With over 2.14 billion digital buyers worldwide & counting (as of 2021), up from 1.66 billion in 2016, there have never been more opportunities for freelancers.
But here’s the kicker:
A 2021 PeoplePerHour study revealed that digital marketing freelancers are the highest in demand.
In other words, if you’re interested in freelancing jobs in India, digital marketing jobs stand out as the best freelancing jobs in India. What’s more, there are several additional benefits of freelancing jobs in digital marketing. If you’re not sold on offering your services as a freelancer,
Here are ten reasons for freelancing digital marketing jobs why you should change your mind;
Top 10 Benefits of Freelancing Digital Marketing Jobs in 2022
1. Ever-Growing Demand for Freelancers in India
India saw a 46% increase in freelancing jobs in 2020, with a 42% hike in hourly rates.
Digital marketing is always evolving, with marketers tapping into new tools and technologies for better results year after year. There’s always something new to learn and offer to clients.
There is no shortage of clients, ensuring that you never get bored doing the same repetitive work. Most digital marketing freelancing jobs allow working from home or occasionally, depending on the assignments. This makes digital marketing freelancing jobs some of the best freelancing jobs for students in India.
2. Freedom of Working at Your Own Pace and Wherever You Are
Depending on the kind of freelancing job you get, you will get the opportunity to work from wherever you are. If you love to travel and enjoy the idea of the “laptop lifestyle”, getting a digital marketing freelance job might be perfect for you.
Many freelancers prefer working at their local coffee shop, away from their distractions, on a time constraint, and in surroundings with the perfect ambience conducive to work.
But you’re certainly not limited to that. You could work wherever you are as long as you have access to the internet.
3. Opportunity to Build Your Reputation Online
Building your online profile and showing off your track record of happy clients is the best way to get more projects. There are many ways of building a reputation, such as creating a website with client testimonials.
You could also put up your portfolio on pre-existing platforms – investing in a website isn’t always required. For instance, if your area of expertise is graphic design, you must upload your portfolio on websites like Behance.
But regardless of what your area of expertise is, it always helps to learn content marketing. Creating some content relevant to your field in the form of podcasts, videos, or blogs is a nice way of sharing the depth of your knowledge.
Prospective clients will get a taste of your expertise, and some might even want to hire you right away.
4. Control Over Workload
One of the best benefits of freelancing jobs is choosing the number of projects you want to work on. In this way, you control how much work you have at a particular time and can have a better work-life balance.
Freelancing jobs allow you to pursue your other interests, look after your family, and take a rest when you feel exhausted and burnt out. A regular job won’t always give you these flexibilities.
However, it’s important to remember that digital marketing is a demanding field, and client expectations always run high.
You will need to build solid relationships with your clients by delivering on time consistently and always staying transparent. Only this way will you be able to keep clients interested in your services after you take time off.
Another important consideration is your location and sleep schedule. Being a nocturnal worker can work in your favour if you’re dealing with international clients. However, if your clients are active in the daytime and you work at night, you will need to adjust your schedule to meet their needs.
5. Freedom from Corporate Strings
Freelance digital marketers tend to have a lot of flexibility in their work. You will essentially have a set of “cool jobs” for which you can set your hours. You can take a day off in the middle of the week instead of Sunday.
All you’ll have to do is keep your clients informed over digital platforms. How you navigate your work life is entirely in your control. These benefits of freelancing jobs can be invaluable if you’re a student, have kids, prioritize family time, or have other interests.
6. High Earning Potential
There is no limit to how much a freelance digital marketer earns. At the end of the day, you’re running a business, not working a job with a fixed salary.
If you equip yourself with in-demand skills and work with several clients, earning high amounts shouldn’t be a pipedream. Furthermore, regardless of how much you earn, you will get paid the entirety of your earnings. You will not have the restrictions of salary deductions.
The size and complexity of the project largely determine how much you get paid. You’re also free to negotiate with clients, and as long as you make a fair offer, clients will still want to work with you, given you’ve proven your skills. In this way, you can earn large amounts in short periods.
