Guide To Start Email Marketing For Freelancer

Too many freelancers overlook the benefits that email marketing can bring to their freelancing business.

In fact, most of them don’t even have a marketing strategy at all. But this can be the most lucrative marketing channel; email trumps social marketing, especially when it comes to attracting new business.

It’s 3 times more effective as compared to social media to get new clients and customers.

So you can focus a little on email marketing to surpass the other freelancers spending their time pinning and doing Instagram.

To start with email marketing, here is a quick guide for freelancers.

Contents

How Can Email Marketing Help Your Freelance Business?

When it comes to promoting the freelancing business, it can be mobile application development, graphic designing or software development, or even any other type of solution. There is nothing better than a marketing platform that does email marketing.

As a freelancer, your primary objective should be to showcase names and skills in front of those with potential.

Here you need to focus on building the audience, also pitch the service, and keeping the number of views increasing.

To do that, you need email marketing, and here are some of the basic yet crucial reasons why this is beneficial for you.

benefits of using email marketing for freelancers

Helps You In Growing Your Business

When you are an online freelancer, the growth of your business depends on the list of emails.

This is the way of keeping in touch with the clients and audience. It means the bigger the email marketing list you create, the bigger number of people can be in your reach.

To understand this, here are the email marketing statistics that can help you understand more about it :

The ROI from email marketing is around 122%, the number is bigger compared to social media marketing, paid search, and direct mail.

According to Hubspot research, it shows around 86% of professionals are using email marketing as primary marketing communication.

89% of online marketing experts say that email marketing is their primary method when it comes to generating leads.

Understanding The Potential Customers

With email marketing, you can also know about your potential audience and their habits, reactions as well as interests.

You can use this to understand how you can run your freelancing business much more successfully.

When you have the right email tools and email marketing service provider, you have a much better understanding of which links are going to be clicked.

Also, you see which readers are clicking and which links are going in the right way.

You can use this specific information regarding the reader, with this you can do the segmentation of the readers into different groups based on their interests.

You can also send the targeted mails, and as you see the pattern, you can do changes until you get the one that helps you in getting the best converts.

Helps You In Building Trust With Leads

With email marketing, you can build trust with the leads. Well according to long-term research conducted by Paul J Zak regarding why people trust and published it in Harvard Business Review.

Based on the research, he says that there is a hormone called Oxytocin which is responsible for making people feel less stressed and helps in building as well as feeling trust.

When it’s about sending emails, you should use content that is high quality with information that can be trustworthy. It can help in adding considerable value for the readers.

The more you are focusing on solving the problems of the reader, the higher level of trust you can create and confidence.

You should draft the email copy in a much more engaging manner, you need to add a personal touch and show the care of the readers.

Always remember that when it comes to building trust, it’s not going to be an overnight thing.

So be patient and take the time, to keep sending your high-quality and valuable emails to the reader.

Give Boost To Your Visibility Of Business

When you are an owner of a freelance business, it’s the goal of increasing the visibility of the business.

Here as you are already aware that when you have more visibility, it brings you more clients to the business.

You can use an effective email marketing campaign. This can help you in boosting the number of readers who are happy and glad to share the content with their people.

You cannot expect to boost the visibility overnight, so make sure you are considering the long-term game.

Helps In Gathering Much Open And Structured Feedback

It’s a fact that there is nothing better than trust-generating the factor of using social proof.

The feedback you get from the client can help you in creating great social proof for the business.

You can conduct this customer feedback survey using email campaigns. People always appreciate it when the company approaches to show their opinion and value of what they say.

You can find different tools online, this allows you to create the schedule for your feedback email.

How Can You Use Email Marketing For Growing Your List?

Before you make progress when it comes to email marketing, you need to start with growing the list.

However, unlike social media, you don’t need to have a lot of followers before you use it to build a business.

Here you can start with 50 to 100 quality email subscribers, this can help you in generating new and recurring business for yourself.

To create your list, here are some of the tactics that can help you:

It includes :

Create An Incentive For Encouraging The Subscribers

If you notice a fair amount of visitors on your portfolio site, you can find a small incentive such as a free download or discount coupon, etc.

This can help you in driving the rate at which potential clients will subscribe to your email list.

