Should You Start A Freelance Marketing Business In 2024?

The state of Freelance Marketing in 2024

As of 2024, 47% of the workforce has joined the freelance economy. While competition amongst freelancers is increasing, so is the demand from brands looking for support.d

So you’re probably wondering, is it still worth starting a freelance marketing business in 2024? Let’s dive in.

Qualifications to become a full-time Freelance Marketer

If you’re looking for some flexibility in your work schedule, freelance marketing might be for you.

A whopping 28% of Americans now freelance full-time, up 17% from last year.
Why the sudden increase? Nowadays, more and more businesses employ freelancers for affordable marketing solutions. As a result, freelancers can work while maintaining flexibility in their work schedules.

‍
And with the rise of technology and social media ever increasing, digital marketing is one of the most popular industries for freelancers. It’s fun and relatively easy to learn, and almost any business can benefit from its services. But you might be wondering—what qualifications do I need to get into freelance marketing?

While that may seem like a daunting question, have no fear. This guide provides a comprehensive breakdown of everything you need to know about freelance digital marketing, including the skills needed and how to be successful.

What Does a Freelance Marketer Do?

If you’ve thought about freelancing full time but didn’t think it would be profitable, you’re in for a surprise. Top earners in freelance marketing can expect anywhere from $80,000 to $120,00 a year in average.

But what services do freelance marketers provide that make their work so profitable? Simply put, a freelance digital marketer provides digital services to businesses that ultimately help them grow traffic, increase revenue, and drive sales.

These services mainly involve leveraging and using digital channels to reach customers, promote products and services, and increase brand awareness.Freelance marketers can perform various activities, such as paid advertising, video marketing, promoting videos, online content optimization using SEO (search engine optimization), and more.

Top Skills for Freelance Marketing

When you apply for work as a freelance marketer, most businesses will put you through some sort of vetting process to ensure you have what it takes to succeed. Below is a breakdown of the primary skills you need to work as a freelance digital marketer.

Paid Media

Paid media in online digital marketing refers to any marketing that you pay for, like Facebook and Google ads and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Why is this a valuable skill for businesses?

‍
By having someone on their team who knows how to utilize paid media, a business is able to get more eyes on their brand in channels that their audience already spends a lot of their time in. That way, you’re able to help a business reach audiences that may have never found or head about you on their own.

Email Marketing

Almost every business can benefit from having a winning email marketing strategy. Email marketing is when you notify customers on your email list about new products, services, and upcoming sales.
You can also use email marketing as a way to educate consumers on your brand, and if done right, email marketing can help your audience stay engaged between purchases.

By knowing different strategies to employ for email marketing, you can help a business build a dedicated audience within its email channel. This can lead to more sales, better audience engagement, and more brand exposure.

Content Writing

At the heart of every successful marketing campaign or promotional tactic is engaging, informative, and compelling content. Great content has the power to hook consumers in, and make them want to know more.Even if you don’t end up specializing in content marketing, having solid copywriting skills and knowing how to hook audiences in is an incredibly valuable skill. Knowing how to write well enables you to make suggestions for a business’s website content, edit their promotion copy, and more.

SEO

Probably one of the most important skills for a freelance marketer to have is a basic understanding of SEO. Whether you’re publishing blog posts, long form articles, or even videos on Youtube, employing SEO makes it easier for your target audience to find your content.

For example, by possessing basic knowledge of SEO tactics, you could optimize a business’s digital content in order to help it rank better on Google. The better it ranks, the more eyes you get on your content.

Marketing Analytics

Marketing analytics is a crucial skill for freelance marketers to have no matter what kind of services you’re providing. If you don’t know how to collect and analyze marketing data, then you’ll never be able to know businesses the value you’re providing with your services. 

But by understanding how to measure, track, and analyze different aspects of marketing, you can show businesses the exact impact your services are making on their bottom line.

Business Skills

Perhaps most important of all, a freelance marketer should be business savvy. As a freelancer, finding work, getting your name out there, and marketing your abilities is entirely up to you.
Business skills include negotiation, problem-solving, financial management, project planning, and more. And if you end up becoming more successful and growing your freelance business, you may find it necessary to bring on more staff. In that case, you’ll also need good recruitment and people management skills.

Riches is in the Niches

Once you’ve decided to go full time as a freelance marketer, it’s best to decide on one single channel to specialize or focus on. Because marketing is such a large field, businesses usually seek a marketer to help them solve a specific problem.

Choose a niche based on your strengths and interests. Maybe you decide to specialize in all things SEO, or maybe you’re a data person, and marketing analytics suits you. It all comes down to your current skill set and what you feel comfortable offering that will yield results for your clients. By knowing which area of digital marketing you want to specialize in, you’re making it easy for the hiring manager or the business owner to put you in a role that will help their business.

Develop your skillset

Ideally, you should already be an expert in the skills listed above. Perhaps you’ve learned the trade while working at an agency or at a DTC brand in house. The last thing you want to do is sell yourself on something you can’t deliver on. Because the digital marketing ecosystem changes so frequently, you should also take online courses or join communities to consistently stay on top of the game.
The better you are at your craft, the more value you’ll be able to provide to businesses, and the more you can charge.

Create a website

To advertise your services and attract clients, creating a website or a simple portfolio to showcase your work is always a good idea. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and can be a simple landing page where potential clients come to learn more about you and what you can do for their business.
It’s also a great way to network, plus you can plug your website into your LinkedIn profile and resume. 

You may also consider starting a blog in which you publish content that’ll attract clients. You can write about the latest trends in the field or document marketing strategies you’ve had success with.

Build a Portfolio

Just like creating a website, it’s also a great idea to build a professional portfolio. This serves as a tangible example of the work you’ve done for clients, which entices businesses to work with you.
If you don’t have clients yet, you can still add to a portfolio by completing mock projects that you would do for clients. Research a marketing problem that’s happening with a local business or large company, and come up with your solutions for solving it.
Also, include customer reviews of your work and projects in your portfolio. Once you’ve built positive relationships with clients and businesses, your portfolio is a great way to show this off.

Set your rate

Once you begin attracting clients, they’ll want to know how much you charge. You can structure your pricing based on an hourly basis, project basis, monthly basis, or a combination of any of those.
Remember to approach freelance marketing the same way you would with running a business. The goal is to make a worthwhile profit for the time spent on projects.

Be consistent

Clients won’t want to work with you if you consistently overpromise, miss deadlines, and are overall inconsistent. To be successful as a freelance marketer, you’ll want to manage your time well so clients can count on you to deliver projects on time.
That’s the best way to also retain clients and ensure they don’t seek business elsewhere.

Find Work as a Freealncer

Hopefully, you’ve realized you don’t need a college degree or years of experience to work full-time as a freelance marketer. Suppose you know how to leverage critical marketing skills like paid social, paid search, SEO, marketing analytics, or email marketing. In that case, you have the tools necessary to help a business grow.

‍

Your next big challenge is finding clients, consistently. To get started, take a look at [5 ways to get high-quality clients consistently].

"Riches is in the niches"