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How Does Influencer Marketing Work for B2B Freelancers?

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Influencer marketing has been white hot for a minute and it’s getting even hotter. A strategy born of user generated content and nurtured by early bloggers soon produced content creators who came to be considered authorities within their niche fields of expertise, developing loyal audiences for their blog content and generating follower communities along the way. Those early pioneers earned reputations and gained recognition for product reviews that showed trustworthy insights and built credibility. The DIY grassroots aura and absence of corporate advertising gave it all the blessing of authenticity. The independent and impartial assessments provided by the bloggers encouraged engagement and audience trust. But this is America so gradually, bloggers with the biggest followings in the scene featured sponsored content on their sites (often disclosed through affiliate links) and next, collaborations with retail outlets and product brands.

The phenomenon was accelerated by the introduction of social media platforms and exploded with the arrival of visually-focused platforms. Images, and especially videos, provided an ideal environment for newly minted marketing influencers to showcase themselves and the brands they represent with exciting visual content. The visually focused platforms caused an inflection point that gave rise to influencer marketing stars who found a lot of work in the B2C sector, in particular fashion, beauty and travel. Bloggers and others who had a flair for creating appealing content plus the ability to connect with and encourage relationships with their audience began to grow significant followings and exert influence over the behavior (aspirations) of prospective and current customers.

The rise of B2B Influencers 

While originally a strategy used by your flashy B2C cousins, competition for billable hours in the B2B sector seems to have stimulated the adoption of influencer marketing in the B2B sector. However, be advised that B2B influencer marketing is not about showcasing services or products. Rather, B2B influencer marketing is about helping you build trust and connect with prospective clients who, if all falls into place, will be more inclined to become your loyal clients. The goal of B2B influencer marketing strategies is to align your organization with recognized and respected industry thought leaders—the influencers— whose industry knowledge, reputation and loyal followers can be leveraged in your target market sectors.

B2B influencers are well-known and respected experts and thought leaders in their field. They’ve acquired impressive knowledge, experience and authority that confers recognized credibility that’s enabled them to build a sizeable, loyal and often activist following. Based on that authority and credibility, effective influencers are able to build trust and enthusiasm for a brand within their community of followers by making endorsements that can stimulate purchases made by decision-makers within the community. Furthermore, a brand endorsement can also result in a significant number of positive reviews posted on social media that creates a word-of-mouth campaign that can spread to the general public and can stimulate still more purchases of the brand’s services or products.

On a national level, you might think of sales training expert Brian Tracy, marketing wizard Neil Patel, professional development guru and author Stephen Covey and leadership and personal development maven Brene Brown as powerful B2B influencers. The best influencers assist brands by providing targeted exposure, building industry credibility, facilitating strategic partnerships and product or service endorsements that, ideally, will substantively enhance brand recognition, reputation and sales. Potential B2B influencer marketing goals for your organization could include:

  • Increased credibility and trust for your brand within your target market
  • Heightened audience engagement with your marketing content
  • Enhanced perceived value of your brand
  • Increased stature and influence of your thought leadership
  • Accelerated rate and quality of leads generated and an enhanced sales conversion rate

Is influencer marketing for you?

Let’s examine how influencer marketing could be useful to B2B Freelance consultants. As usual, your first act will be to assess your client base and refresh your understanding of your target market(s). You must know whom you’d like to influence, what you’d like to achieve and why that achievement will matter. Verifying your target market will enable you to recognize which influencers, marketing tactics and channels can be expected to resonate with your clients and prospects. So that you can begin to recognize the expertise, authority, connections and social media presence your most effective influencer should have, it’s imperative that you clarify the problems and projects that clients and prospects ask you to resolve. As you go through this process, you’ll also get an idea of whether (or not) influencer marketing might be a fit for you.

Identify and investigate influencers in your industry

Take your evaluation process to the next level by investigating the types of content your clients and prospects usually engage with and the platforms that supply it. What types of content do they find relevant, whom do they follow and on which platforms can that content be found? Also, what are the most common questions they’re looking to answer and the problems they want to resolve?

Next, develop a list of influencers you’d like to contact. Your job here is to speak and get to know who you might like to work with. Does this candidate have not only the industry experience and authority that you’d like but does s/he have the connections and clout in your niche to move the needle for you? Essentially, you’ll search for influencers who can help you reach and impact your ideal audience. It’s no help if an influencer has a large community of followers but does not have a prominent presence in your industry and niche. Before you decide who you’d like to follow and follow-up with, verify precisely how your potential influencer can produce what you want, which is probably some combination of upgrading and/or increasing your leadgen, enhancing company brand, encouraging brand loyalty, upgrading and expanding the earned media you receive and, ultimately, impacting purchase decisions that increase your client roster. Keep all that in mind as you look for good potential influencers. Here are common methods you can use to find influencers you can meet and interview.

  • Social media. Many influencers have large followings on social media platforms and it makes sense to start your search there. You’ll want to choose influencers who have a strong presence on the preferred platforms of decision-makers for your service or product. Engage with the content of influencers who seem to have promise for you. You can follow those who look promising and then reach out and initiate contact. This strategy gives you direct access to potential influencers and enables you to build relationships.
    • If Facebook is your preferred platform, use their search function to find influencers. You can also check out industry specific Facebook groups or pages to find B2B potential influencers.
    • Instagram is your gateway to connecting with Millennial generation decision-makers and discovering the influencers they trust. Search the platform for producers of excellent and consistent content and then visit the site profiles of those content producers you find compelling.
    • LinkedIn is the usual suspect for all things B2B, including finding B2B influencers. You can search your industry to find influencers directly. Definitely join and investigate relevant LI groups and watch for influencers within their membership ranks.
  • Networking at industry conferences and events. Attending in-person meetings and conferences provides a unique opportunity to network with professionals and identify potential B2B influencers within your niche. The strategy is effective for discovering and getting to know B2B influencers with whom you can potentially build a mutually beneficial relationship.
    • Attend relevant conferences in your industry.
    • Actively participate in networking sessions.
    • Identify B2B professionals with significant industry influence
    • Establish connections and express interest in collaboration

  • Discover B2B influencers through industry publications, influential blogs and speaking engagements. This strategy lets you evaluate is the credibility of influencers by learning who is featured in respected industry publications, which indicates expertise, authenticity and most likely, influential relationships.
    • Regularly follow industry publications and relevant blogs, with an emphasis on organizations such as chambers of commerce or other well-respected professional societies and business associations. Identify content contributors and speakers who have the industry expertise and reputations that you seek.
    • Familiarize yourself with the content of industry experts that you find promising
    • Reach out to suggest the possibility of collaboration opportunities.

Evaluate B2B influencer industry authority and credibility;

Confirm the authority and credibility of potential B2B influencers within your industry by examining their past collaborations (if possible), content quality, consistency and presence in prestige publications. Your job is to investigate which B2B influencers’ audiences and authority align with your target market and can be useful for you. Refer to your research to develop a candidate shortlist.

Reach out to your follow-up list gauge and request an opportunity to discuss the possibility of an influencer marketing relationship. Enhance your appeal to your intended influencer with a personalized and compelling outreach message that demonstrates your awareness of his/her industry authority, as evidenced by the quality and consistency of his/her published content, speaking engagements and /or professional awards. Express your admiration for their insights and expertise.

If your invitation to talk is accepted, during the conversation inquire about the brands and types of campaigns your would-be influencer has previously collaborated on. If the initial discussion leads to further and more specific talks, request a link to his/her portfolio to verify the success of past collaborations and get a feel for how a collaboration with you might work.

Negotiate terms and collaboration agreements

Clearly define and commit to writing in a signed contract your expectations of the influencer marketing campaigns, the roles and responsibilities of the influencer you’ll partner with and the compensation agreement (monetary amount and due dates) with your selected B2B influencer. Execute this agreement by producing a transparently communicated legal document—a contract.

Keep in mind that a contract is only as good as your ability to enforce it. Help yourself by keeping your wish list and the timeline for its achievement realistic. While discussions and negotiations with your preferred influencer in advance of finalizing the contract, do your best to confirm which items of your wish list outcomes seem possible for your organization as well as the amount of time and other resources that will likely be needed to get you there.

Monitor and measure campaign influencer performance

Monitor the performance of your B2B influencer campaign by tracking the relevant associated key metrics, such as client and prospect engagement, click-through rates and shares, follower growth and expansion, leadgen growth and expansion, brand reach and impressions and sales revenue. In sum, you’ll want to evaluate the campaign ROI outcome and understand the costs associated with your influencer marketing campaign versus the sales revenue that can be attributed to the campaign.

