Have you ever heard of the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none”? That phrase seems to have been coined specifically for the digital marketing world.
The generalist wants to do everything. It all seems enticing without having to concentrate on a particular niche. Such freelancers rarely break even; they find it difficult to become an expert in any particular niche.
Hence they run from one job board to the other and are often priced low. If you are reading this already, I believe this is not you.
So, who are you? You are the specialist—the one who develops a high skill set and becomes an expert in a profitable niche. Clients want experts to handle their job. Hence, the specialist is in high demand and commands a higher price.
To make the most of the digital marketing space as a freelancer, it is best to focus on a specific niche, develop expertise, and become a highly sought-after freelancer.
Well, many beginners are yet to understand the nitty-gritty of the various digital marketing services available. Hence, they find it challenging to make an informed decision.
In this article, I have highlighted ten profitable, ever trending, and in-demand services you can offer as a freelancer.
source: Unsplash
Content Writing
No matter the type of digital marketing service you chose to offer as a freelancer, content is all-encompassing.
Most brands use written content to educate their customers about their products, promote their brand, and generate authentic leads to increase conversion.
Content is the backbone of digital marketing. Most marketing strategies utilise written words to help consumers understand what brands represent and how buying a product can positively impact their lives.
Brands want their existing customers to understand their products and continue to patronize them. They also want new prospective customers to recognize what they represent so that they can buy from them.
There are no better ways to do all these except using words that inform, educate and connect. If writing is something you are good at or interested in, then there are enormous opportunities to thrive as a freelance content writer.
As a content writer, your job is to help brands connect to their audience and improve their overall brand awareness. The goal is to turn mere readers into lifelong customers with the power of storytelling and information sharing.
There is a wide range of specialities you can focus on as a freelance content writer. You can opt to write long-form or short-form blog posts, newsletters, white papers, e-books, articles, product descriptions, affiliate reviews, and lots more.
You can also tap into profitable freelance writing niches such as cryptocurrency, gaming, finance, health and fitness, business, technology, etc.
One aspect of content writing you can easily learn and profit from is affiliate marketing. There are many good resources on creating affiliate marketing content with actionable tips you can adopt and quickly master.
Copywriting
Copywriting is not the same as content writing, and the difference lies in its purpose.
With content writing, the goal is to educate and entertain readers. While in copywriting, the goal is to persuade readers to take a specific action usually related to a business end goal.
This action is often sales-related and might be to subscribe to a newsletter, download an app, buy a product, book an appointment, try a demo, or simply make a call.
Most brands are out to sell one thing or another. Hence, they need experts to convince prospective customers that their product is worth buying.
Excellent copywriters can evoke an emotion and stimulate a buying action with the least number of words possible.
They also help brands build a better image and attract new customers through clear, credible, compelling, and concise use of words.
Are you good at persuading people with written words to take the desired action? If yes, then you can build a lucrative career as a freelance copywriter.
One of the beauties of building a career in copywriting is that there are several sub-niches you can focus on.
This includes writing landing page copy, sales emails, social media ads, website sales copy, video scripts, product descriptions, and so on.
An aspect of copywriting that will always remain trendy is the writing of email sales copy. Emails may sound cliché, but it is still one of the best digital marketing channels, especially with e-commerce and retail brands.
Emails are well insulated from the regular changes in algorithms social media platforms undergo. That is why most brands seek to have their own email list to send targeted sales copy to their customers.
Graphics Designing and Infographics
Visual content is essential to the success of any digital marketing campaign, and brands cannot overlook this.
This is because selling online involves the skilful display of products and communicating vital information using well-presented images.
The pictorial display of content offers a dynamic way of communicating information than any other means.
There’s no better way to reach the buying mind than through captivating visual content. This is because the human brain processes images thousands of times faster than it does texts.
Thus, graphics are a vital part of all content, and companies will forever need those who can tell their stories using visual aids. To put it more simply, graphics design and digital marketing are two sides of the same coin.
Graphics designers are involved in every aspect of a company’s branding and marketing, from designing advertisements to logos, flyers, brochures, web content, social media graphics, and product designs.
An expert graphics designer can use a combination of forms, shapes, fonts, and colors to capture attention and evoke a buying emotion. This can be the ultimate difference in converting a mere audience to a lifelong customer.
