A freelance writer’s life can be an all-consuming one, filled with research and reporting for varied publications, pitching stories to new and established media partners, and building up a portfolio of work for future references. While there’s plenty of joy in creating content that people want to read, the pressure can sometimes feel a little overwhelming.

Not to worry. Between fierce competition, demanding clients, and hectic schedules, being a freelancer is a job that demands everything you’ve got. If you’re looking to take your career to the next level and want to be the best writer you can be, then polish your digital marketing skills and get reading.

The Basics Of Digital Marketing

To get started, simply follow these nine steps to easily master the basics of digital marketing.

• Step one: Identify your target audience.
• Step two: Create content that speaks to them.
• Step three: Measure the results of your efforts.
• Step four: Iterate and improve.
• Step five: Measure the results of your efforts.
• Step six: Keep learning.
• Step seven: Be consistent.
• Step eight: Automate everything.
• Step nine: Reflect, refine, and repeat.

With these nine steps in mind, you’re on your way to becoming a confident digital marketer.

1. Identify Your Target Audience

To start marketing your writing, you first need to identify who you’re targeting. This step can be tricky, because not all your work will be for the general public. Your ideal target audience will be people who have an interest in your subject matter or can benefit from what you have to say. They might be current or potential customers who can open up a shop, access a website, or read a blog article online. Once you know who your audience is, you can create content that is most suitable for them.

2. Create Content That Spokes To Them

The next step in the digital marketing process is to create content that speaks to your target audience. For our purposes, content can be anything from a blog post to a commercial, depending on your goals. To create content that will engage your readers, you need to think about what makes your work special and unique. Look for areas of strength and expertise and try to develop content that will make a positive impact on your target audience. When you’re creating content for the web, you have an opportunity to expand your reach and make a larger impact. Blog posts, for example, can be more engaging and take up more space than a simple piece of content for a newspaper. When you decide what your next content piece will be, take some time to develop a clear idea of what makes it special and what will make your reader engage with it. Writing a review for a local business, for example, can be a useful way to highlight your expertise in the field and generate some leads for your business. In developing content, you want to look for the right mixture of content types, whether that’s a combination of video, text, and graphics, or just text and images. Look at what works best for your target audience. If you can, conduct some A/B testing to see what results you get with different content types. This way you can be certain that you’re providing value to your readers and keeping them coming back for more.

3. Measure The Results Of Your Efforts

Once you’ve put in the work to generate some content and started to see results, it’s time to measure your success and determine what to do next. Simply follow these eight steps to find out how effective your content was in driving traffic to your site.

Step one: Set a benchmark

The first step in the measurement process is to set a benchmark for your content’s performance. To do this, you’ll want to use a tool or app that can track the amount of traffic a specific piece of content generates. You don’t need to have a large user base to track this information, because most content trackers can gather data from a minimum of 100 users. One of the best tools for this purpose is called Google Analytics. When you set up a Google Analytics account, the platform will automatically track the amount of traffic a specific piece of content generates.

Step two: Analyze your results

The second step in the measurement process is to analyze your results. To do this, simply visit your site’s analytics platform and find the link that displays the traffic for your content. Alternatively, you can access this info directly through your Google account. Once you have this information, you can determine what worked well and what could be improved upon. For example, if you’ve published a blog post and it only managed to bring in a few hundred visits, you might want to consider trying a different content strategy. Or, you could try increasing the quality of your writing to catch more fish.

Step three: Adjust your approach

Once you’ve benchmarked and analyzed your results, you can adjust your approach and try different methods to get more results. For example, if you found that a quarter of your blog posts’ traffic came from search engines, you might decide to try out a PPC campaign with Google AdWords. With this strategy, you’ll pay Google to promote your content in search results. The advantage of this approach is that, in addition to driving traffic to your site, you can also measure the results of your efforts through Google Analytics.

Step four: Re-evaluate

The final step in the measurement process is to re-evaluate. Simply go back to step three and repeat the process. In some cases, you’ll see that a strategy that worked well in the past might not produce the same results anymore. For example, if you tried to grow your blog through sponsored posts and found that they didn’t work as well as you’d hoped, you might decide to discontinue this strategy and try a different approach. The key is to never stop measuring and adapting your approach to fit the changing needs of your business.

Step five: Reassess your strategy

The five steps above will get you most of the way to figuring out how effective your content is in driving traffic to your site. To complete the picture, you’ll want to look at the big picture and consider what is motivating your target audience to come back for more. To determine the key ingredients for a successful content strategy, look for areas of strength and expertise that compel your target audience to come back for more. If you can, conduct some A/B testing to see what results you get with different content types or variations of the same type.

Step six: Continue learning

The final step in the nine steps to mastering digital marketing is to continue learning. Just because you know the formula for success in marketing content doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to accurately predict the results of any given strategy. This is especially important when pitching new ideas to clients. To get the best results, you’ll want to be as sure as possible that any new strategy you propose will meet with success. To do this, you can take advantage of all the courses, videos, and certifications available through online learning platforms like Canva, HubSpot, and Google.

Step seven: Be consistent

Last but not least, we have the important matter of being consistent. As a freelancer, you’ll no doubt be asked to pitch stories to various publications. To get the best results from these efforts, you’ll want to make sure that you put in the necessary time and effort into each one. If you want to succeed as a freelancer, you can’t be afraid to put in the extra work. Fortunately, this also means that you’ll be able to get the results you want. Simply continue following the steps above and putting in the work and you’ll be able to succeed as a freelance writer.

Being a freelancer can be a lot of work, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. You get to choose your own hours, determine your own rates, and, most importantly, be your own boss. This type of work structure can sometimes feel like a breath of fresh air after the stress of an everyday corporate job. At the end of the day, you need to believe in yourself and your abilities. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, simply remember that you’re on the right road to self-discovery and excellent freelancing. Now, go out there and prosper!