Say “Fiverr” and “Marketing” in the same sentence and you’ll likely hear groans from the legitimate marketing community – for good reasons. Fiverr.com, for those who haven’t heard of it, is a marketplace that offers freelance services (aka gigs) for only $5.00. Very quickly, Fiverr became a place known for providing a bevy of backlinks for $5, tweets and likes for $5, cheap articles and fake product reviews – all for only a five-spot. While it can be very tempting to trade a mere five bucks in exchange for thousands of backlinks, this is definitely not the right way to use Fiverr in your online business marketing efforts. At best, you’ll see zero results for your 500 pennies. At worst (and highly likely), you’ll damage your business’s reputation or get penalized by search engines for acquiring paid links or social votes. Don’t be suckered into believing the claims of “safe” links or “real likes”. Assume the worst with each of these types of fiverr gigs because the worst is very likely what you’ll receive.
Now that you know the pitfalls of using Fiverr for marketing, you can concentrate on the opportunities that exist there. And opportunities abound! Look for Fiverr gigs that can help with your marketing project tasks that you may not have the skills for, but surprisingly, don’t need expensive outsourcing. Creativity in marketing is absolutely essential these days if you hope to stand out from the crowd. Here are eight creative Fiverr gigs that you can use in many of your marketing campaigns. I’ve only highlighted a few to give you a taste of the creative ideas you can purchase that will really crank those campaigns up a notch.
Voice Overs
Turn on your car radio and listen to the commercials. The professional voices you hear describing a the advantages of using a well-known insurance company, or the local doughnut shop are made possible by professional voice actors who read a marketing script while a background music track plays. Your business can create that same kind of commercial message for only $5 using any of several voiceover gigs at Fiverr. One of the best uses of a voice over is is to make use of these commercials as sponsor messages for podcasts. Podcasters are always looking for sponsors and your message can be broadcast to thousands of listeners who will never know you only spent $5 to create a professional commercial.
Find the voice over gig that is right for you here.
Illustrations
The graphic and illustration gigs found on Fiverr are simply amazing. Almost anything you might need illustrated can be obtained here and the work is generally very high quality. Need a cartoon caricature? A city landscape? A cute monster? There’s almost no end to the list of things you can get illustrated at Fiverr. Here are a few sample illustrations I found when perusing the site.
Find the illustration gig that is right for you here.
Video
“Video Killed the Radio Star” – Remember that song recorded by the Buggles back in 1979? Although that song referred to the MTV era, video has once again proven itself to be a killer 30 years later; this time in the online world as it becomes a leading form of content. The problem is that a marketing video can be a lot more difficult to create than simply pointing your smart phone at your dog while it chases its tail. Fiverr has gigs for all sorts of video production, including intros, commercials, and animation. A great use of a Fiverr video gig is to have a 30-second video created that combines your logo with your short elevator pitch into an attractive intro video that displays well on a landing page. Another interesting use is to create a special thank you or holiday greeting video that you can send to your email list.
Find the video gig that is right for you here.
Small programming needs
Ever wanted to have your website’s landing page do a little something special? Maybe you want a cool javascript slideshow script built or you need a PDF application that users can fill in right on the page. These are the kinds of things you can often hire a Fiverr programmer to do for you for just five bucks.
Solve that technical marketing problem in the Programming and Tech Gigs category.
QR codes
Every business should have a QR code – those little barcode-like images that users can scan via their smart phones to discover your site URL, contact information, or special marketing message. While there are plenty of online QR code generators available, you’ll usually end up with a very utilatarian black and white code if you use those generators. You can find Fiverr gigs, on the other hand, that will create colorful creative QR codes that will complement your brand image and will really stand out. Below is an example of the bland, ordinary QR code you see everywhere, and an image of several more colorful and more interesting QR codes that can be created via Fiverr gigs. Search for QR code gigs here.
Stop motion animation
Although stop motion animation is a form of video, I wanted to highlight it separately because it has become a very popular way of getting a marketing message across. We’ve all seen the cool stop motion animations that explain how a product or service works as a hand draws the process on a whiteboard. While those animations are usually fairly long, and may cost more than $5, you can have similar short animations created with a Fiverr gig. I’ve seen interesting Fiverr animations of logos being speed drawn on a whiteboard, and marketing messages animated with Legos.
Check out some of the interesting gigs that can make your brand pop in the Stop motion category.
Puppet videos
Yes, again, I’m highlighting this type of gig even though it is within the video category, but this subcategory can be a unique way of getting your message across. Is your brand dry and humorless? Using a puppet to spread your message can turn your bland brand on its head, giving you the edge over your dull, stale competitors.
Let a puppet speak for your brand in the Puppet Video category here.
Jingles, music, and sound effects
How many times has a product’s jingle gotten stuck in your head? Even when it’s annoying, it’s done its job by cementing that brand in your mind. You can have a jingle written for you, or any type of music, sound effect, ringtones, and the like created for your brand or special campaign. Music touches the soul and is embedded within our memories more than any other form of communication. Try adding a jingle or other form of music to your next campaign. It will almost always be remembered!