Infographics which are a combination of graphics, text, and data, are also gaining wide popularity in expressing complex information in an easy-to-understand format. They are attention-grabbing and can turn a piece of otherwise dry information into an enticing piece of content.
Many small businesses are outsourcing their graphics needs. So, if manipulating templates on platforms like Canva or coming up with creative designs on Photoshop is your thing, then you can earn a sumptuous pie from the digital marketing cake.
Social Media Management
In the world of digital marketing, social media is on a level of its own. More than half of the world’s population is on one social media platform or the other.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest are filled with small businesses and large companies trying to promote their products and services.
With social media, the opportunities are endless for you as a digital marketer.
Companies are ever seeking to grow their customer base, promote their brand, engage their audience, and generate more quality leads and sales. Hence, social media marketing is indispensable.
As a social media manager, you are in charge of helping businesses promote their reputation and brand identity using various content.
This entails coming up with content ideas and strategies for each social media channel, engaging their audience and customers, and ultimately building vibrant online followership.
The definitive goal of social media marketing is to help brands gain more businesses through these channels. Facebook, for example, is especially ideal for using graphics to build links to landing pages where the final sales may take place.
Each social media platform is different, and the type of content best suited for each platform also differs. Instagram has a strong visual appeal; hence, it thrives on videos and rich imagery.
LinkedIn is best for professional networking, Twitter for promoting articles and interactions, and the list goes on.
As a social media manager, you must understand these differences and create engaging content for each platform.
Another essential skill for you to thrive as a social media manager is being on top of trends.
New updates, tools, styles, and fads are popping almost every second. Companies can’t afford to lose grasp of trends, and this is where your expertise as a freelance social media marketer may be most appreciated.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Hundreds of million tons of information are uploaded on the internet every day. Yet, when you make a query with some set of words using a search engine, only a handful of relevant pages are brought up. This is search engine optimization at work.
Businesses need their website page(s) to appear at the top of search engine result pages. This is to get more people to visit their website, read about their products, and take the necessary action.
Search engines rank pages using predetermined parameters and guidelines. An SEO specialist utilizes on-site and off-site SEO techniques to ensure that companies’ web pages appear at the top results pages when relevant searches are done.
Onsite techniques can include optimizing website structure, links, keywords, images, file size, page meta description, headlines, and overall content. Off-site SEO involves building a strong network of backlinks to help in page ranking.
SEO is free, and it helps brands come off as more authentic compared to the other type of search engine marketing, which is paid advertising.
As an SEO specialist, you are responsible for increasing website traffic through organic search. Your job involves creating a keyword strategy, optimizing website content for search engines, and building relevant backlinks.
Creating a keyword strategy helps brands produce relevant content that people are already searching for, which helps search engine ranking.
Paid Advertising
Another way brands use in driving traffic to their web pages is through paid advertising. Unlike SEO involving organic search, companies pay to have their pages appear at the top of search engines for selected keywords in this model.
You can find lots of paid ads on social media and search engine result pages. With search engines like Google or Bing, companies buy the top spots on search results via an auction based on location, demographics, and keywords.
This works on a Pay Per Click (PPC) model, i.e., and brands only pay when someone clicks the ad. Although there are other types of paid advertising such as pay per view, pay per download, pay per install, etc., PPC is the most popular and also very efficient.
When a paid ad appears at the top of search results, it comes with the word “Ad” at the top left-hand side of the site’s description. This lets you know that it’s a paid ad for that keyword you inquired about.
Running paid ads for clients is another excellent digital marketing service to specialize in. You can become a paid ads specialist for any of the many channels like Google AdWords, Facebook paid ads, Instagram advertising, etc.
As a paid ad specialist, you are in charge of helping brands make the most of the amount spent on such marketing campaigns.
Your job may involve creating a robust ad strategy, researching keywords, selecting target audiences, setting up paid marketing campaigns, writing and optimizing ad contents and formats.
Web Design and Development
If you are good at explaining things to a computer rather than humans, there is still an aspect of digital marketing you can specialize in and that’s creating websites for brands to sell their products.
More brands now understand the need to have a sleek and well-optimized website for their business. A well-designed website is vital for search engine optimization and the general branding of the business.