It’s imperative that you obtain an objective and comprehensive assessment of your influencer marketing activities. As with all of your business strategies, obtaining a big-picture performance evaluation is a must-do. Once you learn which strategies and campaigns are effective, and therefore worthy of your investments of money and time, and what failed to live up to your expectations, and might either benefit from an adjustment or maybe should be dropped will, as always, show you the path forward.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © gstockstudio for Freepik

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Revolutionize Your Email Marketing Campaigns

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How many times over the past 10 years have B2B marketing experts declared email marketing dead? Oh, well—sometimes experts project their own feelings onto those whose behaviors they’ve been charged to study and predict. The experts, it seems, and not the customers, were ready to move on but like a cat, email marketing has nine lives. B2B email marketing in 2025 continued to earn the trust of customers and prospects and produced a confidence-boosting performance for marketers. The median B2B open rate reached 36.7%–42.35% , an increase from 34.2% in 2024, according to data from VerifiedEmail.

Email marketing continues to deliver exceptional return on investment of $36–$42 per $1 spent as of 2025, as reported by data published by Los Angeles, CA based VerifiedEmail and outperforming all digital marketing channels by 4–5x. Bold text, eye-catching images, interactive content and an irresistible subject line are how email marketers capture the attention of intended readers.

AI tools optimize performance of an evergreen marketing resource

A 2025 Boston Consulting Group survey of 251 marketing professionals concluded that 33% of survey respondents regularly use generative AI tools and 92% of respondents feel optimistic or very optimistic about the creative potential of GenAI over the next two to three years. GenAI tools like ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI and the AI-powered search engine Perplexity are primarily used to write articles and create images that accompany social media posts. Email marketers are finding inspiration in those capabilities and are off to a good start with AI technology. According to Salesforce research, AI is positioned to greatly enhance the impact of email marketing:

  • Managing campaigns: AI helps marketers understand which elements of an email campaign are effective and which do not resonate.
  • Content creation: GenAI platforms will support the text outline and compose the narrative, as well as edit your copy and also create the images that supply visual context to your marketing message.
  • Brainstorming: Marketers can use AI to jumpstart creativity and elevate the quality of the text you produce and help you to more efficiently produce the irresistible subject lines, eye-catching images and, most importantly, compelling topics that build the audience for marketing emails that deliver your newsletters.
  • Scaling output: AI can speed up completion of the normally time-consuming functions listed above—finding the right subject line, composing newsletter text, producing an image that enhances your text and, icing on the cake, analyzing the performance of your email marketing campaigns.

Getting in, getting noticed, getting opened

The volume of daily emails received by a working adult is often overwhelming and most inboxes are inundated with messages both business and personal. Nevertheless, the response to email marketing remains robust, propelled by the value and trust conveyed in highly targeted, personalized marketing messages that address the needs and priorities of decision-makers.

Still, recipients are inclined to require opt-in permission to control their email deluge. A double opt-in protocol that asks subscribers to both agree to accept your emails and also include another security layer by adding your company email address to his/her trusted contact list, your emails might still be blocked by spam filters. The unintended consequence is that 22% of permissioned email fails to reach subscriber inboxes.

Furthermore, like a determined salmon swimming upstream, reaching subscriber inboxes is only Step One in your marketing email’s journey. Step Two for email marketers is to prepare for how the email will be received and noticed by subscribers. Research indicates that as of 2025, 55% of email is opened on mobile devices, that is, smart phone or tablet. Responsive design is therefore required for your marketing emails. Furthermore, mobile devices allow only a limited view of the email subject line. Just first 40 characters of a subject line are visible on the iPhone email app.

Those 40 characters have a big responsibility. Marketers are advised to be very selective about what those 40 characters communicate to potential readers. Then again, shorter subject lines consistently outperform longer ones. The email marketing experts at Constant Contact point out that that all aspects of your email content—format, text and images—must be considered and optimal email design for different mobile devices may not be uniform.

An intriguing discovery is that including an emoji in the subject line can increase open rate by 56%. Still, a subject line that is considered relevant will likely be the more persuasive strategy for intended readers. Finally, there is the most important ingredient in this recipe and that is email content. The open and click through rates depend on the content delivered in the email. The subscriber has to feel that the subject you’ll cover—whether it’s a special offer, an announcement of some sort, or a hot industry topic—must be relevant and timely.

Email segmentation is the new normal

Email segmentation, along with email marketing automation, has been one of the biggest digital marketing trends over the last few years. Email segmentation has moved from what was considered an “advanced feature” to a capability that basically all email service provider platforms offer because basically all email marketers want to use segmentation in their email marketing campaigns to enhance the ROI.

Recent studies have found that 33% of companies segment their audiences for marketing campaigns and 20% send customer-specific emails. In fact, researchers at VerifiedEmail report a pronounced shift from email volume to email relevance that’s revealed the highest-performing campaigns send fewer emails to more precisely segmented (targeted) audiences and achieve 30% higher open rates and 50% higher click-through rates. These findings suggest that email marketers create customer personae and use data from those profiles to segment audiences and more effectively target the campaign content they will receive. Hyper -personalized marketing content has been shown to produce as much as a six-fold increase in transaction rate. In addition to producing increased sales revenue, the data further suggests that segmentation can boost recipient engagement as well. An industry study by MailChimp found that segmented campaigns lead to an average of 14% greater open rates and 100% greater clickthrough rates. Keep in mind that this happens when fewer, hyper-personalized emails are sent—I’m sure you’ll agree that limiting your marketing emails increases the value of those you do send and works to limit your unsubscribe rate.

Listen up—email marketing experts know that CTR matters more than the email open rate. VerifiedEmail spills the tea and points out that in our privacy-restricted era, CTR represents the most reliable engagement signal—it requires deliberate action rather than passive preview. Top-quartile email campaigns achieve 6%–10% CTR with diligent segmentation and AI- augmented personalization.

Get started by choosing the right email marketing eervice

Many marketers face the same challenge—they want to send marketing emails, grow their customer list and audience, plus automate and segment email campaigns without spending hours on design or technical setup. Furthermore, you may get stuck with the grunt work of performing manual data transfers risk to add list names and profile info if the software you use doesn’t integrate with the software used by your customer relations management service. You might also be limited in the number of marketing emails you can send. Or maybe you’ll eventually become dissatisfied with the generic designs that do not enhance your brand.

In other words, it will be worth your time to investigate and compare ESP software plans to identify the right platform for your needs. The right platform will save time and aggravation. It will simplify your workflow, encourage customer engagement, increase your campaign conversion rate and make your brand memorable in the best ways.

The price range of ESP plans varies significantly, depending on the level of service you’d like to have. There are even free plans that most likely will limit your number of email campaigns per day or month, a low-cost plan that could cost perhaps $5 to $10 per month, with limited campaign sends and size of the contact list, could be a good way for a Freelance professional to get started and access the benefits of email marketing. The average cost of email marketing platforms for up to 500 contacts is around $20 per month. Choosing the best platform won’t be complicated if you focus on the features that matter most. A list of typical services that marketers use is below. Next, you can start your ESP research here with this credible list of recommended email platforms Forbes Magazine in January 2026: 

1. Send volume. Pick a platform with send limits and pricing that match your current and future email marketing plans. Don’t overpay for features you won’t use or hit limits too soon.

2. Easy platform migration. Make sure it’s easy to migrate your customer data from your old system. The less time you spend moving contacts, the sooner you can get back to marketing.

3. Seamless integrations. Look for software that works with your CRM, online store, and even social media. This makes it easier to retarget leads and keep your marketing efforts connected.

4. User-friendly design tools. Choose a platform with drag-and-drop editors and customizable templates. You shouldn’t need a designer or coder to build beautiful emails.

5. Automation & AI. Advanced platforms let you automate email workflows, like sending follow-ups based on opens or clicks. AI can help predict the best times to send emails, write subject lines, or even suggest content.

6. Customization & branding. Free or cheap plans often include the platform’s logo on your emails. Invest in a plan that lets you add your branding, so your business looks professional.

7. Analytics. Basic reports should track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. A/B testing tools can show you what’s working and where to improve.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty Images. Burning Blue Email

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Storytelling Is the New Advertising

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Not long ago, advertisements you saw in newspapers and magazines were made to capture attention with style and flare. Whether those advertisements were from back in the day, or 21st century pop-ups that invade the screen on your device as you scroll through websites, ad copy displayed flawless visuals and meticulously phrased text, both carefully crafted to dazzle and persuade a broad swath of the ad’s target market viewers. But that was then and this is now.

In the here and now, tightly scripted advertisements appear to be losing their hold on audiences. The viewing public, some of whom are within your target market, are apparently tiring of what can easily be interpreted as ad agency engineered, focus-group tested and totally corporate. Your future clients, and maybe you, too, value what feels genuine, relatable, believable—authentic. Your future clients are hungering for comfort food served in a favorite neighborhood place, not a four- course banquet served in a grand, Michelin starred restaurant.

What future clients are increasing drawn to is storytelling—personal testimony that comes across as unscripted and communicates a set of values and guiding principles that inform how you conduct your business and and even personal life. The influence and impact of storytelling continues to expand and it seems to already have become the future of adverting in B2B and B2C markets.

