When I got started freelancing, all I used was inbound marketing.

But at the time, I didn’t call it that. I didn’t even know what it was.

I didn’t have any extra cash to pay for advertising, promotions or anything large scale, so I did what I knew.

I started blogging.

I started talking to people on forums.

I started hanging out in popular chat rooms helping people.

(This was before social media as we know it today.)

The reason I did all those things was, I was trying to start relationships with people who could become clients, by earning their trust.

This is one of the primary goals of marketing: to get people to trust you enough to become a client.

With these methods I used, I was giving samples of my expertise and knowledge. Some people valued these samples and came to me for more. Of those, some became clients.

The goal of inbound marketing is to create "stuff" that is valuable enough to attract potential clients and start building relationships with them.

You aren’t sending marketing materials out. You aren’t advertising with banner ads. You’re creating. You’re giving.

This aspect interested me, since I knew how to create already. Software development at its core is about creating something out of nothing.

I was attracted to inbound marketing first.

And I had enough success with it that I kept using inbound marketing to grow my business during the first few years.

It wasn’t all roses and ponies though. Because I was relying on only one strategy, I was missing out on a lot. – specifically how outbound marketing can accelerate your learning, even without actually getting you clients.

Eric Davis

P.S. My first attempts at marketing were embarrassing when I look at it now. But still, they worked. My business grew, and I got better at marketing.