Guerrilla Freelancing » Marketing

Marketing tips from Chuck Norris

Mike Smith — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:32:52 +0000

In the digital world, Chuck Norris is everywhere. Interesting facts about Chuck have been used as internet meme’s for years so today we’re going to look over some of the bigger ones and see how they can related to your freelance business and marketing efforts.

When Alexander Bell invented the telephone he had 3 missed calls from Chuck Norris

Be first. When there’s another company out there who does something similar to you, make sure you launch your product first so when they decide to finally get their product/service into the market you’re already a few steps ahead of them. Ideas are useless without action, so get out there and get in peoples faces already.

Chuck Norris doesn’t lie. Whatever he says simply becomes the truth.

Advertising always has a stigma attached to it – it’s dirty, people lie in it in order to get you to click on their ad, etc. So do what Chuck would do; ensure that whatever you say is the truth. People might doubt you when you first say your product is the best, but prove them wrong by being the fucking best out there.

Some magicans can walk on water, Chuck Norris can swim through land.

Be different. Do what others won’t do. If you’re a WordPress designer and you know a lot of companies do not handle PSD to WP coding for potential clients, add that to your services list. If you’re a ghostwriter for blogs, offer social media submission services in addition to the ghostwriting. Up-sell the shit out of yourself and always make sure you’re doing things different (and better) than your competition.

Chuck Norris never uses a navigation system. The direction he is heading is ALWAYS the right direction.

When you’re building your guerrilla marketing strategy, don’t worry over the possibilities of failure. If you push yourself forward hard enough and for a long enough time, the breakthroughs will happen and people will take notice. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your freelance business. Patience should be your best friend for the first few months of marketing.

Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.

Good marketing can get peoples attention and bring them to your website, but great marketing can get them to buy your products. Always strive for great marketing and make sure that your offline marketing is backed up by an excellent website. What’s the point of getting tons of visitors to your company website if they’re just going to leave in a few minutes anyways?

The tips in this article were taken from the Chuck Norris Facts & Jokes Website. If you’re into Chuck Norris and find the above jokes funny, take a second to check the site out because I’ve spent a good 20-30 minutes laughing at some of them and you will too – or Chuck Norris will roundhouse kick your face.

More from this series

This is the ninth installment of our “Marketing Tips From…” series. You can read the previous articles below, listed in order of when they appeared on this blog.

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10 guerrilla marketing tactics for videographers

Mike Smith — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Visual appeal is already on the side of freelance videographers because most people love to spend time on sites like Youtube watching videos, so you’ve got an exceptionally large audience at your disposal to market yourself to. But what other ways are there to market your freelance videography business? Keep reading and see ten of the top guerrilla marketing tactics for freelance videographers.