Advertising experts call the emerging storytelling phenomenon the trust economy and it is winning loyalty (and wallets) with its apparently unrehearsed, believable, real first-person accounts that are overtaking the glossy ads of days past. For example, brands that feature storytelling by the company founder—maybe showing a clip that illustrates what’s happening behind the scenes or revealing that a percentage of company profit is devoted to a certain philanthropy and also explaining how the recipients benefit— are winning customers, growing their follower and customer communities and surpassing the usual results of traditional advertising. In today’s marketplace, authenticity—which is a defining ingredient of trust— has become real currency. Authentic storytelling is how you can earn it.

Maybe the rise of storytelling is a reaction to all those banner ads and pop-ups that clutter screens and have come to annoy digital audiences? Ad-blocker usage is high, especially among Generation Z (born 1997-2012) and Generation Alpha (born 2010-2025) cohorts, whose members show skepticism toward traditional advertisements. According to marketing researchers and thought leaders, authenticity is now a leading B2B purchasing driver, with prospective buyers more likely to buy from brands they perceive as transparent and real. This generational demand for “truth” means over-engineered marketing campaigns and content may no longer resonate with your target audience. But the apparently candid testimonials that typify storytelling are perceived as believable, authentic and trustworthy.

Powerful stories

On every continent and throughout human history, people with a gift for telling a story have held power in their community. We like hearing a good story that is told well. Stories told by company founders and even employees have a persuasive resonance in today’s marketplace. For example, entrepreneurs who share factors that motivated them to launch their business entity and tell the company origin story—and perhaps bravely admitting their struggles, pivots, or failures — create intimacy and relatability with their audience that neither impossibly glamorous models or bland-looking actors who were once the faces of hundreds of companies, smiling and spouting the official brand messages—cannot match.

Furthermore, traditional ads—TV, radio, print, or digital— are more expensive than ever and their returns are diminishing. By contrast, trust and authenticity-driven advertising (marketing) campaigns often require smaller budgets and deliver outsized impact in viewer engagement and word-of-mouth.

Storytelling, which is an outbound marketing strategy and therefore defined as a push promotional marketing tactic, is fundamentally different from the typical message broadcasting that defines outbound marketing, from television, radio, or print ads to sponsoring the holiday tree lighting in your neighborhood.

Expert storytelling invites the audience into a journey. Stories are a shared experience, personal and intimate and capable of making what is a transactional relationship—selling and buying— into communities of shared values and beliefs and whose participants can develop loyalty. Harvard Business Review notes that brands that present authentic narratives in their advertising and other content marketing activities see measurable improvements in consumer trust and loyalty. As well, Nielsen’s Trust in Advertising Report highlights that recommendations from “people like me” remain the most trusted source of brand information and vastly outperforms paid ads.

Build trust into marketing strategies

The core of storytelling is about developing a narrative that is believable and therefore resonates on an emotional level with audience members. The goal is to create a connection with your audience that inspires trust in and loyalty to your brand. A marketing strategy whose message prioritizes truth and has authenticity as its core delivers story narratives that your current and future clients will believe in. Your brand story, when effectively told, can connect with your current and future clients on a deeper level, providing feelings of belonging and loyalty. This emotional connection is crucial in building a lasting relationship between the brand and its consumers. When developing your storytelling strategy and choosing key elements to incorporate in the narrative, you might include:

  • showcasing not only the company founders, but also employees as storytellers
  • Sharing behind-the-scenes happenings with humility, honesty and maybe a touch of humor as well
  • Participating in social media as well as selected in-person community events or platforms to create opportunities that invite two-way communication with your clients, prospects and other followers
  • To evaluate the impact and outcomes of your storytelling marketing campaigns, measure not just impressions but also viewer sentiment, advocacy and engagement metrics

Develop your brand story

Storytellers may sound unscripted and in the strictest sense of the word, that may be true. However, effective storytellers, whether they are entertainers or entrepreneurs, know their talking points. They know the theme and purpose of the narrative. They know how to present the story to the audience and make it capture attention and flow. In other words, creating an effective brand story requires careful consideration. Here are key elements to keep in mind:

  • Know your audience: Understanding your target audience is always essential in public speaking. Make a list of what you feel represent your values, guiding principles, priorities and purpose and consider how they impact the company. You may also want to include challenges and pain points and a reach-for-the-stars goal or two. Tailor your story narrative to resonate with your audience.
  • Clear message and purpose: You don’t want to rant, you don’t want to humble brag. You must have a purpose, an objective, that can lead you to devise a compelling story. Your story should have a clear and concise message. Avoid overcomplicating the narrative; focus on the core message you want to convey, keeping it simple. You should have a Call to Action—what do you want your audience to do—maybe make a purchase, so that they can feel philanthropic by knowing that a portion of each sale will be used to fund a worthy cause, e.g., a healthcare or educational organization?
  • Authenticity: Authenticity is crucial to storytelling. Your clients can easily detect inauthentic narratives, which can damage a brand’s reputation. Ensure that your story aligns with your brand values, company vision and mission.
  • Emotional appeal: Incorporate elements that evoke emotions. Whether it’s joy, sadness, inspiration or nostalgia, an emotional connection can significantly enhance the impact of your story.
  • Organize the narrative: Your story must have a beginning, middle and end. It must have an intro that intrigues viewers and a conclusion that inspires them. A Call-to-Action will tell them how to direct the emotions your story has built up; it creates a common purpose among audience members and is a bonding and community-building experience.
  • Visual and verbal aspects: Combine visual and verbal elements to create a cohesive and immersive experience. Use imagery, videos and written content to bring your story to life.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Alejandra Brun/ Agence France-Presse for Getty Images. Charles Robinson, member of the Choctaw tribe (AL, LA, MS, OK), dances during his storytelling presentation in Lima, Peru, August 2003

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Level Up Your Thought Leader Cred

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Being a thought leader is a vital ingredient in a Freelancer’s recipe for a B2B content marketing strategy that moves the needle. In fact, establishing yourself as a credible thought leader is foundational to building a thriving Freelance client list. Freelancers must recognize that business acumen, lived experience and data you share with content followers, some of whom are prospects and clients, is a valuable strategic asset. What you know and how you express your knowledge is the core of your Unique Selling Proposition and the engine that drives your ability to deliver solutions that produce results and convert prospects into paying clients.

Many independently employed professionals label themselves an “expert in the field and thought leader,” but few do so with a carefully considered sense of purpose that leads to an actionable outcome—like persuading a hesitant prospect to become a client. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace that’s populated with cautious prospects who’ve lengthened B2B sales cycles and pushed your next paid invoice farther into the future, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from those whose “thought leadership” amounts to checking the box and calling it done.

Tickling a handful of marketing metrics doesn’t prove that you’re a credible thought leader, either; click bait posts and articles are only eye wash and audiences recognize it. True connaisseurs of thought leader content track business impact (vs. 63% overall) and 51% track brand authority (vs. 38% overall) to assess how audiences really feel about their content. They measure the relevance of their thought leadership with insightful metrics:

  • Audience engagement — views, downloads, shares (80%)
  • Business impact — lead generation, pipeline influence (63%)
  • Audience feedback — client/prospect feedback, sentiment analysis (40%)
  • Brand authority — speaking/media opportunities, publication citations (38%)

Furthermore, connaisseurs publish their thought leadership on marketing channels that provide an audience of B2B prospects who are serious about obtaining useful information. If you are not currently publishing on these channels, as well as getting out in front of a live audience every once in a while, add these items to your thought leadership promotional activities.

  • LinkedIn (76%)
  • Email newsletters (54%)
  • Speaking events, webinars (52%)

Those who “get” the power of thought leadership know that the information they present may be used by audience members who are either familiar with or contending with a particular challenge. The insights and info you present as a thought leader is used to support responsible decision-making, whether in the moment or in the near future. Therefore, the goal of savvy Freelancers is to produce credible, possibly innovative and reliably useful thought leadership content that followers and other readers or viewers will notice and remember. Below are thought leadership ingredients you can use to develop your recipe for success.

1. Solve a problem readers will recognize

Effective thought leadership is born of a vexing problem that is urgent—an emerging risk, a stubborn and mysterious challenge or failing, or even a misunderstood opportunity. The most perceptive and confident thought leaders will dare to step outside the usual narrative or practice and provide a perspective the audience hasn’t heard before and use it as a launchpad for potentially effective solutions. Does your thought leadership content inspire your audience make smarter, braver, decisions, or help them to avoid a potentially costly error, or problem they may not have considered?

Thought-leadership content that presents insights and information that helps decision-makers perform not as mere functionaries but as leaders who know how to keep the mission-driven goals of their organization in the forefront builds trust and separates you from competitors. To achieve that, thought-leaders must be aware of what audience members need to know now—before a competitor tells them first.

2. Present thought leadership content with an out-of-the-box idea

Defining the problem is where thought leadership starts and proposing an innovative way to perceive and address it is what gets thought leader content noticed. A true thought leader is provocative, one who reveals an “aha” moment that makes a new way of looking at things both credible and memorable. Create thought leadership content that challenges conventional wisdom or reframes a common problem in an unexpected way—and show your audience that you understand the problem and how it can be solved.

