Hi and welcome to the forum. I come at your question from a purely retouching background, so according to the type of work you produce you can take or leave my advice.
What kind of images do you produce? It would help if you could show us or tell us your normal field of work.
The 'normal' route to take these days is a combination of several methods. Social media is normal these days so have profiles in LinkedIn, Behance and Facebook and relevant places like ModelMayhem. Do NOT have before and after photos in these profiles but specifically not Facebook, most photographers expressly won't give permission.
Build or own your own personal portfolio website.
Do NOT mass email business's, instead target your audience more selectively. This will depend upon your level of experience and your target audience, it could be local or it could be agencies and the like.
Brand, brand, brand. Brand everything from invoices to newsletters, make it discrete but with impact.
Last but not least, before embarking upon the above, you should have a very clear idea of who your target audience is. Draw up a list of 5 clients and give them profiles, this will help you identify your market; John is a 35yr old photographer, he runs his own business and is a sole trader.......etc
Don't be afraid to email other busy professionals and try to pick their minds, they can only say no or ignore you, as long as you are respectful and polite most won't mind you taking their time up and may be pleased to be a source of information.
Your audience will dictate your prices, remember that. Freelance will always be a better pay day, but you will not have an 8hr day, every day, so account for the lean days.
Too much other info to fit in here and without knowing your level of work, I can't really say.
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