Projector on the side of a building – I’m sure that there’s places around your city that have large flat surfaces, right? Well, take yourself to those areas at night with a projector and have your video reel (or a specific item you’ve created) show on repeat on the side of the wall. People driving by will not be used to seeing this type of advertising and they’ll remember it and talk about what they seen to their friends.
Electronics department takeover – Get in touch with the owner of a local store with an electronics department and get your video demo reel (or full feature length work you’ve done) shown on the televisions. People are used to seeing cartoon movies showing on the television screens, so imagine how nice it’d be for them to see something awesome like your demo reel.
Create educational products – If you shoot music videos on a regular basis, you have a wealth of knowledge about shooting music videos, right? No matter what type of freelance video work you do, you’re able to take the camera and turn it on yourself, sharing your knowledge of being a freelance videographer. This will have people view you as an authority figure and boost peoples opinions of your work.
Stock Video Footage – I’m sure you can look at tons of video you’ve shot and find clips and segments that you never used but looked awesome, right? Maybe you’ve got a timelapse shot of clouds in the sky or leaves blowing in the wind. Take those and upload them to sites like VideoHive, giving you the opportunity to make some money off of your extra work plus getting your name out in a different area.
Hold a guerrilla movie screening – Make some fliers with subliminal messages on them, spread them around your town letting everyone know that there’s going to be a mystery screening and they’re invited. This will peak their curiosity and you’ll have people lining up to watch your work. This works best if you’ve actually done a lengthy piece so people aren’t upset they showed up for a 5 minute demo reel.
Start your own internet show – Pick a topic you really love (for instance, I love MMA so I’d choose MMA as a topic) and do a weekly ‘internet tv show’ on it. Make sure you’re shooting in the highest quality possible and you could even use video transitions from VideoHive to really make your videos feel like a television show. Add in the “shot by” information into each of your videos at the end as well as in the description. You’ll build up a fan base for your show and add additional authority to your videography work.
Shoot an important event – News stations want to have the “first look” at any big news that happens, so if you’ve got your camera out and you’re able to shoot an event and submit it to the news, you have a chance of getting your video aired live on the air, plus on their website. Hell, you could even stage a fake protest outside of your offices and film it, submit it to the news and see if they’ll believe that it’s a legit protest. A win/win for your business!
Flash drive business cards – Everybody has business cards, but not everyone has a flash drive that they give to prospective clients. Your potential client gets something unique (custom printed USB Flash Drives can be purchased here, for instance) and they also have a free flash drive to use afterwards. Giving these to potential businesses as your business card will get their interest peaked and they’ll be much more likely to look at your video reel on the flash drive.
Support a worthy cause – Yes, I am saying that you should get out there, find a cause you believe in and shoot some promotional videos for them for free. This will take some time, but the results outweigh the time you spend working on the project. From the free publicity that comes with working for a worthy cause to the promotion that the company will give you (they’ll be quick to tell others who did their video and how awesome you were). Invest the time now and reap the rewards.
FLASH MOB! – Get some friends together, learn a dance and hit the streets. Take your camera with you and make sure you get shots from a few angles, blend the video together and submit it to online video sites like Youtube, Vimeo, etc. Here’s a step by step guide to planning an awesome Flash Mob to get you ready to hit the streets!

Share your thoughts

Feel free to send a message on Twitter and let us know what you think. Do you have specific videography marketing tips for freelancers? Let us know and if we do a follow up article, we can share your tip and give you credit for it as well.

This post is part of our “Guerrilla Marketing Tactics” series – you can view the previous articles below.

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10 guerrilla marketing tactics for photographers

Mike Smith — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:00:09 +0000

Get your cameras ready because today we’re going to be covering guerrilla marketing tactics for the photographers out there. No matter if you freelance as a photographer or you’re just taking photos for fun, these guerrilla marketing tactics will help you grow your exposure as a photographer.

I know not many places spend time talking to freelance photographers specifically, so I want to make sure that you know you’re appreciated and I promise to give more content to freelancers across the board, not just designers and developers like those other blogs do.

Below are ten guerrilla marketing tactics specifically for photographers to consume and try out whenever you have the time. If you do try these marketing tactics out, send me a message on Twitter and let me know how it goes!

Shoot Random People – No, I don’t mean giving away a free photoshoot to random people, I mean getting out into different events and places in your local area and offering up a free photo to people you see. For instance, at a pumpkin patch you could offer up your services to take a free photo of someones child with their pumpkin and email them the shot free of charge. If they like it, they’ll have your info right there in front of their face.
Showcase your work OFFLINE – You should showcase your work in as many places as possible so if you hang up prints of your work in your house or office people will notice it every time they come around and will usually comment on the photo, especially if it’s a good one, which opens up the lines of communication.
Showcase your work ONLINE – Sign up for sites like 500px & Flickr, etc. The more places you can showcase your work, the better your chances of being seen. Have an iPhone? Start taking instagram photos.
Stock Photography – Not only does stock photography allow you the ability to make some spare change from your work, it also gets your face out into the public in an area that you might never have been noticed before. Sell the shots for $1 per download on your site, attract links to that page and grow your exposure.
Textures For Designers – Another way to get some exposure for your stock photography is by taking texture shots and giving away downloads for designers to use. Freelance designers LOVE free textures (ask Lost & Taken) so this will give you more exposure and get more eyes & links pointing to your site.
Exchange Photos for Promotion – Do this selectively because you don’t want to get wrapped up doing work like this all the time, but it can definitely help exposure. If you’re a wedding photographer, head over to your local cake bakery and offer to take photos of their cakes for free in exchange for a bit of promotion in their shop (a book of photos you’ve taken on the counter, business card stand, etc).
Project 365 – These types of photography projects are pretty big among photographers but the amount of people who actually finish the photo-a-day series is so small that you’ll stand out and build a reputation of reliability within your community.
Join Photography Forums – Networking with other photographers can bring in additional work if there’s something that lands on a photographers desk and they cannot complete it. Being on forums also allows you to build a name for yourself in the industry as someone who gives tips and input and you can also ask for advice and tips from other great photographers. Again, the links back to your own website are good for search engines as well! Check out Digital Photography School’s Forums for a great, active forum to network on.
Photograph sporting events – If you have a child in school who plays sports, why not take your camera with you and take photos of the games? Give them to the school so they can showcase them in their newsletters, on their website, etc.
Moo cards – Forget your regular business cards. They’re outdated and they don’t give you the ability to showcase your photography work like MOO Cards will. Pick a different photo for each business card and get allow people to see a different image every time they take a card from you. Hold them out like a deck of cards and let the person pick their favorite – they’ll laugh and it’ll put a lasting memory in their head about you and your business.

