One of the exciting parts of the upcoming ASJA Annual Conference this year is the addition of content marketing agencies and brands to the Client Connections event (formerly known as Personal Pitch.) The lineup of magazines and companies attending is very impressive, including More, Penthouse, Eating Well, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Haymarket Media and Psychology Today. The event is on Members day (Thursday) so you have to be a member to participate in this particular event, but nonmembers can attend the rest of the conference. I highly encourage any freelance writer who is serious about growing their business to attend the conference. And if you are not an ASJA member, here is a link for more information on joining.

This past week I have gotten questions from several ASJA members who will be attending Client Connections about how to best pitch the content marketing editors. It’s a great question, since meeting with content marketing editors is a bit different than meeting with editors at consumer publications. The main difference is that content marketing editors are not looking for story ideas from writers but instead are looking for writers with experience both in their niche and with content marketing writing. And even if you aren’t going to the conference, my approach outlined below will work great if you meet a content marketing editor at a trade show, networking event or even an interview phone call.

1. Determine the What Niches the Potential Client Focuses On – If the client you are meeting with is a brand who is looking to hire writers directly, spend some researching their website to determine their industry and their target markets. Look around at blogs, white papers and any publications the company produces to get a good idea of the type of content that they need.

If the client is an agency, see if they list their clients on their website. Sometimes you can find the information on page called client list and other times you can get the clients from their online portfolio. Look for patterns as to the industry that the agency serves, such as working for mainly law firms or technology companies. If you are able to find their clients, do some research on their client websites as well to gather more information about their content needs.

2. Brainstorm Your Industry Relevant Experience – Make a list of any experience that you have in the niche. Write down publications that you have written for as well as previous jobs in the field. If you don’t have experience in the exact niche, think about related niches. I recently got a gig writing for a mutual fund company by using clips I had written about credit cards and credit scores for a consumer site.  By taking the time to look through all of your clips, you may come up with more examples and relevant samples than you thought you had.

3. Make a List of Previous Content Marketing Experience – I have found that almost all experienced writers have written content marketing materials in the past, even if they don’t realize it. Take a few minutes to go through your clips and clients to see if you have content marketing experience. Common deliverables that writers forget are content marketing include whitepapers, case studies, blogs for a business, Inflight magazines and alumni publications.

4. During Your Meeting, Sell Yourself Not Specific Ideas – When you sit down the potential client, ask the client about their needs and what type of content that are currently needing writers to produce. Use that information along with the information you gathered during your pre-meeting interview to sell yourself to the client. Talk about specific brands, trade publications and consumer publications that you have experience with. It doesn’t matter if your experience in the industry was with content marketing or journalism, clients just care that you have experience with the terminology, audience needs and concepts. Be sure to mention any previous jobs that are relevant to their industry as well. I often forget to mention that I was a technical writer at IBM and also a large accounting firm, which most clients in those industries find to be a huge plus.

You should also mention any previous content marketing experience that you have, even if it was in another niche. However, if you have no or little experience in content marketing, you can instill confidence in the client by talking about your knowledge of what content marketing is and how you can create deliverables to accomplish the company’s goals.

5. Follow up  – While you should follow up when you meet with consumer/trade editors as well, I am mentioning this because especially in a situation such as Client Connections following up is often the difference between getting the gig and radio silence. Immediately after the conference (or any other in person meetings that you have, send a follow up email to all of the editors you met with. In the email, you should summarize what you talked about, remind the editor of your experience and mention any specific upcoming projects that you discussed.

What tips to you have for pitching to content marketing editors? Are you going to the ASJA Conference?

https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2013/12/02/the-importance-of-following-up-how-i-got-2-1-a-word-content-marketing-jobs/