The key is to focus on adding value as much as you can. People are not going to enter the email if they are not getting any benefit or value from it.

So make sure you are asking yourself what will make your list a no-brainer for the site visitor.

Capturing The Subscribes When Its A Critical Point

There are different crucial moments at which you require to capture most of the email subscribers in order to groom them into becoming your potential and future clients.

For example, when you are a potential client who has really great experiences with the portfolio or content, you ask for an email address.

Here you can include it in the blog end, posts, or alongside the best projects.

Build The Wait List

Even if you are not considering the book for months, adding the waitlist to the website can help in a great way for building anticipation.

Also, you need to suggest the services which are in demand, also you help in allowing to charge more.

You can also consider using the waitlist; this helps in offering the benefit which can be exciting and feel like less of a commitment.

How To Add Value In Someone’s Else Email Audience For Freelancing?

In order to do email marketing, you don’t really have to need your own email list to start with.

You can consider using different ways which can help in collaborating or even purchasing the way in front of others’ email lists.

Write Guest Post And Consider Doing The Interviews

There are many freelancers, startups, and entrepreneurs who don’t even consider building an email list because they are busy doing the interviews and guest posts that already exist.

If you are targeting the clients, they are likely to subscribe to an email list if it’s a certain brand and find creative ways in order to collaborate with the brand.

Here you are going to add value as you offer genuine support; this helps in making them comfortable in asking for the placement in the newsletter.

Offer Some Kind Of Trade

While you might don’t have a large email list for offering the trade, you can still collaborate with it, which is likely to have target clients as your subscribers.

For example, here, you can offer the post on Pinterest in exchange for the placement of an email newsletter.

Put them on post a few backlinks for bloggers, and make sure you are adding the quality ones. Also, make sure they include you in the email sent.

Such a quid pro quo helps in exchanging valuable and is helpful for growing the relationship which can be lucrative for the business.

Consider Using Others List For Building The List

You can use the other list, which can help you in building your email list much faster. Also, you get in front of audiences that can be relevant to you.

There will be some percentages who enjoy the work, and it will be enough to survive the email list.

Pay Your Way Into The Email Send

Well, if there was a case when your contribution and collaboration ended up failing, you can also consider buying the way into email send.

However, it doesn’t mean that you should purchase the email list; this is about making sure you secure the sponsored slot in the newsletter of someone else.

There are many bloggers as well as brands that offer placement in the newsletter or might offer a dedicated and full send-to list or segments.

What Should You Do Email Automation For Pre-Clients?

You need to tackle automation so you can send email subscribers to those who are not yet your clients.

Their pre-clients have not shown interest in hiring you to subscribe to the email list at some level.

Send Your Genuine Welcome Email

When subscribers are joining for the first time, it is crucial that you welcome them to your email list and explain what they might expect from you when they are new subscribers.

The ideal way is through an automated welcome email; this also helps in setting up to send automatically when your visitor subscriber.

Well, you can get a lot of amazing ideas that you can add to your welcome email.

But generally, here you should simply thank them for subscribing as well as relaying the crucial information such as “

How often are they going to hear from you?
What kind of emails will they be getting?
How are you going to respect their inbox and privacy?

Send Drip Campaigns With High Value For Courting Potential Clients

One of the best aspects that you can consider when it comes to email marketing is its ability to build trust with potential clients.

And here is when you have to use the drip campaigns, this allows you to send regular communication with current and potential clients via using email.

Also, it’s everything on autopilot. Use software that can help in writing the full series of emails, including future as well as set intervals you choose.

How Can You Use Email Marketing For Your Freelancing?

Email marketing is an absolute must, especially if you are focusing on growing the business.

Even though the process of email marketing seems complicated at first glance, when you get to know the basics, it can help you in growing the freelance business.

All you need to understand is how sales or marketing funnels work; think of this as the journey of your customer. It is how your clients get to know about you to become your clients in the end.

It includes:

Awareness

The top funnel is about raising awareness; it’s wide because you require to talk to most people directly.

This is when your readers visit the website and fill out the opt-in form for the first time.

Here instead of pitching emails, it’s best to start laying your groundwork as it helps in building trust with them.

