Undiscovered opportunities
There are now never-before-seen opportunities for freelance businesses. Personal branding is especially important for a freelancer, which is why his or her first marketing investment is a website and a blog – in that order.
Many freelancers have trusted relationships with their small business customers. As accountants, marketing consultants, graphic designers, etc, they are in a strong position to recommend software solutions to their clients.
But let´s not forget that freelancers are also small business owners. According to Eurostat, there are 32.3 million Freelancers in Europe and they represent 15% of the total share of the labor market. In the US, the numbers are even higher, with freelancers representing 30% of the labor market.
Three key findings about freelancers
Learn more about freelancers
Freelancers use a variety of sources to generate leads for their business. 85% have a business website, and 61% are using a blog. This makes the website the most important digital touchpoint when it comes to lead generation and the blog the second most important.
55% of freelancers have a social presence and less than half have run campaigns themselves for their businesses. The younger freelancer spends more resources on paid media campaigns. Older freelancers have an opportunity to leverage paid media, but most prefer someone to help them in this area.
Only 38% of freelancers are using e-commerce for their own business, which provides further evidence that this is an untapped market for e-commerce solutions.
The freelancer landscape
Freelancer's use of marketing technology
Freelancers and software
Webinar: Discover the emerging freelance market
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Watch the recording of our webinar where our experts will walk you through the findings of our freelancer report.
There is a clear generational difference
Generation signals the type of work freelancers are likely to do. Older freelancers are management consultants. Younger freelancers are developers and virtual assistants.
Younger people start freelancing for the lifestyle. Older people are led to freelancing by job losses, career downshifting, or family issues.
Overall, more than half (51%) say freelancing meets their financial needs.
Report: Are freelancers the long-tail channel of the future?
Download our brand new report to find informative statistics and insights about the freelancer industry.
Book a meeting
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Blog post: Freelancers are the fastest growing small business vertical in Europe
Check out our blog posts to learn more about the freelancer market, and how demographic factors affect freelancer motivation and expertise.
Key findings of the European freelancer survey
Localogy and Mono Solutions fielded an online survey among 553 freelancers in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden. The survey’s objective was to learn more about how freelancers operate their businesses and what motivates them to choose freelancing over more secure full-time employment.