To stimulate your creative spirit, you may want to employ an Artificial Intelligence tool to rev up your brainstorming. You’ll have to experiment to find the right prompts that help you discover intriguing, but credible, possibilities for topics that answer questions for readers and reveal what they consider to be an emerging concern. AI can also help you frame your approach to the topic and provide suggestions as to which narrative threads might be included in your content. Also, use storytelling to shape your content, as it is usually the most relatable way to communicate with your audience—and they’re more likely to retain the info you deliver.

A concise overview of a case study or references to insights gleaned from user generated content that’s appeared on your company’s social media accounts are excellent sources of lived experiences that are provided by your very own followers. You can also discover topics to explore as well. Let AI help you start the brainstorming process by showing you topics that your audience are likely to find relevant and then build your case with real time source material that might reflect both your own experiences and that of your clients.

3. The best thought leadership content is in the trenches

When scouting for source material, keep in mind that residents of the C-Suite may not give you boots-on-the-ground perspectives or stories that reveal out-of-the-box perspectives or possible solutions that bring “street cred” to your thought leader content. Clients and colleagues who have a customer-facing role are better positioned to provide you with the most interesting topics, experiences and insights that bring authenticity to your narratives. You want reports from those who notice shifting customer behavior, for example, and other grass-roots experiences that bring a rawness and depth to your thought leader content and makes it relevant to a wide audience.

4. Thought leader content is considered useful

Good thought-leader content earns attention by delivering relevant information. That doesn’t mean checklists or how-tos—but it does mean clarity and ideas that make a subject that is complex feel as if it can be navigated and understood. When your followers and other readers finish your article and let the information you provided and hit the save and/or the forward button, that will verify your status as a thought leader. Useful content helps readers do things like:

  • See a risk they hadn’t considered
  • Argue for a decision internally
  • Convince the audience to take action
  • Shift the mental model audience members were using

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©nobelprize.org (L-R) Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Simon Johnson of MIT and James Robinson of University of Chicago in Chicago, IL

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Get It Right: How to Make It While Freelancing

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About one in two American workers will participate to some degree in the Freelance labor market by 2027, according to researchers at Statista, the German global business intelligence platform, who project that about 86.5 million workers, more than half of the U.S. workforce, will earn their living as Freelance professionals or other independently employed workers.

That more smart and ambitious professionals are expected to join the Freelance labor market is a powerful vote of confidence, but a growing numbers of professionals will inevitably result in a marketplace crowded with competitors and making it increasingly difficult to stand out and build a thriving, sustainable Freelance business entity.

As a new year approaches and the “fresh start” impulse kicks in, you may be inclined to take up some future-proof thinking; your brainstorming may lead you to remember that the best defense is a good offense. What proactive and assertive strategies can you explore and enact now to strengthen your position in a marketplace that is destined to become more competitive?

A defensive strategy known to augment the power of your brand is to include in all marketing initiatives and collaterals campaign messaging that describes and promotes your brand’s Unique Selling Proposition—those singular benefits that appeal to your ideal clients and distinguish your services or products from competitors. It is imperative that USP attributes are consistently and unambiguously communicated in marketing messages, to ensure that your marketplace offerings are recognizable to those who value them.

Robust marketing is just one vital component needed to build and sustain a successful Freelance venture. Below are a few basic actions that, if enabled by big-picture thinking and working smart, along with a dose of good luck, can help you to climb to the top of the Freelance earnings pyramid. Here you go!

1. Freelancing is sales

Freelancing means that you must work so that you can work—and the work you must do is selling. It’s an unavoidable fact that in order to be hired for client work, Freelancers must persuade prospective clients to become your paying clients. That can occur if your capabilities are superior to any competitors who are also vying for the assignment. Furthermore, you must demonstrate that you are well-organized and efficient, pleasant to work with and that you are good cultural fit for the client’s company and team. Finally, you must have two or three credible references to provide third-party verification of your abilities and good qualities. If the client, which could be represented by a hiring committee, is satisfied with your competencies and credentials, you will be awarded the contract.

Note that the primary ingredient in this process is sales. To make money, Freelance professionals (and all business owners) must become adept at sales and that includes understanding the “pain points” that motivate clients to seek out the type of services or products that you offer. Before client work is obtained, the Freelancer must sell—and that begins with identifying and connecting with viable prospects who may have a project scheduled for which you are qualified. Selling is probably the most important competency a Freelancer must develop, whether you are a software developer or a make-up artist, because you can’t entirely outsource it. The owner of the company must be able to sell the product or service to prospective clients.

Face2face networking is the most effective way to meet those who might hire you, although quite a few Freelancers regularly connect with prospects who become paying clients when working through a Freelance marketplace such as Xolo, Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr, which vets the legitimacy of Freelancers and prospective clients. In addition to possessing the necessary skills to satisfactorily complete the project, the Freelancer must also communicate that s/he is trustworthy, dependable and, oftentimes, has done work similar to the project in question, in order to instill sufficient confidence in either online or in-person prospect introductions to extend an invitation to interview for the project and green-light the hire.

2. Identify your market niche

What services will your Freelance consulting business provide and who can you expect to become your clients? Freelancers must acquire expertise in a marketable skill and understand the typical “pain points” of prospective clients. You must learn to articulate the problems can you solve, which goals you can help the prospect achieve. Aspiring Freelance professionals cannot simply decide that you’d like to earn a living as a social media marketer or special events photographer and voila, you will receive offers of work. High-level skills and significant experience are needed before you can go out on your own and expect to make a living.

When pondering the possibility of launching a Freelance business, research the marketplace need in your geography of the current and trending demand for skills that you can demonstrate at expert level. That you are “passionate” about certain activities is not enough. Which trends are emerging and which once-dominant trends are waning?

Finally, research and learn how those who would be your prospective clients getting their needs met now. The answer to this question will reveal your competitors. Research who is making money in your niche. Visit websites and social media accounts to find out the identity of big clients and learn how your prospective competitors sell to clients.

3. Freelancers are business owners

Freelancing calls for more energy, determination, savvy and creativity than social media cheerleaders let on. As detailed above, Freelance professionals do more than provide the contracted services by providing an effective solution that solves a problem or achieves a goal. Freelancing also means you must become adept at managing the business aspects of your entity.

In all likelihood the best way to obtain comprehensive business development skills capable of building a robust and sustainable Freelance venture is to contact SCORE, The Service Corp of Retired Executives, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors who, at no charge in most cases, will help you, a small businesses owner-operator, plan, launch, manage and grow your entity.  SCORE is a not-for-profit organization launched by the Small Business Association in 1964 and is dedicated to developing thriving small business communities through mentoring and educational workshops.

4. Your story Is your power

Storytelling can be an opportunity to share your unique experiences that differentiate you from competitors and help you and your company, services, or products to stand out in the ever more crowded marketplace. Your stories communicate your brand identity and brand persona as they connect you with potential clients in a memorable way. Your stories are one of your most important relationship-building marketing assets.

You can share professional experiences, personal reflections, obstacles you’ve faced and tackled and observations that have taught you powerful lessons. Regardless of the type of story, you should follow a clear structure by ensuring you highlight what exactly happened (the context), the lesson to be taught through the challenge or crisis in the story and conclude with the positive outcome or result—even if it was unexpected. Your stories bolster your relatability, build transparency and trust, demonstrate your resilience and resourcefulness and might also opens doors to opportunities like speaking engagements and co-hosting workshops. A resonating story is all about how you tell it and for that bit of magic, I refer you to champion storyteller Kelly D, Parker.

5. Price like you understand the job

Don’t allow fear to cause you to under-price your services, including all the “extras” that collectively represent the quality of the customer experience your clients have come to associate with your organization. Like the classic L’Oreal tagline for Preference Hair Color said, “Because you’re worth it“. Freelancers who underbid projects, thinking that low project fees result in more work only misinterpret the psychology of sales. Freelancers who don’t ask enough questions to apprise the scope of the work and client expectations, don’t account for revisions and don’t build in a buffer zone of time to mitigate timeline delays caused by unexpected complications that could undermine achieving the preferred project completion date don’t really understand the meaning of cost-effective.

Your project price quote tells a prospect that you understand the scope, you’ve thought things through and that the client can trust you to stay calm and in control, whether in the best-case scenario, when all goes according to plan, or when something goes sideways. If your price is too low, the client may silently worry that you’re missing something important. On the other hand, if your quote is too high as compared to others that were received, the client may suspect that you’re padding the estimate as a way to enrich him/herself.

The pricing sweet spot is a balancing act that must satisfy both the client and you. Your project quote must be not be so low as to raise red flags, nor so expensive as to create anxiety, but realistic and competitive enough to suggest you know exactly what you’re getting into. Price like you understand what it takes to do the job right and clients will trust you to do it.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Edmund Dantes/Pexels for iStock

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Milestones Are Your Reason for A Reset

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Certain dates on the yearly calendar are noteworthy—birthdays, holidays and anniversaries, a new year or a new season, as well. The dates have meaning; they mark special occasions and hold a certain power. You might call them milestone dates. Some milestones merely mark the passage of time, but others suggest growth and development, an inflection point and the possibility of making a positive change. Those milestones beckon you to consider new options, new experiences, or a new perspective.

