Tips for promoting your website as a self-employed person

As a self-employed person, you often rely on your website to attract new clients and promote your work. To promote this website, and bottom line, your services, you can use a variety of avenues. In this blog post, we'll look at what sources and avenues you can use as a ZZP'er to promote your website.

Leverage social media channels

Social media is a powerful tool that many businesses use successfully to promote their services or products. Social media can be used both at no direct cost and for a fee by placing ads. As a self-employed person just starting out, you may think that you don't have enough budget for it yet. However, with social media, paid advertising can already be used at a relatively low cost. With a good ad and a small investment, with a smaller but specific target audience, you can reach thousands of people for less than 50 euros. Of course, this depends on the social media channel and the topic.

So don't hesitate to start, because the right attention for your services can quickly lead to first customers. This way you can expand your offer, invest more and start your own business.

Commonly used social media channels are: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat. Which channels suit you best depends on your target audience. So take a look at your own social media activity as well and do a group affiliation survey. However, a lot of media today expresses itself in the form of videos, with 60-second and vertical design gaining traction on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Search engine optimization to attract visitors with relevant keywords.

Search engine optimization continues to be an important traffic source for many websites. Roughly speaking, it's about appearing in a high position or on the first page for relevant searches that potential customers perform. For example, if you are a self-employed person who has opened a homemade furniture business, then search queries like:

• Handmade dining table chairs
• Oak table
• Handmade furniture
  

These are, of course, incredibly interesting search queries that show up high in search results. You can also pick this up on social media by creating short vertical videos about your latest projects. At the same time, you can create separate landing pages for these search queries. Or you can write blog posts about these topics. In this way, you put a lot of effort into ensuring that visitors are directed to your website. To eventually convert these visitors into orders and paying customers, of course. Such services are also often local or tied to a region. So try to focus on "oak table Ede", here you will also often find that the competition is less present here than with general terms.

Place ads

Ads can be used in a variety of ways, as online and offline ads are often powerful tools for attracting customers. Online, ads can be placed on social media, the Google search network, and the display network. Here, you can also advertise on specific websites. For example, through affiliate marketing or by buying ad space directly on popular websites in your industry. There is an option for every budget to advertise your services.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still a powerful tool for marketing your services or products today. Subscribers to email newsletters often already have an emotional connection to your work and are often part of a customer journey. From discovering your existence, to subscribing to the newsletter, to becoming a paying customer.

Collaboration with other companies

Collaborating with other businesses or self-employed individuals can also be a way to raise your own profile. As an example of a furniture maker, a wood painting company can be approached for a lasting collaboration. Both parties can benefit from this, because the wood varnish company has nice projects to work with. And the cabinetmaker has a steady supplier for a product he needs for each of his projects. Because of the mutual benefits, parties can always be found who are open to this. However, make sure you have a professional approach to such projects. And mail from your own mail address with the domain name of your ZZP company. Mails sent to companies using a free mail provider like Gmail will not be taken seriously.

Trade shows are also a good place to shake hands with other companies and independents in the same industry, and often good contacts can be made by exchanging business cards. So ask around to see if there are any such meetups or other startup conferences in your industry.

Are you also excited about your ZZP project? Share your website with us on social media!