UNDERSTANDING MARKETERS
Why is marketing a thing?
The reason content marketing is a thing is because brands would rather spend $186,000 a year on content rather than $500,000 a year on paid advertising. That’s it!
That also explains two reasons why B2B writing is so fantastic
- 1) Educational and informative (non-salesy) writing is more effective for B2B buyers than B2C buyers, so we get to spend our time on research and quality, and
- 2) Brands are setting aside a specific budget to pay for what we do and doing more of it every year
From: Skyword’s Scaling Brand Partnerships 2021
So while we might not like that it feels like the wild, wild west to us when it comes to pricing… that’s actually a really good thing.
- 1) Marketers aren’t budgeting the # of articles… they’re budgeting money, so as you get better and more experienced, there’s literally no limit to the pricing you can position yourself for, and
- 2) There’s no one way to do this right — you can come up with ideas, pitch them, and get money for them, as often as you like!
Common marketer problems
Thought Leadership research (B2BWI) goes into four common points of challenge for marketing managers:
- Other common problems:
(So if you can include any of these things in your web materials, testimonials, or kick off call, you’re speaking directly to them!)
I want to highlight the role of industry expertise — another vote for niching over time. In B2B, you’re simply more valuable and appealing if you have some experience in the industry.
Another interesting thing to consider is why marketers are using freelancers more for content, especially in B2B. Here are some things going on behind the scenes that you might not be considering — why they really need you:
How they work and what they look for when they hire
Every marketing role varies slightly based on what kind of company they work for.
Note: I’d love to do further research into this area, but for now, this is based on my professional experience and opinion. Take this with a grain of salt, and always listen to your gut about what you’re experiencing for yourself.
| Entity | B2B Brand/ Company | Publication/B2B Trade Pub | Marketing agency |
| Role | Own the brand perception and achieve goals (reporting to CMO or CEO) | Coordinate client and achieve goals (reporting to VP of client services) | Manage client’s strategy and achieve/report on goals (reporting to VP or CEO) |
| Kind of like | Editor | Project Manager | Consultant |
| Priorities | CostSpeed Quality | QualitySpeed Cost | QualityCost Speed |
| Wants a writer who’s… | Very reliable (Show your experience) | Very good (Show your skills and qualifications) | Very flexible (Show your responsiveness and client experience) |
| Work experience is… | Consistent | On and off high pressure | Highly reactive |
| Career Path | Might change companies or even industries Example: Recent client changed from FinTech to Higher Ed and brought me with them | Might change to a different publication, or leave and go into a B2B company or marketing agency Example: Connected a friend from a publication with an agency that hired her | Might decide to go in-house with a company they worked with or change careers. Example: Client contact at an agency shifted gears and went into higher ed to teach marketing. |
FINDING MARKETERS
Common titles
- Marketing manager
- Content marketing manager
- Demand generation (DemandGen) manager
- Marketing technology (MarTech) manager
- VP marketing, Director of marketing
- VP Content marketing
- Chief marketing officer (CMO)
- Chief content officer (CCO)
- Project manager, project specialist
- Marketing strategists (in-house or freelance)
- Horizontal networking – Connect with peers who can refer you
Pro search on LinkedIn
- Reverse strategy:
- Go and find content being made/published by brands
- Look that brand up on LinkedIn
- Look at their marketing team and connect with a few folks
- Straightforward strategy:
- Search for keywords and “People”
- Find marketing managers and look at similar profiles
- “Hi FIRSTNAME! I’m new to X field and your post about X caught my eye. I’d love to connect and follow your work here! – Name”
Pro search on Twitter
- Search for keywords and “People”
- Find marketing managers and look at similar profiles
- Sign in twice a week and like and comment on what they’re saying
Hang where they hang:
- SuperPath, LinkedIn, Twitter
Read what they read:
CONNECTING WITH MARKETERS
Play it cool
You should rarely pitch right away, even if you need the work. People are simply too sensitive to pitching right now. People are also smart — if you connect without pitching and are a writer, they will ask you about it if they need a writer.
Care about what they care about
We talk about this a bit in the LinkedIn in 10 minutes video, but social media is not personal media. It’s not about you — the spotlight doesn’t have to be on you. Use your social presence as a spotlight on people and things you love. Share blog posts, screenshots, case studies you find… things that interest you in the space of marketing. A great formula is Spark from someone else + Your original thoughts on it… that’s what makes social content that feels natural but is also interesting to the people you want to connect with. (But without both sides of the equation, it falls flat)
Remember your abundance mindset [scarcity vs abundance]
This is not grade school, where you’re locked into the same 30 folks for the next 10 years. There are people constantly moving in and out of marketing — coming up, coming down, reinventing themselves.
This works both ways:
- 1) If you’re not successful today, keep going because you never know when someone will see something, remember something, follow up on something
- 2) If what you’re doing is working, remember things change and you always want to be willing to reinvent what you’re doing
CONCLUSION
There are two parts of getting hired:
- Your skills, qualifications, abilities (the quality of your writing)
- Your ability to find, connect with, and sell to your clients (Your willingness to be seen and engage)
Getting comfortable selling starts with understanding, finding, and connecting. If “selling” has felt awkward until now, it’s because you were missing those foundational layers. You were trying to sell something you don’t quite understand to someone you don’t know… no wonder it felt wrong! But when you start to know and care about these people… and see how your writing skills fit into the bigger picture…✨