A particular milestone date or occasion may motivate you to do better and give yourself an upgrade. You might feel it’s time to press the reset button on some aspect of your life. You’re primed to open the door to new options and opportunities. You recognize that you’ve reached a psychological milestone and life is telling you to reassess and redesign, reinvent, or recharge some part of your life or some part of your business enterprise or career. Think New Year’s Resolutions.

This spark of inspiration is called the “fresh start effect.” It’s a psychological phenomenon that explains why milestones—the arrival of a new year, a birthday, or the first day of a new season—make you inclined to self-reflection. You feel the urge to take on beneficial new habits and drop an old habit that’s outlived its usefulness. You’re ready to attach jumper cables to your personal or professional life, start the ignition and make things come alive.

Because the fresh start effect is universal, your clients are likewise inclined to experience a restless feeling that creates a longing for something new and different. For that reason, milestones are an excellent time to make use of the prevailing zeitgeist and shake up a client-facing sector of your business. The strategy is powerful because you’ll align your company and its solutions with your customers’ existing expectations, rituals and rhythms.

Your mission is to position your brand to align with customs or expectations that your clients and prospects will likely experience when they think of your target milestone occasion. How might your service or product be perceived as part of their fresh start? Your goal is to not only meet their needs and wants, but also portray your brand as a timely, trusted partner during noteworthy moments in their lives. Milestone dates are the right time to stir the pot and offer up—what? An activity or information that aligns with your company and its services or products and simultaneously resonates with your clients and prospects to show them why they trust, relate to and value your brand.

Your potential milestone occasions could be the beginning of a new school year, the arrival of spring or fall, the anniversary of your business launch or getting your first paying client, or even Black Friday (U.S. readers know that’s the fourth Friday in November). This post was inspired by the arrival of the fourth quarter on October 1. 4Q is powerful because it closes on December 31, the end of the calendar year, and business owners and leaders are anxious to have a strong finish to the year.

Commemorate your milestones

The fresh start effect is a golden opportunity you don’t want to miss. Your clients and prospects can be positively influenced by milestone dates, even if the occasion is linked to your business and not a national holiday or change of seasons. It’s not a stretch to persuade your audience to take on a mindset that opens them up to change and new beginnings that happen to align with your company, products or services. In other words, don’t shy away from celebrating the anniversary of your company’s launch as your Founder’s Day and build a promotional campaign to celebrate it—and bring in revenue as you do!

Make your marketing message about a restart and transformation

Marketing messages that include a theme of renewal and transformation often resonate with audiences during fresh start milestone periods because your audience is already in a self-assessment and growth-oriented mindset. For example, presenting a new angle to your brand story to refresh client enthusiasm and promote engagement is among the milestone-themed campaigns you might choose to develop. To tap into this power, invite a client to give a testimonial—audio, video, or written—that describes how your product or service sparked meaningful change in the client’s business operations, whether it’s a small but powerful effect or a game-changer.  

You can get the ball rolling on client testimonials by creating a survey that asks questions such as, “How has our product or service made a difference in how you do business? Can you share a specific example?” These questions will focus testimonial responses on the tangible benefits and transformational power of your products rather than generic praise like, “Your product or service is awesome!” Often, you’ll even uncover surprising ways your product made a difference.

Alternatively, you (and your team, if that applies) can present a backstage story by creating a video of you on your way to give a presentation at a local business association, or to do volunteer work. Your clients may enjoy getting to witness an uncensored, up-close and person look that nevertheless illustrates your business acumen and, if philanthropy is the focus, your values and the importance of corporate social responsibility and giving back to your community.

Good stories are always about transformation. You want to position your service or product as a catalyst for your clients’ positive evolution and so that you can connect with them on a deeper, emotional level so that you will take on the role of guide in their journey. By presenting useful, or fun and always compelling information about your brand you’ll capture the attention and imagination of your audience and strengthen their bond with you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: A “Sweet 16” birthday party at The Crystal Ballroom in Daytona Beach, FL

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Mix Master: Balance Branding, Marketing and PR

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When operating a business, whether that means a boutique, one person Freelance entity or an enterprise company that employs thousands of workers in dozens of locations, encouraging sales of products and services is most often the purpose of information that company leaders share with the public. Sharing specific types of information about the company and its services and products with those that research indicates have significant potential to become customers plays a vital role in building and maintaining a thriving business. The ability of said company’s services and products to capture the attention and inspire the loyalty and trust of prospective customers is reflected in name recognition, feelings of credibility and loyalty among target customers and customer evangelism for the company and its services and products.

The information created to be seen by prospective customers is without question a company’s most important communication initiative and it’s known as the marketing strategy—a comprehensive road map that defines how the company will reach out and appeal to prospective customers and convince them to become paying customers. The public facing components of the marketing strategy are advertising, branding and publicity/public relations, along with campaign-specific marketing activities. Ideally, all the aspects of marketing information will function in tandem and create competitive advantages against the company’s marketplace competitors. To most efficiently and effectively implement a big-picture marketing strategy, it is advantageous to follow a certain “order of operations,” a road map that enables each component to support the others. You may be surprised to learn that the road to a high-functioning marketing campaign begins with public relations and publicity.

The goal of marketing—whether the big-picture marketing strategy that includes branding, advertising and PR/publicity, as well as the campaign-specific activities of marketing initiatives that typically include email marketing, networking, social media and content marketing—is to introduce and create an appetite for your service or product. Many marketers (and that would include me) have been tempted to begin implementation of the big-picture marketing strategy with branding. We tend to assume that presenting an identity, a brand persona, for the company and its services and products will most immediately resonate with prospective customers. We’ve been taught that prospects will more readily understand and value the service or product by getting familiar with the brand, which would make that function the first step in cultivating loyal customers who, we hope, will give good word-of-mouth by making referrals and becoming advocates.

However, in the 2020s era to begin a major marketing campaign with branding is very cart-before-the-horse. Today, PR/publicity exacts considerable influence on the perception of product or service credibility. Maybe it’s the inevitable result of Instagram and TikTok? In the here and now, start-up founders and marketers for existing businesses must acknowledge the power of PR in their arsenal of promotional communication resources. Strategic and consistent PR/publicity is now recognized as the way to encourage visibility and instill credibility that distinguishes your company and its services and products in the marketplace. Marketing, and its advertising component, will drive awareness but the PR spotlight can make your services and products seem trendy and trustworthy and create an aura that drives sales.

PR is visibility and credibility

Publicity is born of look-at-me attention and buzz. PR means press releases, blogs, podcasts, special events and influencer shout-outs that echo through the digital metaverse and put your company’s name on the lips of target customers. PR expands marketplace awareness that sparks name recognition but it is not a direct method of generating leads or driving sales. Instead, PR works in the background, cultivating and elevating your brand’s reputation.

So make yourself visible on behalf of your business; you might start by exploring how to become a podcast or webinar guest or participate in a panel as a speaker or moderator. You could also research local events that resonate with your values, and the values of your target customers, and engineer another opportunity to receive visibility as you simultaneously verify your belief in corporate social responsibility.

Incidentally, be aware that CSR is sometimes a decisive factor in B2B and B2C purchasing decisions —today’s consumers increasingly prioritize ethics. B2B services company BusinessDasher explains that 84% of customers evaluate a companies’ ethics and values when considering a purchase, and 63% say they would prefer companies with whom they do business to adopt ethical business and social practices.

As noted, promotional communications are under the marketing umbrella and there is a degree of overlap between all marketing functions, but Public Relations/publicity and marketing have their differences. PR/publicity is focused on establishing and expanding the company name and reputation of its services and products by being seen in the right places. PR can encourage positive word of mouth so that prospective customers will realize that your entity is open for business.

After you’ve developed and implemented successful PR/publicity initiatives over several months or even a year, consult your marketing data to check on metrics that indicate when it could be advantageous to launch a boots-on-the-ground marketing activities that include implementing a sales/marketing funnel, publishing a newsletter or blog, setting up email campaigns, or stepping up social media presence, all to continue and further solidify customer engagement. Step Two in your marketing strategy is about shifting gears and bringing in high-quality leads you can convert into sales.

Marketing attracts customers

Marketing refers to everything that brings information and images that represent your company and its products and services directly to potential customers, to capture attention, educate them about your services and products, inspire trust and loyalty and promote sales—it’s Step Two in your promotional campaign. Great marketing doesn’t so much sell your product or service—rather, it creates a desire for your product or service. Effective marketing generates actions that are measurable, whether that’s clicks, email sign-ups, subscribing to your blog or newsletter and eventually, sales. If publicity is about awareness, marketing is about attraction. Now is the time to leverage the visibility that was generated by PR/publicity and use it to reach out to prospects and cultivate relationships, now that you’ve achieved name recognition and familiarity that are the seeds of trust.

