Any freelance Communications people on here?

[juniorspesh]

I've been working as a freelance Communications/Marketing person, mostly in the arts, for 5 years now and I think my day rates and client list needs an upgrade.

I charge £250 (simple work / tiny arts clients) to £350 (more complex consultancy). Have always considered myself an all-rounder - I specialise in copy and content. Good at strategy and audience development. Have some senior level fundraising experience. In graphic design/photoshop/web development I am better than basic, but not a specialist in that stuff. I have 15-20 years experience, 2 degrees, lots of in-house experience before freelancing.

I'd have thought my day rates are a bit low but the clients I meet are already blanching at the top end. I'm not seeing advertised contracts in my industry listed at any higher than this but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

Does anyone else do similar work and if so what are you charging for it, and how are you finding clients at the moment?

I'm a freelance marketer - different industry but some cross-over with the arts, and I specialise in strategy & content. I've got 16 years experience, a completely irrelevant law degree, and a decent amount of in-house agency experience. My day rate starts at £400 a day. I'll go to £350 if there's a decent amount of regular work a while - for example, for a four-month, three-day-a-week project last year.

I've been booked up with ongoing projects for a while but I'm now coming to the end, and I never learn my lesson and promote myself with a couple of months to go, so I'll be back out promoting myself for new work this week!

To be fair I’m in finance comms but I’d see that as a junior role who had just started contracting. I was hiring contractors a couple of years ago and they were £450 a day for a role that was very operational with an element of strategy in terms of putting together the approach but mostly focused on delivery

That's really good to hear thanks! Maybe I just need to do more promotion to clients with slightly bigger budgets. I'm finding LinkedIn totally dead. My website's OK but could do with some updating. My last few clients have been from word of mouth/connections.

Ah, finance. You would not believe the salaries in the arts. I still see delivery-type contracts advertised at £150ish.

I did this for a while too - it's still the easiest way to get more work for me - but I've learned that they will often ask what your rate is/what they pay you, which means they've got their head around paying you £XXX and won't want to pay more than what someone else does.

So bringing in "colder" business is always on my radar too - although clearly not well, or I'd already have my Spring projects lined up 😅