“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one
link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”
– Sir Winston Churchill
HELLO!
Welcome! Check out the session notes here, the earnings breakdown here, and the email templates here and prospecting templates here
Part One: Niching
WHY NICHE
Niching is one of the internet areas most prone to “studying the internet.” It seems like if you just had one more bit of info… one more site… one more insight… you could move forward. You would be qualified. Then you could really do it. But the theme we’ll come to again and again is that… no one is qualified. You are a portal for the info. So, what kind of info do you want to transport?
When you niche, you are not becoming a subject matter expert. You are becoming fluent in a language, so don’t try to be a French professor… just learn French.
First we need to start with the tale of two freelancers…
Maggie decided to be a generalist. Niching seemed risky. Who wants to turn away business, right? Erin decided to niche, even though she wasn’t sure she wanted to commit to cryptocurrency because she wasn’t sure what it was.
These writers were very similar – same level of skill and personability. Both women, a little shy around sales… but let’s look at what niching did for their business. First, finding clients. Then getting paid. Then getting faster at the work and getting paid more. Then getting referrals. Niching was a strategic choice Erin made based on a hunch… and it paid off
It’s not that everyone HAS to niche… it’s that everyone niches because the benefits are so, so good.
When you niche it’s easier to find clients. You can identify places to go. You can learn about them and understand their needs. You can build a specific portfolio. You can ask for referrals and they actually might know someone.
When you find them, they’re delighted you can speak their language. They feel lost and alone, like no one can help with their specific thing. They lose time editing, explaining things to writers. They can feel comfortable connecting you with their executives and customers because they know you won’t embarrass them
When you explore and research your niche, you’re really building on something. Without a niche, you could read 100 research reports a day and not be done. With a niche, you can read 1 a week and be building a body of knowledge that will help you. Think of niching like a major – it doesn’t mean you aren’t taking other classes, but it does mean you concentrate your efforts. And you can switch them at any time.
It’s easier to know when you’ve had a good idea. When you operate within a body of knowledge, you get a sense for what’s already been said, what’s trending, and what’s truly original. You can pick out parts of conversation that are actually interesting or relevant.
You know how to start and finish an article. Along the same lines, you know how to start a conversation readers want to have. You know what’s already been done… you can step into the conversation without stepping on any toes.
HOW TO NICHE
How to actually niche, like, what to do after you decide CYBERSECURITY! And what to do when you want to change that niche. And then how to find a niche – how to go truffle hunting in the wide world of the Internet when there are so many different ways to go about it.
When we talk about how to niche, there are five steps I would take today, and that I do take when I re-niche, like recently when I dove into banking and healthcare. A cool thing to keep in mind is that the world has already organized itself FOR YOU. It’s easy to find these people, things, places. You just have to decide to look for something. It’s literally how the internet was designed – networks to help you find and connect.
Here’s how to niche…
Read blogs and seminal research. FIrst, 90% of niching comes from reading. Truly. You can’t just suddenly have original thoughts about a niche. You have to dig into something and acquaint yourself with it. That’s why it’s so important to be curious and open to new info — use your above average Google skills to learn the basics, then the intermediate, then the complex.
Identify lingo and common themes. As you read, you’re going to start picking up on lingo and common themes. For example, in healthcare it’s not customers or clients, it’s patients and providers. Many entities don’t want to use the term doctor and they’ll only say physician. The important themes are quality of care and patient success. In HR, the language is not people or individuals, it’s candidates and in-demand talent. The important themes are the quality of the hire and getting the best person for the job.
Network with niched writers. Next, you can take a shortcut to niching research by going out horizontally, at your level, and networking with other writers in the niche. I got referrals this way, and I give referrals this way, too. It’s like finding your major’s secret club at college. Use SEO to find them, also use your network or someone like me “do you know any X writers” – say hi on social, send a very short email, ask them to recommend a research report they found helpful lately. They’ll do it and love to meet you!
Find and follow big thinkers and influencers. Similar to writers, there are also niched thinkers and influencers in every field. Some are less noticeable, like I’d probably struggle to find a waste management influencer. But I’d bet money they do exist. It’s going to be easier in things like HR, banking, SaaS. But you can find these folks, follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn, see what they’re posting and reading, reach out with something innocuous. You’re growing your network, connecting with people with similar interests.
Identify big companies and blog resources. Finally, find companies and blog influencers. For example, HubSpot is a central spot for B2B marketing. It’s a good place to see the newest writers on a topic (and follow them). Oracle publishes excellent research about retail and cybersecurity and a lot of other topics. You’ve also got your big researchers like Forrester, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and PwC that will expand your understanding of niches, as well.
HOW TO FIND YOUR NICHE
The real truth of niching is that you have to dive in before you’re ready. It is not possible to niche and then start writing. That’s like saying you want to write the conclusion of your scientific paper before you set out the hypothesis or plan the experiment. You have to experiment to find out what clicks for you, what’s in demand, what gives you excitement and makes you want to dig in.
