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
Making Your Offer Clear
There’s a fast-casual restaurant I walk by every day that has a sign in the window: Pick Any 3, Get 1 Free! That sounds clear enough, right? But below the offer, they list what you can pick from: – 1 dinner (grilled chicken, burger, ham-and-cheese sandwich) – 3 large drinks (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dad’s…
Effective Copyediting
How can I provide effective copyediting to authors? The most effective copyediting must include an improvement and be intended to address an important issue. Sometimes when you’re copyediting a novel, you’re asked to do a medium- or heavy-level copyedit, which means you’ll be doing more than just the basics of ensuring the ms conforms to…
Solving a Common Coaching Problem
In my inbox: “I’ve coached a first time writer from outline to first draft completion. Along the way, I explained concepts like show vs. tell and point of view. Last month, I helped him to draft questions to solicit objective feedback about his story and recommended some beta readers. Now he has lots of feedback…
