Embarking on a freelance career in digital marketing requires building a skill base and setting up a strong online presence. This in-depth guide provides valuable insights on steps to acquire necessary skills, portfolio website and LinkedIn profile creation, and platforms for finding freelance digital marketing jobs.

Key Insights

  • Initiating a freelance career in digital marketing necessitates acquiring skills through self-study, video courses, or certificate programs and creating a strong online presence via a portfolio website and LinkedIn profile.
  • Training options include learning on your own through YouTube tutorials, free seminars, podcasts, and books, or enrolling in on-demand video classes or live courses like those offered by Noble Desktop.
  • Setting up a portfolio website involves showcasing examples of your work such as blog posts, videos, SEO keyword articles, or screenshots of social media threads, coupled with testimonials and detailed descriptions of your campaigns.
  • A complete LinkedIn profile, offering features like quick apply, job notifications, and professional networking, can significantly boost your freelance job search.
  • Job boards like FlexJobs, ProBlogger, UpWork, Fiverr, Remote.co, and WeWorkRemotely offer numerous opportunities for freelance digital marketers.
  • Noble Desktop provides a range of digital marketing courses with small class sizes and expert instructors, aiding in the acquisition of necessary skills for a digital marketing career.

Some people prefer to go to work for a company or agency as a Digital Marketer, while others strike out on their own. A freelance Digital Marketer is an independent contractor, not a regular employee of a company. Freelancers are self-employed and need to pay attention to business aspects that traditionally employed Digital Marketers do not. They also need to put constant energy and effort into finding new work.

The uncertainty and constant effort of freelancing is too much for some people but others thrive on it. Freelance work is flexible and attractive to people who want more control over their hours and working environment. Because Digital Marketing is done online, freelancers can work from anywhere as long as they have a good laptop and a reliable internet connection. As remote work becomes more acceptable, more people are giving freelance digital marketing a try.

How Do I Start a Freelance Career in Digital Marketing?

If you want to start a career as a freelance Digital Marketer, you will need to build up a skill base. You can do this by self-study, taking video courses, or signing up for a certificate program. The next step is to set up a portfolio website and create a LinkedIn profile. After you have established a web presence, you can begin to look for freelance jobs.

Gaining Digital Marketing Skills

Before you can start working as a freelance Digital Marketer, you will need to get some training. Depending on your motivation, it is possible to learn digital marketing on your own, but most people find classes to be a more efficient way of acquiring skills. After you finish training, set up a portfolio with examples of your work to show to clients, and create a profile on LinkedIn to start making connections. The final step is to sign up on some job boards and start applying for freelance jobs.

Learning on Your Own

It is possible to teach yourself digital marketing, although it involves a lot of trial and error. You can watch YouTube tutorials and free seminars, listen to podcasts, and read books. These free materials can give you an introduction to skills like search engine optimization, data analytics, email marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing, but one of the best ways to get started in digital marketing is to create a website and some social media accounts. You can practice digital marketing skills for yourself or do volunteer work for a friend to test out different techniques. Building skills with this approach can take a long time and many people decide to sign up for a class.

On-Demand Classes

Many companies offer pre recorded on-demand video classes on various digital marketing topics. These are more in-depth than free tutorials, and you often need to pay for them, although some companies offer free classes in their products like Google Analytics and Facebook Ads. Because they are pre-recorded, you can go back and watch videos numerous times to review the material. These classes are generally less expensive than in-person or live online courses, but you don’t have access to a live instructor to answer questions or give assistance.

In-Person and Live Online Courses

The most efficient and thorough way to learn digital marketing is by enrolling in an in-person or live online class. Noble Desktop offers several options, from intensive bootcamp classes to full certificate courses in digital marketing and social media marketing. This learning environment gives you the opportunity to interact with the instructor, either in-person or remotely, and small class sizes let you get to know fellow students and do some networking. You also get 1-on-1 career mentorship and job search materials review to help you start your freelance digital marketing business.

Set up a Portfolio Website

Once you have finished your training and done some work for yourself or as a volunteer, it is time to set up a website with PDF examples of marketing projects you’ve done to show to prospective clients. This will include a home page where you introduce yourself, a resume page, and sections with examples of your work such as blog posts, videos, SEO keyword articles, or screenshots of social media threads. Include some testimonials from mentors or past clients, if you have any, about your work. Describe how you designed the campaign and what the results were. Be sure to have a unique, professional-sounding, domain name.

Create a LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is a social media platform designed for businesses and professionals and it is a powerful networking tool. There is a job recruiting section where you can apply for as many jobs as you want with no service fees. After you complete your LinkedIn profile and upload a resume, you can use the quick apply feature. You can also get job notifications sent to your email account. You can join digital marketing groups and get the word out that you are looking for freelance work.

Finding Freelance Digital Marketing Jobs

Once you have a website and a LinkedIn profile, it is time to start looking for work. This can take time, so don’t get discouraged. As with any new venture, it can take several weeks or months to start landing jobs, but the more you work, the more people will hire you. 

There are numerous employment websites and job boards available to people looking for jobs as Digital Marketers, and many of them, like Indeed and Glassdoor, advertise freelance or contract positions along with regular jobs. The sites listed below focus on freelance jobs. Some are free to use and others charge a fee.

Flexjobs

One of the nice things about Flexjobs is that they vet the job listing to weed out scammers. One of the ways they can afford this is by charging a subscription fee to sign up, but they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. In addition to freelance and remote work listings, you can access job search resources like downloadable handbooks, articles, and webinars. You can even get a job search coach. 

ProBlogger

As the name implies, Problogger focuses on helping writers learn to make money with their blogs, but they also have a job board for content creators If copywriting or content marketing is your digital marketing niche, you can find lots of job advertisements here.

UpWork

When people think of freelancing, they think of UpWork.Unlike job boards, UpWork is a bidding site. The first step is to create a profile, then you can sell your abilities or bid on posted jobs. You can also fast-track by submitting your work to UpWork’s recruiters who decide if you match available opportunities. You choose how you get paid and there is a sliding fee scale.

Fiverr

Fiverr connects clients with freelancers for mostly small jobs. The name comes from the original idea of offering services for $5. This makes it a good place to look for little gigs that you can use to move into bigger ones.

Remote.co

Remote.co specializes in remote work. Not all remote work is freelance, but much of it is. You can find many full or part-time digital marketing jobs, plus articles on remote work, a Q&A section, career coaching, and online courses.

WeWorkRemotely

In addition to a job board, WeWorkRemotely offers a community to remote and freelance workers with a blog, podcast, events, a newsletter, and a #Slack channel. This can be useful, especially to people who are new to the sometimes lonely world of freelancing.

Learn the Skills to Become a Digital Marketer at Noble Desktop 

Noble Desktop offers many digital marketing courses that teach skills to help you switch to a career in digital marketing. Small class sizes and expert instructors help you learn digital marketing in in-person or live online classes. Plus, you can take a course over again for free at any time during the following year. 

Noble Desktop offers many bootcamps in digital marketing like Facebook Marketing, email marketing, Social Media Content Marketing: Blogs & Twitter, and Video Marketing: TikTok & YouTube. You can also choose the Digital Marketing Certificate or a Social Media Marketing Certificate course. Other Noble Desktop resources that can help prepare for a career in digital marketing include the digital marketing blog with valuable articles about social media marketing, SEO, and other essential tools for digital marketers.