Here’s how to get started…
List niches from your business interests, work experience, and tech at work. Start with what you know, if there’s anything you’re interested in: actual work experience, the technology you’ve used at work. Don’t discount something “because you heard there’s no money in it.” If It’s B2B, I guarantee there’s at least $100,000 out there for you. That’s not true in B2C. Alternatively, don’t choose something just because you heard there’s money in it. There’s money everywhere – choose something you’d want to stay up late reading.
Subscribe to 5-6 publications, company blogs, and research. Again, reading is 90% of niching. Let the company do the work for you – find 5-6 companies or thought leaders and let them send you their weekly newsletter. Read it every once in a while. This is you expanding your knowledge and learning a new language. Immerse yourself.
Dive in and write before you’re ready. So please know, even at the end of this process, it is not going to feel good. It is going to feel like you’re making it up. But honestly… that’s a good feeling to get comfortable with when you’re in business for yourself. What you don’t realize yet is that the “stable” business world is made up, too. It’s just an illusion we’re all comfortable with.
NICHE BINGO
Part Two: Getting Hired
WHO HIRES PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME?
B2B proof points
Every year, B2B companies invest as much as $5.2 billion into their content marketing programs. 91% of brand marketers agree that expanding content creation capabilities is important to their organization’s long-term success (Skyword). 73% of those marketers will rely more on freelance creators over the next 1-2 years (Skyword). 52% of B2B marketers report their organization has only a small or one-person marketing team (Content Marketing Institute). 50% of B2B marketers outsource at least one content marketing activity (Content Marketing Institute). Content creation is the activity B2B marketers are most likely to outsource, regardless of company size, content marketing budget, or overall content marketing success (Content Marketing Institute). The average annual budget for content marketing is $185,000, and 50% of marketing managers expect to increase that budget next year (Content Marketing Institute).
Here’s how they use it:
B2B marketers, agencies, and publishers use content marketing to do four important things: build brand awareness, secure leads, nurture leads, and convert leads. It’s all about helping the reader understand the company, make a connection, and choose to buy. Here’s an image from the Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 B2B Marketing Benchmarks showing the types of content that are most effective at achieving these goals:
B2B writing is awesome because you have a lot of choice in how you use your writing skills
You can optimize for….
- Talking to people or not talking to people
- Being focused or being scattered
- Working with a team or working alone
- Working in one niche or working in many
- … Options are endless
What to do with this information…
This is what people are talking about when they say freelancing is more secure. You can proactively create a client mix that has you as busy as you want to be. I recommend 30% Agency/Publication and 70% brands, dividing your brand work among 5-10 total clients. No one client should account for more than 25% of your income.
By your second year, you should get about 50% of your work from recurring clients or referrals. If not, there’s something going on you need to troubleshoot. Once you know who you help, you can also optimize your pay scale according to what you want or need.
Let’s talk about the three kinds of clients you’ll encounter in the wild…
#1. B2B WRITING FOR BRANDS
WHAT IS IT
When you work for a brand as a B2B writer, you support the company’s marketing team directly. Since the average B2B company spends about 26% of its total marketing budget on content, that means there’s a pool of several thousand dollars they might invest in content projects you could work on. They’re hiring you to fulfill the marketing strategy they’re working on, and they often know just what they want. (Though they’re open to your input if you have experience with achieving the outcomes they want).
They might hire for in-house positions (salary), they might hire a stable of freelancers to support the marketing team (per-post or hourly). You might think brands would only hire in-house, but sometimes depending on their goals, they get a lot more benefit from hiring a team of writers who can contribute. The bar for hiring a writer is different for each company.
FINDING IT
The title of the person who would hire you is something like the following:
- Marketing manager, content marketing manager
- Marketing director
- VP of marketing
- Director of marketing
The best way to connect with these folks is to strategically send LinkedIn invites and compliment them on their most recent blog posts. See if all the posts are from one writer, “the company,” or a variety of writers — that will clue you into how much work they might be interested in from you.
APPLYING AND INTERVIEWING
The process of working with a brand as a freelancer looks something like this:
They’ll start you with one small paid assignment, like a ghostwritten blog post. The quality of your writing is important, but so is your working style. Were you responsive by email? Did you do what you said you’d do? How graciously did you accept edits? Is your client’s life easier, less stressful, and a bit more fun?
The process of working with a brand as a full-time salary position is much more traditional:
- Resume and cover letter
- Phone interview (short)
- Test writing assignment, followed by another 1-2 interviews
THE WORK
When hiring freelance talent, brands are likely to want to hire experts for specific kinds of content. For example, if you’re a white paper writer, tell them that! Then they can hire someone else for blog posts, someone else for social media, etc. This isn’t necessarily the case for getting paid to write by agencies, so it’s worth noting.
