52 Sleaze-Free Tips and Hacks for

Promoting Your Art, Business and Brand

Alex Mathers

A Red Lemon Club Compendium

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Contents

Welcome 5

1. Tell a prospect why they should choose you 7

2. Offer a free trial 7

3. Use alerts 8

4. Stay in touch 10

5. Use Twitter hashtags 12

6. Believe in the value of what you’re promoting 13

7. Get your clients and buyers to sell for you 13

8. Put a ‘Call to Action‘ everywhere 14

9. Apply the 80:20 Principle 15

10. Create a follow up poster 15

11. Tell stories 17

12. Share everything 19

13. Post pictures and videos 19

14. Make use of your ‘by-products‘ 20

15. Prioritise previous customers 21

16. Write up a clear, purpose-driven message 22

17. Make others more successful 23

18. Work out what your prospects hate 23

19. Start with outcome, then work backwards 24

20. Create a ‘Golden Orb‘ 25

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21. Bribe people 27

22. Do ‘5 tiny things‘ 28

23. Start a ‘micro magazine‘ 29

24. Get promoting others 30

25. Create a ‘What’s Working‘ list 30

26. Be useful on social media 31

27. Underpromise, over-deliver 32

28. Tap into what is viral 33

29. Tidy up your website 35

30. Be enchanting 36

31. Test yourself out on yourself 36

32. Reciprocate 37

33. Make a note of your spreaders 37

34. Create free sample buzz 38

35. Make an infographic 39

36. Go behind the scenes 39

37. Vocalise your mission 40

38. Use the web to ask for advice 41

39. Use video 41

40. Connect with influential online writers 42

41. Make a distinct style your priority 43

42. Use social media search to find work 45

43. Aim for your ideal clients 45

44. Use social media widgets 46

45. Make yourself accountable to someone 47

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46. Always make win-win decisions 47

47. Know what you are helping your target market do 48

48. Choose self expression over pleasing others 49

49. Write a decent Twitter bio 50

50. Be a member of one discussion forum 51

51. Give your clients something extra 52

52. Tell people when you like something 52

Bonus Tip 53

Copyright © Red Lemon Club Ltd, 2014

Welcome

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Welcome

We live in an interesting time for those who have products and services to share with the world. The connectivity and opportunities that the web af-fords is vast and inspiring.

This book is the result of years of bits and pieces of insight I have discovered, collected, personally used, and told others about. I’m excited to share them with you in one place.

Gaining exposure requires know-how, but also the right thinking and the right attitude. Which is why this booklet contains a mix of tips to better help promote the cool things you make, but also ideas on being in a better frame of mind as you do so, keeping you ahead of the game and motivated.

Sometimes it’s nice to have everything in one long list that you can refer to over and over again, take action on, or simply use to stay keen and inspired.

I hope you enjoy the read as much as I enjoyed picking up these ideas and putting them together. They appear in no particular order or hierarchy.

Enjoy the read! Don’t forget to take action on at least a few of these...

Alex

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1. Tell a prospect why they should choose you

There are tens of thousands of professionals like you working to grab the attention of prospective clients to land a new, well-paid project.

What is it about you that will make them choose you? A way to make this an easier choice for potential clients is by providing a list on your personal site giving 5 or 10 reasons you should be hired over the rest. Simple as that.

Do this on your about page or on a separate page and use this to sell yourself and it might just make a client decide to go with your services. Always make it obvious.

2. Offer a free trial Here is an idea for those of you just starting out in a particular market, who lack much in the way of previous work samples and testimonials, but also for anyone looking to find new clients: offer potential new clients a free critique of their current materials or system or a free taster of your services. If you are a web designer, you can critique a prospect’s existing website,

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”-Tom Fishburne, Marketoonist

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for example. If you are a copywriter, provide a free couple of paragraphs to those that ask for it as part of your prospecting process.

Always make sure you follow up with people who have experienced your free trial, and make use of those trials too, such as through getting testimo-nials, learning about user behaviour, and demonstrating case studies down the line. By doing this, you can show prospects what you know and what you are good at in a way that relates directly to them, instead of showing what you have done for other clients in the past. It’s also a great way of building cred-ibility. If they like what you come up with, you will be much closer to securing a project with them, and further building your own portfolio.

3. Use alerts

Tracking and monitoring keywords used on the Internet can be a useful part of your self promotional strategy.

Setting up with Google Alerts, for example, to notify you of specified key-words can help you track the online content you want to read and it allows you to monitor what is being said about you (be it in articles, blog posts etc) and other relevant people or organisations.

Google will send you email alerts (however often you specify it) of words that you set, whenever they are published on the Internet.

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It is worth setting up an alert for:

• Things that interest you that you would like to share with others;• your sites;• your key influencers;• your own name, and;• your business name if you have one.

