17 freelancing and ethical content marketing tips

I’ve been running my 1-Minute-Tips newsletter for almost two years now. 🎉 Below, you can read a summary of my most popular tips for new and experienced freelancers, business owners, and content marketers. Whether you’re interested in ethical marketing, PR, SEO or social media, you’ll find something useful in these selected highlights. Enjoy!

Best of my 1-Minute-Tips 2021/22

Ethical (content) marketing tips

Good content marketing for ethical and sustainable businesses is one of my special interests. Below, you’ll find some great resources to improve your marketing strategy, while taking into account ethical issues. 

1. Become a sustainable content marketer, but don’t greenwash

Can marketing save the planet? It certainly can contribute to a better world. Here are some great learning resources for business owners and freelancers who’d like to educate themselves—and others—about sustainability. 

Learn how you can change your marketing tactics to more eco-friendly ones, and get your sustainable marketer badge! 🌍 However, avoid greenwashing at all costs. 

2. Take the ethical move pledge (and mean it)

The ethical move is a movement that aims to make marketing tactics more ethical. I took their pledge in 2021. I don’t use manipulative marketing techniques, such as artificial scarcity, fake countdowns, charm pricing, engagement pods, and so on. The ethical move has released a revised pledge and more resources on their website since then, so do have a look. 

You may also like an article I wrote for them last year: “After the pledge: how to start running a more ethical business.”

Important: other businesses who don’t (yet) implement these or similar strategies aren’t necessarily “unethical”. They may have slightly different brand values or they may be at a different stage in their business journey. 

3. Become carbon literate

Have you heard of the Carbon Literacy Project? If not, check out my blog post about it here. I officially became carbon literate this year. 🌳 Both business owners and private persons can enrol in a Carbon Literacy course, and learn more about the greenhouse gas emissions of their activities.

4. Respect copyright and stick to the facts

Search engines like Google prioritise high-quality content that is unique and helpful to readers. Creating content like this will help you rank well, but there are also ethical considerations.

It’s crucial to be original, fact-check what you write, and cite your sources properly if you use someone else’s work or ideas. Making misleading claims, breaching copyright or plagiarism in your marketing content can end your career or, at the very least, damage your brand’s credibility.

Ethical (and free) PR tips

PR doesn’t have to be expensive. Here are some free ways to make even small businesses and freelancers more visible online. You just need to be consistent to see results!

5. Follow the Twitter hashtags #prrequest and #journorequest

Journalists and bloggers use the #prrequest and #journorequest hashtags to ask for input or interviews from members of the public and from experts. If there are any topics you can help with, respond to these requests asap. The topics don’t have to be related to your business, however, both the newspaper and the subject area shouldn’t contradict your brand’s values. 

You’ll probably be asked what your business is, so this will give you free publicity. If your interview or contribution has been published, post about it on social media and your own blog for extra coverage.

It only takes a few seconds to tweet back to the journalists, and probably not more than 30 minutes to answer questions, so it’s worth your time. 

6. Create a media kit

Once you’ve been featured a few times, create a media kit for your business. This will make you look a lot more professional. High-quality images, branding, and well-written content are a must here, so consider hiring professionals to do this part for you.

7. Showcase your work in your email signature

• Would you like more traffic to your latest blog post? 
• Want to encourage potential clients to sign up for your newsletter or to book a discovery chat?
• Need more followers on your socials?

Just pop a link to any or all of these options into your email signature(s). 👀  This is a subtle but effective way to raise awareness of your portfolio, email marketing, or social media channels.

Ethical social media tips

I’m not just an ethical content writer and marketing translator; I also qualified as a social media marketer. So, here are the most popular tips I’ve shared with my newsletter subscribers and clients. Hope you’ll find them useful. Any questions? Let me know.

8. General social media advice

• Don’t “follow for a follow back”. You want an audience who’s really interested in you, not just in their follower numbers. 
• Never buy followers.
• Don’t take part in engagement pods.
• Avoid posting into the void. Take some time to respond meaningfully to other people’s posts. Proper engagement is key.
• Use copyright-free images.
• Spellcheck and proofread all posts before publishing them.