Share your thoughts

Feel free to send a message on Twitter and let us know what you think. Do you have specific photography marketing tips for freelancers? Let us know and if we do a follow up article, we can share your tip and give you credit for it as well.

This post is part of our “Guerrilla Marketing Tactics” series – you can view the previous articles below.

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10 New Creative Guerrilla Marketing Examples

Mike Smith — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:13:14 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve featured some Guerrilla Marketing Examples so today we’re going to showcase 10 of the newer examples for your creative viewing pleasure. As a freelancer, you can take some ideas from these guerrilla marketing tactics and use them for your own marketing.

Look Better Naked

Golds Gym Houston put out some billboards that said “Look Better Naked” and the people took them quickly, posing for photos and posting them on various blogs and message boards, giving Golds Gym Houston a lot of free publicity.

Sea Life Holland

In the Netherlands every time it rains there is a hidden message that appears on the streets, “Sea Life never lets you go”. The beauty of this guerrilla marketing tactic lies in it’s simplicity & it’s clean nature – when it’s not raining nobody sees it, so it doesn’t cause problems on regular days.

Hot Wheels

So apparently there are a bunch of Hot Wheels guerrilla marketing examples popping up lately and it’s nice to see that even though this one obviously cost a bit more money than most guerrilla marketing tactics, it’s still attention grabbing and something you would remember when you’re driving down the freeway.

Iron Kore

When you find high quality guerrilla marketing examples you generally see ones like Iron Kore who connect with their target market in ways that no one else is. Below you see two cinder blocks that have ads printed on them and if you bring them into the gym you get free membership. Simple, but it connects with the target customer perfectly.

Superette’s Short Shorts

Kiwi retailer Superette wanted to advertise their short shorts sale so they did so in the only way a true guerrilla marketer knows how, they manipulated benches and cause them to imprint the ad right on peoples legs when they sat on the bench and were wearing short shorts. Simple, clever and grabs attention.

Penguin book Classics

In order to promote the Classics from Penguin books, this guerrilla marketing campaign takes to electronic stores where it places some pretty nice looking typewriters in the midst of the new laptops so that way when people are browsing the store they’re reminded of the Classics and reminded that there are still books to be read. Go read a book!

Before I Die…

In the image below you can see the after effects of a campaign that gets the entire city involved, turning a worn down and graffiti covered building into a giant blackboard that people can write their hopes and dreams on. What do you want to do before you die?

Amnesty International

According to Amnesty International, migrant workers are treated like machines or in some cases even worse, so in order to let people know about this, they dropped off dozens of boxes in South Korea.

Adelaide’s Movie Festival

Normal run down bus stops were transformed into classic movie theaters, equip with the red curtains, comfortable movie theater seats & a flat screen that was showing movie trailers, all in order to promote the Adelaide Movie Festival.

