How To Get Your Writer Marketing Done In An Hour A Week

October 26, 2011

It’s that time again — another of my monthly posts for the Word Chef blog carnival. This month we’re talking about productivity, something that the writers on this blog have written about many, many times. Originally, I was going to write about writing productivity, but been there, done that, so I’ve included a list of some of our best posts on productivity at the end. So, to the issue of the day: marketing and promoting your writing business.

My Marketing Mantra

We already know some of the tasks we need to do (check out my Promotion is Free series for a heads-up) but what about making the time to do it? I know from my own experience that in the past at busy times I made less time for marketing and at quiet times I marketed like crazy because I had more time on my hands. That’s bass-ackwards, if you’ll pardon the expression. When you’re busy you need to market so you are never quiet. When you are quiet, it’s already too late.

So what do you do? The answer is really simple: make the time. When something is really important to you, you usually make the time to do it. The health of your writing business should be important to you, so make the time to keep it healthy by injecting regular doses of new business. In other words, market and promote.

Set aside a chunk of time each week, either a big block once a week or a shorter time daily that’s dedicated to marketing your services. Then market and promote.

Methods of Marketing

There are all kinds of ways to do this.

Taking part in a blog carnival like the one I’m in today is one way because lots of new people will see what you write. Making connections with new people can extend your reach. It puts your name out there without too much effort on your part. Write a post, tweet about it, comment on a few other posts. Time required — maybe 1 hour which adds up to about 12 minutes a week per post.

Showcase your expertise on high traffic sites such as LinkedIn Answers, Quora and more — see what’s being asked in your niche and respond. I have to admit that I don’t use this as much as I might, but when I do, it pays off. Someone saw one of my answers on Quora and approached me about a writing job. Although it didn’t work out in the end, it showed that I was visible. You only have to spend a few minutes a day doing this, especially if you are selective about what you respond to. Pick the questions that you are already an expert in and you won’t have to think too hard. Rinse and repeat for other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Time required: no more than 30 minutes a time, and you could get away with 15.

Tweak and optimize your professional website. This can be a timesink — don’t ask me how I know {groan} but it’s well worth doing. Make sure that it shows your skills and abilities to best advantage and makes it easy for people to contact you. One of my new clients was browsing around my site and found a testimonial for some site content I’d written for a cake decorator. On the strength of that she got in touch and asked me to rewrite hers. Testimonials sell your services without too much work and I’ve got a video explaining how I use a simple questionnaire to get a good testimonial. It’s also useful to update your site with new stuff you have done. Time required: 30 minutes every couple of weeks or 15 minutes a week (it should be more, but that’s about what I do.)

Guest blog. I’m a big fan of guest blogging for promotion (as well as having fun with writing). Not only is it an easy way to showcase your ability to write about a wide range of topics — or to showcase your expertise in your niche, take your pick — but if you’re smart you can also market yourself subtly. It’s all in the way you respond to comments. I write a lot about writing and blogging (as well as a whole lot of other things), so when I respond to comments I include something that shows I know what I’m talking about. I might refer to the length of my writing career or a relevant experience I had. I’m providing value to the commenter and the blog host, but other people who read my comments will also get a taste of what I can do. Time required: 1–2 hours depending on writing time and number of comments. That means about 12 minutes a week per post.

So what does that add up to? If you’re only doing each of these once each week, you would spend just under an hour a week on marketing. And you could do more and get even more benefit, because isn’t it worth it to spend a couple of hours of your time each week on marketing your services?

Productivity Tips

And just in case you’re having trouble making the time because you are too busy writing, here’s a list of some of our previous tips on writing productivity:

What do you find most effective in marketing your business services? (Image: chotda)