Up-to-date website.
Networking and first impressions are increasingly important in the virtual world. A website - your virtual face - is crucial for increasing your exposure and being found online. First impressions die hard, though, and virtual impressions are equally as important as the physical ones. A poorly designed, unprofessional-looking website is the equivalent to a sweaty, limp handshake, and can drive away potential clients. Update the content of your website regularly: for a remote potential customer, it’s how they will form their judgments about the quality of your business and your professionalism. For freelancers in the creative industries, a website can also serve as an online portfolio, sent as a link in cold-emails to prospective clients. This avoids an email, loaded with attachments, being snagged by spam filters.
Wordpress is a popular and relatively straightforward choice for new businesses - but it can be tricky to get rid of the “Wordpress look.” For those unfamiliar with code and website design, professional-looking themed templates that suit your business can be purchased for around US$35. There are thousands of styles and designs available, and a number of sites that offer these; ThemeForest is a good one. In addition, a dot.com domain can be bought for around US$10. When choosing this URL, make it snappy and easy to remember. Including a keyword will help with search results.
Keep in the know.
You may have graduated at the top of your class at university, but industry and business are fluid, and never stop evolving. Keep abreast of what is going on in your own industry, and about what, and who is the flavor of the month.Being topical and contemporary shows that you’re passionate about your business - and customers will know that they are investing in you for a reason.
Knowing your industry also includes understanding competitors, which can offer invaluable insight into a target market and where your own product or service excels or is lacking. What can you improve on? What do you offer that they don’t? Tell potential clients what makes you better.
Be benevolent.
Knowledge is best shared. Impart your expertise with your community and offer advice on blogs, forums and articles for newspaper columns and magazines. It is an excellent way to get a name out into the community and will help establish yourself as an expert in your field, prompting others to do further research into your work. By offering your opinion online (and asking some questions of your own) you also create a window for backlinking to your website, enhancing your SEO. Be careful not to overdo this though, as too much backlinking is sometimes punished.
One resource for putting the wider community (especially industry experts) in touch with media and press is Help a Reporter Out. Journalists, bloggers, and authors post queries that anyone can respond to, and is one way for a freelancer or small business to offer tips, stories or insight to a wider audience, and have a name published in the press.
Make amicable virtual networks.
Give credit where credit is due, and commend a fellow freelancer or startup in a virtual space. The recipient of your praise will most likely reward you for it by inviting you to their own conversations, or by returning the favor. It also serves as a positive measure to increase your exposure to their external networks.
List yourself.
Sounds obvious, but when in doubt, a user or consumer will turn to traditional listings to find someone (whom they don't yet know) for a job. The Yellow Pages, Craigslist, the Freelancer Directory or LinkedIn are just some examples of web-based business directories. Listing your service or business costs nothing (or very little) but boosts the likelihood of being found online.
No comments:
Post a Comment