As you know, a key component of marketing is content marketing, which is information that educates prospects about your product or service; particularly in B2B, content marketing has become the new advertising. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute found that 80% of corporate decision-makers prefer to review information about products or services that’s presented as objective research, rather than advertisements, which are considered to be biased. One study has put the number of prospects and customers who believe advertisers have integrity at 4%.

Customer trust in traditional advertising has tanked, especially for Millenials and GenZ.  Wharton Magazine reports that 84% of Millennials not only dislike traditional ads, but also distrust them. For companies that would like to expand their market reach, these statistics send a clear signal. Investing only in advertising and marketing campaigns is unlikely to move the needle. To develop a good reputation for your brand, it’s recommended to start with PR/publicity and then move into marketing activities that include content marketing, networking, podcast or webinar appearances and publishing a blog or newsletter.

Brand is identity

The impact of brand identity is revealed in the sum total of how customers experience and perceive your business and its services and products, from product packaging to tag line, price structure to social media presence. A brand encompasses all the touch points that shape how customers feel about interacting with the brand. The interpretation of those touch points belongs only to the customer because engaging with a brand involves emotion—what people feel when they see your company name, logo, service, or product. It’s your company’s identity and reputation and it expresses and represents what it means to customers.

Your brand will be nurtured by ongoing PR/publicity, from CSR inspired events to your active involvement in professional associations or business organizations. along with content marketing activities, from case studies to email marketing. Associating your company with respected business organizations and community events can only elevate its visibility and brand reputation—characteristics known to encourage brand loyalty and sales.

Identify what motivates customers to buy

To understand the motives behind your customers’ purchases, tap into information that’s provided by the inward-facing aspect of marketing—market research. After all, the best decisions are data-driven. Yelp’s Trend Tracker can give a big boost to the ROI of your marketing activities with analytic insights that are available to you free of charge—join the mailing list and you’ll receive data that is relevant and updated monthly and enables those who pay attention to access boots-on-the-ground marketing info that can steer the effective promotion your products and services. Supported by Trend Tracker data, you’ll be positioned to detect and quickly respond to customer preferences, adjust marketing strategies and/or tactics to better align with shifting customer priorities and maybe even tweak your service or product line to reflect a significant shift in customer tastes.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: David created by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564, Republic of Florence) and unveiled in 1504, the statue has been housed at Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy since 1873.

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What Do You Spend to Get a New Customer?

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Do you know how much you spend, on average, to convert a prospect into a paying customer—attracting the prospect’s attention, educating the prospect about your brand, your services and your products, instilling confidence and building trust—and making a sale? Have you tallied up the combined cost per customer of your marketing campaigns, selling expenses, referral programs, customer onboarding and the like and calculated the average amount of the marketing spend that supports the growth of your customer list—and your revenue, as a result? What kind of a return on investment are you getting from your marketing campaigns and sales strategy?

You may not know in the moment your company’s average customer acquisition cost, but it would be a good idea to update it (or figure it out) and keep that number in mind, because your CAC is a metric that reveals an important story about how your business functions. Customer Acquisition Cost is a key performance indicator, although not necessarily in the way many business owners and leaders think. CAC shines a bright light on the performance of company operations and outcomes, including the business model, which is the essential plan for making money. The metric also reveals the effectiveness of your overall marketing strategy, which reflects your marketing acumen and, in the end, can make a credible prediction of your organization’s potential for profitability and expectations for growth and scalability.

CAC is a metric that can be benchmarked against an industry standard and it’s a smart idea to research your industry’s average CAC and use the benchmark number as a guideline. Learning the CAC benchmark for your industry will enable you to identify a reasonable dollar amount for your marketing and sales budgets and help you avoid either overspending or underinvesting on marketing activities—which you rely on to bring paying customers into the business.

Familiarity with the CAC benchmark in your industry also enables you to evaluate your performance as a marketer. For example, if your company’s CAC is significantly higher than industry average, it could indicate problems with your marketing strategies or sales strategies and practices—-you’re spending money but not bringing in enough customers, or not the right customers, to generate a healthy marketing ROI. On the other hand, if your CAC is rather low as compared to the industry benchmark, it suggests that you may be under-funding marketing. If that’s the case, then theoretically you could assume that spending more on marketing would bring in more customers that fit your definition of ideal. In other words, CAC reflects the effectiveness of your marketing practices and can help you set realistic goals, as well as identify where you need to do better.

Calculate CAC by dividing total marketing and sales expenses by the number of new customers you’ve brought to the business within a given period—annually or quarterly, for example. Because many businesses serve more than one customer segment, it will make sense to separately calculate CAC according to customer segments, which could be based on demographic factors and might also involve differences in sales cycle length or competitive landscape. Incidentally, B2B entities typically have a longer sales cycle and tend to have a higher average CAC than B2C companies.

You’ll also want to segment your spend on the marketing channels you use—e.g., email marketing, social media advertising, customer relations management software subscriptions, and/or attending trade shows—and calculate the corresponding CAC figures. But what does understanding CAC really do for you? CAC is about documenting, analyzing and tracking over time the amount you spend on various customer segments, plus your marketing channels and sales strategies, that are used to convert prospects into paying customers.

There is also the matter of a customer’s average lifetime (revenue) value. You already know that a campaign to bring in a new customer costs at least 5x more than what you must do to retain an existing customer. Nevertheless, you may want to calculate the average amount of revenue that will flow to your business over the length of time that a customer does business with your organization. The question is addressed by calculating Customer Lifetime Value, a metric that is foundational to long-term revenue growth. Additionally, CLV factors into CAC, because it determines the return on investment (ROI) of the customers you acquire.

Calculate CLV by multiplying the Average Purchase Value x Purchase Frequency x Average Customer Lifespan. For instance, if you provide subscription services or have customers on a retainer agreement, you can calculate customer lifetime value by multiplying the amount of the subscription or retainer fee by the length of the subscription or retainer contract (purchase frequency) to arrive at CLV for one customer for one year (CLV is typically calculated on a one-year time frame).

Another useful metric is the CLV: CAC ratio, which compares Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). The ratio documents the revenue an average customer brings to your business, as compared to what was spent to acquire that customer. A desirable CLV: CAC ratio should be at least 3:1, meaning that every dollar of marketing spend will result in three dollars of revenue generated by a customer. A ratio less than 3:1 indicates your company’s marketing efforts are producing less than stellar returns, while a ratio far in excess of 3:1 suggests that you could produce more revenue growth with an increased marketing spend.

Make a point to benchmark your CAC against industry averages and to understand what good marketing and sales performance looks like. Here’s how to get started on figuring out your company’s CAC:

  • Define customer acquisition process and goals.

Make a comprehensive assessment of you acquire customers—paid social media ads, organic social media outreach, thought leadership, e.g. public speaking, hosting a podcast, and/or publishing a newsletter, word-of-mouth and referrals? Have you developed an inbound marketing/ sales funnel to capture prospects who search online to find a B2B Freelance professional services provider in your category? Next, decide what represents a realistic customer acquisition goal for your organization—how many active customers can you reasonably expect to have on your roster in a typical year?

  • Segment your CAC by different variables

Consider how to segment your customers, keeping in mind customer demographics and accounting for the marketing channels and options you employ. Get comfortable with the fact that your CAC for certain channels might be higher than your benchmarked industry average, which means that you’re spending more to acquire customers through those channels. By segmenting your CAC, you can identify the best and weakest performers in your marketing and sales strategy and optimize your resource allocation accordingly by dropping certain options and increasing your investment in better performing channels.

  • Document your marketing and sales budget

Once you’ve chosen your CAC segments, you can look at what each of them costs—identify and quantify all costs directly related to acquiring new customers. These may include advertising, content creation, SEO, social media, email marketing, webinars, CRM software and/or buying your way into business association events that allow you to network effectively. You can use tools such as Google analytics, Facebook Pixel, or HubSpot to track and measure the performance of your different channels and campaigns.

  • Select your time period

Decide on the time period for which you will calculate your CAC—quarterly or annually should make sense for your business. You need to match your marketing and sales expenses and your new customers to the same time period for your CAC calculation.

  • Calculate your CAC

To calculate your CAC, divide the total amount of money spent to finance your marketing and sales activities by the number of customers you acquired in a given period, and apply customer segments that reflect demographic groups and the primary marketing channels you use.

  • Research your industry CAC average

To benchmark your CAC, compare your number with the industry averages for your niche, product or service and target market. Because  CAC can vary widely depending on the industry, the business model, the product, the target market, and the marketing channels used. Therefore, it is essential to benchmark your CAC against relevant and reliable sources of data, such as industry averages and competitors.

  • Compare CAC: CLV ratio

CAC alone does not necessarily indicate a revealing story about the health of your business, but the story will be more telling when you look to CLV and learn the average amount of revenue that you generate from a customer over the span of the business relationship. Be sure to follow-up with an examination of the CAC: CLV ratio, which tells you the amount of revenue generated per money spent on marketing and sales functions. A common rule of thumb is that your LTV should be at least three times your CAC. This would indicate that you have a positive ROI from your marketing and sales efforts.

