A guide to switching from full-time to freelance marketing

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Chances are you may get tired with the routine office work as a marketer at certain stage of your career. As work from home arrangement prevails nowadays during the pandemic, it is commonplace for marketers, especially digital specialists, to adopt a more result-driven to business to demonstrate their capability and value at work.

Here’s my case and some sharing on my career shift. I am at mid 30s with almost a decade of experience as a full-time marketer. Lately, I have been reflecting constantly on my career path as a marketing specialist. What goals I aim to attain and how high up a hierarchy would I like to achieve? Personally, I care about work-life balance and I tend to take a less competitive and aggressive approach to work. Thereby, being a senior management is not my priority. Academically, I enjoy writing and that’s exactly why I started blogging on Medium.

What are the pros and cons as a freelance marketer?

It is straightforward to list a few benefits of being a freelance marketer.

Flexibility in work

Needless to say, you have the freedom in your own working hours, style, and habits as what matters most is the deliverables that you are committed to with your client. You can work round-the-clock for a project and take the entire break the next day. More importantly, freelancers are expected to deliver quality of work in a timely manner.

Job recognition

The way you get recognized and reward is of course the chance to be “re-hired” for the next project by the same client. It is a proof that you are capable of delivering work up to their standard within a given time frame, and you are pleasant to work with as well. This will also give you an immense sense of job satisfaction despite the fact that the reward doesn’t come with a monetary value.

Working as freelance sounds as cool but it comes with some downsides that you should be aware of.

Financial instability

Be prepared for the sense of insecurity. Unlike a full-time job where you get paid monthly based on the contractual terms, freelancers are not bound for regular income, and sometimes payment might get delayed depending on the payment processing.

High competitiveness

You are not the only few who aspire for an autonomy on your working style. It can quite competitive to work as a freelance marketer and that you have to strive for the opportunity to present your work portfolio. Creating a simple yet creative proposal will leave an impression and bring you a step forward to securing the job.

What type of freelancers are you?

Copywriter — Usually, copywriters have a creative mindset who are able to curate refreshing angle and content for a social media post and connect it with business objectives.

Editor/Writer — An editor has a more academic style of writing, as differs from copywriter, and you are required to submit your writing samples. It is a good habit to keep a record of your previous work for clients’ review and assessments.

Digital Specialist — If you consider yourself as tech-savvy with an alertness on the latest trend on digital marketing, you have the potential to work as a digital specialist with areas of focus on SEO, SEM, digital ads placement etc. It will certainly be value-added if reporting on data & analysis is clearly presented.

5 Ways to get started as Freelancer

Once you have an idea on which type of freelance work you are most passionate about and that you are skillful at, the next question is how to develop your career as freelancer. Here’s a few recommendations on where to start your research on freelancing:

1. Engage in freelancer platforms

Upwork is one of them. It is the one of the largest work marketplaces, connecting businesses and independent professionals around the globe. It takes only a few simples steps to create your portfolio and being extensive will help you stand out among other freelance job seekers. Payment is done through their system and commission is involved. It provides you the transparency on the past references

2. Connect through job portals

There are a good number of freelance marketing jobs listed on LinkedIn, where it is fairly easy to filter your search with keywords like “freelance”, “marketing”, “copywriter”, “social media”, “digital marketing” for a review on job requirements. Pay attention to whether the job requires you to based in the hiring region.

3. Expand your network among PR practitioners

Very often, the PR agencies offer a good source of freelance jobs on a regular basis. They are connected with some of the top-tier companies from different sectors who outsourced some assignments including press release, speech writing, corporate publications, newsletter, media pitching etc. It is always sensible to focus on what your portfolio is specialized in, and then broaden your field. Once proven that you are a trustable and professional contributing writer, it is more likely that you can develop a long term work relationship with the agency.

4. Build a blog on Medium

There are a bunch of reasons for writing on Medium. With the career objective of shifting to be a freelancer, it is the potential It is known as a platform for ideas exchange where there is room to build yourself as a thought leadership of your specialized subject. For me, I shared effective practices on marketing here to spark some academic exchange and discussions with like-minded marketers.

5. Make an introduction of yourself to your favourite brands

There are brands that you enjoy reading updates from and interacting with, and this is the perfect opportunity to present yourself and be part of their team. There are chances that you can contribute as a freelancer with your passion. Some companies appreciate brand loyalists and value their input. By engaging with the brand as a freelance marketer, there is also a good chance of turning it into a full-time marketing consulting job.

Few tips on freelancing

Income is not the only consideration for freelancing. To me, it is a new revolutionized and sustainable way of working in the 20th century.

1. Start growing your clientele early to maximize the income revenue
2. Work on freelancing job that you are passionate in for sustainability
3. Build a routine of working daily to keep your mind stimulated
4. Balance a day of work with healthy habits like a workout for your wellbeing

Welcome to share some of your experiences with freelancing to us.