These alerts will provide you with good content that you can share on social media sites and elsewhere, and gain a reputation as someone with valuable information to share.

They will also allow you to track your reputation and give you important feedback on your online promotional efforts as well as responding to rel-evant new posts, articles and other written material.

4. Stay in touch

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4. Stay in touch

This tip is a simple one, but it is amazing how often I forget to keep in touch with certain people.

Keeping in touch with past clients, friends and colleagues needn’t involve asking them to find you work, or for them to do anything in particular for you. All that is required is a simple hello asking how things are. Make sure when you do this, that you supply a link to your site through the email sig-nature. It doesn’t have to be dropped in the main bulk of the email text itself.

You’ll be surprised how positive reactions will be to this, and how often people will check out your site/work and even how often this can lead to new work. Keep a close eye out for key people in your list, especially those you know are influencers in your industry. Send off individual messages, and make sure each email is tailored to the recipient in question. We don’t want them to appear as spam.

It’s probably best breaking this up month by month if you have many con-tacts, so that keeping in contact becomes a regular and consistent part of your self promotional strategy.

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5. Using Twitter ‘hashtags’

Hashtags are the ‘#’ sign you see before certain words and phrases in ‘tweets’ on Twitter, such as ‘#webdesign’. What they do is effectively groups tweets that are all about the same topic or event.

Hashtags are like tags you assign to photos you might upload to Flickr or to blog posts, so that they are categorised and searchable. On Twitter, whenev-er you include a hashtag and word within your tweet, you are categorising your tweet, so that when people search for the tag, they can find your tweet attached to it.

This can be very useful for your exposure when it comes to popular hashtags, as your tweets will be linked to popular subjects.

Keep an eye out for hashtags on Twitter that are relevant to what you are tweeting about and tag your tweets where appropriate. Use hashtags.org to search for them, as well as ones that are popular.

Also keep an eye on the trending topics in your Twitter sidebar, as using tags with your tweets that are trending will attract a lot of visibility.

“Content is fire, social media is gasoline.” -Jay Baer, Convince and Convert

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6. Believe in the value of what you are promoting

Here’s a slightly less technical tip, but an important one nevertheless that I feel people can easily forget. Make sure you have belief in the services and products you are promoting.

If you value what you have to offer, you will more easily promote with en-ergy and enthusiasm. This will have a strong effect on your marketing strat-egies.

If you doubt what you can produce, or you are concerned that people will think you are not truly honest in what you are showcasing, you will have difficulty finding the motivation to tell the world of what you can do.

Build or create something that you know you can believe in.

7. Get Your clients and buyers to sell for you One of the things that will boost any promotion you do more than anything is getting and showcasing various testimonials left by your previous clients and buyers. Testimonials add credibility and trust to your brand and your products. You only need a line or two, and a name to make an ideal testimonial, that you can place on your sites and blogs. Make it easy for your clients and buyers to send you a testimonial by asking

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for one after they have used your services or bought any of your products. Ask them these two questions to provide a testimonial framework for them: 1. How has (your name/product) benefited you? 2. What was the best thing about working with (your name) /using (your product)?

8. Put a ‘Call to Action’ everywhere A ‘Call to Action’ (CTA) is simply a button or sentence telling people what they need to do in order to do something, receive something, find out about something. Put a CTA anywhere that is appropriate. In most cases, customers, potential clients and others won’t know what you want them to do unless you tell them. In fact having a call to action will often encourage them to take that action right there and then. For example, you might place a call to action on your online portfolio’s main page saying: ‘Contact me via the form below if you are interested in a quick quote.’ These have been proven to really make a difference, so think about how you can make use of them!

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9. Apply the 80:20 Principle

No matter how many friends, followers and contacts you have online through mailing lists, Twitter, LinkedIn, and elsewhere, the 80:20 rule still applies to how you go about promoting yourself. The principle states that ‘roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes’.

This applies to how you market yourself in that you should stay focused on the 20% or so of your key contacts and industry influencers, and develop those relationships as best you can. After all, 80% of the work you source will come from these important people. So, be aware of where the majority comes, and could come from, and focus on these areas. This will help you become more efficient and save time in your self promotional activities.

10. Create a follow up poster

Here’s a nice little tip to increase your chances of people hiring, returning to and/or referring you once you have made contact.

One of the most important things that highly successful freelancers and pros do that is overlooked so often by others is following up on any leads to a job they might find. Whenever you meet someone new, start a conversation with someone, exchange business cards, and so on, it is crucial to follow up in order to

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strengthen your relationship with that person, and increasing your chances of doing business with them. A really effective way of following up is to create a poster or leaflet that in-cludes all the key stuff about you and your services, such as a picture of your recent work, your rates (if you want to share them), any discounts offered, and a call to action that guides the prospect to taking action, like saying how they can get a quote by emailing you.

