Freelance Writing & Business Communication

Freelancers: Finding Corporate Markets – notes from Wordstock

I conducted a seminar for freelance writers on Finding Corporate Markets at Wordstock, held at Ryerson on October 3. Here are the notes from the seminar.

About 16 years ago, a PR agency representing a major IT company called and asked if I would ghost write an article for an executive of the IT firm. The article would be 800 words and would appear in a technology trade magazine that I wrote for on a regular basis. I said that I was interested and the PR contact asked me that dreaded questions: “What do you charge?” The trade magazine paid me 35-cents per word but I knew that the holy grail of freelancers was a buck a word. With that in mind, I said: “$800.” The PR representative didn’t even pause to think. “I’ll set up the interview. The article is due on…”

I wrote the article, invoiced and was paid in no time. And that got me thinking: How can I get myself more of this? That was almost 16 years ago and I am here to tell you how to get corporate writing work, or for those of you doing some corporate work, how to get more of it.

There is no big secret. You need a business and marketing plan, and you need to implement it. However, before you put together your business and marketing plans to help you conquer corporate markets, make sure you create or establish your business vision.

Business Vision
Answer the following questions:
1. Who do you want to be?
2. What do you want to do?
3. Who do you want to do it for?
4. Where and when do you want to do it?
5. Why do you want to do it?

You need to know all of the above before you can work out the following:
- How do you do it?

What next?
Once you have selected the type of writing you want to do for the corporate market, and the corporate sectors you want to target, you need to develop a business plan and a marketing plan. Both are spelled out in detail in The Six-Figure Freelancer: How to Find, Price and Manage Corporate Writing Assignments. However, for this seminar, we are going to look at how to set your corporate rate and at the five marketing tasks you can use to promote your business.

How much can you earn as a freelance writer:
Here is what I call the rate formula. It this example, it is based on working an average of 5 billable hours per day @ $50 per hour for 50 weeks per year:
- 5 Billable hours per day x 5 = 25 billable hours per week
- 25 Billable hours per week x 50 = 1,250 billable hours per year
- 1,250 Billable hours per year x hourly rate = gross income
- Example: 5 hrs/day x 5 days/wk x 50 wks/yr x $50/hr = $62,500

FYI: I consider $50 per hour the lowest rate one would charge for corporate work, unless on a decent retainer. I charge $125 per hour for most of my work and I work about 20 billable hours per week, 50 weeks a year. Do the math and you will know why my book on conquering corporate markets is called The Six-Figure Freelancer. Having said that, I know writers who charge more, quite a bit more, than I do.

(Click here to read more blog posts on pricing corporate writing jobs.)

By way of comparison, let’s look at freelancing strictly for periodicals. Say you averaged: 75 articles per year @ 1,000 words per article @ .50 per word = $37,500.

Of course, you could end up writing more articles, longer articles or earning a higher per word average. Or you could, as many freelance writers do, combine some corporate work with periodical work. Either way, if you want to make a decent living as a freelance writer, you have to work regular hours for a decent rate.

Freelancers are in business
So how do you get corporate work that pays a decent rate? It takes work to get freelance work. You start by placing five arrows in your marketing quiver. Then you shoot those arrows in a planned and systematic manner.

Freelance writers like to write. Freelance editors like to edit. Few like to sell their services. I find that ironic, because most sales efforts require writing and editing. Think in terms of telemarketing scripts, sales letters, promotional e-mails, advertising copy, direct mail brochures, Web copy, media releases, case studies and so on.

Why is it we can so easily do for others that which we don’t do for ourselves? The answer is simple. Many freelance writers and editors, even those who work for corporate markets, don’t understand that they are in business. They fail to apply basic business principles to their freelance business.

Once you accept that you are in business, and that sales and marketing is part of what makes a business successful, it is easier to use basic sales and marketing tools to develop your business.

Place Five Arrows in Your Marketing Quiver
Like any business, I have five arrows in my marketing quiver. I shoot them all a planned and systematic manner to generate new and repeat business.

The five arrows include:
1. Generate repeat business, testimonials and referrals
2. Build and optimize a website
3. Network with friends, relatives and associates and through organizations
4. Advertising and promotion
5. Cold calling and mailing

Create a website
Even though this is item #2, I’d like to start here. While you hope your marketing efforts will cause prospects to pick up the phone and call you or email you, in most instances prospects will want to read about you and your services before they contact you. So get your site on the web. In addition, use search engine optimization techniques to optimize your site for web searches. That will help companies that need your services find your site using web searches.

Generate repeat business, testimonials and referrals: Any retailer can tell you that their next customer is most likely to be a previous customer. But they don’t wait for repeat customers to walk through the door. They use direct mail and email, telemarketing and other means to invite them to return. When was the last time you asked previous clients if they needed your services? Out of site is out of mind, so make generating repeat business one of your marketing strategies.

Most businesses know that positive word of mouth is their friend. Deliver the goods and happy customers are likely to tell others about you. You can sit back and hope your clients will tell others about you, or you can motivate positive word of mouth by asking your clients – by phone or email – for referrals and testimonials.

Network with friends, relatives and associates and through organizations
You can also ask people you know to tell others about you. This simple but powerful marketing tool is known as networking. A number of organized groups – chambers of commerce, boards of trades, and trade associations – stage formal networking events. If you are not at those events, you are not meeting potential new clients.

Advertising and promotion
Why not advertise? That’s right, pay to promote – your services! Whenever I suggest this to freelance writers and editors, they look askance – as if it were a sin to spend money on marketing. If you write for the automotive or financial services industry, why not take out a small ad or classified ad in a trade publication that reaches your audience? Also, consider advertising on websites that reach your target market or look into running targeted Pay Per Click ads on Google and other search engines. It’s what other businesses do to reach their target markets.

And why not promote your services? What do you specialize in? Writing or editing proposals for the not-for-profit sector? Writing or editing IT training manuals? Writing or editing legal, financial, healthcare, government, or other documents? Whatever you do, let the editors of publications that reach your target market know that you are willing to be interviewed for articles that deal with communication issues or strategies. You may even be asked to write a short article on your area of expertise for the publication. (Or you might ask if you can write such articles.) That is solid exposure for freelancer writers or editors who are targeting the corporate sector.

Cold calling and mailing
Use the Web or business directories to source businesses and business contact information and promote your services, to the sectors you are targeting, using direct mail or by making cold calls. Since marketing is, in many ways, a numbers game, you should be sending out five or more direct mail pitches per week.

Not every arrow in the marketing quiver will hit the target every time, but if you are not taking shots in a controlled and systematic manner, you will never hit the target. So remind yourself that you are in business, and start marketing like it matters. Because if you are in business, marketing does matter.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer, copywriter, business writing instructor and media interview trainer. He is also the author of several books on business writing and the business of freelance writing. His latest books are How To Write A Non-Fiction Book in 60 Days and Harness the Business Writing Process.