No Bull*$@^ Guide To Finding Work As A Graphic Designer

Let's face it, the market is over-saturated and it's a dog eat dog world.

Word of mouth is the best marketing. But there are a ton of digital ways to find design projects.

Below are some methods me and my agency have used:

WEB SCRAPERS

Scrape Craigslist, Big Shoes Network, Upwork, any gig marketplace. Have a spreadsheet database of open gigs.

Set the parameters to scrape email addresses and any other relevant info.

Export that into an excel file.

Then send each gig a short and concise cold email.

These web scrapers are easy to hire for. Find someone to program one, or use a SaaS service like Craigsdominator.

LINKEDIN AND LINKEDHELPER

LinkedIn is ripe for the picking right now.

Everyone thinks it’s a stuffy platform full of suit and ties, which is only half true.

It’s also populated with others taking advantage of the fact that people LOVE it if you both do good work and are cool.

Join the Facebook group Traffic And Copy and contribute to the LinkedIn train. HACK THE SHIT out of your connections and endorsements.

Download and install the Chrome extension LinkedHelper.

This powerful tool allows you to send automated messages to people. Even if you're not connected.

Use this to find gigs, or even the attention of an Art Director and find a job at an agency you admire.

COLD EMAIL/MESSAGING

So, you have these web scraped and LinkedIn leads. How do you approach them?

Start with a success story relevant to their industry

Connect it to a personal desire to replicate that success with them

Finish it with the opportunity to have a free consultation, and thank them for their time.

Keep it simple, important people do not have time to read long cold emails/messages.

PERSONAL BRANDING

Being in front of the right people at all times. You’d rather have people unfollow you for being in their face too much than not enough.

Write A LOT. Even if you are "just a designer".

If you want to differentiate yourself in this over-saturated market, you have to create a lot of content.

Post this on multiple channels: LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Quora, Medium(dot)com, etc.

If any of this was good information to you,

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