Finally, keep in mind that CAC is not a static metric and remember that it can and will vary when impacted by various factors, such as certain fluctuations in your industry, organic changes in your product or service lifecycle, marketplace changes, especially changes in the competitive landscape or pricing. You will be wise to monitor and analyze your CAC regularly and adjust your marketing and sales strategies accordingly. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA

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Summer Reading 2025

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Professional development is like getting regular exercise and maintaining a balanced diet—a gift you give to yourself as you strive to become a successful business owner. When thinking of professional development, conferences sponsored by professional associations or skills building courses held at a college may come to mind but think again—professional development is available in a variety formats. Among the most accessible and affordable methods to obtain professional development can be found in books.

Reading has traditionally played an important role in the development of successful business owners and leaders. When you open a book, a world of ideas, information and insights will be there to enlighten you. You’ll find lessons and experiences that can be critical to your growth as a business owner and leader, shared by authors who give first-person accounts of how they overcame challenges and found success. The books you read can teach you how to sharpen your business acumen and use your newfound proficiency to propel your business forward. The practical knowledge contained in a typical business-themed book can result in your discovery of actionable insights that can become competitive advantages, from refining your decision-making prowess to bolstering your effectiveness when working with teams.

In today’s fast-paced and endlessly-evolving business landscape, continuous education is not only beneficial, it’s essential; but in the age of information overload, it may be difficult to find time to read when you devote the majority of your time to operating your business. Furthermore, you may feel too overwhelmed by the process of researching and identifying topics that will be most useful or interesting to you—the business books genre is a wide field. With those realities in mind, I am happy to share with you a selection of books curated to appeal to Freelance consulting professionals and also business owners or leaders. I hope that one or more titles will interest you. First, here are suggestions that may help you find time to read this summer (and beyond!).

  • Schedule. Like scheduling time for any important task, specifying your reading time will help you choose a convenient time and make it easier to honor your commitment to professional development. Consider reading after dinner, to lend a “relax and unwind” vibe to your reading. You may find the 8:00 – 11:00 PM time slot, three or four nights a week, a great way to wrap up your day.
  • Formats. Especially if your commute is 45 minutes or longer, or your fitness routine is self-directed and not in a class format, consider listening to audio books and/or podcasts as your method to obtain professional development. When in transit or working out, insert your headphones and tune in to an interesting book or program that expands your knowledge, builds skills and enhances your performance as a business owner or leader.
  • Topics. There are many business-themed titles published each year, but it is inevitable that only a select few will appeal to you. Reading book reviews of titles that grab your attention—in the business section of your local newspaper, in the Wall Street Journal or other nationally known newspaper, in Kirkus Reviews , or Goodreads—to winnow potential reading choices as you discover and evaluate titles and authors that may appeal to you and maintain your motivation to read and learn. Below are 10 books to cue up on your Summer 2025 reading playlist.

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business (2019) Paul Jarvis

Online-tech veteran Paul Jarvis, whose A-list clients include Microsoft and Mercedes Benz, describes the advantages of running a “company of one,” whether as an independent Freelance professional or as an autonomous, corporate employee. Jarvis has most emphatically not bought into the “grow or die” ethos and prefers instead to operate as a “lean and agile” entity. Jarvis explains how running your one-person shop enables you to both achieve a work-life balance that works for you and, just as importantly, enables you to avoid the need to navigate a potentially suffocating corporate hierarchy and sometimes poisonous office politics. In your little empire, you can work efficiently. Jarvis has learned that smart entrepreneurship isn’t about size—it’s about building a better business that works for you.

 Company of One details a refreshingly original business strategy that’s focused on a commitment to being better instead of bigger. Jarvis has discovered that staying small results in maintaining the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life as you avoid the headaches and complications that are inherent in traditional growth-oriented business. With this groundbreaking guide, you’ll learn how to set up your shop, determine your desired revenues, manage unexpected crises, keep your key clients happy and find self-fulfillment as you do.

Competing in the Age of AI (2020) Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Here’s a book that is an excellent resource for business owners and leaders whose organizations currently use, or are considering, Artificial Intelligence powered tools in their operations. The authors have produced a useful guide to the realities of doing business in today’s digital landscape and present actionable insights into how introducing AI-driven operating models can enable businesses to achieve scale and scope at an unprecedented rate.

Iansiti and Lakhani show how reinventing a business entity around data, analytics and AI removes centuries-old constraints on scale, scope and machine learning advantages that have traditionally restricted business growth. Recent examples of companies such as Amazon and Google demonstrate how AI-driven processes vastly improve the ability to scale, when compared to traditional data analytical processes, and allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries and create powerful opportunities for machine learning—to drive ever more accurate, complex and sophisticated predictions that make business strategy becomes a new game.

The authors also outline the inherent risks associated with AI and offer recommendations for rethinking current operating models; they also examine the responsibilities that the introduction of AI requires of its users. Finally, Iansiti and Lakhani are transparent about the potential societal impact of AI and point out the potential for algorithmic bias, privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats, along with the need for responsible AI development and governance.

How To Talk To Anyone About Anything (2021) James W. Williams

James W. Williams has written a refreshingly honest, easy-to-follow guide to meeting and greeting and initiating conversations that’s tailor-made for an era when many meetings and even networking opportunities are regularly held in virtual format. As a result, the only avenue to connect with colleagues and attempt to parlay fleeting interactions into deeper connections is hobbled by a computer monitor. Engaging communication skills are increasingly recognized as a powerful and influential competency. 

While some are born with a silver-tongued gift of gab for many, communication aptitude must be developed and nurtured. Williams’ advice is likely to bolster the social acumen of even the most shy and introverted among us, the wallflowers who feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when attempting to navigate business-slash-social gatherings. If you’ve ever felt awkward in the midst of a meet & greet, or unsure of what to say after an introduction has taken place, this book will show you how to access your communication potential and learn to become a confident conversationalist.

How to Talk to Anyone About Anything provides a user-friendly roadmap that will enable you to practice, grow and eventually shine in social and professional situations. Active listening, small talk and storytelling are situations that the author discusses, as is how to develop the fine art of appearing approachable to your fellow guests when you’re standing alone and wondering if you’ll talk with anyone. Readers will appreciate the many good examples that provide teachable moments and make this book ideal for professionals and social learners alike. Williams’ book is a great soft-skills business resource, that will be a great help to those who struggle with small talk, pitching to clients, or relationship-building within your team. The insights are perfect for occasions where first impressions and informal conversations can open the door to business-enhancing or career-building opportunities.

10X Is Easier Than 2X (2023) Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Call this book a must-read for ambitious business leaders. When the mission is to level up business growth, here are insights that give an eye-opening perspective on how to achieve exponential, rather than incremental, growth. This no-nonsense read can give business leaders and owners actionable insights into scaling their businesses rapidly, leveraging technology and resources more effectively and positioning their entity to stay ahead—of the competition and customer tastes—in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Businesses leaders often aim to achieve progress, for example, and may focus on doubling their results year over year. However, Sullivan and Hardy argue convincingly that aiming for tenfold growth is not only feasible but also more practical and rewarding. As they see it, going for 10x requires letting go of 80% of your current life and going all-in on the crucial 20% that’s relevant and high-impact.

Readers will find practical strategies and mindset shifts that inspire you to break through limitations and achieve exponential growth. The authors emphasize the power of thinking bigger, setting audacious goals and taking massive action. For business owners and leaders, this approach is invaluable as it encourages innovation, pushes boundaries and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom (2019) Janice Bryant Howroyd

“Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally” is the core message offered by author Janice Bryant Howroyd, who grew up in a family of 11 children. Here she discusses the principles and techniques that she used to build a multinational staffing agency. The author guides readers through questions of leadership, risk-taking, developing confidence and networking, among other topics.

Howroyd also emphasizes the significance of data-driven and strategic business decisions as she simultaneously encourages readers to take a holistic approach to making the most of both their professional and personal lives. The author addresses as well the topic of diversity from the perspective of a black female entrepreneur and urges readers not to define her by demographics. In sum, Howroyd shares in her book the values she lives by and continues to represent: that of a leader who works for good, for growth and for innovation, for her family values and for the same ideals upon which she founded her company—that success is transferrable.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan (2018) by Allan Dib

“The most common way small business owners decide on this (marketing and advertising) is by looking at large, successful competitors in their industry and mimicking what they’re doing. In reality, this is the fastest way to fail and I’m certain it’s responsible for the bulk of small business failures.” Now you know why this book is included in the reading list!

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation revolution that makes creating a marketing plan uncomplicated and fast—it’s literally just a single page! By creating and implementing that one-page wonder, you’ll have an effective marketing plan that you can put into motion. Dib understands that small business owners (and Freelance professionals as well) trying to jumpstart their marketing often don’t have adequate resources—money, time, or expertise—provided by employees or Freelance consultants—that big businesses do. The author has devised a credible alternate path that shows how you can create a basic marketing plan to help steer your business in the right direction and, as Dib himself says, puts you on “the fastest path to money”.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working (2025) Dan Heath

Reset offers a guide to fixing what’s not working in your business operations—in systems and processes, organizations and companies and even in our daily lives. Author Dan Heath provides real-world stories and actionable insights that can empower you to create lasting change in your organization—and maybe in your life, as well.

