Freelance web designers are one-man wrecking machines. Most of the times, they act as accountant, designer, art director, copywriter and marketing strategist all at the same time.
However, you are, despite the other roles you perform, a web designer. It would be pretty understandable if you lack skills in other roles, say, marketing.
That is why, we will shed light on you regarding this matter. Continue reading and you will know few of the many marketing secrets web designers use.
These are practices that have been proven effective by a lot of web designers. Who knows, it might work better for you!
Build Microsites
Microsites are small individual web pages that function as discrete entities within an existing website. They are used to add a specific cluster of information that can be linked to the main site or can be taken off as a separate entity.
How can this be useful?
Well, as we all know, business websites and services aren't really warmly welcomed by social media users. Unlike blogs, the popularity of your business portfolio website isn't really that high (unless you're a big time web design firm).
Creating microsites will help your content go viral without buying space for advertisements. You just need to be creative and strike a relationship with the average viewer without making the latter feel that viewer is fed off to advertising or marketing.
How effective is this?
- It can be widely shared
- It is simple, fun and easily enjoyed
- You can get conversions for profit-driven websites
Here are few links to help you understand microsites better:
Create Freebies
Everyone loves the guy who gives freebies right? Creating freebies is one great way to market yourself as a designer. Observe the free online tools out there. Normally, you would see the creator's name and social media accounts, right?
Freebies are great tools to attract attention. When designers like you look for tools that they can use, they will always prefer the free ones. And you'll get some fame for that. The more useful other designers find your tool to be, the more people will visit your site and see your work.
To the designer with not enough time, freebies can be your best choice. It can be observed that the top freebies has thousands of followers over time. You may not earn from projects at as soon as possible, but you can surely get some leverage over the other designers out there.
Some designers who want to earn right away use some other techniques. Take Premium Pixels as an example. They created a site that offers one of the best design freebies out there. After they got some popularity, due to the quality of their work, they used those freebies to gain free promotion with their premium WordPress themes. You really need one thing for this: creativity!
Here are a few freebies that you would want to have:
Create A Niche Blog
In my previous article, I have greatly stressed how important it is for a designer to start his own blog. But if you want to market yourself effectively, you must focus your blog posts to that one thing you really like.
Yes, blogs can be journal-types where you can list your day-to-day activities. But sharing informative content about a chosen field is something better!
You can market yourself through your blog. It would give you a sense of authority because as a niche-blogger, it implies that you have a great amount of experience and knowledge to write about the niche you like. Plus, you can showcase your design talents through that blog!
If you want to create a niche blog, our 1WD editor, Rean, wrote a comprehensive guide on how to create a niche blog which might prove useful to you.
Purchase or Design Your Own Business Cards
Business cards can attract a lot of clients. If you manage to create eye-candy designs that are both witty, creative and useful, you'll increase the chance of people hiring you. Business cards are portfolios that fit into your wallets.
Interested? Try these templates out!
Conclusion
Marketing is very important, especially for freelance web designers. If you can manage to make people look at your work, chances are, you will get more projects. But one thing you must remember about marketing is that it's all about patience and creativity. Sometimes, the most boring marketing tasks you do turn out to be the most crucial ones.
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