You don’t need to become a content creator to be a successful freelancer. 

Social media is an option for marketing your practice, but it’s just one way of earning visibility and building trust.

I recently saw a post on Reddit from a brand designer who said that, in the process of freelancing, they had become a forced content creator. They felt constant pressure to produce content and frustration as this is not how they wanted to spend their time.

I don’t know the nuances of their situation. But what I would say is there are lots of ways to connect with potential clients and showcase your work beyond social media.

You get to decide what kind of marketing is energizing and aligns with your ideal buyers. If your marketing feels forced, it shows. When you have more autonomy over a task, research shows you’re intrinsically motivated and that’ll show in your performance.

Here’s how to develop energizing marketing on topics of interest to you that you’re eager to discuss, clearly meet a demand, and are a doable part of your routine. 

Pick a topic area you’re excited about that ties to your business

While you’re not married to the same topics forever, you’ve got to pick a focus area you’re thrilled to cover not just for six weeks, but six months, and potentially six years.

The “thrilled” part is essential as excitement is what’s necessary for you to stay committed to repeatedly covering it publicly and to show up with better ideas. You need to land on a topic area or two where there’s a larger category tying together tons of subtopics, so there’s many angles to address.

A topic area could be “design in healthcare” as that’s specific enough, given it’s discussing the intersection of the discipline of design as it relates to a particular industry. 

And it’s broad enough where there’s plenty of ideas to explore within it, like design thinking in healthcare, accessible design in the context of wellness, or service vs. product design at healthcare facilities.

The topic area you land on needs to relate to your business in some capacity, so buyers easily make the connection between your expertise and your offerings. 

Consider a mix of public and private forums

You might think: “Everyone in my industry is using LinkedIn, so I have to be there!” 

What you really need to do is come up with your own marketing mix that works for you and where you have the ability to reach the right people. 

While you don’t need to actively use social media, set up a profile on relevant platforms in case a client searches for you and to prevent others from claiming your profile.

You’ve got lots of options across public and private forums for attracting clients:

• Publishing publicly: Writing for your newsletter or an established publication; speaking at a conference, association, or online group; landing media coverage like being a guest on a podcast, TV show, or getting quoted in an industry outlet; running your own podcast or YouTube show. 
• Referrals from past clients: Showcasing results with recommendations, testimonials, and case studies. Asking satisfied customers to refer you directly.
• Pitching new clients: Researching your ideal customer, drafting a message about how you’d address a challenge they're up against, explain the impact you’ll have, briefly detail your qualifications/track record, and follow up to handle questions, objections. The goal is scheduling a discovery call.
• Nuanced networking: Investing in relationships with solopreneurs who you genuinely trust can provide you with safe space to commiserate over the unique facets of being self-employed, an opportunity to learn from their wins and losses, and eventually, these relationships can even lead to referrals.

Publish at a cadence you can actually maintain

You want to aim to publish engaging messaging regularly, as repetition is key, but at a frequency you can actually commit to.

I know so many freelancers who started podcasts or committed to a bold social media schedule, only to give up after a few months as it was too difficult to maintain.

My recommendation is to start at a reasonable cadence of publishing once or twice a week. Scale up or down from there as you get familiar with the process.

Stretch a weekly tent-pole concept into different marketing moments

Create new iterations of what you’ve already published as an extension of the idea.

Not everyone will see what you’ve shared the first time, so showcase aspects of the same idea in different formats on a mix of channels to reach more of the right people. 

One example of this was an article I wrote for Inc on how to start a consulting practice, which I created a TikTok video and a LinkedIn post about, extending it further.

Start with a tent-pole concept that’s reflective of your perspective, important to your audience, and expansive enough for continued conversation.

Outsource the process, not your thinking

Outsourcing certain parts of the process to a contractor or automating it with the help of a tool can make it more manageable, just don’t pass off your original thinking.

Formulating compelling ideas, arguments, and solutions based on your experience, skills, and data is what’s unique to you and how others will connect to your expertise. 

Freelancing already asks a lot of you. Your marketing should support you, not drain you.