Beautiful Rubbish

As part of the Beautify Your City campaign in Auckland, New Zealand, there were trash bags transformed into bushy hedges so that way you can see just how nice the side of the curbs look if they aren’t littered with regular trash bags. Simple execution and a simple solution to a pesky problem.

Thanks to Guerrilla Comm, Invisible Red & Wooster Collective for posting these awesome guerrilla marketing examples along with all of the others you post.

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The importance of being everywhere as a freelancer

Mike Smith — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:32:52 +0000

There’s 24 hours in a day and 7 days a week, so how can you make the most of your time? It’s simple: be everywhere. If you’re a freelance designer and you don’t have an up to date portfolio of work on various sites, you’re missing out on opportunities to gain more clients.

You’ve got your portfolio on your own domain, but where else could you put your work up? What about Deviant Art, Dribbble, Flickr or the countless other places for freelancers to promote their designs online?

In a previous article I talked about the benefits of casting a bigger net as a freelancer & today I want to elaborate a bit more on it. In that article I talked about cold emailing and limiting yourself to one skill set, but today I want to talk about marketing yourself in as many places as possible.

I was reading a post by Jacob Cass on how he landed a job using Dribbble and he mentioned the following:

I only share this story with you to show that it’s possible to get a stroke of luck at anytime and it can happen more than once. For this “luck” to happen you need to have an active, up-to-date profile in as many places as you can manage because, it’s important to be everywhere.

I couldn’t agree more. Being everywhere is a great place to be as a freelancer because you never know who’s eyes are watching. For instance, I submitted my information to a post on DigWP & actually landed a nice job from it because a guy was searching for WordPress designers and liked my portfolio.

So, how can you be everywhere as a freelancer?

There are a few ways that you can make sure you’re everywhere and in front of a lot of eyes. First, you’re going to want to make sure you’re actively posting on a few social media sites. Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin are three big ones you should spend time on every day.

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get your portfolio of work out there. Here, you’re going to want to make sure it’s as up to date as possible. Keep all of the links to your portfolio together and make sure you’re updating them once a month.

If you’re looking for free places to promote your portfolio, you can find that in a post we wrote here.

Now that you’ve done these two things, you should also keep an eye out in your niche for posts like the DigWP post and submit your information. You never know where the eyes of your next client will be looking, so keep your own eyes peeled for opportunities like this one.

hint: tomorrow we’re going to be featuring a post here where you can comment with your own information for the world to see, so make sure you’re subscribed to RSS updates so you don’t miss it.

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Marketing tips from Lady Gaga

Mike Smith — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:11:54 +0000

In recent history, who’s been more of a marketing machine than Lady Gaga? I doubt you can pick a name out of a hat because she’s been killing it with everything she’s done – from her music, music videos, award show appearances, etc. So today, we’re going to uncover some of the marketing tips we can learn from Lady Gaga, who just so happens to be the first female in our Marketing Tips From… series!

Be memorable

I doubt that there’s a person on the planet who hasn’t heard of Lady Gaga at some point and can remember exactly where they seen/heard her. They might remember her crazy outfits or her weird music videos. The point is, they remember her. In your business, if you’re doing something that’s easy to forget and in 10 minutes the person you spoke to forgot your name, you’re not doing it right.

Deliver a great product

Underneath the crazy outfits and over the top publicity stunts, Lady Gaga produces great music and her fans love her for it. She’s sold millions of records and she’s not doing it off the hype alone. She sells records because shes a great, talented singer. You can use all of the Guerrilla Marketing you want, but at the end of the day, if your product sucks, people will never buy. The foundation of a great company is a great product, so make sure you’re constantly shipping great products.

Be better than those before you

If you look at those who came before Lady Gaga (Madonna in particular), you’ll see that she took the shock-value that Madonna brought to the music and stepped it up. I mean, what’s the point in being a copy cat? You’re much better off watching the competition (or those who paved the way before you) and doing what they do – only better.

Build a loyal following

Lady Gaga has a HUGE fan following and if she does anything, they fall at her feet and praise her for it and promote the hell out of it through word of mouth, blogging, tweeting, etc. If you can build this type of loyal, core audience for your business, you’ll constantly have someone talking about you and helping you promote your business. In the beginning you may not have a lot of attention, so enjoy the company you do keep and appreciate everyone who helps promote your business, and they’ll want to do it more.

