Simple Holiday Marketing Ideas for Freelance Writers

Maybe you aren’t quite ready to think about the holidays yet, or perhaps you’re like me and you’re already in holiday shopping mode. Either way, I’d bet that the next time you visit your favorite retailer you’ll probably see some holiday decorations or merchandise out already. Take that as a hint — it’s time to think about your own holiday marketing as a freelance writer!

“But I don’t sell products,” you might be thinking. “So how can I take advantage of the holiday shopping season?” Here are a few simple holiday marketing ideas that can work wonders for service providers like you:

1. Send gifts to your clients.

Sending gifts to clients is a nice way to thank them for their business throughout the previous year. It also sets you apart from the competition and other contractors they might have worked with.

Can’t afford to send gifts to all of your clients? That’s okay. Sometimes it’s difficult if you work with a lot of people or if many of your clients are international (high shipping costs). In that case you could send gifts to your biggest clients, or just send out holiday cards.

If you send cards, it’s probably a good idea to go with more generic “Happy Holiday!” varieties unless you’re sure of the holiday a specific client celebrates.

2. Send out a holiday newsletter with a special offer.

Maybe you want to attract a few extra orders before year’s end. A brief sale can help you do that. Send out an email newsletter offering a holiday promotion to existing and previous clients with a special offer for giving you their past business.

For example, if you’re a Web content writer and you like to sell sets of 10 articles at once, you might offer them 12 articles for the price of 10 instead. Just remember that you don’t want to get bombarded with too much work over the holidays if you want to take time off to be with family, so put limits on how long the offer is valid.

Another option is to send the promotional offer, but have it be for work in the New Year, so you can kick off January with a few new orders already lined up. If you want to drum up even more business, you might offer a bigger discount for any new referrals your existing or past clients send your way.

3. Release something for free.

Everyone’s trying to get your potential clients to part with a buck around the holiday season. Be different. Give them a free gift instead!

Release a free report or e-book (with a holiday slant if you feel so inclined). Something to help your prospective clients reach their business goals in the New Year would be good.

4. Choose a charity.

People tend to be a bit more giving during the holiday season. Choose a favorite charity — one relevant to your business if you want or at least one that your clients wouldn’t have reason to object to. In other words, avoid things like politically-motivated charities (donate to them independently). You want to attract support from clients who are happy to have a portion of their payment go to support the cause.

Then go back to our handy email newsletters. Send one to your existing and past clients (or other opt-in email list) announcing that you’ll donate a portion of sales placed between that point and the end of the year. It might be enough to convince people to buy from you now rather than later (so even with the donations going out, you could easily still have more money than usual coming in). Even if you don’t get a lot of business out of it, there’s nothing wrong with building a little good will.

5. Run a contest.

People love contests. They’re given a chance to get something valuable for free. Why not put some of your services on the line in an effort to attract more potential clients in the long run?

For example, let’s say you write sales letter copy. You might launch a contest where you ask people in your target market to submit their existing sales letter copy that they’d like overhauled by a professional. You could set up whatever criteria you’d like for choosing your winner (or make it random). The winner would get a new sales letter for free, perhaps on the condition that you’ll be allowed to showcase it afterwards as an example of your genius skills.

Where’s the benefit for you? Some of the people entering the contest are your potential clients. The contest makes them aware of you. Getting to see the results even if they lose gives them a reason to consider hiring you later (even if they weren’t previously planning to hire anyone).

Holiday marketing ideas aren’t reserved for the retail industry. Freelance writers and other service providers have plenty of options that don’t have to cost a lot up front. How will you take advantage of the holiday season to attract more business this year?

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