You can do this in a really creative and interesting way to get people to no-tice and remember your work and what you do. Create a pdf, a page on a website, a physical flyer or postcard if you have a postal address, or an html email and send this to whatever leads and pros-pects you get hold of. This saves you having to write out everything once again also.

You should see an increase in people taking action and coming back to you.

11. Tell stories

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11. Tell stories

What makes Richard Branson and Steve Jobs such compelling representa-tives of the hugely successful Virgin and Apple brands?

If you think about it, a lot of the reason we are attracted to these people and their brands, is the story that accompany the leading characters behind the development of a brand. The story of how Branson came to develop Virgin is as much a part of his brand, as are his products and services.

You can apply the might of story telling to your own products and services to build up a picture of who you are. This picture will help you gain a ‘sticki-ness’ with potential customers and clients, make you more memorable and build your credibility.

Think about ways to bring your story to your service to help create a pic-ture of the person behind what it is you do.

One way is inside of your website’s bio page; another, in what you sure via your newsletter, and any speaking engagements you might give, for exam-ple.

“People need stories more than bread itself. They tell us how to live, and why."

–Arabian Nights

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12. Share everything

One of the most effective ways of getting the word about you and the work you do out there is not necessarily so much in the very work that you share, but in the expertise that you provide to others.

Don’t be hesitant about the amount of knowledge you share with others about what you do, whether it be in writing, tutorials, or talking.

Top people brands like designer Stefan Sagmeister, Twitter creator Jack Dorsey and the chef Jamie Oliver know the value of sharing what they have learnt through experience.

They are also aware that people who pick up their ‘secrets’ are not going to compete with and better them at their own game, because what they do, their reputation and their own perspective is where the value lies.

Sharing what you have will allow you to build an audience, credibility and a reputation, and this will work very well for your own exposure.

13. Post pictures and videos

It’s now a known fact that pictures and video links, particularly on platforms like Twitter, Reddit, Digg and Facebook are more likely to be looked at or watched than other information is read.

For matters of self promotion, it would be very useful to know that you are likely to get more response from sharing links that are pictures or videos.

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There is a really useful feature on Facebook when you promote yourself or something using a video via your Facebook page. A non-fan of your page can see it, and be provided with the option of liking your page via a small button that appears in the top left.

A strong video could be a really useful way of increasing numbers of fans.

14. Make use of your ‘by-products’

As you go about creating, making and selling, it’s useful to be aware of those things that you are making in addition to what is obvious.

It is rare that you are creating a single thing in your various endeavours, it might be the case that you could earn a little extra through spotting an op-portunity via something that is a by-product of your work.

Perhaps it’s a video tutorial of an awesome wall mural you are working on that you could sell, or use to market your work.

Maybe those graphic elements that were rejected on your last design project could be resold online as stock, for example. Maybe you could write a book on all the unique stuff you are learning as a stage actor.

Dig a little deeper, and you will probably find stuff that you could use to market what you do, or make some extra cash.

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15. Prioritise previous customers Having learnt from others, experienced this myself, and absorbed more than a sane number of books and posts on this area, it’s safe to say that the real secret to a healthy, ongoing income from doing what you do is clear. The money lies with people who have previously given money to you. It’s as simple as that. This could have been in exchange for your product or service in the past. Obviously the important and often tricky part is getting people to pay you money for your craft in the first place. But the thing is, once you have a cli-ent or customer who has parted with their cash on your goods, they should now become a major priority for you in terms of who you class as important connections.

Instead of looking elsewhere and continually trying to expand your network to ever bigger scales (though this is fine), make sure you continue to get your work in front of previous customers. These are the people most likely to buy from you again. Your task is to get those previous clients and customers onto a list or a spread-sheet, so that you know who toprioritise your care for as you take charge of your business.

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16. Write up a clear, purpose-driven message

Having a message is often something that companies and new startups will put together in order for customers to understand exactly what their busi-ness is about, whilst serving to clarify what is important to those working for the company too.

As a freelancer or business owner, you are no less an entity of business than any large company out there. As such, you need to craft a message that de-scribes what the purpose of your business is to your clients and potential clients, clearly.

Having one that people can physically see on your site or business card, even if your work itself is visible, will set you apart miles from the rest.

It clarifies what value you can provide to prospects, and will make you more memorable. It will also serve as a reminder to you what your business is about, and keep you focused, though it of course can be tweaked as you go along.

For example, as a photographer, your message might be something like this:‘Capturing atmospheric photographs for discerning buyers and corporate clients.’

“You have to understand that nothing appeals to everybody.”

–Gene Simmons, KISS

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17. Make others more successful

Going out of our way to help other people’s careers or personal lives in some way, even in a tiny incremental improvement, can help you, as much as it can help them.

