Note from Jennifer: Today’s guest post is really special. In fact, it’s my favorite guest post of all time. Holly Bowne wrote a post for me just over a year ago about her massive-action daily marketing plan to find more clients and increase her income. And this is what happened over the 12 months following that post. This is a story every content marketing writer needs to hear, because we all face tough times at some point or another in our freelance careers. But it takes work. It’s not 12 LOIs or even 50 LOIs. And it takes time—like, months. But if you put in the consistent effort over a period of months like Holly, then there is absolutely no reason that your story can’t be similar to Holly’s. After reading, visit Holly at her website and follow her on Twitter.

By Holly Bowne

Back in January of 2017, I had a crisis. My husband suddenly lost his job, and the paltry income I’d been bringing in with my freelance writing business wasn’t even enough to cover our food and shelter requirements. Inspired by a post of Jennifer’s, “How I Landed $50K in New Content Marketing in 45 Days,” I created an aggressive daily marketing plan. I wrote about it on Jennifer’s blog here, Guest Post by Holly Bowne: How My Massive-Action Daily Marketing Plan Paid Off.

I recently spoke with Jennifer, and she thought you all might like hear a follow-up on what happened next. Spoiler alert: I have more than doubled my income and am currently swamped with work! But, here’s the story in a bit more detail.

What Happened Next

When I wrote the original post in March 2017, I had sent out 139 LOIs. By November, that number would jump to 305 LOIs, plus I applied to 27 full-time jobs (on those days when I was feeling particularly panicked).

How did I find 305 people to send LOIs to? I “googled” agencies and lists of businesses in my niches, and scoured the internet for trade shows so I could hit up their sponsors. I used LinkedIn to find the marketing director or content marketing director name. And then I often turned to Hunter to figure out the email address format if it wasn’t easily accessible. As I mentioned in my first post, like Jennifer, I’m a firm believer in following up. So, I would usually follow up after two or three weeks if I didn’t get any response to my initial LOI.

I received a number of positive responses. And by the end of 2017, I’d gained seven new clients, some with repeat business, and my income had grown. One of my new clients was actually a referral from a different new client who liked my work. Client #1 was actually not super high paying, but I still did my best work for them. The referral, Client #2, is now my highest payer. A pleasant surprise, and a good reason to always do your best work for every client, every time. But I still hadn’t hit my income goal. So, in December, I signed up for a course that would teach me how to double my income.

In the intro section of my original post, Jennifer wrote, “… in addition to the new gigs [Holly] has already landed, she had a high response rate that didn’t land work yet, but I bet that she will be getting work for months (or years) from this push by following up.”

And boy, was she ever right!

A Happy Ending (and a new challenge)

In January of this year (my usual slow time), work from my new clients started pouring in. And pouring in. And pouring in. As unbelievable as it is to me, I have not been able to do my course homework because, well… I’ve been too busy doubling my income! When comparing my January through May income between 2017 and 2018, my revenue is more than twice what it was last year.

From that initial massive marketing push last year, my schedule is now full of ongoing project work through to the end of the year. I’m so busy now that I’ve actually had to turn projects down. Never before in my freelancing career have I been in this position!

My new challenge has become how to handle my marketing now that I’m swamped with work. I felt a little weird about asking this question. Mostly because it makes me feel like one of those annoying people who say stuff like, “I’m so frustrated! No matter how much I eat I simply CANNOT gain weight!” Ugh. I know that can be a real problem for some people, but for the rest of us, we just want to roll our eyes and WISH we had that problem, right? But I digress!

I worked up the courage to ask that question of Jennifer in the comments of her post, “The 5 Biggest Mistakes I Made in the Past 5 Years.” And she provided a great answer. She said that when she’s in this situation, she focuses her marketing efforts more on “move up” or “bucket list” markets, i.e. bigger clients, or clients that she really wants. And she also suggested focusing on referrals and building relationships.

So, that’s how I’m going to handle my marketing over the next few months. Because as busy as I am right now, I know from listening to other writers that these lucrative gigs could be gone in a heartbeat. And the key to success, lies in continued marketing. There’s just no substitute for it!

Do you make marketing activities part of your daily work routine? What’s your biggest challenge related to marketing your freelance writing services?