Rethinking Marketing

I know trillions of dollars have changed hands over the generations through direct mail and various kinds of cold-calling and telemarketing. It’s my opinion, for whatever that’s worth, that we’re quickly approaching a tipping point where these kinds of marketing will be more expense and frustration than they are worth in most cases.

Most books on earning a living as a freelance writer encourage these as critical pieces of your marketing. My opinion is that many of them paint this in strokes that are too broad to be cost-effective for most of us.

For a view on marketing from the complete opposite end of the spectrum, read Seth Godin. The rules of marketing and business growth are shifting by the minute. It behooves all of us who freelance to keep generating fresh ideas and constantly evaluate how our marketing and business plans are working.

Do I think contacts to hot leads, referrals, and people who hint at interest in your services are a good thing. Absolutely and without question. Do I think mailing 500 or 1,000 pieces – or making that many cold-calls – to a list of prospects is going to help you, even though you get a high-quality, targeted list to mail to? My answer to that is a resounding ‘eh’. If you’re even a decent writer with average sales skills, you’ll very likely make a profit from such a marketing campaign. I doubt you’ll be inspired by how much profit you get out of it, though.

The 80/20 rule of business works almost without fail. You’ll get 80% of your business from 20% of your clients. This means repeat business, and referrals from your happy clients, will make or break you. If you can get your happy clients to spread the word about you to others, the effectiveness of this kind of marketing is infinitely better than mailings, cold-calling, and the like. If you make it easier for happy clients to spread the word about you, that’s even better.

Personally, I think it’s a much better investment of your time and money to work your existing network of contacts, do great work for anyone who hires you, and be interesting enough and good enough and easy enough for those clients to want to spread the word about you.

There are a bazillion freelancers in the world. What makes you so great? What makes me so great for that matter?

My goal here is to explore the answer to that question and look for other writers and designers on the same path. Ideas? Questions? Comments? Chime in!