What Freelancers Can Learn from Retailers

When things get financially murky, the tendency is to work, work, work to pay those bills. This, in my opinion, is a very bad idea. Do you know how long you can keep up a frenetic writing pace? Burn-out is a killer for many freelancers and working yourself to the bone is only going to get you there faster. Instead, think before you write, pitch and promote to save yourself some heartache (and some headaches, too). Who better to learn from than an online retailer?

Offer Savings as an Incentive to Act

Pillsbury (Yes, that would be the brand that markets the Pillsbury dough boy) offers a free $10.00 coupon booklet in exchange for signing up for their email newsletter. The free Pillsbury Coupon booklet is a great idea because a) it gives people coupons and recipes that they will use and b) all it takes is filling out a form. In return, Pillsbury can send you their email newsletter. A win-win for everyone!

How can you use the idea of “savings” to benefit you? Maybe you offer a $10 coupon for your services if companies sign up for your email newsletter. Maybe you take the approach that you’ll offer an hour’s worth of “free” consulting for new clients (worth $X). Whatever the case may be, the key to offering “savings” is to disclose what the value of your offer is to your readers, clients and/or customers. In a recession, every dollar saved counts so don’t be afraid to fully disclose what the value of your offer is.

Give Away Free Samples or Product

Bath and Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, Musicnotes.com and Axe body spray all offer something for “free.” Bath and Body Works offers free lotion and other limited engagement samples from time to time, as does Victoria’s Secret. Musicnotes.com (the company I work for) offers a free sheet music download of the month on a continuing basis. Axe provides free samples of new and upcoming product; sometimes you’ll see packaged mini-sprays as “free” incentives, too.

These retailers leverage what they give-away with what they get in return. By focusing on the word “free,” they may draw both new and existing customers to their doors without having some sort of a “catch” attached. Their offers are “free” with “no strings attached.” In essence, their free offer acts as a savvy form of lead generation.

How can you leverage “free” for your efforts? Well, if you’re an artist I recommend offering free avatars and wallpaper similar to what Vlad Studio does. He recently updated his site to say “Christmas gifts from Vladstudio.” Brilliant timing! He offers free wallpaper all year round, but now he has updated his site to be more in tune with the season. For writers, maybe you’d include a free blog post or free referrals to other writers you know. Whatever the case may be, if your model is primarily profit-based (i.e. you’re not fully supported by advertising) you can leverage “free” to generate interest.

Provide Exclusive Deals to First-Time, Returning and Referred Customers

Recently, I received a $15.00 coupon in the mail from HSN, that I could apply to my online order as a first-time customer. I’ve gotten similar promotions from a few other stores, too. How can you learn from these deals? Simple. By offering a rate for “new” customers, you are forced to expand your client base and break out into new avenues that you may not have tried before. At the same time, don’t forget to show love to your existing customers. Maybe you’ll set up a “customer referral” program where you’ll charge a better rate to your existing client because they referred you to a new assignment. You might send your existing clients a “thank you” coupon that is good for a limited time only off of your services, too.

Whatever the case may be, there is a lot of proverbial “gold” in ensuring that your contacts are maintained and that you are staying in touch with your possibilities. This is especially true if you have a full or part-time position that isn’t related to freelancing, because it takes a lot of work to keep your network active and the leads flowing.

Don’t Forget to Measure Your ROI

The nice thing about every one of these approaches, is that you can measure lead generation and what your return-on-investment is. Don’t forget to integrate some metrics from your web analytics to see how your site traffic has fared, too. Just because people didn’t use your coupon doesn’t mean that they weren’t interested; it could be that your coupon was not enticing enough or that your promotion was too complicated. Web analytics can help you glean an indication as to “why” your promotion was successful (or wasn’t).

What other tactics have you seen retailers use to engage customers and encourage sales? Have you tried any retail approaches for your freelancing? Share your comments below!

December 2, 2008
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My Thoughts about Online Self-Promotion

So admittedly I am not the best “self-promoter.” In fact, I’d say that selling my work isn’t something I do well. I’d rather have someone else do it, honestly. Part of the challenge is that I really can’t stand writers who sit there and tell me how great their book or game is without telling me “why.” Of course, the other part is that I’d much rather interact with a person–not a product–when I’m online. Sure, I don’t think any of us want to come across as arrogant or condescending, but it’s really hard to know what people’s impressions are of you unless you’re psychic or someone tells you.

Here are some of the things I look for when I either meet people online or read about them. I hope that my thoughts (combined with your feedback) will help shed some light on what might be a good “self-promotion” approach online.

    Your Online Persona is Transparent: If you are a writer and are promoting yourself as such, it’s more useful to me if you have the experience to back it up. If you don’t have the experience and are providing commentary — link to the articles and the people who do. I can’t tell you how many times an individual will talk about all these larger-than-life concepts only to find out they don’t have the street cred or the articles to back it up. Honesty goes a much longer way for me than if you try to “pad” your credentials, especially because I am actively seeking to promote my peers through this channel and through others that I might come across.

    You Don’t Tell Me How Great You Are or How Much You Think You Know: As a personal preference, I really don’t like pretenses. You’ll see this a lot with people trying to sell you something — they are exclusive, one-of-a-kind, different. Give me a break. Just because you are selling something doesn’t mean that your online persona has to be “on” all the time, nor does it mean that someone reading about you doesn’t already know what you know. Everyone is not an expert; in a lot of cases some of the folk selling what we want to buy are learning right along with you and me.

