Freelance Writing for Nonprofits

I attended the Land Trust Alliance’s national conference last week in Denver. My husband was speaking and I didn’t want to pass up Rocky Mountain hiking, so I decided to tag along and reserved a table-top display in the exhibit area.

This was the first time I had ever marketed my services at a trade show. It’s too early to tell if it was a success or not, but here are a few things I learned.

People like useful freebies. I gave away pens with my website on them. Of all of the information that I had on the table, people picked up more pens than anything else.

Appeal to the broadest audience possible. I created a free tip sheet about easy ways to market land trusts online. About half the people who took a pen took the tip sheet. My guess is that it was too specific. Something more general like how to create a quick and dirty marketing plan probably would have been more widely appealing than specifically focusing on online marketing.

Location, location, location. I decided to attend this event rather late in the game, and so my tabletop was not in the main flow of traffic. Decide early enough in advance that you will attend, so that you can reserve the best locations on the trade show floor.

Make display items visible from several feet away. Lots of people want to see what you have without having to talk to you. Make sure everything is either hanging on the display or is otherwise standing up. Information flat on the table can’t be seen by attendees unless they are standing right next to it.

Be there in the middle of the conference program. People straggled in the first day. Everyone was there the second day. People straggled out the last day. I’d say 90% of my contact with people came on that middle day.

Put on your outgoing, friendly face. Lots of people cruising the hall won’t initiate a conversation with you, but they will stop and chat if you are really friendly and ask them questions about themselves.

I offered a drawing of free e-courses, e-books, and wine to get business cards and will also add those people to my email newsletter list. I also offered free consulting sessions on-site to get a better sense for what people need. Both produced lots of contacts that I can use to prospect new clients this fall (if I have time).

Have you used trade show marketing for your freelance business? How did it go?

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I recently hired a freelance graphic designer for a small job, in hopes that he would really impress me and I could give him lots of assignments. It didn’t happen. Granted, this person is working full-time and freelancing on the side and appears to be a newbie.

But I’m always looking for good, fresh talent to help with client projects, so I’m willing to give the freshmen a try. Sometimes they work out; sometimes they don’t. My latest experience definitely fell in the Don’t category and I’m turning it into a lesson in customer service for creative professionals new to freelancing.

1) If you don’t know a client’s gender, don’t guess. After emailing a few times, Designer Guy called me, and asked for Mr. Miller. This was a call to my business line, so while I am married to a Mr. Miller, I said “There is no Mr. Miller here.” To which Designer Guy replied, “Oh! OK. I thought you were a man.”

Yes, I have an odd name. But why not just ask for Kivi and go from there? I was annoyed with the sexist assumption and should have ended it there, but I decided to give him a second chance.

2) When a client gives you specific instructions, follow them. I gave Designer Guy two specific instructions: no bleeds and make it go with the design of a new website I’m putting up. I gave him two photos to use. I also asked for two different mockups from which to pick.

What did he deliver? One version with a full bleed of one of the photos with my text thrown on top of it. It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the URL I asked him to match. Strike two.

3) Don’t take jobs if you can’t meet the deadlines. When I asked Designer Guy where the second comp was, he said he didn’t have time to do it. I admit this was a rush job (he had four days in between getting my copy and photos and producing a draft for me), but I was perfectly clear about the schedule when I described the job.

If you don’t have time, don’t take the assignment. If you run out of time, be upfront with the client – don’t hope they won’t notice. Strike two and a half.

4) Don’t change your terms at the last minute. When I told Designer Guy that the draft didn’t work, because it didn’t meet my two main criteria (no bleed and matching the URL), he demanded full payment before he would deliver the final product. Mind you, I hadn’t even seen a product that met my needs yet, nor had he previously requested any payment upfront, even though we did discuss his total estimate for the project.

Because my deadline was nearly upon me, the only way I could have paid him anything was if he took credit cards or PayPal. But he wouldn’t take either, insisting on cash or a check. I had no way to get him payment and get the final product within the time I had left (less than 24 hours), even if I were willing to do so. If he had taken credit cards or PayPal, I probably would have given him 50% and hoped that his second draft worked. But the idea that I would pay in full when the only thing delivered completely failed to meet my needs was laughable. Strike three. He’s out.

I stayed up late and did it myself.

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