If you’re a freelancer, service-based business owner, or simply trying to make a difference with your skills—you need to get comfortable with marketing.
At FormAssista, we consider ourselves independent marketing strategists. And we thought it might help to share our personal marketing strategy—especially for those who, like us, don’t enjoy cold calls, salesy pitches, or job boards for freelancers.
If those tactics feel misaligned with who you are (welcome to the introvert club), keep reading…
Our Personal Marketing Strategy
A strategy is simply about deciding what to do and what not to do in order to achieve a result.
Our marketing strategy is deeply rooted in our personal experiences and values. Like many of you, we’ve been on the receiving end of pushy cold calls—the kind that rush to sell, based entirely on their timeline, not yours.
So we made a clear decision early on: we would never use those methods. Instead, we chose to lead with authentic connection and trust—and let the sales follow naturally.
From “Winning Clients” to “Creating Clients”
There are two ways to approach freelancing:
- Win clients
- Create clients
Most people start with the first—responding to freelance job platforms, social media ads, or inbound requests. But here’s the downside:
- You’re constantly competing on price.
- Clients think they know what they want, and there’s little room to guide or reshape the project.
- You end up selling what you do, instead of why it matters.
Winning clients is reactive. Creating clients is proactive.
When you create clients, you start by understanding what they really want—even before they do. That means listening, observing, and building real relationships.
Relationships > Sales
When we spot someone we’d love to work with, we nurture the relationship first:
- We engage with their content
- We send thoughtful DMs
- We show up to their events
- We talk about them with others
- We make it clear: we’re aligned with their mission, not just their money
And yes—this can take weeks, months, even years. But that’s okay. We’re not in a rush.
This approach protects us from the dreaded feast-and-famine cycle. We don’t sell out of desperation—we invest in people, long before there’s even a sales conversation.
Because we only want to work with clients we believe in. Clients who inspire us, who share our values, and who challenge us to do our best work.
So instead of closing a sale, we open a relationship.
When the time comes to sign the contract, it feels natural, obvious, and exciting—for both sides.
How We Use Marketing to Create Clients
Since our strategy is based on relationship-building, our marketing focuses on three pillars:
- Being known
- Being liked
- Being trusted
Our job is to show we understand our audience, so they feel confident investing in us.
We focus heavily on:
- Content marketing (especially blogs, email, and LinkedIn)
- One or two key channels instead of spreading ourselves thin
- Real conversations and consistent engagement
We don’t play the numbers game. We focus on intentional connection and helpful content—the kind that makes people say: “They get it. They get me.”
The Message Comes Before the Medium
People don’t buy the best product.
They buy the one they understand the fastest.
That’s why our message always comes first.
We constantly refine our core message based on client feedback. We listen to the words our audience uses and reshape our positioning to reflect that. Pretty graphics and business cards are great—but if your message doesn’t resonate, it won’t convert.
If you haven’t nailed your elevator pitch yet—start there. It’s the foundation of everything else.
To Summarize:
- A strategy is about choosing what to do (and not do) to achieve your goals.
- Don’t chase sales—open relationships instead.
- Don’t try every channel—focus on 2 or 3 that truly serve you.
- Your message matters more than your platform—craft it carefully and update it often.
- Content is an act of kindness. And kindness is the best marketing strategy.
This isn’t about growth-hacking or shortcuts.
It’s about creating a self-sustaining marketing engine—one that runs on meaningful content and produces deep, lasting relationships.
The kind of marketing that doesn’t just win clients.
It creates them—for years to come.
