Why It’s So Important For Freelance Writers To Know About Marketing Tactics

The creative landscape is becoming more digitally focused by the day. Creating content is becoming a more complicated game, in a very crowded market. Freelance writers owe it to themselves to become more adept in marketing tactics to help them stand out — and to adapt to the new normal.

For new and existing freelance writers, there is plenty to learn from marketing techniques —  from traditional advertising methodology to technical tips that help you stand out in a crowded industry. Here are five reasons why it’s crucial for freelance writers to learn as many marketing tactics as they can. 

Understanding SEO means less editing

If you’re not tech-savvy, SEO might seem like a complete mystery you couldn’t even begin to understand. You’ve heard it mentioned at conferences and know it’s vital to digital marketing, but how?

For the modern freelance writer, SEO is just as important as an entertaining narrative voice. Writing for an agency? They’ll be expecting an SEO-friendly piece to land in their inbox before the deadline.

Take some time to understand the fundamentals of SEO and link placement to save yourself some editing time later and avoid angry emails from clients asking for revisions. For SEO beginners looking to learn, Ahrefs offer some great starting tips. 

You can harness the power of research

Marketing is built on customer research. How can you sell a product or a service without understanding who might want it, and why? The same can be said of your writing.

There are a wide array of marketing tools built around researching the habits of customers. While there may not be a direct comparison at first, you can use similar tools to judge your reader’s habits, such as heats maps to explore time spent on the page and how far they scrolled down the article. With this guidance, you’ll know how to optimise your content and improve engagement.

You’ll learn new writing styles

Digital marketers wear a number of creative hats. They come from all kinds of backgrounds, from graphic design to creative writing. You’ll generally find a digital marketer is at worst a decent writer — they just write Facebook posts instead of short stories. 

Digital marketing can help you hone key writing skills and learn new ones. Think back to when you first started writing. You didn’t know how to write dialogue, so you’d lean on teachers and writing guides for advice. For example, fiction writing guides would suggest keeping dialogue tight, and you’d see a dramatic improvement in your prose. Digital marketing can be the same kind of anchor for learning to write online. 

Experience in marketing teaches you why audiences react better to concise messaging than a wall of text on their feed. The marketing equivalent of quick-fire dialogue between two sharp characters creates effective calls to action, for example. See it as a way to add more variety to your portfolio, which will make more clients and agencies want to work with you.

You’ll learn how to keep your readers gripped

If you make sure one part of your next piece is right, make sure it’s the intro. Does it keep your readers gripped like the start of that great novel you can’t put down? 

Writing the perfect intro comes from practice. And who practices first impressions every day? Marketers! 

From snappy social media ads to the perfect email headline that entices a customer to click through, marketers are constantly working on perfecting their introductions and can teach modern writers a lot about how to instantly engage a digital audience.

Optimising your website will help to promote your work

The benefits of learning marketing techniques as a copywriter don’t just boil down to how they make your writing better — they also help get the word out about you. 

Learning from marketers can do wonders for getting your website, portfolio or social media account noticed. 

Delving into optimising your website can help you rank better in Google and attract more work. Being social media savvy and knowing how to get the best reach on a budget will save you time spent searching for clients. Marketing is a world of promoters who know how to sell, take some lessons in self-promotion from them.

Traditional writers may have more in common with marketers and advertisers than they would like to admit. As freelance writing roles become more integrated with digital platforms and professions, the implementation of marketing tactics becomes even more necessary to stand out as a freelancer.