To market myself I will primarily use Personal Selling. Clients are looking for the personality behind a creative product. They need to be assured that whom they are employing is someone they can engage with and enjoy the process. It is your reputation and personality as a freelancer within the creative industry that will carry you. By visiting exhibitions and events I will meet people and begin networking to build a base of clients. Here, it is important to have a stand-out business card (or alternative take-away information piece) that represents and reminds the receiver of you. By employing this methodology I can gain a fuller perspective of my target market and the type of work they are looking for and the service they expect.
To follow this process up I will need to employ Direct Marketing. I will invite potential clients to an event showcasing my work, or perhaps an event I am part of. Alternatively, I will alert them to new work on my website via email.
Which brings me to the Internet. The Internet is an essential tool to utilise for self-promotion and garnering business in today’s creative industry. This is where my clients will expect to find freelance graphic designers to employ.
My website will be my main form of promotion to my clients. It needs to represent me as a graphic designer and the style of my work and unique selling point. Firstly, the website needs to appear in the top search engine results under ‘freelance graphic designer Leeds’. The website itself needs to be easy to navigate whilst creating a warm atmosphere and demonstrate my professionalism and skills. It is important to establish a warm ‘tone’ on a website, so as to put across your personality, and also to engage your audience. Time is precious and people often rush through life, therefore my website needs to catch my target market’s attention (perhaps through interactive Flash design) and easily yield the information they require. I have found a number of freelancer’s websites have ‘Freebies’ such as a downloadable desktop background*. This will provide an excellent way to exhibit my work and reach a wider audience. I have also found many websites have an area where they sell goods, such as prints. I would hope to sell screenprinted posters, which although the profit margins of which would be small, would again be getting my work in to people’s homes, which, combined with the desktop backgrounds would reach a larger audience and therefore more potential clients.
As well as maintaining an up to date website, I will run a blog. The blog will contain work that has inspired me, as well as events and exhibitions I have attended, reviews, interests and current work. In this way I begin a dialogue with the creative industry whilst also self-promoting. Producing a blog gives a more personal insight in to how you operate and think creatively and from my research, is more likely to garner awareness and therefore clients. I will also promote myself on Point & Anchor (pointandanchor.co.uk) a website that is updated daily containing a micro article on recent graduates. From this I would hope to be featured on a design website such as It’s Nice That (itsnicethat.com).
* Bobby Solomon (www.kitsunenoir.com) Runs a Poster Club where you can buy prints, The Desktop Wallpaper Project run weekly with guest submissions and also Kitsune Noir Mixtape a weekly downloadble mixtape.
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