When hiring in-house talent, it depends on the size of the writing team, but brands are more likely to want a jack-of-all-trades who can help deliver all the content they might need. The exception is large companies where they might have an email team and a copy team, and then they’d be looking for a person who specializes in one thing.
EXAMPLES
From Superpath:
#2. B2B WRITING FOR AGENCIES
WHAT IS IT
B2B marketing agencies also hire writers. But the nature of the work is different because you don’t work for one brand; you work for a marketing company that serves many brands, sometimes as many as 10-15 at a time (even more at large, conglomerate agencies).
When you start to work for a marketing agency, you might be “assigned” to a client. Over time they’ll expect you to learn more about their business, personality, tone, and style, and bring that into the writing.
Agencies can operate under different models: some only hire full-time in-house writers, some only work with freelancers, and some build on a hybrid of both worlds. An agency is most likely to hire freelancers on an hourly model, as they often charge their clients hourly. This isn’t ideal, as it puts a cap on your value (they’ll never cut into their acceptable margin to pay you more).
FINDING IT
The title of the person who would hire you is something like the following:
- Marketing manager, content marketing manager
- Marketing director
- VP of marketing or client services
- Director of marketing
The best way to connect with these folks is also to strategically send LinkedIn invites and compliment them on their marketing agency’s most recent blog posts. Look through their customer testimonials to see what kinds of brands they work with and the quality of the kind of work they do. Look through their employees and see if they hire full-time in-house writers, or if they have no writers listed (in which case they probably work with freelancers).
APPLYING AND INTERVIEWING
Agencies can have a reputation for being more cutthroat and performance-oriented. Delivering very high quality work on a short timeline is almost always the biggest priority. Appearances are also more important than with other organizations — a professional email signature and email address, nice video background, polished phone presence, all these things are relatively more important for agencies than other entities.
THE WORK
The most important thing to note about getting paid by agencies is that they’ll often expect you to be a “jack of all trades” when it comes to marketing format. A client might need a landing page, then an email newsletter, then a blog post, then social media copy to promote that blog post, as well as a LinkedIn ad. And the writer they’ll want to write it is you!
Some people thrive in this environment, learning about a lot of different things at once. But others might feel frustrated or overwhelmed by having to switch gears so often. This might be why so many writers treat marketing agencies as a training ground to learn all about B2B marketing, figure out what they like, and then move on to freelance and specialize after 1-2 years in agency life.
EXAMPLES
Click here to see Influencer Marketing Hub’s in-depth list of the top B2B marketing agencies. CMI’s Agency Directory. Give this list a look and consider pitching them your services if you want to expand your portfolio of clients, formats, and industries.
You’ll also want to note content marketing agencies like Skyword, Animalz, and Influence & Co and boutique content studios like Fenwick and Campfire Labs.
#3. B2B WRITING FOR PUBLICATIONS
WHAT IS IT
B2B marketing publishers are a fascinating hybrid of traditional journalism and modern digital marketing. Essentially, these companies create an ecosystem of excellent reporting on the B2B business world, publish 5-10 original pieces each day, then sell sponsorships of content and advertisements to companies that want to reach those audiences.
Here’s a fascinating scenario you might encounter as you start to work with these three different kinds of clients. It’s just fascinating:
A brand works with their marketing agency to pay for a paid advertisement on a publisher’s website. You might get the assignment from the brand, the marketing agency, or the publisher to complete that piece of work! Which is why it pays to diversify your client mix for all three kinds of writing.
Publications are most likely to pay on a project or value rate, at least according to my limited experience. Some negotiate each piece of work, and some have an internal rate sheet that’s more of a “take it or leave it.”
FINDING IT
Publications sell writing as their product, so maintaining a high quality team of writers is essential to their business model. They often rely on their writers to recommend other writers to them, which is why building your network as a B2B writer is such an important part of growing in your career. Other writers are not your competition, they are helpers who can pull you into the ranks of good clients.
Publications are less likely to advertise for hiring writers, as they always want to maintain the image that they have access to talent and expertise that’s hard to find — if they advertised they need that, that could damage their brand perception.
APPLYING AND INTERVIEWING
For publications, the writer’s skill at writing and the writer’s subject area expertise is the most important thing. They’re trading on your ability to grasp a topic and deliver what their high level clients want — everything else is secondary. In the application and interview process, your portfolio and your ability to communicate during the process will stand out the most.
THE WORK
Publishers are looking for slightly different things in their B2B writers than brands and marketing agencies. These organizations put out high-performance pieces at a high volume, so they need a writer who can jump right in. That writer will come in, assess the topic and the goal, interview experts, and turn around an extremely high-quality first draft that resonates with an executive audience.