What if you could somehow learn to unlock forward movement and achieve the progress that matters most to you, without the need for more resources—like money and connections? Heath shows how, with the same relationships you have and the same financial resources you can access, it is possible to reconfigure the circumstances and bring dramatically better outcomes to your life. Yesterday, you were stuck. Today, you can reset.

The author explores a framework for getting unstuck and making beneficial changes that matter. Heath says that the secret of success is to find the leverage points—places where a bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Do that and you can rearrange your resources and activate those pivotal points. Heath also points out that to even experience the feeling of progress can be a leverage point that can accelerate the arrival of the positive change you desire.

The 48 Hour Start-Up: From Idea to Launch in One Weekend (2016) Fraser Doherty

This can’t be done, you say? Well, author and serial entrepreneur and Scottish citizen Fraser Doherty MBE (who was awarded the honorific title Member of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements) begs to differ. In his book, Doherty provides actionable advice on how to identify and shape a viable business idea that is ready to launch in only two days. Doherty’s reasoning behind the 48-hour deadline is simple—he argues that prospective entrepreneurs (aka wantrepreneurs) spend too much time and energy obsessing over the “perfect idea”. The time they waste waiting for the “perfect idea” to appear is time that could be used refining and adapting that business idea for customers who could actually use it.

The book is helpful with the initial decisions that aspiring entrepreneurs must consider when starting a business. In his considerable experience, Doherty has found that launching a business does not have to involve complicated financial projections, elaborate presentations, or extraordinary innovation. A simple, well-executed idea is what it takes to launch and sustain a successful enterprise and Doherty has done it more than once—the first time while still in his teens. 

Doherty also emphasizes that before you invest significant time and resources, quickly reality-test your idea with potential customers and conduct basic market research. The process will help you gauge market demand for your product or service, assess your main competitors, identify and address potential problems early on and, in general, refine your product or service based on the uncensored feedback received from potential customers.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy (2011) Richard Rumelt

It is a given that developing and implementing strategy is the primary task of a leader—whether military leader, business leader, baseball manager, or tennis coach. The definition of a good strategy could be expressed as a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, author Richard Rumelt asserts that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy buzzwords, motivational slogans and financial goals with “strategy.”

Rumelt displays an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology and history to expose and clarify the often-muddled thinking that is the foundation of too many so-called strategies and his book details a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategies that will be effective in the real world.

The book helps readers to recognize and avoid the trap of bad strategy and guides them to adopt good, credible, action-oriented strategy that honestly acknowledges and responds to the challenges that businesses encounter. Rumelt cautions readers that strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision, or planning; rather, strategy is a coherent, action-backed plan supported by a rational argument.

Rumelt emphasizes that strategies are often confused with goals and visions and points out that a plan is what sets strategies apart from goals and gives you a clear idea of what is necessary to succeed. To evaluate and decide which strategies are suitable for your organization, the author says it is necessary to confirm whether you have the resources to implement your strategy and, in addition, ensure that your strategy fits with your current situation. The actions need to fit with your present circumstances and work together to give you the best possible advantage. After this, you’re well on your way to a faultless strategy implementation.

The Courage To Be Disliked (2018) Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Strictly speaking, this book is not a business book. One might consider it as an accelerator that gives the determination to push forward with a desire to launch a business entity or achieve other important goals. Kishimi and Koga present their book as a dialogue between an older philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five enlightening and thought-provoking conversations the philosopher, who happens to draw from the theories of Alfred Adler, a late 19th- and early 20th- century psychologist and thought leader in that discipline (along with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and B. Fred Skinner), explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. The wisdom that the philosopher reveals is deeply liberating and enables his pupil to develop the courage to change and to ignore the limitations that others, or even the pupil himself, may use to control him.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance, yet it is not without controversy; certain of authors’ premises you may find shocking or, at least, unrealistic. Still, the book is, at its core, about reclaiming your power and using it to shape the life that is meaningful to you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Beli_photos

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Client Onboarding Best Practices

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It’s official—the contract is signed and you have a new client! You’re super-excited about commencing work on an interesting project. It’s game on and time to put your best foot forward. As you stand at the threshold of this new opportunity, are you thinking about how you might create a 5-star first impression of yourself and your company? Consider this—you can devise a unique protocol for new (or returning) clients that when implemented will showcase the professionalism of your organization and also officially welcome clients and make them feel confident and even more pleased with the decision to hire you.

Developing a standard procedure that welcomes new clients to your company and inaugurates the working relationship is a practice tailor-made to cast your company in a favorable light. You are already familiar with the ritual of clients asking you to provide certain information when a working relationship begins, in particular your Social Security or Employer Identification Number, mailing address or bank account and routing numbers. Launching your new client protocol will enable you to reciprocate with a process that communicates the competence and sophistication of your business practices. Implementing your new client welcoming strategy will distinguish your organization from competitors and also create conditions for a working relationship that will likely to meet or exceed client expectations.

Right out of the gate, you’ll show clients that they are in good hands, that you’ve got this. It is imperative that Freelancers who operate in the B2B sector present to clients an environment of pleasant and welcoming efficiency that validates the decision to do business with your organization as it walks both parties toward the launch of project work. Demonstrating that dependability and attention to detail are inherent in your organization (i.e., your brand) as you prepare to start project work makes a powerful statement. Clients will recognize that you are capable of managing all aspects of the project and the working relationship, from successful completion of the assignment, to providing excellent customer service assistance, such as making adjustments to address individual client needs or after-sale support and training.

This welcoming process that forward-thinking organization leaders present to clients is called onboarding. Onboarding can be described as a road map that guides new clients through a standardized mutual introduction that’s conducted in advance of starting the project work. Onboarding may also include an after-sale product or service walk-through to ensure clients understand how to optimally use the product or service purchased and review how to bring about the expected solutions. The primary purpose of onboarding is to anticipate and address the most frequent client questions and eliminate miscommunication that may lead to frustration or disappointment with the purchase. A personalized and seamlessly executed onboarding process makes clients feel supported, confident and ready to derive value from the fulfillment of the project work or use of the product or service purchased. Good onboarding makes good business.

Onboarding is credited with increasing client lifetime revenue value—the total revenue you can expect to generate from doing business with a customer during the business relationship. A well-designed and implemented onboarding process enhances client satisfaction and is thought to increase client loyalty, stimulate repeat business and referrals and minimize client churn. Effective onboarding is recognized as a competitive advantage that accesses significant benefits (see below). See also suggestions of potentially useful elements of a B2B onboarding process.

  • Establish a positive and productive working relationship with clients
  • Step One for building the foundation of a successful customer retention strategy
  • Showcase your competence, professionalism and efficiency
  • Enhance your company brand

Schedule a videoconference call or face2face meeting

Within one business day of signing the project contract, schedule a videoconference or face2face meeting with the client’s project leader. This will be your first onboarding gesture, a standard business etiquette courtesy that enables you to meet the client’s project contact (who may not be the person who signed the contract on behalf of the client’s company) and express how pleased and excited you are to work with him/her. Once the pleasantries have taken place, you and the client contact can discuss how to initiate the project work or, if the client purchased a product, e.g., a software service, you will facilitate a tutorial (after-sale support) to ensure that the client will be comfortable using the product.

Because onboarding exists to give the working relationship a smooth and efficient start that is inclined to culminate in favorable results, you’ll want to immediately confirm your access to whatever resources will be integral to efficiently and successfully performing the work. As well, make certain that you clarify the role and responsibilities and availability of your client contact. Confirmation of the project timeline, project milestones and payments linked to achieving the milestones is also best done during the initial meeting with your client contact. Another agenda item is to ask the client contact to describe what a successfully completed project will look like. The answer will confirm what you must deliver to meet or exceed client expectations. Take notes to ensure that you fully understand all metrics the client will use to define success.

After reviewing the important points made, send an email to your client contact to memorialize everyone’s understanding and complete the onboarding process. Your client will be certain to appreciate your attention to his/her needs. Make it obvious that your goal is to produce excellent work that positions the client to look good to the higher-ups at his/ her company. As a final client onboarding gesture, assemble a few branded swag items if you have any, e.g., pens, note pads, tote bags, water bottles and the like, and ship them to your client’s office.

B2B Onboarding Software

To make your onboarding process smoother, there are effective and affordable digital tools that you might want to research. The tools can function as a Freelancer’s onboarding assistants that save you time, keep things organized and achieve the important goal of making clients feel supported every step of the working relationship. Here are B2B onboarding software options to research.

  • Sending welcome emails, scheduling meetings and assigning tasks can be done automatically.
  • You’ll always know where the client is during the onboarding journey and if they need extra help.
  • Receive feedback data on how clients are engaging with your onboarding process, so you can identify sticking points and improve your process over time.

Happy 4th of July and thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: © International Churchill Society. Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary made her maiden ocean voyage in May 1936, sailing from Southampton, England and docking in New York City.