Time-saving marketing tip for freelance editors
If you’re a freelance editor trying to drum up business, then stay tuned for a big time-saving marketing tip.
One of the challenges when you’re starting out as a freelance editor is that there is SO MUCH you could be doing to market your services.
There’s Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and YouTube (not to mention LinkedIn!). Then Threads or Bluesky or maybe Mastodon (or maybe all three).
Also, press releases, conferences, talks at conferences, webinars (paid and unpaid), blogging, guest blogging, podcasting, and that’s just what I can think of in the first ten seconds.
I have seen a lot of people never get any traction because they are trying to fill too many bottomless pits. So they spend fifteen minutes once a week on each social media outlet, an hour writing a blog post, half an hour writing a note to a conference organizer, an hour designing a logo for their podcast. In the end it feels like they’re doing a lot of marketing work but it doesn’t amount to anything.
The best time-saving marketing tip
Pick one or two social media outlets where your clients are likely to hang out and focus on those.
If you’re going to use content marketing to establish your expertise, then write good, meaty posts that will get shared and will establish your credentials. Don’t just write what everyone else is writing; find and share your unique spin.
If you’re going to give talks, get really good at giving talks and at pitching them. You get the idea: not everything, just a few things, but give them a meaningful chunk of your attention.
Successful marketing requires persistence, let me emphasize that. But flitting from one thing to the next is worse than doing nothing because it wastes your energy. At least doing nothing gives you a chance to rest up.
Other Helpful Content
The Missing Element: Conflict
When I encounter a manuscript with a sagging middle, the very first thing I turn to is the conflict. Is there a clear conflict in the ms, and is it of sufficient weight to support a full story? Conflict drives narrative. Without it, we often have a lot of splashing around that makes everyone wet…
Editing the Sagging Middle
Ah, the sagging middle. Also called the muddle, the slog, the struggle, and other depressing nicknames. The middle of the story is known to cause existential dread among authors as they toil over it. You’ve surely encountered problems with a sagging middle before in a novel you’ve read. A story starts off with a bang!…
The Editorial Blooper Reel
Back when I edited a custom magazine, I assigned and edited a package about an upcoming event (similar to a business conference) which included profiles of some of the attendees and speakers, a how-to-get ready checklist, a travel piece on side trips to take at the location, a celebration of highlights of the event over…