Promoting yourself these days has everything to do with strengthening re-lationships with people, namely those people who can get you work, and those who can help get you work. If you can improve a relationship in some way with someone, you are helping yourself too.

The best way to build a strong connection with someone is by directly or indirectly making them more successful, be that through sharing useful in-formation with them, introducing them to a useful contact, and so on.

Think of ways you can help out key people in your networks, and notice what good things come back your way.

18. Work out what your prospects hate Figure out what your customers and potential clients hate. Every industry will have something at least fairly major that causes frustration to people. Writers are known to miss deadlines, and some freelancers are lousy at re-sponding to emails.

Find out the thing that your target market dislikes in your competitors, and make it really obvious that your service is nothing to do with that thing they hate.

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Doing this will get straight to the core issue/s, and put you in a very appealing light to them, getting you hired!

19. Start with outcome, then work backwards

This is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve personally been given on working as a creative professional. It’s all too easy to set out in your chosen industry reacting to clients and customers who come along, giving us certain instruc-tions, and working to please them.

Flip this idea on its head and work for you, not them. The way to do this is to know your outcome, be this the type of ideal client you want to work with, the amount you earn in a year, or the kind of specific lifestyle you want to live. When you know this (and concretely so), how you conduct your work is dictated with this outcome in mind, as opposed to building something and hoping for the best, resulting in aimlessness. You will begin to develop a certain style, designate your own terms and live your life according to your planned outcomes. When you start dictating and creating your own career instead of reacting to it, those you work with will begin to be drawn to, and align with, your own world.

20. Create a ‘Golden Orb‘

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20. Create a ‘Golden Orb’

Perhaps I’m being a little facetious with this name, but I wanted you to visu-alise something that might be less easy to forget.

A golden orb, in this case, would be a side project (not your every day work) that is specifically aimed at helping a specific group of people who have questions relating to the work you do. Even something loosely related, but something that you know a thing or two about (which you can read up on and improve your knowledge even further on the subject). This can be a book, ebook, pdf guide, a workshop, a large blog post, a video, a tutorial -- anything that could be of real use to someone. Create something that will appeal to people who are lured in by its shiny orb-ness and could really help them. An example would be creating a really thorough tutorial on painting charac-ters on your blog and sharing it everywhere. If you’ve spent time and effort on it, and know that many would be interested in it (you can run a survey to do the research on what people want), it will likely be shared by many. The benefits of creating such an ‘orb’ are manifold, including giving your brain something else to focus on away from your usual work; boosting your credibility and ‘expert status’ greatly, attracting a following, promoting your work on the periphery; passive income, if you sell it; it goes on. To go a step further, create a really helpful resource (orb) created specifi-cally for the kinds of people you would actually love to hire you or work with you - or at least something that would appeal to them, or show them that you care a heck load about a particular thing. The orb will bring these

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people to you.

This will attract people to you because you have created value from nothing. Plan ahead, get it in front of the right people, promote it well, and your busi-ness/brand/product/hobby will get a nice lift, if not a massive boost.

21. Bribe people Sounds dubious doesn’t it? Well, actually this ‘incentivized referral’ system is a win win for all who want to get involved. Offer followers, past clients, fans, new clients and others various incentives in exchange for promotion or referral of some kind. Sure, we see this a lot, and many bigger companies do this, but to see it done by independent cre-atives like you could be interesting. To stand out, you need to be creative, so use your talents and ideas to your advantage.

Sending out hand-written letters to specific people who have worked with you, or bought your product, asking for referrals (they get a prize, or a dis-count off something if they can find a client or customer for you) can work very well.

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22. Do ‘5 tiny things’

I find starting small and taking small steps on projects is one of the best ways to get motivated and to get started on something. The trick is in remembering to take these small steps in the first place, be-cause it usually works to get things moving. A great habit to get into, espe-cially when it comes to self promotion, is ‘5 tiny things’. That is, 5 little things you can do every day in getting you closer to some goal, or generating exposure, or getting healthier, for example. This could be a tweet, a phone call, going for a jog, emailing one person, posting a postcard, writing a short blog post, buying a pencil and pad, etc. It really doesn’t matter how small these steps are, and they can be anything, as long as it contributes to some form of action, progress, or advance. When you start looking for five things every day, and feeling the sense of satisfac-tion that you have done those 5 things, at the end of the day - the rewards will be noticeable.

If you push ahead in this way every day, it will be impossible to not get ahead.

“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”

-Louis Sachar

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23. Start a ‘micro magazine’

Starting a magazine could be a massive undertaking, but it could also be kept simple and straightforward if you keep it short (micro in size and con-tent focus) and within your means in terms of how much time you put into it.