9. Facebook

• Videos and reels get better reach, but don’t overdo them. 
• Don’t use more than a couple of hashtags on your Facebook business post.
• Engaging in relevant groups can work better than just posting on a business page.

10. Instagram

• Ensure the size and format of your photo is the ideal one for Instagram. You can use Canva to do this for free.
• Get the best posting times through Instagram Insights (it’s free).
• Optimise your profile, so potential followers know at a glance what you’re offering.
• Don’t force yourself to be someone you’re not. (For example, don’t feel you have to dance or point in stories if you don’t want to.)

11. LinkedIn

• Sharing a post has a much lower reach than commenting on someone’s post. But: comment meaningfully. (“I agree”, “Love this post” or “Yes!” isn’t sufficient.)
• Don’t tag people unless your post has direct relevance to them, and never more than two at a time. More feels spammy.
• Personalise any connection requests and choose your network carefully. (You’re welcome to connect with me if you like. Just let me know you read this article when you send the invite, please.)

12. Pinterest

Strictly speaking, Pinterest is a search engine. However, you can create content on a virtual pin board and then add a link to your external website, so people interested in your topic can easily find your special offer/blog/newsletter sign-up form, etc. 

• Create a Pinterest business account.
• Follow these SEO tips for Pinterest to optimise your account. 
• Create pins by using one of Canva’s free Pinterest templates. Just add a pin title and link and upload.
• It’s best to publish pins regularly to keep the Pinterest algorithm happy. (Ideally daily, but once a week should be ok if you’re short on time.)

📌 Check out the pins I’ve created so far. You can see I’ve used my brand colours. I mainly link to selected blog posts and my newsletter, but you could also link to videos.

13. Twitter 

• Use max. 2 hashtags per post. I’ve found you get good engagement from your followers even without using any at all.
• Don’t post too many ‘threads’. 
• Keep your tweets short and sweet, and tweet regularly (a few times per day).
• Optimise your profile. Here’s mine.
  For example:

• Add a professional photo of yourself. (Not a logo: people buy from people.)
• Clarify briefly which services you are offering.
• Create a pinned tweet that gives more details about you and your services.

Ethical SEO tips for beginners

I’ve written a comprehensive blog post for SEO novices, but below are some top tips to get you started. These are all so-called “white-hat” SEO tips (i.e. they’re ethically sound).

Never use unethical / “black hat”-SEO tactics.

14. Respect your users’ search intent when researching SEO keywords

Always check what Google displays on page 1 for your chosen keywords (in incognito mode). For example, users searching for “German translator” won’t find human translators. Instead, they’ll be shown free online translation tools and dictionaries on the first page of the search results. 🥴 

So, if I wanted to write a post about my translation services, I’d need to find different, more specific (“long-tail”) keywords. Users are more likely to search for longer terms to find me, such as “German translator near me” or “German translator Oxford”.

15. Don’t overuse certain keywords (“keyword stuffing”)

Google and other search engines will penalise your site if you overdo SEO keywords on a page. Your site won’t rank better if you do this—in fact, it’ll drop in the rankings. Follow Google’s handbook on what not to do. 

16. Check your website speed and mobile responsiveness

A slow website will harm your discoverability on search engines. Page Speed Insights is a free tool that checks your website speed. If it’s slow, get some technical help to improve things. Similarly, replace non-responsive website designs that don’t load well on mobile. Many people will search for your site using mobiles rather than desktops!

17. Use regular guest blogging/blog swaps to build backlinks to your site

Networking with like-minded people is always a good thing—especially when it comes to increasing your ranking by building high-quality, organic backlinks to your website. 

However, never pay for backlinks. It’s against Google’s and other search engines’ rules and could really hurt your reputation and ranking.

Need help with SEO content writing in English and/or German? I’m a professional writer and qualified translator with a passion for ethical marketing. 🙂

If you found my 17 tips useful, you may also like these 5 apps for a better freelance life. If you have any questions or if you’d like help with your content marketing, please get in touch.