Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

August is always a funny one for me. Clients are all over the place and I try to limit my workload for the final two weeks in preparation for my birthday (which is on Sunday 🥳).

I'm fully expecting a crash back into reality in September, when I'll be nose to the grindstone for the rest of the year. I'm actually looking forward to it!

P.S. This week on Instagram, I shared the 7 client red flags I wish I'd noticed sooner. See them here. And don't forget to give me a follow for regular tips and tricks!

Here's what I've been up to this week work-wise:

👉 I wrote 2 pieces for clients (an influencer marketing tool)

👉 I refreshed 1 piece for Shopify

👉 I ran edits on a piece for Klaviyo

👉 I sent all my August invoices

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~11

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~2

💰 Total revenue this week: £2,350

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Check out my three practical courses that have helped 500+ people get more clients, earn more money, and create better content.

Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

For a good few years, I didn't really have to market my business at all.

I was getting plenty of referrals from clients and other freelancers, and I was getting a lot of enquiries through my website.

In 2024, that all changed.

I was getting fewer and fewer website enquiries and the referrals almost dried up completely. Sooo... I had to start marketing myself again. I'm guessing a ton of other freelancers are in the same position too, especially with the shaky state of the market right now.

I shouldn't have stopped marketing myself really, but it's easy to get complacent when things are good.

The problem is, when you come back to it after a while, things have changed. Platforms are constantly changing, algorithms are always up in the air, and it's easy to fall behind if you're not showing up regularly.

I'm not saying you need to show up All The Time... hell no. I wouldn't recommend that at all, because let's face it, marketing ourselves can be grueling, draining, daunting, and all of the negative descriptions.

But while things have changed, there are some things that always stay the same: you don't need to be on every platform or do everything at once.

Instead, just choose one or two things that work for you and, more importantly, that you ENJOY (cannot stress that enough).

After speaking to many, many freelancers this year about how they're marketing their businesses, here's what’s working (and what’s not).

Let's start with what's working...

LinkedIn posting

If a brand is looking for a freelancer, chances are they'll head straight to LinkedIn. They'll either search "freelancer in x industry" or put a call out on their feed.

The call outs are always hit and miss because, if you haven't already noticed, hundreds of freelancers jump at the chance to share their portfolios. It's competitive.

So, when I say, "use LinkedIn", I really mean showing up there by posting fairly regularly, engaging with your ideal clients, mingling with other freelancers, and optimising your profile.

P.S... Let me know if you'd be interested in a full guide to using LinkedIn to market your freelance business (it's the place I get most of my enquiries from now and I've managed to grow my audience to 12,000 there).

Warm pitching

Mass cold emails are fading, but warm outreach is landing projects.

What do I mean by warm pitching?

It’s when you pitch someone you’ve already engaged with: maybe you’ve commented on their LinkedIn post, joined their community, or even just replied to their newsletter. It's basically "building a network", which is so, so important at the moment.

If you haven't already watched my training on this, I highly recommend you do! You can watch it for free here.

Newsletters

Newsletters have circled back around into relevance, and not just for big creators. More freelancers are using them as a simple way to stay top-of-mind with potential clients.

It doesn’t need to be weekly (can confirm it's actually very hard to stick to a weekly newsletter!). Even a monthly “here’s what I’m seeing, here’s what I’m working on” email can remind people you exist.

The goal is that, when a brand needs help, you'll be the first person they think of because you're regularly showing up in their inbox.

Communities

Communities are the new referral engines.

Slack groups, Discord servers, mastermind collectives, whatever you want to call them... these spaces are where clients and freelancers hang out, share recommendations, and swap opportunities.

Instead of competing on job boards (or LinkedIn call outs), freelancers are getting work through trust-based networks of peers. Basically, someone recommends you because you’ve been helpful in a thread, not because you sent in the 75th application on Upwork.

What's not working anymore...

Cold pitching at scale

Spray-and-pray outreach is pretty much dead. Clients can spot a template a mile away, and nobody has patience for generic “I’d love to help your company with X” emails.

The competition is fierce these days and brands have really, really tight budgets. This means they can't risk spending a single penny on someone they don't know or trust.

Job boards and LinkedIn call outs

I've mentioned this a lot, but the competition is really, really fierce right now. Fiercer than it's ever been in my 12 years of freelancing. Job boards used to be a great way to find brands actively looking for freelancers, but now a single job ad (that's paying pennies) might get 100+ applications.

It's a waste of everyone's time and rarely leads to work unless you're the first application or charging incredibly low prices. The same goes for LinkedIn call outs. Brands don't have the time to sift through hundreds of applications, so they'll often go for one of the first to apply OR scrap their call out and ask for a recommendation instead.

Portfolio dumps

Posting “here’s my latest project” with no context is getting less and less engagement. People don’t just want the end result, they want the story, the process, the messy thinking behind the work. That’s what builds trust and positions you as more than just a task-taker.

What this all means for us dear freelancers in 2025...

I'm adamant that the freelancers who do well in 2025 won’t be the ones trying to do everything.

They’ll be the ones who pick two or three approaches that fit their business and go all-in. For example...

• If you work with B2B clients, LinkedIn + warm pitching is your sweet spot.
• If you work with startups or creators, communities + a newsletter will keep you in their orbit.
• If you’re visual/creative, TikTok or Instagram can work, but focus on behind-the-scenes storytelling.

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The thing to remember is clients don’t hire the freelancer who’s everywhere. They hire the freelancer who shows up in the right place, with the right message, at the right time.

We need more Freelance Money Diaries submissions!

As you know, I'm on a mission to bring more transparency around rates in the freelancing world. And, to do that, it really helps to see what other freelancers are earning. I'd absolutely love it (and be eternally grateful) if you share your finances with us (you can do it totally anonymously!).

As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

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