Change & adapt

I’m sure by now that everyone knows that Lady Gaga was on a MTV television show before as her regular self, way before she became “Lady Gaga” – she looked like a normal person, acted normal and didn’t stand out at all. But, when she wanted to become a singer she went way into left field and adapted a style that she knew would work for her. When you’re building your business, it’s always a good thing to keep your eyes open and adjust & adapt marketing strategies and overall business plans as you go.

More from this series

This is the ninth installment of our “Marketing Tips From…” series. You can read the previous articles below, listed in order of when they appeared on this blog.

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April Fools for Freelancers: Why you should be utilizing this day in your business

Mike Smith — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:25:12 +0000

Well, today is the day – April 1st – and I’m sure that across the web there’s going to be TONS of April Fools jokes, so instead of trying to pull a fast one on you (I know you’re too smart for that), I figured I’d talk about the significance of this day in your business and how you can leverage an awesome April Fools joke to your advantage when it comes to your freelance business marketing.

Below are a few benefits of running an April Fools joke on your website and also a case study of an April Fools joke I ran today on my blog design companies blog (try saying that three times fast).

It can showcase your comical side

When handling business on a day to day basis, sometimes things get a little stale and suit-and-tie. By running an awesome April Fools joke, you’re able to let your hair down, turn it into casual Friday’s & show your potential clients how fun it would be to work with you.

It will definitely catch people off guard

Traditional marketing is boring. Guerrilla Marketing is fun, energetic, low-to-no cost & it just so happens that when done properly, a nice April Fools joke can be considered a form of guerrilla marketing for your freelance business. When you look at a site like Daily Blog Tips who said they landed a television show, they got 39 comments and a lot of traffic to their site. What can you say or do in order to utilize this day to catch people off guard?

If it’s good enough, people will talk about it

With any good marketing, if your April Fools joke is pulled off well enough, everyone will talk about it and share the story with their friends. It’ll give your freelance business a nice buzz and since word of mouth is one of the best converting forms of marketing, it’s sure to get you some attention from potential clients who are looking for someone just like you to hire.

It’s fun!

As a case study, you can see how I currently have my very own April Fools Joke going on over at my blog design company website (click here). I made the title sound intriguing enough to get people to click into it, wrote the article as if I actually did sell the knitting blog for $1,000,000 and I made sure to never mention even once in the post that it was a joke.

Results for this mini case study? I landed a new blog design job because the person reading the post found it so comical that they knew that I was the right fit for their blog design! All within less than 24 hours of posting it live on the blog. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

Now, I don’t say this to gloat or sound big headed but I wanted to prove a point – these types of things, if done properly, can be very useful in your freelance business marketing. Make sure you plan ahead (I had the post ready a few days ahead of time) and ensure that it’s funny, semi-believable and can be seen as a joke rather than a marketing lie. If done right, people will eat it up, I promise

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Marketing tips from Bas Rutten

Mike Smith — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:00:36 +0000

Keeping with the tradition here at Guerrilla Freelancing, I am going to show you another strange place you can find inspiration for your freelance marketing. Bas Rutten is a MMA legend, so if you’re not a fan of MMA, you might not know him all too well, however, I assure you that you can definitely learn a lot from him.

Maybe you’ve seen him acting in the King of Queens television show? Maybe you’ve seen him in the movie Paul Blart Mall Cop? However you know him (or don’t know him), at the end of the day you can learn some great marketing lessons for your freelance business from him.

Today’s person came at the request of Leonard Burton on Twitter (his account is @atomworks). If you have someone you’d like to see featured in our Marketing Tips From series, feel free to contact me or send me a twitter message and I’ll see what I can do

And now for the freelance marketing tips!

Embrace your crazy side

Any MMA fan who’s seen a video, picture or report on El Guapo will know that this guy is nuts. He doesn’t just act nuts though, it’s more of a controlled branding experience when you’re listening to him talk or watching him fight and/or instruct you on how to win street fights. If you’ve got a crazy side and you want to connect with other people who are a bit off, make sure you’re showcasing your ‘other’ side – people are tired of the same tired and boring suit & tie types anyways.

