Everyday Cool Tips: Build a Better Freelance Business with Strategic Branding

When I first started freelance writing, I thought branding for businesses merely referred to having a consistent “look and voice”. With my partner, we put together a website, designed a logo, added social media accounts– and called it our branding strategy. But I learned that these are just functional elements to building a brand.

Brand building is a discipline that goes beyond what you say on your Twitter account and what colors you use on your website. It’s especially challenging for freelancers whose digital presence is often the first contact a client will have with them. For one thing, it can be extremely difficult for freelancers to set themselves apart from others offering similar services and products. Everyone is vying for the same market, armed with the same tools of the trade.

But branding can be a way for you to break through the slush pile of messages and logos, a way to differentiate yourself from other freelancers. Stop looking at branding as just catchy packaging– catchy logos and slogans–but as a strategic way to advertise and grow your freelance business.

Building a brand as a freelancer is both a creative art and a step-by-step science. Here are three questions to help you launch your own personal branding campaign for your freelance business.

1. How do you want to be perceived?

Successful branding is about creating a persona that you want your target market to associate you with. Marketing gurus will talk about brand strategy as a way to create the company “mythology”.

People respond to a genuine and honest presence that comes through in your web design, copy, and presentation.

In other words, people don’t just buy your product or services. Simon Sinek, author of the book Start With Why, argues in a TED talk that “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Is there a passion for your work that comes through? Be yourself when presenting your brand. If you’re a freelance writer trying to present yourself as “Miss Spartan Prose” or “Mr. SEO Buzz Words” on your website and business cards, when you’re the exact opposite in your writing and prose style, you’ve created a serious branding disconnect.

People respond to a genuine and honest presence that comes through in your web design, copy, and presentation.

2. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?

If you ever take a marketing class, USP is a textbook concept referring to how you present your business as better than the competition. Being a talented freelance web designer or competent freelance editor is not enough. The problem is not that qualifications don’t matter but that there are a lot of other freelance providers with similar qualifications.

When I work with aspiring authors who are trying to pitch their book to me, the first question I ask is “What is this book about?” I’m referring to the topic of the book. This question is fairly easy for people to understand. The second question I ask is, “What do you bring to this topic that makes this book stand out in a crowded field of similar books?” This second question is much harder to answer.

It’s the same for freelancers vying for a particular project or trying to sell services to a client. Your client says to you, “This is what I want to do. How can you do it differently and better (and at a competitive price) than others?” Part of the function of your branding is to answer that question to some extent.

Will a client looking at your website understand why you’re different and better? Are you a writer with an uncanny knack for research? Are you a web designer who does simple, elegant graphics? Are you a marketer with a niche contact list among mommy bloggers? Make sure you convey those unique qualities.

3. How do you want your target client to feel?

Investing in a brand strategy is about tapping into the emotion and feelings of your target market in ways that exceed even the functional benefits of what you provide. Any number of people can give a client what they want, whether it be a website design, iOS app, photo shoot, book manuscript, or other creative product. What distinguishes you will be the experiences of those services rendered. How did it make them feel? Did they find working with you an enjoyable experience?

In the end, branding is totally subjective and will probably takes time and many iterations before you’re happy with how you present yourself. For example, our website has always been a bit quirky with our little cartoon owl looming over the skyline. The first iteration of the site was much brighter and colorful. The problem with that style was that its technicolor scheme felt more like a children’s site than one for our freelance editing business.

We limited the colors to a more muted palette– but kept the owl. (We strive to be a small press publisher for unconventional nonfiction books about business and lifestyle innovation and creativity, so we decided the owl should stay.) Even now our site is still evolving.

Be bold in how you present yourself, but be prepared to tweak, redesign, and continue to evolve. Here are three central branding lessons for any freelancer:

Strive for consistency. Check your marketing materials and website. Is there a consistent use of typeface, colors, and design? Is the writing coherent and does it reflect a “single voice”? A website for your business may have a chatty, conversational tone, while your business cards may look and sound formal or stilted. Streamline the tone of your design and presentation.
Be yourself. Authenticity in how you present yourself is extremely beneficial. As a freelancer, you don’t have a company to fall back on, so you are, in essence, selling yourself to a client.
Be a professional. Being a consummate freelance professional means showing clients that you are credible. Show your prospective clients through your branding that you work hard and are pro-active as a business. Sloppy branding will show that you’re not taking your business seriously.

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