In the last post, I said that we use a 2-part strategy to educate marketing freelancers effectively and inexpensively.
Here’s the second part…
Whenever we can, we choose the first project a new marketing freelancer works on so they can learn while they are doing productive work.
For us, that means we look for a customer-facing project. In marketing, a good first project is very often a case study or gathering testimonials.
That lets the marketing freelancer learn how people use the product or service, what it does for them, how they use it, and where the value is. Sure, you can tell them this yourself, but the information sinks in faster and more thoroughly when they hear it directly from the customers. Plus, they hear the language customers use, which is most likely different from what you say internally.
That information then provides a powerful foundation that informs everything else they do.
If the next project is designing a brochure, writing a sales letter, doing a press release, or updating the website – the result will be better because the freelancer now has a better understanding of how customers think and where they find value.
Even the best, smartest, most experienced marketing freelancers need to do this ramping up – they’ll do it better while working, and you’ll be getting useful work while they are learning. It’s a win-win.
So think about what kinds of projects do not require a lot of knowledge to do AND will let your marketing freelancers learn more about your business while they work.