Get a jingle written for you here.
What do you think of these types of Fiverr gigs? Of course, we recommend using professional resources when possible, but if you need to add some pizzazz to your marketing projects and don’t have the knowledge or budget needed, then a Fiverr gig might be perfect for your needs. Be sure to check the ratings and comments of the gigs you are considering, as they are pretty accurate in determining the quality you’ll receive. And even if you decide that Fiverr isn’t right for your project, I hope this article sparks some ideas for the next marketing campaign you launch.
21 Responses
Hi Donna, this is a really useful blog.
I currently find myself completing a lot more on Fiverr as research for an experiment that I am running – To see if it is possible to start an entire business using just Fiverr Gigs. It is blogs like yours that are particularly helpful to me and that fill me with new ideas for the experiment.
If you would like to check it out you can see it here: http://www.chrishales.co.uk/starting-a-business-using-fiverr/
It has really only just started but I hold high hopes that Fiverr will provide everything that I need to get going.
Thanks again for the post.
Fiverr is getting bigger each time! Many people are even quitting their jobs and making a fuul income just from Fiverr! I think it will only get bigger 🙂
I use the fivver for my business almost every day. You can find great guys to make your video for only $5. I also use it for banners. You can find there many talents 🙂
Definitely are finding some great gigs by means of fiverr. Fiverr is a fantastic resource and tool to use when you really need odd jobs done to be able to sustain your marketing endeavours. Thanks for these pointed out gigs!
I enjoy using Fiverr, even though it has become quite flooded. There is a new site much like Fiverr called Gigworks.net
I think Fiverr fans will appreciate this site as well to market their services online.
Cheers
If anyone needs any voice-over gigs I’d be more than welcome to help! I do radio, commercial, and character voice overs with a 100% gig rating 🙂
http://fiverr.com/thevoicemachine/record-a-character-voice-over-up-to-90-seconds
OK, the book cover was not bad for a fiverr, but after several edits I decided to take a stab at doing it myself and think I have a better one.
The problem in this case is that they designer really did not read the requirements, and then just copied a competitors cover from Amazon. ….
Hey Donna, interesting to see something positive and new about Fiverrrrrr. I did not even know QR codes could look any different. The the puppet videos …. I reckon I could do something with a Cookie Monster ….
I do actually have a gig with Fiverr at the moment, getting an ebook cover done, if the designer ever replies to the order.. No idea how it will come out, but their other work looks OK.
PS. I think there are only 500 pennies in a Fiverr!
500? Ah, what would a Brit like you know about pennies, anyway! LOL, just kidding, Jon. Of course there are only 500 pennies in a Fiverr! Excuse me while I fix that and slap myself. 😉 Let us know how that ebook cover comes out, by the way, and thanks for stopping by here, Jon. Always good to see you.
I have only been on that site a few times, and I’m not sure if I would ever use it. I guess for certain things, logo, video, songs, things that are tangible seem ok, but to use a 5$ service for SEO, too risky. Has anyone had any good SEO work done there?
That’s why I devoted time in the beginning of the post making sure no one would use it for SEO purposes. Don’t use it for links or likes or tweets or reviews. But for the things outlined in the post, it can be well worth it.
Hi there. Donna. This is my first visit to your site. Brilliant post, and a very useful round up of Fiverr services, available for hire. Great stuff!
I happen to think that Fiverr can actually be useful for SEO. One just has to find the right sellers. Maybe I’m biased, because I sell SEO and WordPress services on Fiverr. None of that “grey, murky” traffic stuff. This is all above board SEO for small business websites. You know, the type of stuff we know should really be done on our website, but no one has time for it..I’ve actually started a series of blogs to try to educate buyers and business owners about the reality of website SEO, and how they can leverage distributed market places like Fiverr.
Anyhow, great post, and I’ll definitely be back for more. Thanks!
Fiverr is nice but ive found sister sites like Outsourcerr to be more profitable as a seller and better support
Thanks Mark…we’ll check it out 🙂 Enjoy your New Year!
Great ideas here: I use Fiverr for SEO work and it saves a bunch of time. Always a good idea to check ratings before you buy though – I’ve had one or two disappointments when I was too eager and didn’t check to read other users’ comments
I have used Fiverr for illustrations, intro video, Twitter and Facebook covers, as well as header images for my website. I have been looking for a good video production seller – anyone have any to recommend?
If you are working on a budget, fiver is great to look at, especially for voice-overs, I have used fiver couple of times to create voice-overs for various projects, as it gives a variety of voices. 🙂
Thanks for letting us know, wasim. Always good to hear from people who have had actual experience with using it.
Thank you for such an insightful article. Developing for mineral business. So your musing will be put to use.
True, Ricky, you can’t get everything at that price, but it’s pretty amazing all the things you can get. Thanks for giving more ideas!
Thanks for letting us know. I found many good stop motion animation makers there. I often order business cards design, flyers for my local clients. The other thing I order is PPT template and document creating service. Unfortunately, there are not many quality gigs available for PPT designs. Of course, you can’t get everything for $5.