Why a micro magazine? Sharing your own free magazines could be a really interesting way of bring-ing a targeted audience to your brand, your site and your work. Think about how to create a niche magazine related to what you do that provides value and interest to people. Create your magazine, use free page layout software to put it together if you like, host it online, set up a means for people to subscribe to it (also mention it to your email newsletter subscribers) and get it out there. Make it really easy for people to share the magazine with their friends. The magazine subscription model will keep people tied to it over time. Don’t use it to directly sell your products and services, though you could include some links to your stuff and targeted ads (making some income this way too) in the mag.

Use the magazine to build a targeted following of people, who could be-come clients and fans and buyers. Sit back and watch your subscribers (and your credibility as a creative) grow.

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24. Get promoting others

Get into the habit of promoting the work of other people, especially, of course, people who’s work you actually like and want to support. Tell your clients, colleagues, friends and followers about other professionals who are worth working with when they mention that they are looking for someone. Tell them even if they don’t ask. Your clients will like you more for this, as will the person you referred them to. This kind of thing really gets noticed, and you might find yourself with some very healthy responses in return, including returned favours, exposure, traf-fic, and even free stuff.

25. Create a ‘What’s Working’ list

It’s amazing how easy it can be, as we skip ahead building our brands and expanding our careers, to forget to pause and think about what is working in terms of your business, the income you are making, who is seeing your work, and what you’re better off without. A straight-forward way to assess how you are doing, as a business or oth-erwise, is to draw up two columns. Label the first column ‘what’s working’ and the second ‘what’s not working’. List out everything you have done that has resulted with a direct positive impact. This could include things like reaching out to potential clients by phone, or creating something new and self-initiated for your portfolio. Then have a think about those things you are doing that just aren’t really

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leading anywhere or taking up too much time, with little benefit. Often this might include spending too much time on things that aren’t directly gener-ating useful results, or simply spending too much time on things other than your craft or career. Putting things in columns like this will make it visually clear to you how you might want to shift things to benefit you more positively.

26. Be useful on social media

Many people still seem to be scratching their heads with regards to the point of social media sites like Twitter.

The fact is, social media can be used in so many different ways, many of which can directly benefit your business as a creative professional. The secret to using sites like Twitter, however, is not so much in what you can gain from them, although this in itself is already hugely useful.

The trick is in being yourself useful to other people through these platforms. This ‘use’ can come in the form of providing interesting quotes, linking to great content, helping others, giving advice and simply being entertaining. Provide something that justifies people following you. From here, you’re in a powerful position, one that will see continual growth.

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27. Underpromise, over-deliver

Promise clients less than what you know you can deliver. Say you’ll finish a project a day or two after the day you know you can get it done. Then deliver early. Your client will think you’re awesome and remember you for that. You can take this a step further by going out of your way for clients when it comes to thanking them for working with you, such as sending them a thank you postcard via post, or finding them a referral for their business. Do what it takes to get clients to spread the word about you through extra special service!

28. Tap into what is viral

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28. Tap into what is viral

If you’ve had the bright idea of creating something that you hope to go ‘vi-ral’ (that is will be shared and shared exponentially, usually online), you’ll realise it’s very difficult to get it just right, creating something that many people will get genuinely excited about. Getting something featuring your own handiwork going viral is a very pow-erful promotional method, but difficult to do without the right amount of resources. An alternative is to ‘tap into’ concepts, emotions, ideas, events and so on that are already hugely popular, or have a high likelihood of being shared. For example, you could create a poster about the upcoming ‘Earth Day’, which will likely attract a strong interest from people wanting to share what you’ve created, and thus sharing your own work in the process. Be careful about copyright issues, and avoid profiteering from this. Just use this as a vehicle for getting involved in something you are interested in, or a cause you’d like to contribute to, whilst getting your work out there, copy-right free.

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29. Tidy up your website

As well as regularly updating your site/portfolio site with new work and various other news (shows you are active and that you care) you should be frequently clearing it out of stuff that doesn’t need to be there. Get rid of or change links that are outdated, delete information that doesn’t need to be there, any promotions or offers that are no longer relevant, and update your ‘about me’ area/bio so that it’s up to the second. People looking through your stuff online will be more able to make deci-sions, and stick around, if your site is obvious in its message, up to date and clutter free. It’s easy to forget about doing this, perhaps once a month or so. And while you’re at it, update your other sites and social media accounts too! The small things really make a difference here.

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at”

–Leo Burnett

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30. Be enchanting

If you’ve read social media guru and ex Apple-employee Guy Kawasaki’s book for businesses: ‘Enchantment’, you’ll know that he stresses the impor-tance for businesses and individuals to ‘enchant’ their customers and clients. He says that to be ‘enchanting’, you need to be likeable, trustworthy and have a great product. These are the things that will ensure a healthy, long-term business relationship with the people that make things tick, your customers, fans and clients. Do bear these in mind whenever you put something out that involves these people. Having a positive effect on the hearts and minds of your people is what it is all about.