    You Remember that There is a Time and Place for Heated Discussions: Whether it’s the election or global warming, it’s easy to get caught up in discussions that can get pretty heated rather quickly. For those that know me, yeah I can be pretty opinionated but I also strive to be very open-minded. I intentionally keep those opinions off of my blog because I don’t want to exclude anyone, nor do I want to get into a heated discussion that makes both myself and my reader look like idiots. I feel that way about other websites and blogs I visit as well because the comments just seem to get completely out of control. To me, there is a big difference between ranting and having good content.

    Your Site Isn’t an Eyesore: If your site is a selling monstrosity that doesn’t offer any real content then I probably won’t stay on it for long. If it doesn’t have a search function and I have to navigate all over creation to find more information about you, then I’ll probably leave it shortly. I hate to admit it, but badly-designed (or outdated) websites and blogs are a really huge turn-off for me. Web design has changed so much in the last ten years. In a way, blogging has made the web more accessible — not less — so if your site isn’t more contemporary I have to wonder what other trends you’re not keeping up on.

    You Avoid Spamming Your Network: Yes, we all have personal projects that we like to promote. Unduly spamming your network of friends and contacts multiple times to promote your event or project really irks me. At the most, I’d like to see one–maybe two max–emails about your book or seminar sent in a very friendly and helpful way using phrases like “I don’t normally do this, but…” and “I just wanted to keep you in the loop about what I’m working on.”

    You Give Credit Where Credit Is Due: Have you plagiarized other people’s work on your own site? What if you have worked on a project with other people and take all the credit for yourself? Or how about talking bad about people you’ve worked with in an online, public way? Sure, it’s nice to be validated but it’s even better when someone says something nice “about” you. (Rather than you having to take the easy way out and try to say it about yourself).

What are your thoughts on good versus bad self-promotion? Am I being too harsh or too critical? Are there any exceptions to the things I mentioned here?

November 4, 2008
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Stephenie Meyer’s Internet Leak — Why Cancel the Book?

I first heard about young adult author Stephenie Meyer in Barnes and Noble; admittedly the classy photographed covers drew my attention. Then I noticed the gold seal, describing the upcoming movie “Twilight.” Admittedly, I don’t typically like a lot of romance with my vampires or overinflated female stereotypes but, as a fan of Angel and Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, I can understand the appeal and its nice to see another female author enjoying success.

With a little bit of internet research, I watched as this Mormon-turned-paranormal romance author embraced her online fans, asking them to squelch spoilers before they start. Then read about how sections of the new book, Midnight Sun, were leaked on the internet before the book was published. How did I find out about this? Twitter. Someone had posted a link to Stephenie Meyer’s letter and their fan response.
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September 5, 2008
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Writing with Gender Treatment in Mind

In today’s world, headlines are splattered with same sex marriages, celebrity “bumps” (a slang term used to describe a pregnant woman’s stomach), and women deemed to be “fat” because they gained a few pounds. Whether you’re a writer in the entertainment industry or a columnist for your local newspaper, gender treatment is one of the biggest issues facing our work today, because the boundaries and descriptions of gender have changed.

I often laugh at old fifties advertisements showing a submissive wife waiting hand-and-foot on her husband. If you’re writing fiction or a story about that particular time period, however, those gender roles were part-and-parcel to what the society is about—much like “hippies” were part of the 60s, “disco” defines the 70s, and “over-consumption” spelled out the 80s.

Unconsciously, we deal with gender treatment all the time in today’s society; when we see a female action hero and comment on her costume, when we read about bisexual, gay or cross-gender relationships in the news, when we form opinions about gender treatment based on what’s happening in another country.

In writing, our own ideas and conceptions about gender treatment may color our projects and speak to our values. This isn’t a “good” or a “bad” thing, but it does have consequences that may range from alienating sections of a market to offending a particular group. Some of these reactions are unavoidable, but they are a result of how we approach gender even before we write words on a page.
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August 15, 2008
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Just How Long Does it Take to Make a “Name” for Yourself?

Fame, fortune and glory. Something that every writer dreams of, but no one is quite sure what being “famous” actually entails. Do you know who Robert Bloch is? How about Leigh Brackett or C.L. Moore? Each of these prolific writers hit it “big”: Bloch wrote the horror fiction that the movie Psycho was based on, Leigh Brackett wrote the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back, and C.L. Moore’s groundbreaking contributions to fantasy and science fiction earned her the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Being a writer means that we have to continually remind ourselves why we write; to the fickle public it never matters “what” we’ve done. It always seems to be “when” we do it that counts. I’ll never forget the first time I joined a community of writers. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I was enthusiastic about how far I’d go as a writer and was eager to share ideas with other writers like myself. Then, I got told off by a very snarky writer who had written two books over 10 years ago–that I wasn’t a “real” writer because, at the time, I had zero “paid” credits to my name. To him, he was the “expert” because he had been published before and had gotten paid for it–but he was also bitter. Very bitter.

It’s easy for us to sit back and laugh at writers like this. Unfortunately, we are those writers. In 50 years, who will be remembered? Stephen King? Probably. You? Me? Probably not–yet.
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August 6, 2008
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