Every email you send looking for a new client or every phone call that you make actually costs you money. It took a awhile (OK, like two years, I can be slow sometimes) for it to really sink in that as a freelancer you don’t get paid for marketing as well as many other tasks. Yes, it is absolutely necessary to spend unpaid marketing time, and constantly marketing is the only way that you will be a successful freelancer. But since most of us only have a limited number of hours each day to spend in front of the computer, you can easily increase your income with more effective marketing that takes less time.

One of the best ways to do this is to have your marketing working for you when you are working on other client’s projects, sleeping, or even on vacation. This fall I spent a few hours working on my LinkedIn profile while I watched the Florida Gators play football on television and within a few weeks had already gotten several inquiries from prospective clients through LinkedIn. A And a few weeks later, an agency working for a huge tech company found my on LinkedIn, and I will hopefully be working on my dream project doing content creation and strategy for them in 2016. According to The Undercover Recruiter, 93 percent of companies use LinkedIn for finding employees, so my experience is most likely not unique. If you are not getting inquiries from LinkedIn, then it is mostly likely that the clients are finding other writers instead of you.

The web overflowing lots of great articles on how to create a fantastic LinkedIn profile, so I’m not going to add another to mix. However, if you are looking for overall advice on your profile, I highly recommend David Petherick 10 part series on LinkedIn Profiles for Freelancers. Instead, I am going to give you some LinkedIn tips specific to content marketing writers.

So this winter when you are stuck inside watching football or basketball or whatever your current Netflix binge watching addiction is, open your laptop and make the following changes to your LinkedIn profile:

1. Add your niches as keywords – When I asked my dream client how she found me, she said that she entered data analytics and content marketing into LinkedIn. I heard similar sentiments recently from other potential clients who told me that they searched for a finance writer or a telecommunications writer. Since businesses and agencies want writers with experience in their industry, clients often search for keywords related to their industry.

Update your profile with keywords related to your industry and don’t be afraid to be as specific as possible. I recommend including both the general niche as well as more specific niches. So if you are a health writer, be sure to include health writing in your profile, but also include neurology, chemotherapy and alternative medicine if you these are the areas you specialize in.

2. Include brands and agencies that you have worked for – Just like you list out the publications where you have been published, you should include the brands that you have worked with, both directly and through an agency.  I routinely hear from clients that they contacted me because of the collection of top brands listed on my website.  However, do not delete the publications that you have worked for on your profile since these also show writing ability and industry expertise. By showing you have industry expertise, content marketing experience and a journalism background, you can greatly increase you chances for getting the gig.

However, be sure to include the brands that will be most interesting and carry the most weight with the type of clients that you want to work for. While it was a happy day for me when I added Microsoft to my website and LinkedIn profile, a health writer would have more results from adding top hospitals to their profile or a technology writer may want to include the hottest new tech company that no one outside the field has ever heard of. When deciding what to list, think about who you want to work for and what you think will give them the confidence that you can produce the results that they need.

If you have worked for top agencies, consider adding a list of the agencies that you have worked for on your profile as well. I never thought about this until a speaker at the ASJA 2015 Conference said that agencies are looking for writers with previous agency experience. If you have any big name agencies, such as WSJ Custom Content Studio, be sure to add these since it has the same effect in the agency world as top brands or publications. If you are looking to add agencies, be sure to check out my post next Monday which will include some great lists of agencies to help you find more clients.

3. Add any jobs or volunteer work related to your niches – I’ve written before that having hands on experience in your niche, either through paid work or volunteer work, is a great way to help stand out to potential clients. Make sure that these jobs and volunteer experience are included on your LinkedIn profile. I worked at several jobs as a technical writer, but only include IBM and Arthur Andersen (accounting firm) since both of those are related to my current niches. If you do not have this experience reflected on your profile then you are most likely losing out gigs that you could have gotten. In many ways I think hands on experience in the field and experience as the target audience is more important to clients than experience writing about the topic.

What updates to your LinkedIn profile have you found to increase the number of clients contacting you?