31. Test yourself out on yourself It’s easy to share stuff about your brand and your work everywhere you care to without actually seeing it through the eyes of your readers and prospects.

Be your own guinea pig and read through your social media profiles, tweets, blog and website. Look over some of your sent emails.

See whether how you transmit yourself to the world is something that actually feels appealing.

If it doesn’t read well or you don’t like the feel of it, neither will the people who deal with you.

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32. Reciprocate

Reciprocation is a long-known marketing ‘trick’ that is built on the idea that if you give something to someone as a gift or service, and then ask the recipi-ent for some kind of favour, they’re more likely to respond as a result.

Now, you can view this as manipulative if you like, but bear in mind that this is a win-win deal, with the recipient having the option of declining. But in a situation where more often than not, they will return a favour, it is worth thinking of, as you work on promoting yourself, particularly when search-ing for new clients.

Make a point of helping others gain exposure such as by recommending them, and people will tend to want to help you out in return, even if they haven’t been asked.

33. Make a note of your spreaders

Take notice of those people who are sharing links to your work, your blog posts, commenting on your posts, re-tweeting your links and emailing you about the stuff you share.

These people have demonstrated they are interested in you and diligent marketers of your work, so they are worth noting down, so that you can alert them of the next time you have new portfolio updates or a new blog post, for example.

Often the best means to market your work quickly, are right in front of us.

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34. Create a free sample buzz

You can generate not only a great way of attracting new clients and jobs, but a marketing buzz around your product or service with the offer of a free sample.

You can create a sampling program along the lines of offering a small free sample of what you can do to prospects, perhaps even a presentation on- or offline introducing your service.

This will put things in motion in attracting new clients and allowing them to move into further stages of what I call your sales cycle, meaning they are a step closer to paying for your services.

You can offer the program (and a means for people to tell others about it) through your mailing list, blog or social media presence, for example.

“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.”

-Howard Luck Gossage

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35. Make an infographic

I’ve often spoken of the need to stand out from the rest in this busy industry. There’s no better opportunity to do so than by creating your own infographic to represent what it is you do, as a replacement to simply text in your ‘about’ section, for example.

Infographics are proving to be a very effective method of drawing in people to what it is you do. You can either create your own, or get the help from someone else.

You could create a diagram to show what features you provide within your service, to show your skills, to demonstrate how you work, and to show your background, for example.

Various tools exist online, such as: Visualize Me to much more easily create info graphics.

36. Go behind the scenes

I often talk about using various forms of content for ultimately marketing yourself. This includes writing articles for blogs that attract people to your brand and your portfolio, and build your credibility. Other forms of content you can use for self-promotion include videos, tutorials and podcasts.

Another form of content you can use, and has shown to be extremely suc-cessful at marketing your work and your business is by showing people around what you do ‘behind the scenes’.

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You could create a post with photos, a video documenting your work space, lifestyle, and more.

What this does is build people’s trust in you and your products and services, and adds a very important human element to your brand, that people can see for themselves, whilst also learning about what you do and experiencing it from a different perspective.

The creators of DODOCase in San Francisco provide a good example of this, with their ‘behind the scenes’ video.

37. Vocalise your mission

I recently saw the ‘about’ section of a top creative agency and read through their mission. This is their overarching aim which clarifies exactly what they want out of their business.

But it’s not something they keep behind closed doors. They display their mission all over the place, and so could you.

Clearly vocalising what it is that you are striving for as a professional, be this great customer service or having a positive effect on the environment helps you as well as your client more clearly understand who you are and what drives you.

As well as benefitting your own focus, this kind of clarification makes it easier for someone to choose to use your services both through being able to trust you better because of your openness, but also in gaining a sense of collaboration towards your mission.

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Get your mission out there and see how it encourages action in yourself, your clients and your fans.

38. Use the web to ask for advice

Question-asking sites like Quora could prove to be very useful for getting hold of good quality advice from people on all kinds of issues, including on things to do with new technology, marketing, running a business and so on.

It also looks like an excellent place to build a high value social network, promote your brand and your work through the questions you ask and an-swer, and even get hold of new clients through the site.

Like with discussions on forums and blog comments, these kinds of places can help grow your online presence effectively as well.

39. Use video

The power of using video to reach out to potential new clients and new em-ployers is becoming more and more evident.

This is true especially in the way that you can be creative, show a bit of who you are in more in-depth, provide something that will actually peak people’s interest, and include a lot of information in a short time frame.

You could create a short video about yourself and your work and add some appealing content, whilst telling the simple facts.

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40. Connect with influential online writers

Although writing exceptionally good content for your blog is still something I recommend as hugely important for its success, it is not something that I would say is the most important element of bringing traffic to your blog.

The reason for this is due to the sheer amount of other strong content there is online, making it hard for people to read it, much less link to your posts.

