I headed into downtown Boise last night to check out a local artist (First Thursday's in Boise are when all the artists come out to show their stuff) and happened upon two very nice gentlemen who struck up a conversation with me. We started by talking about art and artists, then the convo merged into what we all did for a living. I was first and told them I was a freelance graphic designer.
Now, when this comes up with people I don't know it usually evolves into questions about what exactly it is I do and I typically end up explaining it in laymen's terms to keep it brief, and that was no exception here. I turned the conversation to the one gentleman, Richard, who in this case was the one probing, and it turns out he was a copywriter for twenty-some years who had worked with just about every ad agency in Boise until the economy fell 3 years ago. After some discussion we realized we knew some of the same big-shot Ad Agency guys -- pretty cool living in a small city sometimes. But he was asking me more about my life as a Freelancer because in the last few years (after losing so much business after the '08 crash) he had decided to pursue his passion of writing and developing music, and the conversation segued into marketing and web presence.
Richard was in the mindset that you had to get out and meet people personally in order to get the word out about you and your business... that's how it was done 20 years - even 10 years - ago. So now he's trying to figure out where he should move to in order to gain traction for his music. I assured him that, in my case at least, you don't have to move. You simply need a good (strike that - an EXCELLENT) web presence. I have very few local clients, and I can say that I've only met about 30% of my clients in person. This surprised him I think, but in today's telecommuting and internet-driven world I firmly believe one of the best ways to market yourself and your business (if you're interested in becoming known nationally or even internationally) is by utilizing the internet and social media outlets. I delved deeper into my reasons for this claim.
In the five years of running my own freelancing biz, I've never had to cold-call to get a client. Every client I've ever had has contacted me first. "How do they find you?" Dennis (the other gentleman) asked. Simple, they either did a Google search for "Freelance Graphic Designers" in a certain area or they found me through one of the many freelance graphic design listings or articles that I'm connected to.
It's more than just having a website - they're a dime a dozen nowadays - you need to have a good website, on the front-end as well as the back-end. You need proper search engine optimization, which means all the little bits of code and keyword copy that help you get indexed properly in the major engines, as well as a good amount of web presence on social media outlets, website listing services and in my case I also write articles for popular blogs which increases my hit-rate and boosts the popularity of my site. Without these things I would have a hard time finding clients, because they wouldn't be able to find me. These things are KEY if you're doing any kind of freelancing, whether it's graphic design, web development, copywriting, etc. There's a much larger market for these services if you go national, rather than staying local. And it's true that getting to know people helps, whether in person or online, because referrals are 50% of my business now. But starting out is the hardest part. If you don't have any clients or portfolio to being with, you're screwed. Gone are the days of being able to walk into a company and market your personality... here are the days where it only matters what you can do (aka. portfolio) and how much you charge.
Go back in this blog and you'll find other articles I've written that explain these concepts in more detail, but I think I was as surprised that someone wouldn't know these things as I think Richard was when he found out about them from me. I suppose I'm so far in the mix that I didn't realize the information hadn't fully reached the masses. Apparently that's the case.
Thank you, Richard and Dennis, for the enlightening conversation last night. It was a pleasure meeting you both, and I look forward to meeting up with you again at the next First Thursday event!
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