Here you need to focus on email series and content which helps in spreading awareness, it includes :

Welcome email
Introductory emails
Educational emails
Downloadable incentives

Interest

The second stage is interesting as when the funnel starts to get narrow, a lot of readers who are not interested in the topic will eventually leave.

And this is normal since those who are interested will stay to see what you are offering.

In this stage, you need to send regular emails in order to nurture subscribers. It includes :

Education emails regarding a topic related to you
Invites to the webinars
Free email courses
Incentives that can be easy to download and use.

Decisions

Again when the funnel narrows down, you will lose some more readers who haven’t found the solution or didn’t take any action.

At this stage, those who are going to stick are those who decide if you are the right option or not. At this stage, they ask themselves if they will accomplish their goals if they hire you.

This is the perfect opportunity to do the pitching of services. Let them know what you can offer, do, and what solutions you can offer.

Prove that you are the right person who can help them with whatever goals they have in mind.

Here you need to focus on sending pitch emails discussing the products and services.

Action

Those who made it to the end will turn into your clients. They purchase the services and buy the offer, here you need to dill the promises you made/

Here you need to use thank-you emails and follow-up emails.

Steps For Freelancers To Start With Email Marketing

After you understand why email marketing is important and how you can use it to boost your business, now it’s time actually to start with it.

Here are the important yet basic steps that can help you in crafting a solid plan, it includes :

steps for freelancers to start with email marketing

Step 1: Set Your Freelancing-Related Goals

When you are first starting to build the list, make sure you are focusing on setting clear goals.

Set your target for the number of your subscribers that they might want for each month, determining what outcome you want from the list.

Here you need to ask a few questions that help in setting the goals; these include:

How many conversions are you aiming for?
What will your people do after they end up signing up?
What should your new subscriber know when they sign up for an email list?
How many customers do you want to have on the list on a monthly basis?

Having all the answers to the question can help in crafting the campaign move forward.

When you are setting a goal, make sure you are evaluating the steps in order to hit all of the goals.

Step 2: Identify Your Client And Their Persona

One of the best ways that can help you in getting more clients as freelancers are to focus on identifying the specific ideal client that you are looking for.

So you need to create a persona that can summarize the whole thing and also focus on the ideal client from the psychographic and demographic-related information.

Here are some of the points to include in the buyer persona,

Demographic information includes location, occupation, age, and industry.
Psychographic information includes their media habits, their goals, job, and beliefs.
Information about their frustrations and pain points that are holding them back from achieving their goals.

When you have the client persona, you can understand how it can influence the rest of your marketing strategies as a freelancer.

You can also come up with lead magnets to reel in all the ideal clients and use the information for implementing an effective outreach strategy.

Step 3: Get A Custom Professional Email With Domain

If you have a portfolio or blog, then you are all set to start your custom email.

With the help of custom email, this appears much more professional especially when you are starting the email to send.

Opt for the approachable email handle, and make sure you are focusing on adding the personal touch.

Step 4: Choose The Ideal Email Service Provider

The next thing you need to do is to choose an email service provider which helps in delivering the email marketing campaign. It can help you in growing the freelance business.

The basic features you can choose are customizable newsletter templates and sign-up forms.

You can also add advanced features like A/B testing and automation tools which boost the email strategy.

Step 5: Build The Email List

Now you need to focus on the important part of email marketing as a freelancer who is focusing on building the list,

The best way you get the people to sign up is by offering lead management which is incredibly valuable.

When you are a freelancer, you must work with companies and businesses. Here you can consider the points that they are facing so you get to know about qualified leads and use them in the right way.

Step 6: Personalized The Content

Here you need to focus on personalizing the email content; this can be considering using the first name in the email, even mentioning company names, or sending highly targeted content.

Step 7: Having The Right Sequences

Here you need to send the welcome emails. However, you must consider the right sequence when you need to send the right emails at a suitable time.

Sequences are considered a great tool when it comes to busy freelancers. You already have guaranteed to send the regular emails and newsletter to the subscribers, so put it all on autopilot.

You can stay in touch with your clients who have potential and nurture them enough before we send them into the sales funnel.

Step 8: Track And Measures All The Results

The last step you need to focus on is to see how your email marketing analytics and see how it’s working for you.

Over time, the numbers will tell you if you are improving your lead management and your overall marketing strategy.

You can do the A/B test to determine the templates and subject lines.