by Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan
As the mother of three, my smartphone is often more useful than my husband when it comes to entertaining the children, reminding me to administer antibiotics and making dinner reservations.
As a writer, my smartphone is indispensable when it comes to generating business. It is my prospecting team, my marketing team and my administrative assistant all rolled into one.
Here are three ways I use my smartphone to help my writing business:
1. Find new clients
Subscribe to coupon services such as LivingSocial or Groupon to learn about businesses in your area that are trying to attract new customers. Chances are, if companies are working with deal sites, they have money for promotional activities and have some clue that using new technology will help them improve business.
If you would use the service anyway, buy the coupon. Evaluate their current online strategies and content and look for ways to offer enhancements with your writing. Do they lack a great newsletter? Is their blog sadly out of date? Could a professional biography of the owners or founders make their business stand out from the crowd? All of those projects need freelance writers, and it could be you!
I recently purchased a LivingSocial pass for a summer golf camp for my son. After seeing the quality instruction they offered and exploring their website, I planned a quick conversation with the camp owners after a session and suggested we meet to discuss their promotional strategy for the coming year. They are now eager to work with me for both their golf camp and football camp!
2. Get more work from existing clients:
QR codes are going to open up a world of business for freelance writers. Businesses can generate their own QR codes and customers can scan codes using smartphones to access phone numbers, email addresses and more importantly, text codes and website URLs.
A QR code allows customers to easily scan the black-and-white square — like you see above — and access the associated content without having to remember, jot down or type in complex web addresses or numbers. This means businesses need to have quality content waiting at the other end of the QR code – content that you can write.
How can you translate this into more gigs for you? I have created my own QR code using QRReader and printed it on my business cards and project proposals. I teach customers how to scan the code and gain access to a special offer on my website. I show them how easy it is to provide detailed information and high quality content using cutting edge technology.
3. Let prospects to view your portfolio — from anywhere
If you’ve ever had a chance encounter with a potential customer, you’ve probably wished you could carry your portfolio everywhere. But that’s just not practical. That’s why you need Dropbox, which allows you to easily share large files. Dropbox is on my iPhone, my iPad and my laptop. One folder in my Dropbox account has my best writing samples. I don’t have to type in my web address, I just open the app and show my potential customer something great.
At a recent networking function, I mentioned I write biographies. A professional photographer approached me after the meeting, saying she’d try to visit my site to view my work. I opened my iPad and selected a great piece from my Dropbox folder. The file also contained the shortened biographies my clients now use on their LinkedIn and Facebook business pages. The photographer was impressed that I had such a handle on technology and could quickly and easily share my samples. We are currently negotiating for her needs.
Are you using QR codes in your writing business? Leave a comment and tell us about it.
Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan, owner of Sweet Tooth Communications LLC, is a freelance writer and social media consultant in Pittsburgh, PA. She writes on parenting, health and fitness, sports and healthcare issues. She blogs about her family’s mistakes and masterpieces at Try It & You May.
