Note from Jennifer: One of the biggest challenges I hear from writers is that they don’t know how to find clients. The trick is starting with the audience, not with specific products. If you start with products, you miss many possible new clients. Last year, I wrote down my process in my post Jennifer’s 3 Step Method for Brainstorming New Clients. I have had many writers tell me that this method of thinking has helped them find new potential clients. So when Lisa told me that the method worked for her, I asked her to write up a post! (Thank you, Lisa!) Check out Lisa’s website at www.writtenbylisafields.com.

If you’re looking to add new clients this year, I highly recommend using this process to brainstorm new ideas. I promise you will come up with clients that you never would have thought of on your own. 

by Lisa Fields

For the last year or two, I had been hoping to expand the amount of content writing that I was doing beyond the few clients that had fallen into my lap. My problem was that sheer desire wasn’t enough: I simply couldn’t figure out how to find more prospective clients.

Fortunately, I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer at the 2017 ASJA conference in New York. During and after the conference, she and I chatted about many things, including content writing. When I told her about my content-writing quandary, I was impressed that she was willing to help. Instead of just sympathizing, Jennifer offered sympathy and then pointed me toward a blog post that she’d written called “Jennifer’s 3 Step Method for Brainstorming Potential Clients.”

The post spelled out exactly what I needed to learn about finding new clients, and it really made an impression on me. Although I didn’t have enough time to devote to Jennifer’s brainstorming process the day that she recommended that I read about it, I found some time in my schedule a few weeks later, when I didn’t have any immediate deadlines to distract me. I gave myself several hours to focus on her process.

Lightbulb Moment: I am a Sleep Expert 

For Step 1, I had to decide who my target audience was. Most of what I write for magazines and websites is aimed at health-conscious women aged 35 to 55, so it was easy to figure this out. But when I tried to move on to Step 2 – brainstorming all of the products and services that people in this audience would need – I realized that I hadn’t narrowed my focus well enough.

When I started brainstorming the things that health-conscious women would buy, I was feeling less than inspired. Cough syrup? Cough drops? Tissues? I couldn’t see this being the focus of my first grand search for content marketing clients. So I decided to shift my focus.

Suddenly, I had a revelation: I write about sleep for all kinds of publications. How pregnancy can derail a good night’s sleep for Pregnancy Magazine. Whether athletes need more sleep for Bicycling magazine. How parents can reclaim their beds from kids who sneak in after lights-out for WebMD. Heartburn’s effect on sleep for Reader’s Digest. I had tackled sleep from so many angles for so many years, I knew that I had just the right background to cover sleep for a corporate client. I’m perpetually interested in writing about sleep, and I haven’t come close to exhausting all of my sleep-themed ideas, so I knew that I wouldn’t get bored writing sleep content.

Making a List of Products Women Buy Who Want a Goodnight Sleep

Once I shifted my focus to 35- to 55-year-old women who were interested in getting a good night’s sleep, it was easy to brainstorm products that such women would buy. Sheets. Pajamas. Beds. Sleep masks. Even white noise machines. After I’d come up with a list of more than 20 product categories, it was time for Step 3. I chose one product that seemed promising and created a list of companies that sell it.

Googling helped me find more than a dozen companies to target. Once I had my list, I checked LinkedIn and individual company websites to figure out which person at each company should receive my letter of introduction. This was the most time-consuming part of the process, but it was worth it. I sent out 16 letters of introduction and immediately received responses from three companies. Two said that they’d keep my information on file. A woman at the third company and I began communicating by phone and e-mail, and within a few weeks, I began writing the lengthy, well-paying assignment that I had proposed, which focused on many different aspects of sleep.

Before Jennifer intervened, I had been feeling inspired yet stuck when it came to my content writing career, because I wasn’t sure how to find new clients. Fortunately, Jennifer’s method worked quickly and beautifully. And I know that whenever I have a few free hours, all I’ll need to do to find additional clients is to repeat Step 3 in Jennifer’s plan: Focusing on a different sleep product and the companies that sell it… or I can repeat Steps 1 and 2 and brainstorm other products outside the realm of sleep that would resonate with health-conscious women. The only thing stopping me now is that I don’t have the time to commit to this exercise, because the content-writing project that I’ve been working for my new client has been taking up most of my time. But that’s hardly something to complain about!

Have you used the 3 step method? Has it worked for you? Any questions?