The way forward in terms of bringing people to your blog posts, is by get-ting well connected people, ideally other bloggers themselves, to link to your posts.

There are many ways of establishing and maintaining a connection with well-connected people, including:

• Writing memorable comments on their sites• Introducing yourself and your work via email• Interviewing them• Write a guest post for them• Coming to an agreement on sharing posts in return for them doing the

same

41. Make a distinct style your priority

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41. Make a distinct style your priority I talk a lot about the importance of developing a style that is distinct to you and your brand.

Style will be more relevant to some of you than others, but we are now liv-ing in a time where your own style is more important than ever in setting you out from the crowd and making you look like you know what you’re doing. The reason for your own style being so important stems from the growth of talented and low cost labour coming from around the world.

People are able to source creative work for things like icons, sound, design, writing, illustration and logos, for example, at very low cost as competition increases and trained professionals emerge from growing economies like In-dia, Kenya and Mexico. Obviously it depends on what exactly you do for a living, but with this pressure of lower cost labour and other competition, you need to at least prioritize working towards a style or way of working that is unique to you, so that you remain in demand.

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42. Use social media search to find work

Here’s a quick tip for those of you looking for freelance, part-time or even full-time work. Use something like Twitter’s search engine, to find people currently tweeting (in real time) about work requirements.

For example, find illustration jobs by typing in keywords like ‘illustrator’ and ‘looking’, to pick up tweets along the lines of ‘looking for an illustrator’. Once you find a potential job within a tweet or a LinkedIn update, for ex-ample, you can contact the original poster either through the web link they provide, Googling them, or by following them and messaging them once they have followed you back.

43. Aim for your ideal clients Make a list of five real clients that you regard to be ideal, even dream clients. These should be companies, groups or individuals with attributes, budgets, a style and attitude that you really admire and respect. Every month, you should introduce yourself to them (5 new ideal clients or more) having learned a little about each one. Use this information to make a meaningful and honest connection via phone or email that shows you have a strong interest in working with them. This will, subconsciously or not, over time move the progression of your own work/portfolio/brand towards something that will really appeal to your dream clients. Eventually, you might just get hired, and possibly sooner than you think.

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44. Use social media widgets If you have a blog that you use to draw in traffic to your work, incorporat-ing what are known as widgets or buttons that readers can use to share your posts on their own social media platforms, can increase further visitors to your site dramatically.

Placing the Facebook ‘like’ button at the end of posts has been known to increase referral traffic to blogs by 50%.

If someone likes a blog post of yours, a reader might click on the ‘like’ button so that a link to your post will now appear to all the friends of your reader on Facebook. This can prove to be an excellent means of increasing traffic to your site.

The numbers that accrue through those social media buttons, if you make them visible on your site, will also add nicely to your credibility and social proof for each post.

Widgets can be installed into your blogs through plugins, coding or through getting some help from a professional.

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45. Make yourself accountable to someone With a self promotional plan in place, or at least if you are working through a basic marketing strategy, it is really useful to have a contact that you can keep up to date on how you are progressing.

Ideally you want someone who can give you feedback on what you have done so far, and about what you can do next. The best people for this are those in a marketing role or other professionals or creatives who have developed somewhat further than you through the ranks, and have more experience of successful promotion strategies.

Ask them support and train you until you begin to get a feel for things on your own terms. Having someone you report to will also add pressure on actually taking ac-tion within your marketing strategy.

46. Always make win-win decisions

I once received an email from an illustrator evidently looking to promote their work through my illustration site Ape on the Moon.

I’m always happy to receive work suggestions from various people. The only thing was with this email, I simply received one image and a link to their website.

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I wouldn’t have ignored the email had I received some sort of introduction to the artist in question and some suggestion from them as to how I would benefit from being aware of their work. What I’m hinting at here is the importance of making decisions that benefit both you and other parties whenever taking any steps in promoting your-self. Other examples are swapping a mention of your work through the mailing lists of you and someone else in a joint agreement, or verbalizing the benefits that prospective clients will receive in working with you. Making win-win decisions will propel you forward, even if you aren’t sub-sequently successful, because your actions will be viewed in a favourable and positive light.

47. Know what you are helping your target market to do

It’s so easy to lose sight of exactly what constitutes one of the main driving forces behind how we brand ourselves, and ultimately how we market our-selves. This driving force is simply to know exactly what it is that you are helping the people you are working for to achieve. Take a second to write down a list of as many possibilities as you can think of that follow the statement: ‘My aim is to help [my target market]...’

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For example, as a web designer, you would write down sentences similar to:

‘My aim is to help freelance service providers establish a web presence that is func-tional and professional.’ This exercise should help clarify what it is that you are helping- or need to help your target market with, so that you can hone it down to one or two main things. It is this awareness of what you are helping your market achieve that will inform a huge part of how you market yourself, and your brand.