The most important qualification you can possess to work with these kinds of publishers is to be an extremely good writer and extremely easy to work with. That means you can write well and quickly, and you can respond to email and schedule interviews within 24-48 hours.
Connecting with and doing a great job for these publishers is an excellent way to get paid to write, but it can come at the cost of predictability. Because publishers sell content as a product, the timelines are often very short and they can assign you to a project on short notice. For some writers, that’s exhilarating — for others, that is frustrating.
EXAMPLES
Some of the most prominent publishers today include Industry Dive, FierceMarkets, and SmartBrief. There are also many niche trade publishers that also offer sponsored content opportunities for brands, so when you’re considering different ways to get paid to write, you can typically research your niche to uncover even more opportunities.
Use this information to figure out 1) how you want to work or 2) what you want to learn. See brands, agencies, and publications as tools for you to build the business you want to build. How do you thrive: Under pressure, or in relationship? What do you want to accomplish: Big bylines, or long-term results? There’s an option for you no matter what you want.
Not sure at all? Start with brands. Brands are the most forgiving when it comes to learning the ropes, starting at a lower rate and working your way up, and delivering little wins that build your confidence. It might seem like pitching yourself to a brand is actually the biggest risk, but it’s the biggest upfront risk. Agencies and publications might plug you into more regular work, but it comes at the cost of higher pressure and the assumption you’ve perfected what you’re doing (after all, they’ve built a product/business model off of excellent writing already).
Part Three: Finding Clients
FINDING CLIENTS
Why do we spend so much time on writing at B2BWI, when the hard part is getting jobs? Because there are literally endless opportunities to write, that’s the easy part. The hard part is being prepared for the work they want you to do. If you pitch all day, you’ve just wasted your time if they don’t like your samples/you can’t nail the project on the first go.
Here’s how we’ll make getting hired easier:
- 3 Mindset shifts to make
- Finding companies to pitch
- Let’s find clients live!
MINDSET SHIFT #1: YOU’RE PLUGGING INTO A SYSTEM ALREADY AT WORK
B2B plugs you into an existing system. Unlike other kinds of writing, like copywriting which involves large one-time projects, B2B content marketing is recurring. Your job is to develop clips, be reliable, and raise your prices every 6-9 months.
If they run a business, they need to do marketing. If they need to do marketing, they’re probably doing content marketing. If they need content marketing, they need white papers, blog articles, and case studies 😉
Sources of clients:
- Ongoing networking (LinkedIn and other writers)
- Warm email prospecting
- Referrals from existing clients
- Subject matter experts you interview
- New work from the same agency
- Clients leaving their jobs and bringing you with them
MINDSET SHIFT #2: THERE’S ENDLESS OPPORTUNITY
We’re going to talk through some basic strategies for finding clients. The main thing to understand is that there’s more work than anyone could ever do out there — literally endless. The trick is finding work you want to do and at the rate you want to be paid. Start thinking of the process as you interviewing clients to see if they’re a good fit for you.
If you don’t think there’s work out there, it’s simply because you haven’t come across the thousands of companies so niche that no one knows they exist. Search for a “market map” of your niche like so…
MINDSET SHIFT #3: NOTHING ABOUT NETWORKING IS URGENT
It’s practically impossible to find a client and make a sale in a hurry. Start thinking about your networking as a snowball you have to push daily. You’re not reaching out and asking for work — you’re building your network of people who might teach you about marketing. Many of these messages will turn into leads, but most of the time you don’t want to start the conversation off on that foot. I.E. Every business day, send an invite request to 5 marketers and 5 writers with a generic, “Hi, I’m new to the space and would love to learn from you!” — over time your network grows and you haven’t risked anything .
FINDING COMPANIES TO PITCH
Consider technology you used at your previous job. Then use LinkedIn and G2 to identify similar companies.
Consider publications you read like Industry Dive and the companies that sponsor them. See if they need writing support.
Find other writers and see who they’re working for. Then use LinkedIn and G2 to identify similar companies. (Don’t try to steal clients — that’s bad taste)
CONCLUSION
Remove the awkwardness by removing pretense: Tell people who you are and what you’re about
- Networking: “Hi, I’m new, can we connect?”
- Pitching: “Hi, I write in this space. Do you need writers?”
See: Email templates worksheet and prospecting timeline
You are entering into a space where people are marketing and trying to fill all the content needs they have. When you show up and offer to help, you are doing them a favor and solving a problem.
The real hard part is balancing your outreach with practice of your skill so that you can do the job when they ask — with as little stress as possible.
Recommended Trainings:
- State of B2B Writing 2023
- LinkedIn in 10 Minutes
- Let’s Find Clients: A Prospecting and Creative Client Sourcing Experience
- Two Years of $200K (Success Story)
- “Magic Pills” Prospecting Script
- Making Friends With Marketing Managers
Recommended Reading: Book yourself solid by Michael Port