps people!
Unlock the potential of your freelance career by incorporating email marketing. Discover how to leverage email campaigns for increased referrals and sales through insights shared in Freelance Email Marketing: The Secret to More Referrals and More Sales.
14. Create An Eye-Catching Logo And Brand Yourself Well
As you become a more established freelancer with an expanding network, your clients will be able to find you and will hire you. When they do, make sure that your business is well branded. This means that you should have developed a logo and a name for your freelance email marketing services.
It’s important to put thought into branding because it makes it easier for people to remember your company as well as how to find you again when they need more work. You’ll also want to make sure that this logo and name are consistent across all of your social media channels so that people can find you on any platform through a simple search.
15. Look Professional In Every Aspect Of Your Business
How you look and act will affect how much you can charge for your services. You should dress professionally when meeting with clients, be polite, have a professional email address (i.e., one that uses your business name), create a professional voicemail message on your phone, have a business card, and have a professional website.
If you can, get a logo designed for your business and use it on all of the above. Use professional language on social media accounts with no profanity or other inappropriate content! and create an email signature that includes your name, position (i.e., “Email Marketing Consultant”), and contact information.
16. Build Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships are another way for you to leverage the time you spend on your clients. You can hire other freelancers, or subcontractors, to help you with your projects. You might hire someone to help you out with administrative tasks like bookkeeping, invoicing, and answering emails so that you can focus on client work. Or you might hire a web designer to build a website for a client while you handle their marketing strategy and email campaigns.
Or, if you’re short on cash but want more time to spend with clients, think about bartering your services with other service providers. For example, if you’re an editor, swap editorial services with a financial planner who needs your editing skills in exchange for some investment advice.
17. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Feedback
The world is always changing. To be a successful freelancer, you should always want to learn and grow! So, if a client gives you feedback, listen to it with an open mind and heart. It can be hard to receive negative feedback about your work. But remember: if someone takes the time to give you feedback, that means they care about your success as much as you do! They are invested in helping you improve, so don’t waste that opportunity.
Final Thoughts
In this article, I’ve covered everything you need to do to start making money with your email marketing skills. In the beginning, I talked about what email marketing is and why you should get involved in it. After that, we briefly discussed the skills you need to have onboard already and what you can learn as you go. Then, I told you how much money you can expect to make with email marketing services before outlining all of the steps necessary for getting your first client.
I hope this post has given you some valuable insight into the world of freelance email marketing. If so, don’t forget to share it around! Also, if there’s anything else that I didn’t cover here but that should be included in a guide like this one, or if there are any other questions or comments about freelance email marketing feel free to let me know by writing a comment below!
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources to further explore the topic of freelance email marketing and client payment:
How to Ask Clients for Payment: Learn effective strategies to communicate with clients and ensure timely payment for your freelance services.
Freelance Email Marketing: How to Make It Work: Dive deeper into the world of freelance email marketing, understanding its dynamics and potential for boosting your business.
Selling Email Marketing: A Guide for Freelancers: Explore this guide to discover insights on selling email marketing services as a freelancer, including strategies for client acquisition and retention.
People Also Ask
How Do You Charge For Freelance Services?
I’ve found that it’s best to use a system of billing by hours. I keep track of my time via an app (I recommend Toggl, but there are many other options) and send an invoice at the end of the month that includes my hours worked, hourly rate, and two totals: one for the hours plus my fee, and one for just the hours.
What Are The Best Ways To Get Email Subscribers?
The best way to get people who will want to hear from you is by providing them with value. One easy option is to create free resources that are relevant to your industry and make them available on your website in exchange for someone signing up with their email address. Another option is simply having a place on your website where people can sign up for your newsletter so they can stay up-to-date with what you have going on and learn more about what you do.
How Do You Make A Good Email Template?
A good template is usually pretty simple a logo in the top left along with some contact info (if not visible in a footer), followed by a good headline, then text content in columns if possible (this makes things easier to read). You should also include some images if they help convey information or add visual interest while not being intrusive or interrupting the reading flow.
Also, be sure there’s an easy way for people who aren’t interested anymore to unsubscribe! Template designs vary widely based on what works best for different companies/audiences, though so don’t feel like you need anything too specific or complicated!
What Is The Best Email Marketing Software?
There’s no single answer as there isn’t one piece of software that will work for every business. It depends on what type of company you run, who your audience is (will it integrate with other systems such as CRMs), and what budget you have available for this software.
For example, MailChimp may be perfect for a small eCommerce store but won’t scale well once they grow past 100k subscribers then it might make sense to switch over to something like Klaviyo which has more robust features.
I am a content writer, and I love what I do! Writing makes me feel like the words are flowing through my fingers, and then onto the keyboard, like magic. My experience as a writer has taught me that writing makes me feel good, as well as helps others to feel better too!