Last year was a big year for my business. In 2018, I wrote a book that I am proud of. I had the highest earning six months of my freelance career during the first part of the year. I let three anchor clients go because they were no longer a fit for my business. I also was fired by three clients because I was not a fit for their business. I had one of the lowest earning months in years.  And I am starting 2019 with less regular work than I am comfortable with.

After my whirlwind first half of the year, where I hit six figures for the year in July, I slacked off the last few months of 2018. I was tired. And floundered as to what direction I wanted to take my career. So while I tried to figure it out, I took what work came to me instead of determining the direction of my business. I had some interesting work and clients, but I wasn’t focused and strategic like I usually I am. I worked less. I spent a lot of free time with dachshund rescue. And I recharged. It was what I needed to do for myself. But now it’s a new year and I realize that I need to pause so that I can figure out where I want to go.

I want 2019 to be my best year ever – not just income-wise, but all-around. I want to have enough free time to enjoy my kids’ last few years of high school and save as many dachshunds as I can. But I also want to earn between $120,000 and $160,000. None of this is magically going to happen. I need to figure out what I want and make a plan to get there.

Why you need a marketing plan

One of the hardest parts of freelancing is the feast or famine aspect – meaning it almost always seems as if you have too much work or too little. The secret is to continuously market yourself throughout the year. It’s almost impossible to achieve the perfect balance, but I think that the secret to getting as close as possible is to market throughout the year, even when you are busy. And the best way to do that is to create a marketing plan.

The trick (and the hard part) is getting into a routine of marketing regularly and then actually doing it, even when you are swamped. Every writer, regardless of their income or number of years they have been writing, should have a marketing plan to follow. All writers are just a few client losses away from finding themselves with an empty calendar.

What to include in your marketing plan

I think that every writer should have a marketing plan that includes the following three sections:

1. Your goal – Is there a specific income goal you want to achieve each month? Do you want to add a new niche? Are you looking for new clients to provide you stead work? Are you looking to become less reliant on a single client? Or you might have a totally different goal. You can have more than one goal, but you need to know what you want to achieve so you can devise a plan to get there. This post gives some ideas for types of goals to consider.
2. Types of potential clients you want to target – Many writers skip this step and then stare at their computer (or play on social media) when it comes time to market because they don’t know who to contact. Take the time upfront to clearly identify the types of clients that think will be likely to hire you based on your experience and clips. Be as specific as possible. Instead of writing “hospitals”, write large hospitals with a dental department. If are stuck, check out this post on how to use my Audience First Method to brainstorm new client ideas. This post on finding agencies may also be helpful.
3. Tasks to do each day and week to achieve your goal – Each task is something that helps either position yourself as the type of freelance writer your perfect clients are looking for or make connections with potential clients. It’s easy to only think about contacting potential clients as marketing, but there are many other tasks that high-income writers do as part of marketing. Check out my 2019 Winter Marketing Challenge for a list of marketing tasks to include.

I often hear writers say that they are going to “find a new client this month.” I’ve said it too. However, making a goal like this often feels overwhelming and paralyzes you because you don’t know where to start. You can’t control whether or not you get a new client. But you can control the actions that you take to increase the likelihood of landing a new client. If you go to three networking events, follow up with 10 people you met last year, send 50 LOIs and follow up with 30 LOIs you sent earlier in the year, then the odds are pretty high that you will land a client.

My 2019 Marketing Plan

As you are writing your own plan, be sure to substitute the specific marketing activities you have found to be most effective for your personality and your specific niches. The trick is to be as specific and actionable as possible. When I was writing my plan below I originally wrote “Make time for writing that feeds my soul,” but this is vague and easy to skip over. I changed it to a specific goal with a time frame and quantity, which will hopefully make me more acountable to making achieving it.

My Goals for 2019

• Earn between $120K and $160K
• Have a single client make up no more than 25 percent of my income
• Take at least one full day off each week
• Take 6 weeks of vacation
• Write at least one feature story or personal essay a month

My Target Clients

• B2B Tech Businesses in the hospitality, retail and healthcare industries
• Content marketing agencies focused on B2B technology
• Content marketing agencies in Raleigh, NC

Marketing Tasks to Complete

Yearly

• Attend the ASJA national conference in NYC in May
• Attend one national marketing conference
• Attend one local marketing conference

Monthly

• Review LinkedIn profile to add new niches or clients
• Update website with new clips and check links on older clips
• Attend one local meetup, eiither in the marketing or tech industry
• Have lunch with a contact, either another local writer, potential client or marketing professional
• Create list of 40 businesses or agencies to contact (Increase to 100 in Feb)
• Reconnect with one editor or coworker that has moved positions
• Connect with another writer online or through email

Weekly

• Add new contacts, such as clients, sources and other connections, to my LinkedIn and Twitter
• Review job ads and apply to any for which I am uniquely qualified
• Find contact person and email for LOIs to send next week
• Follow up on LOIs previously sent
• Read and reply to online writers’ forums or blogs

Daily

• Send out two LOIs to either agencies or directly to businesses (Increase to 5 daily in January)

Your Marketing Plan is a Working Document

The beauty of a marketing plan is that you can increase or decrease the activities based on how much you want to earn, how many hours you want to work and if you need more work quickly for financial reasons. If you are in danger of losing an anchor client or need to increase your income, then you should immediately increase your outreach. Since I am low on work right this minute, I am planning to send out more LOIs this month than noted in my plan. And if you are wondering if this approach works, check out Holly Bowne’s story for inspiration.

The stage of your career makes a big difference as well in terms of quantity. You may notice that I have listed 40 LOIs per month. Since I have been freelancing for 10 years and have worked for a number of top brands, landing work typically comes pretty quickly. I recommend that most writers aim for at least 100 outreaches a month unless you are in a similar situation.

What are your tips for creating a marketing plan? Have you found having a marketing plan helps you market steadily?