Be damn good at what you do

If you’re great at what you do, the rest of the work just seems to fall into place. Without being amazing at your job, you’ll just be another kid in the pool peeing when you know you shouldn’t be. Bas Rutten was a 3 time undefeated King Of Pancrase, an undefeated Heavyweight champ in the UFC & holds an impressive overall record of 28-4-1. If you’re going to do something, you better do it better than everyone else and constantly improve your skillset.

Branding, Branding, Branding

An MMA fan will know that when they see a t-shirt with the silhouette of the guy jumping in the air and doing the splits, it’s a Bas Rutten t-shirt. Also, whenever anyone mentions the name El Guapo, they’ll instantly know who you’re talking about (unlike the many Spiders in MMA – but that’s another story). Building a solid brand around your business will take you from being ‘just another freelancer‘ to ‘holy shit did you see that freelancers work?‘. Make sure your logos, slogans and promotional material are top notch and stand out from the crowd.

Know when to expand your business

Besides being dubbed the King of Pancrase, Bas Rutten also knew when to expand his empire and release instructional DVD’s that teach you how to defend yourself in a street fight (not your average MMA instructional videos, that’s for sure), star in television shows and movies, host an MMA show on HDnet & various other business ventures. When you’ve built up a solid, sustainable freelance business, make sure you’ve got your ears to the street and know where you can move next in order to capitalize on opportunities to expand your business and make some passive income & grow your freelance business.

More from this series

This is the eighth installment of our “Marketing Tips From…” series. You can read the previous articles below, listed in order of when they appeared on this blog.

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10 guerrilla marketing tactics for copywriters

Mike Smith — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:40:01 +0000

We’re back with another article in the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics for… series and today we’ve got some great guerrilla marketing tips for freelance copywriters. With the various amount of guerrilla marketing tactics posts we’ve done in the past (10 for designers, 10 for illustrators, 50 here, etc) I think it’s time that guerrilla marketing tactics for writers gets some shine.

It’s come to my attention recently that freelance writers are often overlooked on freelance blogs so I am going to make it a point to do more articles geared towards the freelance writers who read this blog because I appreciate you so much and want to do everything I can to help.

So in order to help, here’s some awesome guerrilla marketing tactics you can start using today to make some more money from your freelance writing business

Copywriters Pencils & Pens – Yes, people have been using this method of advertising for years, but when have copywriters actually put this guerrilla marketing tactic to use? Now, I’m not talking about the cheap Bic pens that come in 10 packs at the checkout lane of your grocery store, these pens need to be expensive. The more expensive the better. Send the pen, with a hand written note to potential clients and it’s sure to grab their attention.
Social Short Stories – Being a copywriter, you can showcase your ability to string together words, even in smaller forms, and put together a story that’s sure to capture attention. Why not set up a Twitter account and write a book, one tweet at a time, making sure that every tweet is the highest quality possible.
Hand written notes – Odds are, you write a lot of your copy directly on a computer/laptop/tablet/etc, but how many times do you think that potential clients have received hand written letters from copywriters who are looking get hired on as the copywriter for their business? Hand written on the envelope, hand written note on lined paper & a business card inside and you’re sure to stand out.
Hand designed website – Speaking of having something hand made and standing out, why not have your website that showcases your copywriting work be created by a designer who loves making things that look hand made? Most copywriter websites I see have the same setup and style, so stand out in ever medium possible, including the design.
Donate 10,000 #2 Pencils to a local school – A copywriter giving away the very thing that allows him/her to write in order to allow the youth to learn how to write … Seems kind of like a no brainer, right?
Guest post on blogs – A tried and true method for writers is blogging on related blogs as a guest author. The twist is that you shouldn’t be focusing your time on freelance blogs or writers blogs, but focus on the blogs that cater to your potential audience – if you’re a childrens book writer, write blog posts for parents blogs, if you’re an ad copy writer, spend some time on business blogs that cater to the businesses you’d like to write copy for.
Give away free ebooks – One way that a lot of freelancers and website owners build traffic and awareness is by giving away free ebooks. I’ve done it here on Guerrilla Freelancing twice and they’re two of the most visited pages on the site. The ebook doesn’t have to be long (5-10 thousand words), but make sure it’s packed with value that your viewers can get some use out of.
The money is in the list – We have an email list here on Guerrilla Freelancing and pretty much every other website on the net has one (if not, they should). We have them for good reason, they work great for connecting with people who read your website. Set up a newsletter and send out tips and information that your target market would enjoy and build trust and rapport with them so when it comes time to promote yourself, it’s not falling on deaf ears.
Give it away for free – A tried and true method of guerrilla marketing is by giving something away for free. If you write a book, give away a free chapter or hold a contest and give a free copy of your book to a certain amount of readers. Don’t have a book to sell but you’re selling your services? Give those away too. Hold a contest and require a couple sentences from entrants explaining why they’d like to win (this helps get truly interested people) and you get to pick winners from the best answers (which means you get to work on interesting projects).
Run your own blog – Guest blogging is great, but instead of just having a website up selling your services, why not attach a blog to it and write about the topic that will attract your best type of clients? I know it seems like a no brainer, but it’s one that’s often overlooked. Blog daily, even if it’s just a couple hundred words and build a loyal following (and great search engine rankings) along the way.

