In the world of online businesses, digital marketing plays a very important role. Businesses rely on digital marketing experts to help them attract an audience.
On the other hand, customers won’t really be able to find out about different offers if there is no digital marketing to present those offers to them. However, it’s important to note that businesses and customers are not the only ones who stand to gain a lot from digital marketing.
Since this industry has been on the rise for quite some time now – and by the looks of things, it will only continue to expand further – people nowadays get the opportunity to grow very lucrative careers as digital marketing experts.
On top of that, since freelancing is also becoming increasingly popular, many people choose to merge the two and try to establish themselves as freelance digital marketing professionals.
With that in mind, here’s a beginner-friendly complete guide on how you, yourself, can become a freelance digital marketing professional if this career choice sounds appealing to you.
But before dive in, let’s go through some of the main points of this article that include topics, such as:
- What is a freelance digital marketer?
- What do freelance digital marketers do?
- How do you get started as a freelance digital marketing professional?
- What are the pros and cons of this career choice?
Now that we’ve covered all the points, let’s jump right in.
What is a freelance digital marketer?
A freelance digital marketer is any person who runs their own business dealing with digital marketing. As such, a freelance digital marketer will be in charge of various aspects of their business that can often include:
- Reaching out to customers
- Looking for collaboration opportunities
- Networking
- Connecting with other experts in the industry
Since freelancers, in general, tend to wear many hats, you can only expect to be required to do the same if you choose this career path.
That being said, you will also get to choose the type of work you do if you decide to freelance. What this means is that you won’t be stuck in a corporate environment doing something that simply doesn’t inspire you, but you’ll instead get to choose your own projects.
And the best part is that you can simply choose an entirely different type of project with each new client. So, if you’ve been working on developing various marketing campaigns for one client, you can choose to only do email marketing for the other.
What do they do?
As mentioned previously, as a freelance digital marketer, you will do many things. You may be hired to write copies for blogs and web pages or run a company’s (or an individual’s) social media pages. You can also be hired to create ads or be in charge of various visuals that are essential for any online promotion.
Sometimes, freelance digital marketers are being hired to not only create but edit promotional videos. Or, they may be hired to run different ad campaigns and manage budgets allocated for digital promotion. And while some digital marketers choose to focus on various tasks, others may find in-house positions more appealing.
That being said, it becomes quite clear that if you opt for this career path, your job options will be practically endless.
How to get started as a freelance digital marketing professional?
Now that we’ve tickled your curiosity let’s see how you can get started as a freelance digital marketing professional.
The fact of the matter is that, as a freelancer, you will be the one looking for and finding different job opportunities.
And while securing a job can sometimes be quite tedious, the bright side is that you won’t have to go through endless circles of interviews. Instead, you will simply need to find clients that are looking for the types of services you offer and connect with them.
On top of that, you also need to make sure you:
Stay in the know
In order to provide the best services possible, you will need to stay up-to-date with all the latest trends and advancements of the digital marketing world.
So, make sure you’re constantly doing research and keeping your eyes open for any new happenings in your industry that will help you do your job even better.
By identifying reputable information sources in your industry, you’ll be able to stay in the know, which will greatly benefit you on your job-hunting quest.
Identify your strongest skills
Once you make sure you’ve studied the ins and outs of the industry, you will then need to focus on identifying your strongest skills. In order to do this, you will need to try out various digital marketing tasks and see where you excel.
The best practice is to note down all the tasks you’ve excelled at, as well as the ones you personally enjoyed the most. If there are any that overlap, they will be the new type of service you can offer to your clients.
This also brings us to our next point, as it will also allow you to determine your area of expertise.
Choose your area of expertise
Needless to say, your area of expertise will be the thing you’re best at. However, that doesn’t mean you should shy away from offering other services as well. It simply means that a particular area of digital marketing is the one you excel at the most.
Choosing your area of expertise will also help you reinforce your career, as the better you are at what you do, the quicker the word will get out.
Create a website
As with any modern business, you will also need a high-quality website if you wish to grow your career. According to experts from a reputable New York website design company, you need to make sure that your website fully represents your business.
On top of that, there are other aspects of a good business website you need to keep in mind, such as security, responsiveness and user-friendliness, but you can easily take care of all of these by hiring the right website-building company.
Find help
It’s also important to note that, even though as a freelancer you’ll be expected to take care of many different things yourself, that doesn’t mean you will need to do everything entirely on your own. Instead, not only that can you ask for help – you actually should.
So, make sure you find various industry experts and digital media companies you can easily reach out to if you ever feel like some help is needed.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this career choice?
In the end, this article simply wouldn’t be complete without emphasizing some of the most important advantages and disadvantages of becoming a freelance digital marketer.
Advantages
- As a freelancer, you won’t be tried to an office, which means you can choose to do your work from any place in the world.
- Being your own boss will allow you to set your own schedule that will work best for you personally.
- You’ll be able to choose the type of work you want to do, and switch projects whenever you feel like it.
- You’ll also be able to use the tools and equipment you’re most comfortable and familiar with.
- Being a freelancer, you can easily rely on other freelancers from different industries whenever you need additional help or expert input.
- You can optimize your payments to best suit your needs.
Disadvantages
- As a business owner, you will need to make sure you pay proper attention to taxes, licenses and other (similar) business aspects.
- You will need to take care of your own business promotion, but you won’t be able to charge for the time you’ve spent on it.
- Additionally, keep in mind that you only get paid for the work you do, so holidays and sick leaves can potentially affect your revenue in a negative way.
- The ongoing search for work can sometimes feel very stressful.
To sum up
Starting your own business as a freelance digital marketing professional is very exciting and can be a great career choice. But you will need to make sure you pay equal attention to all the parts of your business, as well as various responsibilities that will be expected of you as a business owner.
Therefore, make sure you do your research and prepare for everything this career choice will throw your way so that you can ensure that your business stays afloat.
Ellie Northcott is a long-time marketer, currently working as a freelancer in Miami, Florida.
Editor at Digital Strategy One.
She is also a passionate writer and loves to explore new, innovative and digital news.
In her spare time, she is an eco-activist. Read more articles at business.
