Three reasons why every freelancer should create an email newsletter

With a multitude of high quality software options like Canva increasingly available, creating your own professional-looking newsletter has never been easier. Forget Word documents cobbled together with clipart – the email newsletter has finally come of age, even for relatively novice computer users. 

As such, if you’re a freelancer who’s serious about maximising your income, it’s time to create an email newsletter of your own. Here are three powerful reasons why.

Engage with your clients

Email newsletters are all about marketing your services, but that doesn’t mean they have to be full of sales spiel. Instead, you can use them to engage your clients in conversation and build stronger, long-term business relationships with them. 

There are plenty of ways in which you can engage with clients via an email newsletter. Running competitions is always a good way to build engagement, while offering a discount is a great way to boost your work if you’re going through a lean patch. Using time-limited offers or a first-come-first-served offer for a maximum of three clients (for example) can be effective in encouraging clients to respond sooner rather than later. 

You can also use email newsletters to strike up conversations directly with your clients. Ask them what kind of services they need that relate to the work you do. If, for example, you provide translation services, ask whether they ever need localization services or writing services. You can either pose a general question in the newsletter, then correspond with individual clients as they reply, or set up a small online survey to see which services a broad range of clients need most. Survey setup, like creating your own newsletter, is now quick, easy and free thanks to a range of online resources. 

Showcase your skills 

Just because clients use your translation services regularly doesn’t mean that they will necessarily think of you when they need help with other areas of work. An email newsletter provides you with the means to counter this. If you write blog posts, design brochures or build websites as well as providing top quality translations, shout about it! 

Your newsletter itself is evidence of your multi-talented approach. After all, not everyone appreciates how easy great looking design now is, so you have a chance to wow your clients with your creative skills, as well as spelling out the additional services that you offer as part of the newsletter’s copy. 

Set yourself apart

Sending out a regular email newsletter can build the impression that you are so much more than the average freelancer. You can highlight your professional abilities and enjoy the chance to show a bit of personality. You’re also providing clients with something that they can file away and keep. All of this means that when a client next needs a freelancer, your name will spring to mind before that of any of your competitors! 

When you work freelance, you have to be responsible for every area of your business life, from invoicing to marketing. By creating your own newsletter, you’ll be a step ahead of the competition with the marketing, at least. And once you’ve set a newsletter template up, you can use it regularly in order to get maximum value out of the time you invested in it. 

Final thoughts

Have you experimented with creating your own newsletter in order to drive up your client engagement rate and boost how much work you have on? If you’ve not done so yet, why not give it a try and see what a difference it makes? We would love for you to share the results of your efforts in the comments section below, and inspire your fellow freelancers by sharing your success. 

And while you're here, why not check out the new Tomedes Summarizer Tool? It's yours to use, completely free!