This post is part of our “Guerrilla Marketing Tactics” series – you can view the previous articles below.

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Marketing Tips from Charlie Sheen

Mike Smith — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:13:30 +0000

It’s been a couple days since I’ve seen Charlie Sheen in the news, so I think it’s safe to assume something outlandish is just around the corner, right? Well, for you as a freelancer, you might get a kick out of watching Charlie Sheen be – Charlie Sheen, but what if I told you that you can actually learn a thing or two from this guy?

In my personal opinion, Charlie Sheen is a marketing genius and someone who should be looked at in that light, at least by freelancers and small business owners who are trying to grow their business. So, if you’re trying to grow your business as a freelancer, you might want to take notes on the below marketing tips from Charlie Sheen.

Be as outrageous as possible

You can’t wave around a machete on a balcony, drink tiger blood and refer to yourself as a drug that if taken by anyone else, they’ll die, without people thinking you’re outrageous. You also can’t (allegedly) go on a multi-day cocaine binge and kidnap a porn star without raising some eyebrows. Now, I’m not saying to mimic Charlie Sheens outrageous behavior, but I’m sure that there’s a few ways that you can market your business in an outrageous (a.k.a. Guerrilla Marketing) way that your competitors aren’t currently utilizing.

Always have a short, memorable catch phrase

#winning – What else is there really to say? If you type that into Twitter, everyone on your list (or at least all of the human run twitter accounts) will know what you’re talking about. Charlie Sheen came up with a memorable, short catch phrase that everyone can remember and can use for their own benefit, yet still market him at the same time.

Never forget your current fans & clients

Charlie Sheen built a reputation as a very funny guy on Two and a Half Men when he played a character that pretty much mimicked his real life shenanigans. Sure, some people won’t like you for certain things you do, but you’re not trying to cast a big net, you’re trying to build a loyal following (or Tribe, as Seth Godin puts it). Always remember who your most loyal fans, clients and influencer’s are, because they’ll push for you even when no one else will.

Over deliver and people will always love you

Going hand in hand with the previous marketing tip, if you over deliver to your clients, you’re able to get away with doing pretty much whatever you want, because regardless of your personal views on topics (ie: I’m an Atheist while a lot of the design community are devout Christians), as long as you put out amazing content and do amazing work, the majority of the world can care less what you do with your free time.

Go on #winning!

Never stop pushing and doing what you believe to be right, no matter what’s standing in your way. Charlie went on rants about his boss and got himself fired from his television show, but he didn’t let that stop him. On the contrary, he went on an outlandish tirade about his former bosses and coworkers, gaining a huge amount of attention and in the process, he just keeps #winning (there’s rumored deals on the table for him right now, which no doubt will make him a shit load of money).

More from this series

This is the seventh installment of our “Marketing Tips From…” series. You can read the previous articles below, listed in order of when they appeared on this blog.

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