The Marketing Message - Freelancers Are Their Own First Client

At this point in my freelance career not too many people know about me. That's not good for business, and it's something that will soon change. But before that happens, before I announce my presence to the world, I have to know what I will tell them. In marketing circles this goes by several monikers - the Unique Selling Proposition, the Elevator Pitch, the Marketing Message. In essence, it is crafting a concise way to tell prospective clients what I can do for them and why I am the best person for the job. For a freelance writer, it is our first writing job. We get to write for ourselves.

Everyone I contact, even my longtime friends, need to know exactly what my skills can do for them. It behooves me to hand to them a concise, precise message that they can give to their contacts - and their contacts, and their contacts ... you get the drift.

To succeed in this vital mission, a freelancer needs to answer several vital questions.

1) What corner of the freelancing world do you want to focus on? You might be great at everything from technical writing to brochures to feature magazine articles, but saying all that dilutes the message. To start with, pick one or two specialties.

2) Who are your prospective clients? Are they men, women, young, old? Seasoned businesspeople, or harried small business owners, or academics? What niche in the corporate world do they hold? What are their ultimate desires in hiring a freelancer - shovelling work off their own desk, getting quality work to further the business, trying to impress the boss?

3) How can your skills best fulfill their desires? What makes you the best and only person for the job?

Once you have all that in mind, then the rest comes easy.

Okay, time for me to get busy, and do some work for myself. I am, after all, my first, last, and best client.