Saurabh Pandey – An Entrepreneur Who Started as Freelancer
Continuing with our series of featured Freelancers, today we are proudly presenting to you Saurabh Pandey, one of our popular SEO Experts. His Digital Marketing, Website Development & SEO services have made him one of the top SEO freelancers in very short durations. His dedication, professionalism, and hard-working attitude have impressed many. Now, let’s get into his freelancing life and learn how he utilized his skills in freelancing and made himself a successful entrepreneur.
When did you start freelancing and what inspired you?
I started freelancing seven years back. As far as inspiration is concerned, I want to state that entrepreneurs have always fascinated me. The team spirit and the zeal to provide services in a global environment have always inspired me to choose freelancing as a career.
The inspirations also came from my teammates. I have the best team from web designers to web developers and content writers in my circle. It was obvious to start as a team in the field of digital marketing. In a nutshell, the collective efforts of my teammates and my honest desire to serve clients globally inspired me to take a step as an entrepreneur.
How long have you been a freelancer?
It has been 10+ years now. The journey was full of challenges as I had to cater to global clients worldwide. The expectations were vivid, and luckily, I was able to satisfy most of my clients. The journey was very fruitful too. There was a reservoir of learning at every step, from understanding the client’s requirements to taking feedbacks, from taking up the projects to delivering the project successfully. There were immense inputs that made me more confident about my skills.
What do you like the most about Digital Marketing?
Marketing is crucial for every business, be it online or traditional. The point that fascinates me is the innovation involved in digital marketing. Digital marketing is very dynamic, as the business keeps changing according to the search engines. SEO challenges me therefore, I keep myself updated about current technologies.
The idea of digital marketing has made the world come closer fascinates me. I am helping people to make their dreams come true in a passive way. The market is immense from a digital angle. It is an easy and lucrative way to reach every nook and corner by shelling out a reasonable amount. This fact helps even a mediocre entrepreneur to reach umpteen clients. In this way, digital marketing emerges as a smart tool to expand business offerings throughout the globe.
Why did you choose SEO as a career?
SEO remains the hot favorite for businesses as clients worldwide trust search engines for their needs. To save time, people always rely on search engines as it is time-saving, as well as it is economical. My inclusion in the SEO profession has been due to my immense faith that marketing can never become stale with SEO. One way or other businesses will look towards SEO to promote their services organically.
One more thing I would like to share with you. It needs the least physical resources required to run an SEO business. I started my journey with just one laptop with an internet connection, and it was all that I had seven years back. I was one of those luckier guys who got to see and feel the essence of education around. Though I lacked strong English skills, my kind clients always had a big heart to bypass this weak point.
What are the most important skills required as a Digital Marketing freelancer?
The important skill a person can acquire is to remain updated according to upcoming search engines technologies. It is the only way to remain flexible towards your digital marketing approach. First, there should be a plan B by which you have to implement your strategies. Secondly, language learning is also a key skill in local SEO. Last but not least, you have to be patient enough as it is time taking game. Initially, I used to think that I would require strong programming skills to understand search engines algorithms, but the perception was wrong. Here, I would like to tell all the aspiring SEO professionals that even a mediocre guy with an open mind and basic understanding of HTML can also excel in this field. Many experts are working hard to make things easier to understand for mediocre budding SEO professionals.
What are the challenges you have come across in your freelancing career?
The biggest challenge was to get the second client. As clients trust, review and recommendations, you have to impress the clients with your professionalism and quality of deliverables. Sometimes due to language barriers, it gets difficult to convey the requirements.
So there was a client who had difficulty explaining his requirements, and I found it a bit difficult to understand as my mother tongue is also not English. To avoid any confusion, I asked him to send me the screenshots of a specimen. He agreed to that but instead asked me to pay for those screenshots. So there came a challenge to modify my quotations according to his wish. Nevertheless, when I sent the new quotation minus his charges of the screenshot, he was very happy with my professionalism and honesty. This is how I retained an almost gone client. I hope I conveyed my thoughts well.
What according to you does it take to be a successful Digital Marketing freelancer?
You have very professional because you will be working with clients who have a different mindset from a different time zone. Not all your strategies need to work as you have wished, so be humble if you fail to deliver in time. The time frame which you commit should be realistic from day one. Keep updated your work to the clients from day one.
There are instances when things won’t work according to your strategy. In those circumstances, you will have to be open to accepting your limitations and start from scratch. It can be a costly affair on your front, but there is no escape as search engines keep changing their algorithms from time to time.
What suggestions do you want to give to budding Digital Marketing freelancers?
Always ask for reviews and recommendations if your client is happy with your work. It makes a chain of satisfied clients. Prepare a report every day telling what you have done for a client. It makes a credibility chain. Be open to learning new technology as search engines keep changing their strategies on a time-to-time basis. Try to greet your clients in their local language. It makes them feel good.
Budding digital marketers can do wonders once they are multilingual. You may meet many clients that are not perfect in English, so you need not be worried if you know their local language you can do perfectly fine. Sometimes you will feel that you are underpaid. In those cases, you should remain flexible towards your pricing structure. Remember, one happy client can fetch you many others. At the end of the day, it is not the money you are earning, it is a bond that you are creating to maintain a long-time professional relationship that will eventually help you in the long run to convert more clients.
How did you get to know about freelancing and what is your experience using Turelancer?
I searched in the Google search page for a freelancing platform, and I found Truelancer. India has always been a favorite destination for outsourcing. The quality that we deliver is of international quality, and Truelancer tries to add a feather in the cap with its offerings.
Freelancing is like a boon for small-budgeted entrepreneurs. You don’t have to step out in search of task doers, and you are having a pool of professionals who work for your project dedicatedly, which is the real essence of freelancing. Truelancer is doing a great job towards this objective. Ours is a country that has immense opportunities and a great array of technical minds. And with English communication skills set it is doubled even more. Comprehensively there is tremendous potential, and the Truelancer is doing a great job to combine the two. I wish you guys all the best in your noble endeavors.