7. You’re Free to Pick Up Passion Projects
One of the drawbacks of working in an agency is that you don’t get to choose the kind of work you need to do. You might want to work with food or tech brands but might end up helping clients in the real estate sector.
This sort of thing doesn’t happen when you’re a freelancer. You have the luxury of choosing your clients, especially as your portfolio grows and you build your reputation.
It is one of the best benefits of freelancing jobs since freelancing gives you a feel for the kinds of brands that match your aptitude and personality. You’d be surprised to learn that most freelancers specialize in specific sector areas.
So, whether you’re interested in making health and fitness content or want to help clients in the food industry make more sales, becoming a digital marketing freelancer will allow you to seek out the clients you want to work with most.
8. Allows You to Build a Brand
The tools and techniques you use, the quality of your work, the types of services you provide, and your working style differentiate you from others from day one.
Rarely can you compare a freelancer to another – the industry is filled with people with different kinds of expertise. You will slowly but surely build a personal brand to stand out from the crowd.
As you build a portfolio, clients will seek you out rather than a thousand others, and you will also have a stream of clients that are already working with you.
You don’t need a marketing department to create a personal brand – all you need to do is ensure that all your profiles showcase what you’re great at in the best way possible.
Going the extra mile and creating a website, designing a logo, and writing a slogan are things that can pay off massively.
You must begin building your work portfolio right when you’re starting out. Upload your achievements as you go since your portfolio is the client’s window into your skills and experience.
Building a portfolio can also help you land a job if you want to get a job later on.
9. Boosts Creativity
The digital marketing industry demands creativity – whether you’re advertising to a niche audience or writing blogs for inert websites. Regardless of your skills, you will find that the projects you take up require you to push the envelope and tap into your creativity.
Many enjoy the challenge that projects bring with them, and if you’re the kind of person who enjoys learning different tools and polishing your skills, becoming a freelance digital marketer might be your calling. No wonder digital marketing is considered among the top freelancing jobs for students in India!
10. Helps Build Relationships with Agencies, Brands, and Peers
Digital marketing agencies across the country are constantly looking for both new talent and experienced freelancers. You can work with a spread of reputed agencies when freelancing, enabling you to work alongside the best in the field.
You will come across mentors and peers with similar working styles and skillsets. If you ever decide to give up freelancing for a full-time job, you won’t have much trouble getting hired at the agencies you’ve built a rapport with over time.
Since those agencies have seen your work before and understand that you’re familiar with the kinds of brands the agencies work with, it’s a win-win.
Did You know the scope of freelancing in India? Check out in the below image.
How to Get a Digital Marketing Freelancing Job
Clients and corporations are constantly searching for freelancers with excellent skillsets. Therefore, your first step must be:
1. Build a Strong Skillset
Besides helping you recognize your areas of specialization in digital marketing, taking the time and putting effort into building a skillset will also help you understand how the industry works. These skills are relatively new to other professional ones. Therefore, you may want to learn these from experienced professionals. You can easily find an online digital marketing course that is adequate to give you a launchpad.
For example, check out this advanced digital marketing course. There are experienced faculty in this course that will coach you in areas like content writing, SEO, and much more.
Subsequently, there are various skills that you will need to land digital marketing freelancing jobs in India:
- PPC Advertising: The process of developing and publishing ads in various spaces on the internet. It is done using platforms such as Google Ads and Outbrain.
- Social Media Marketing: This is the process of leveraging social media platforms to engage with the target customers of a business. The idea is to enhance brand awareness and drive sales. Social media marketing involves both paid and unpaid approaches, each having different degrees of effectiveness.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM): SEM is a technique where businesses use paid ads to appear on SERPs. However, SEM also adopts unpaid methods to promote the brand’s products or websites.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is a method that enables marketers to improve a site’s visibility and ranking on search engines for specific search phrases. SEO comes under the umbrella of SEM.