One of the key factors online shoppers use in rating an e-commerce store is the overall user experience. The ease at which they can navigate a website and find what they are looking for is very crucial. This is why top brands are investing large sums into having an optimally designed website.
A plain and slow-loading website is usually a turn-off for most online shoppers. Hence, brands seek to make a lasting first impression with the speed and design of their website.
Designing, upgrading, and managing an excellent website requires special skill sets not easily acquired. Thus, small businesses are ever willing to outsource this important job to freelancers.
As a freelance web developer, your job is to create and continually optimize brands’ websites to give customers the best user experience. This will surely entice them to always come back and buy from that brand.
Project Management
Marketing campaigns can be quite tasking and challenging to run, especially with large teams. Different professionals to manage, stakeholders to report to, several tasks to assign, suppliers, contractors, vendors, tools, and the list goes on.
With the workload, one can easily lose track of the core objectives and details, leading to a messy campaign. Hence, the need for professional project managers.
Project managers are in charge of the overall efficiency of marketing campaigns. They keep track of communication, budget, timeline, and tasks assigned to each individual. They ensure that everyone is on the same page and every aspect of the campaign is on schedule.
Not everyone is good at enterprise project management, and for this reason, there is high demand for project managers to help facilitate day-to-day activities in a remote setting.
As a freelance project manager, your job is to help companies run a seamless digital marketing project.
You’ll be in charge of resource planning, coordination of team members, budget allocation, tracking progress, campaign reporting, identifying possible challenges, and ensuring that deadlines are met.
Marketing Automation
This is one of the most profitable services at the moment. Marketing automation uses software to handle most of the time-consuming and repetitive marketing actions such as sending emails or posting social media content.
Marketing automation helps businesses leverage the use of automation to streamline marketing processes.
Due to the rise of various marketing automation tools like ClickFunnels, GetResponse, Kartra, WebinarJam, MailChimp, etc., there is a need for specialists in these tools to help companies and busy founders set up their marketing automation on these tools.
A marketing automation specialist is highly skilled with marketing apps and software that provide a dashboard to handle multiple tasks at once.
They help ease the workflow and are involved in critical campaign processes such as lead generation, lead nurturing, lead scoring, segmentation, and routing.
Remember we talked about email marketing and its ever-green importance before. Well, email marketing services are one of the most automated aspects of marketing. And as a freelancer, you can easily tap into this.
Video Editing and Whiteboard Animation
Approximately one billion hours of YouTube videos are watched across the world every day. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Snapchat also have an abundance of video content for marketing campaigns.
The reason for this is not far-fetched. Videos are ideal for explaining complex processes and this is why how-to videos are popular on the internet.
Be it live videos, short interviews, animations, or product reviews, more businesses are now using video content as part of their digital marketing strategy.
Video content is easy to digest, entertaining and drives engagement as it can be easily shared across various channels.
Videos aid SEO and boost conversion as watching a video help consumers make buying decisions. This is because videos appeal to the audio and visual senses at the same time. Hence, may easily evoke the right emotions and prompt a buying action.
Anyone can create a video and post it online. But creating high-quality, well-optimized videos that drive engagement and produce desired results requires a sophisticated set of skills.
Similar to videos in marketing is the use of whiteboard animation. Whiteboard animation is a video illustration that helps viewers understand the accompanying story. Such videos are especially ideal for demonstrating a procedure or showing how a product works.
A video editor helps brands to create high-quality videos to promote their brand and market their products.
Your job may involve editing, manipulating, and reordering recorded videos to produce easy flowing, top-quality video content. It may include the addition of graphics, music, special effects, sounds, and animation.
Most of these activities are done using video editing software. Hence, you need to be adept at the use of such tools to enjoy a career as a freelance video editor or whiteboard animation expert.
Ready to Get Started?
There are numerous avenues and opportunities for you to thrive as a freelancer in the digital marketing space.
No matter your background or interest -writing, coding, graphics, videos, animations, or project management- you can carve out a niche for yourself and build a successful career as a freelance digital marketer.
For getting consistent clients, take advantage of Solidgigs, a premium service that sends high-paying gigs to your inbox while you focus on doing what you do best.
On that note, congratulations and good luck on your journey to becoming a badass freelancer.