3 Reasons Why Freelancers Should Make Communications a Priority

As a busy freelance content producer, your days are pretty full. Whether you’re a photographer, videographer, copywriter or graphic designer, your daily to do list is pretty long.

While your work is going well and you have been getting some new clients, you should definitely add one more item to your list of responsibilities: communications. Here’s why:

Share the Love

If you have ever seen a news story about a local freelancer and wondered how he or she scored that type of coverage, it may have started with a press release. You probably have a number of PR-worthy stories going on in your freelance company right now; anything from celebrating an anniversary and reaching a milestone like 200 new clients to launching a new website or offering new services. To help get the word out about your freelance company, set aside some time to write a press release every month or so, and then submit it through a distribution service like PRNewswire. You can also Google the names of the editors of your local newspapers and find who handles the assignment desks at TV stations and send your press releases directly to them. If you are not crazy about writing, you could hire an intern to help you or ask an employee with a knack for words to handle the PRs.

You Can Fight Back Against Untruths

In a perfect world, everyone will only say glowing things about your company. But let’s face it—there will be Negative Nancys from time to time who head to social media and review sites to complain about your product, service and/or prices. Although you and your loyal customers know these claims are not true, potential customers may not realize how honest your company is, so you should do what you can to set the record straight and prioritize communications. A company that has done this well is the direct sales giant Amway; in fact, you might use the company’s in-depth and educational post that dispels Amway scam rumors as inspiration. Rather than ignore the rumors that Amway is a pyramid scheme, they decided to fight back against this untrue narrative. As a freelancer, you can and should do the same, if you find unfair reviews about your company or hear untrue rumors. 

You Can Control Your Brand and Message

Another great reason to prioritize public relations and communications is that it gives you ultimate control over what messages you are sending out about your freelance business. If you create social media pages about your company, you can use these platforms to post exactly what you want to about your work, services, sales and more. Instead of relying on your customers to spread the word about your company—which may involve them accidentally saying something that is incorrect—you will be in the driver’s seat about what is being said about your work. A local public relations firm can be very helpful in assisting you in what types of verbiage you want to use when describing your brand; if the budget allows, you may wish to see about consulting with a PR expert and/or hiring them to help you with these tasks.

Solid Communication is a Key to Success

No one will ever accuse you of letting moss grow under your feet; you are definitely a busy bee who is devoted to running your freelance content production business. But do whatever it takes to set aside time or hire someone to help with communications and public relations; you will probably find that you see an increase in clients and become even busier.