A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post stating that I thought writers who were in serious need of work should send out a lot of letters of introduction because freelance writing really is a numbers game. I went further out on a limb and said that a lot of LOIs wasn’t 20 but more like 100 or 200. I quickly got a question in the comments asking if it was possible to find that many markets and how to go about identifying 100 potential clients.

This is the thing: almost every service professional, brand, and store has a need for content. They may not know it yet. They may be making a conscious decision to focus on other types of marketing, or they may not have the budget or manpower. But honestly your potential clients are really only limited by your industry experience and your persistence in sending out LOIs. Once you get going, it is actually pretty easy to find 100 or even 500 potential clients. Although, I would wager that you would become busy with work well before you got around to sending 500 emails.

Here are ten ways to find brands and agencies to market your content marketing writing services:

(Note: if you are interested in one of these strategies, be sure to click on the links because in most cases I have previously devoted an entire post to each strategy.)

1. Introduce Yourself to Content Marketing Agencies. Agencies are a great source of work because they typically provide ongoing work and have experience working with freelance writers. A good place to start is with the member list on the Custom Content Council and then target agencies in your city and state.
2. Contact Doctors, Dentists and Lawyers. Other good sources include local hospitals, insurance agents and wellness centers. Since all of these businesses rely on customers having trust in their provider, they can benefit from providing informational content to their clients and prospective clients.
3. Use LinkedIn to find brands currently using content marketing. I have had great success recently with this strategy and find that it takes very little time because in most cases you have the contact person at your fingertips. One approach is to offer your freelance services to companies looking to hire a full-time writer or content strategist. You can also market to companies who currently have a content strategist or content marketing manager on staff because you know they are currently using content marketing and may have a need to outsource now or in the future.
4. Attend a networking event, conference, or seminar in your niche. In this increasingly virtual world, there is really something that stands out in someone’s mind when you make an impression in person. Do a search of local seminars or Meetup groups for businesses in your industry and take a few hours out of your day to make real life contacts. Make meaningful connections at the event and follow up with each person via email or social media once you get home.
5. Contact National Brands in your niche. One of my readers developed this strategy to use the Fortune 500 list to find brands in your niche to target. This is a bit more time consuming than some of the other ideas, but the marketing is very targeted and can potentially score very lucrative gigs.
6. Find a list in your niche and work your way down it. When I was sending out emails to local law firms, I found a list that had the websites and specialties of all Raleigh law firms listed which saved me considerable time looking up each one individually. A few searches also netted me lists of all local marketing agencies, technology companies and non-profit organizations in my state. Try a few different searches until you get the result you are looking for.
7. Look at the advertisers of magazines that your target audience reads. Find a magazine that is geared towards your target audience and make a list of all companies advertising to this audience. You will most likely come up with brands and markets that are in your niche that you otherwise would never have thought of.
8.  Send LOIs to alumni magazines. Since a lot of the content is profiles of alumni, this is a great market for writers who have been writing profiles for consumer publications. I will cover this market more in-depth in a future blog post, but wanted to throw it out there to help you get jump started.
9. Target associations in your industry. This is an especially effective market if you are a B2B content marketing writer since you have experience writing for professionals in your industry. Most every industry has an association and almost all these associations publish newsletters and content to their members.
10. Contact former clients to ask about work or referrals. Go back through your invoices for the past few years and contact everyone that you have worked with in the past. Update them on any new skills, clips and experience and ask if they have any upcoming projects that would be a match for your skills.

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Do you have any other methods of finding markets to add? Which of these have you found to be most successful at finding work?