Discover how to work as a freelance digital marketer in 2022. We cover everything you need to know to get started in freelance marketing, including freelance skills, potential earnings, pros and cons, and the steps to take to pursue this exciting and digital nomad-friendly career. It is not for everyone, but it could be for you.
How do you get started as a freelance digital marketer?
In this post, we answer several questions about freelance digital marketing:
What exactly is freelance work?
What is the role of a freelance digital marketer?
What qualifications do you need to work as a freelance digital marketer?
What does a freelance digital marketer earn?
The benefits and drawbacks of working as a freelance digital marketer
So you’d like to work as a freelance digital marketer: Following steps
Let’s get started!
What exactly is freelance work?
Working as a freelancer means working for yourself rather than for a company. Freelance work is done on a per-job or per-task basis. Many assignments in various domains are outsourced to freelancers by companies and businesses. Freelance work has many advantages and disadvantages. In this post, we’ll go over them in greater detail.
What is the role of a freelance digital marketer?
Do you have the necessary skills and experience to work as a freelance digital marketer? Examine all of the ways Acadium can assist you.
A freelance digital marketer is someone who works as a contract freelancer to provide digital marketing services to businesses, nonprofits, and organisations (not an employee).
As a freelance marketer, you can offer a wide range of digital marketing services. Typically, freelance digital marketers are hired for the following tasks:
- Paid advertising, such as Google ads, Facebook ads, and YouTube ads, among others.
- Ideation, scriptwriting, shooting, editing, publishing, and promoting videos are all part of video marketing.
- Marketing through influencers
- Keyword research, SEO content creation, and backlink building are all aspects of search engine optimization.
- Developing and managing complete sales and marketing funnels
- As you can see, a freelance digital marketer has a wide range of work assignments to choose from.
What qualifications do you need to work as a freelance digital marketer?
The skills required to become a freelance digital marketer are determined by the services you wish to offer.
There are numerous domains within digital marketing. Each domain requires a unique set of hard (technical) skills. However, regardless of the domain in which you wish to specialise, there are some common freelance skills. These abilities include:
- Copywriting and content creation
The written word is the foundation of all digital content. That is why strong content writing skills are essential. Even if you or your client decide to hire a freelance writer or copywriter separately, you must be knowledgeable enough to recognise good writing/copywriting, critique draughts, and make useful suggestions. Learning the fundamentals of content marketing will boost your confidence. - Search engine marketing (SEO)
Whether you’re writing blog posts, LinkedIn articles, Amazon or Etsy product descriptions, or app store descriptions, search engine optimization is critical. Your target audience will be able to find your digital content more easily with SEO. Without it, you’ll have to rely on paid advertisements and referrals to get people to look at your stuff. Unless you want to specialise in providing SEO services to clients, you only need the fundamentals of SEO. - Marketing research
Whether you want to manage Facebook ads or provide email marketing services, you must understand how to collect and analyse marketing data. Almost every aspect of digital marketing can be measured, tracked, and optimised, which is why marketing analytics knowledge is essential. - Business abilities
You must have essential business skills in addition to hard and soft marketing skills. Remember that you are now in business for yourself.
These abilities are required to start and run a successful business. They are as follows:
- Visioning and leadership
- Financial administration
- Project management and planning
- Problem-solving
- Sales and marketing
- Customer care
- Negotiation
- Networking
You may decide to hire employees as your company grows. In that case, you’ll need expertise in:
- People management
- Recruitment
- Delegation
What does a freelance digital marketer earn?
Because this is not a salaried position, the earnings of freelance digital marketers vary greatly. It all depends on how valuable your services are, who you work with, and how good you are at finding clients and selling your services.
Certain types of digital marketing are more profitable than others. Email marketing, growth marketing, and paid advertising roles, for example, are more expensive than other digital marketing services.
Certain industries also offer higher pay than others. Finance, electronic manufacturing, sports teams, internet publishing and broadcasting, and well-funded startups are the industries with the highest salaries and contractor fees.
Data on the earnings of freelance digital marketers is scarce. Talent.com only has two data points for freelance digital marketers’ annual income in Canada: CA$39,000 and CA$87,750.
Annual salaries for freelance digital marketers in the United States range from $46,313 for entry-level positions to $80,288 for more experienced freelance marketers. The sum of the 16 data points is $59,963.
There are far too many variables that influence how much you can earn as a freelance digital marketer.
To summarise, you can earn anywhere from almost nothing to more than six figures per year by freelancing, especially if you combine it with other sources of income. More on that later.
The benefits and drawbacks of working as a freelance digital marketer
No job is perfect, and being a freelance digital marketer is no exception. Let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of a freelance marketing career.
