Marketing Your Business - Digital Marketing Consultant Col Skinner
Col quit agency life to be his own boss. As you'd expect, he's very deliberate about selling himself; he shares his experiences of SEO, content marketing, pay-per-click and even finding media opportunities to get yourself known.
Col's also made it a lifestyle business. Rather than taking on every piece of work he can, he restricts his hours, keeps work and home very separate, steering well clear of his old 9-5.
Here’s some of the key takeaway points:
Col trades as Profoundry - using a company name allowed him to create a brand that could grow, feel professional
Form relationships with other freelancers/businesses who can feed into your business
On your site, list your services clearly; maybe separate them into a few umbrella headings - streamline them as you find out what works
Actively seek media contributions - it helps strengthen Col’s reputation and gets fresh backlinks to your site SEO wise
Try out the #journorequest hashtag on Twitter, remember it might not just be for your technical field, it could be ‘being freelance’, your location, etc
It’s worth renting office space; separates out work/home life, gives meeting room space, puts you amongst other businesses, looks professional
Col chose a ‘lifestyle business’: he works 10-3pm or 4pm so he can still get out and live life
As well as blogging regularly, Col spent time creating a core piece of ‘pillar’ content marketing. He did a survey or startups and analysed their data
‘Don’t listen to people’ - of course you should listen, but that doesn’t mean you should ‘listen’ to everything they say; this is your life, your business
More from Col Skinner
Col's Profoundry business site
Col's pillar piece of content marketing
Useful Links
Who the hell is Steve Folland?
You know how everyone bangs on about how powerful video and audio content can be? Yeah, well Steve helps businesses make it and make the most of it. Find out more at www.stevefolland.com Track him down on Twitter @sfolland or lay a trail of cake and he'll eventually catch you up.