- Content Marketing involves creating and publishing content that’s deeply relevant to the brand. The goal is to create enough quality content for the brand’s website to rank high on Google, increasing the organic traffic and leads the business generates.
- Email Marketing: Email marketing involves sending various emails to gather leads and convert them into paying customers. The process is deliberate, systematic, and personalized since sending the right email to the right groups in the funnel is key to converting them.
- Web Analytics: This involves measuring, tracking, and reporting website traffic. Web analytics is typically carried out for eCommerce businesses that require you to use tracking and analysis tools such as Google Analytics to monitor and help improve the company’s growth.
2. Sign Up on Reputed Freelance Websites
It’s common for new freelancers not to initially find a lot of work. The key to getting as many clients as possible is to sign up on many reputed freelance sites rather than sticking to just one.
Some of the best freelancing websites you can consider joining include:
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- People Per Hour
- Jooble
- The Dots
- LinkedIn Jobs
- BlueTie Global
- FlexJobs
- Freelancer
After signing up, build your profile and mention all the services you offer. It’s a good idea to include your connections on the portal. You will need to learn how to sell yourself and market your services to find the best-paying work.
How you pitch clients plays a big role in how many clients you work with. Each of the websites above has its own advantages and disadvantages, but they are all worth joining.
On these websites, you’ll be able to find work in three main ways. You’ll either
- Explore all the jobs available and pitch to the client,
- Bid on the projects the site recommends to you, or
- Wait for clients that like your portfolio to approach you.
It’s always best to apply to freelancing jobs you’re interested in since you’ll only begin to attract clients after finishing some projects with good feedback on the platform.
3. Find Your Target Clientele
In the initial phase of your freelancing career, you will need to define who your target clientele is. You’ll have a good idea of what the market looks like after working with a few clients.
You will need to narrow down offering your services to the clients you can serve efficiently and those that pay satisfactory amounts.
4. Learn to Seek Out Clients
Continually finding clients to work with is part and parcel of freelancing. Besides building a portfolio, you will need to market your services over social media platforms to attract clients.
You can also get in touch with prospective clients at local business events, but it is worth spending time seeking out clients online.
The most efficient way of increasing your personal brand’s exposure to the market is to publish insightful and entertaining content relevant to your target clientele.
This could mean writing about anything from digital marketing industry trends to the best practices in your line of work. Guest posting proves an effective way to expand your audience and attract clients.
Besides, you’re not limited to the written word, with 86% of businesses using video as a marketing tool as of December 2021.
5. Develop Your Bidding Skills and Pitching Process
Learning to bid on jobs and pitch your skills is critical for freelancing. While bidding and pitching appear interchangeable, there is a fundamental distinction between them.
A. Bidding
Bidding is the process of proposing your services to a prospective client that presents a project on a freelancing site/anywhere in the public domain.
You will need to consider the client’s budget and time constraints and thoroughly comprehend the quantity of work and talent required to meet those needs.
Stating your expertise is not enough. You must scope in on how you can help the client achieve their goals. Keep your bids brief and definite, and emphasize how you can finish the project within the time frame and on budget.
B. Pitching
Pitching is when you approach a prospective client and propose how they can use the services you believe will help build their business. Pitching can be broken down into three phases:
- Grasping how the client’s business works, the size of the business, and what changes are needed for the business to grow.
- Determining how your services can help prospective client grow their business.
- Building your pitch and approaching the client.
You must persuade the prospect that your services would help expand their business and meet their goals.
Conclusion
Digital marketing freelancing in India offers several benefits, making it one of the best freelancing jobs in India. The global gig economy is projected to grow from $204 billion in 2018 to $455 billion in 2023. This works out to a CAGR of 17.4%.
The best part? India currently ranks fifth in Flexi-staffing.
There couldn’t be a better time to build a clientele that will help you achieve your career, financial, and personal goals. This makes digital marketing jobs the best freelancing jobs for students in India.
All you have to do is start today and earn your worth.
To learn digital marketing enrol in an online digital marketing course today to become a great digital marketing freelancer in the market.