48. Choose self expression over pleasing others

I want you to take a few minutes after reading this tip, to take a step back and have a good look at how you are marketing yourself. This includes how you present your work through your own website, how you communicate with others about your services and in general, and in the other ways you promote yourself.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is in promoting with the intention of pleasing others and seeking approval.

The fact is, if you are not being truly authentic in the way you present your-self and your services to others, you are not being true to others, which peo-ple can sense.

Even more importantly, you are not being true to yourself, which will ham-per your marketing efforts in a big way, because you simply won’t be pas-

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sionate, confident and satisfied.

Find where this approval seeking is happening in your own marketing cam-paigns and decide whether you really are promoting with an expression of yourself and your quirks, and your values or whether you are not really being you.

Knowing yourself and expressing who you are in how you promote yourself is the key ingredient in a successful personal brand that will get noticed.

49. Write a decent Twitter bio

If you are interested in gaining followers, attracting fans, potential clients and building a solid and large network on Twitter, it is important that you have a well written bio in full.

This is important because to attract followers, they need to know about what you do to know what kind of tweets/content they will be getting from you, and what kind of a person you are.

The more details you put in the bio, the better, as information about you builds up trust, better search engine indexing, creates referral opportunities, job offerings, and shows you take what you do seriously.

This opportunity is too often ignored by those who don’t see it’s relevance.

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Here is how to have the best bio possible:

• Include details on exactly what you or your business does.• Make sure you highlight what makes you unique in what you do and

what your main benefit is.• Drop in as many keywords as possible, because bios are actually indexed

in search engines, as well as friend-finding services like Twellow.• A bit of humour is fine, because it adds to your profile’s character.

This all obviously applies to other social media platforms beyond Twitter.

50. Be a member of one discussion forum

Joining in with online forum discussions can be an effective way of building up your network, gaining support and inspiration, as well as finding clients. It is wise to participate in a few different forums (occasionally or as much as you want) that each have a different focus relating to your industry. However, focus the majority of your participation on one, core forum, so that you can develop a stronger sense of community with the other mem-bers, build trust and credibility and simply have more of a presence on that one forum. In this way, you can really focus most of your effort in one area, adding val-ue and quality, whilst maintaining some visibility in the other forum groups you are a member of if you choose it.

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51. Give your clients something extra

It’s of course important to respect and show appreciation towards clients and prospects, new and old whenever the opportunity arises. But how often do you add something extra on top of the service you already provide? Giving them more than what was expected, whether that’s a better project, a free copy of your book, or even a small present in the mail, will strength-en the bond between you and that client, and get them coming back, and spreading the word about you. Your clients are your business, so be especially caring about them. What can you do to give clients and customers a little extra?

52. Tell people when you like something

Whenever you have the opportunity, it is worth telling people directly that you like something that they have created, or contributed to, beyond click-ing the Google ‘+1’ or Facebook ‘like’ buttons. Tell people when you see a website you like. Tell people when you like their blog, the service they provide or the content they share. When you tell some-one that something of theirs struck a chord with you, this will strike a chord with them. This is promotion. Make sure you are genuine about what you like, because if you aren’t, it’ll show. This applies to the offline world as much as the online world. What do you like of someone’s that warrants you telling them?

Bonus Tip

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Bonus Tip: 5 things you can do to generate a steady supply of work

One of things I hear a great deal from fellow freelancers and creatives when airing our frustrations, is the difficulty in maintaining a steady rate of incoming projects and income. As with all independent work, there is no guarantee for anyone, in having any form of consistency in the work you receive. However, there are things you can do to help stack the odds towards great-er consistency for you, 5 of which follow here:

• Build genuine friendships with key, influential people you have identi-fied who are likely to find what you do of interest, who could have the power to really raise your profile and attract opportunities to you.

• Do things as an expert in a related field, that people would pay for ideally, so that you have paid work to fill the gaps, whilst generating exposure for your core skill.

• Do some great self-initiated work and share it on a wide variety of high profile platforms and with a range of relevant people.

• Write or create regular content for a popular niche blog on a topic related to what you do.

• Touch in regularly with past clients and customers. Make sure you have been building up a record of these contacts.

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That’s 52 tips, and a little extra. If your creative juices aren’t flowing, you might want to get yourself checked!

Thanks for reading.

For more tips and articles, and a free guide: ‘9 Things You Absolutely Must Do to Land Quality Clients’, make sure you are signed up to the Red Lemon Club newsletter.

Please do share this book of tips with your friends by clicking here to send an automatic tweet. I would hugely appreciate it.

Alex

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Yorlmar Campos: megaphone; Chris Kerr: computer; Ema Dimitrova; bulb; Slawek Jurczyk: coins;

Cengiz Sari: hand touch; Charles Riccardi: book; Dan Hetteix: orb; Arjun Mahanti: gangnam;

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