Advantages of Freelance Digital Marketing
There are numerous benefits to working as a freelance digital marketer. These are some examples:
- Adaptable schedule
You have almost complete control over your working hours as a freelancer. You get to choose how much and when you work, as long as you meet client deadlines. This also means that you are paid for the results you produce rather than the number of hours you work. Some freelancers charge by the hour, but this is not something we recommend. Fees for freelance digital marketers should be based on outputs and results rather than the number of hours worked. - Variety and selection
Another advantage of working as a freelancer is the ability to select your projects and clients. You may feel obligated to accept any client work that comes your way at first. That’s perfectly acceptable when you’re still building your client base and looking to establish your track record, as well as bring in revenue.
However, once you’ve established yourself and can confidently bring in a steady flow of clients, you’ll be able to pick and choose which projects to take on.
- Geographic independence
Freelance digital marketers typically work from home. This means that you can work from anywhere if you have a computer and a reliable internet connection. This profession fits in with the digital nomad lifestyle. You can combine it with your passion for travel, or if you prefer to work from home, there will be no commutes to and from work. - Lowering the cost of earning money
The term “cost of doing business” is used in business. Employees, on the other hand, have a “cost of earning money,” which includes expenses for travel, clothing, makeup, and lunches and coffees on the way to work. If you choose to work as a freelance digital marketer, you will incur none of these costs.
Yes, you have costs as a freelancer, but they are usually tax-deductible business expenses.
- Income potential is limitless.
As a freelance digital marketer, your earning potential is theoretically limitless. This is because you can charge whatever you want as long as your clients are willing to pay.
You can also combine freelancing with another business or even a part-time job. You can also work full-time and freelance part-time. Whatever path you take, you will have financial security and the opportunity to grow.
The disadvantages of freelance digital marketing
Working as a freelance digital marketer is not for everyone. It also has a number of drawbacks, including:
- Constant rushing As a freelancer, you must constantly work to keep your pipeline full of prospects and clients. In fact, you might end up working more hours than you ever did as an employee. This is due to the fact that you must market your services and close clients on top of all the work you must do to serve the clients you do have. You can also let Acadium match you with clients who need your services.
- Feast or starvation Another disadvantage of freelancing is the lack of a consistent paycheck. The demand for your services will most likely have peaks and valleys. For example, regardless of how good you are at marketing, you may find that clients slow down in the summer and during the holidays.
- There are no advantages As a freelancer, you will not have access to the benefits that come with a job, such as paid time off, sick days, health benefits, disability insurance, and so on. In general, if you do not work, you will not be paid.
- Financial pressure You can and should obtain your own health and disability insurance. These, however, will have to be paid for out of your own pocket. And these are typically not considered business expenses. (Once again, I’m not an accountant, and laws may differ where you live.) Do your homework to learn about the tax laws in your country.) You should also have a rainy-day fund in case you want or need to take a vacation. This means that you must earn more than an employee’s salary in order to match the total package you would receive as an employee.
- Isolation and loneliness Finally, freelancing can be a lonely and isolated endeavour, especially if you work from home. This can be especially difficult for extroverts, and it is frequently enough to drive them to seek office-based employment. Even introverts crave social interaction. In any case, you’ll have to figure out how to get the interactions you need for your mental health.
Conclusion
As a freelance digital marketer, you have complete control over your career and income. This is both a benefit and a disadvantage. On the one hand, you create your own chances. On the other hand, the responsibility is entirely yours.
So you’d like to work as a freelance digital marketer: Following steps
If reading this post has piqued your interest in becoming a freelance digital marketer, here are the next steps:
- Determine your niche: Is it SEO, Facebook Ads, social media, or content writing? Choose a specific area or domain of digital marketing in which you want to specialise.
- Choose an ideal client: What types of clients and/or industries do you enjoy working with the most? You can choose to focus solely on nonprofits or on a specific industry such as software, retail, eCommerce, finance, travel, beauty, and so on.
- Establish an online presence: As a digital marketer, you should be able to establish and maintain an authoritative online presence. Potential clients will always research you and form opinions about you before they contact you. Make certain that whatever they discover portrays you in the best possible light. To attract clients, create a video resume and an online portfolio.
- Establish a track record: Begin by establishing a track record of delivering results for clients. Document everything you do and track your results so you have proof of your abilities. Also, always collect client testimonials. To market your services, you need social proof.
No prior experience? Are you interested in becoming a freelance digital marketer but lack the necessary experience to attract clients? Consider becoming an apprentice at Acadium if you want to improve your digital marketing skills. We’ll pair you with a suitable mentor who is willing to guide you and provide you with free hands-on experience in their business.
Have you worked before? Have enough experience but would prefer not to do the legwork required to find clients? We can also assist you with that! We have a marketplace where business owners can find freelance digital marketers. This means that we will pair you with clients so that you can devote your time and energy to serving them.