Note from Jennifer: I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy during the coronavirus outbreak.

Because most of us are at home, now is a great time to focus on expanding our skill set. I wanted to let you know about a free-training seminar that I am co-hosting with Carol Tice. I will be teaching you about content strategy and the how to become a freelance content strategist. The live session is Tuesday March 17 at 1 pm EST, but you can listen to the recording if you sign up. CLICK HERE to sign up. We will be announcing a 4-week boot camp, but even if you only attend the free training, I promise you will learn new concepts that you can use in your client work.

Last week, I shared my advice for reaching out to clients during this difficult time and I hope it helps you keep your business moving forward despite the uncertainty in the world. I don’t want to dwell on bad news or turn this into an emergency response blog, so today, I’m sharing a guest post by SaVanna Shoemaker, one of the writers in the Freelance Content Marketing Writer group on Facebook. When SaVanna told the group about landing 5 new clients last month, I knew I wanted her success story to help others. Read on to learn how she did it, and then connect with SaVanna on Facebook or LinkedIn and visit her website.

By SaVanna Shoemaker, RDN

I’m a registered dietitian (RD) and freelance nutrition content writer. In addition to a handful of blogging and ghostwriting clients, I write for Healthline Nutrition, Greatist, and Livestrong.com. I’m fairly new to the freelance writing world, having just officially launched my writing business in November of 2019. However, I’ve been writing for one major client for about a year now, so I’m not a total newbie.

Once I decided to launch a business, I knew I wanted to scale up as fast as possible and grow writing into a viable career path for me. So, back in November I started putting plans into motion. Here are some of the things I’ve done to bolster my writing career in the past few months:

• Joined the “RDs Who Write” Facebook group: This group is just for RD writers to share advice and opportunities. It’s run by Ana Reisdorf, who I will be mentioning a lot in this post. (She’s my career role model!)
• Joined “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer” Facebook group AND read the book: Both of these resources gave me a lot of insight into how to actually get clients and run a successful business, which up to this point had been very abstract, nebulous concepts to me.
• Enrolled in Ana’s Freelance Writing for the RD course: This 6-week course was like RD writer boot camp for me, and it helped solidify the things I was learning in Facebook groups, through my reading, and through the approximately one million podcasts I was listening to.
• Started pitching and sending out LOIs: In January, I also got really serious about pitching and sending out LOIs. Up to about mid-February (when I realized that my schedule was rapidly filling up), I had sent about 25 LOIs and 10 pitches (and 1 of those pitches was accepted in January, but more on this later).

So I got all of this going during the months of November, December, and January… which all dragged on for ages with little in the way of new work. Then February arrived, and it seems like all of the effort I put in paid off all at once.

Here’s how I signed on 5 new clients in one month: 

1. Responses to LOIs

The vast majority of LOIs I sent got no response, and several (particularly those sent to marketing agencies) weren’t even opened. I had a couple “We’ll keep you on file” or “How much do you charge?” replies that didn’t go anywhere. But I got two really enthusiastic responses, which was a great confidence-booster!

One was from a content marketing agency. The rate is slightly lower than my normal rate, but I really wanted some agency experience. And so far they are very easy to work with, which is worth its weight in gold. I’ve already written two articles for them, and gotten paid! I happened to send my LOI just as they acquired a large, high-profile customer in my niche.

The other was a small-but-quickly-growing healthy snack food company. They are busy entrepreneurs who were quickly running out of time to focus on blog content, and — again — I happened to contact them at just the right time. I just finished up my first piece for them!

Although I haven’t done any follow-ups yet, I feel like in each of these instances my initial LOI had perfect timing… which actually shows me just how important follow-ups are, because you want to be fresh in someone’s inbox at the exact moment they need you, be it with an initial LOI or a follow-up.

2. Referrals

Two more of my new clients in February came from referrals.

One was totally unexpected, and a really nice surprise. An editor I’d worked with on a pitch she accepted in January actually passed my name along to one of her colleagues, who was looking to bring on more long-term contributors for the site. 

The other was from Ana, whose Freelance Writing for the RD course I was taking at the time. From chatting in the Facebook group, she knew that I had experience writing for a particular publication. So, when she was contacted by someone needing writers familiar with their style, she passed my name and contact info along.

I actually didn’t ask for either of these referrals directly, but I think that putting myself out there, being active and engaged in the right Facebook groups, and making my strengths known helped me to be front-of-mind for these awesome people when they decided to refer me.

3. Responding to Job Postings

The last client I got in February was actually a result of me responding to a call for writers. It wasn’t a job listing, but instead it was directly from an editor in a Facebook group.

So, the two key takeaways from my great month I want to share are:

• Send those LOIs! Someone out there needs the service you provide. And if you can land an LOI or a follow-up in their inbox at the right time, you’re pretty much in. But you’ve just got to get over the fear that you’re annoying people! It took me a while to shake that feeling. But if you want to write, you have to get clients. And to get clients, they have to know who you are! Stop procrastinating and SEND THE DANG LOI!
• Network, network, network. Find the Facebook groups you need to be in (both for writers and for your niche), and participate! Facebook groups have been an invaluable tool to me — to build relationships with other writers, to learn more about growing a successful business, and to find work! If I hadn’t joined the “RDs Who Write” group, I never would have learned about Ana’s course or “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer” (the book or the Facebook group). I would still be writing on the side for a single client, oblivious to the fact that the world of content marketing even existed.

While I do think I had some beginner’s luck, and I know that not every month is going to be so successful, landing 5 clients in one month really boosted my confidence. It helped me realize that turning writing into a full-time career is so much more than just a pipe dream. I am PSYCHED to see how the rest of 2020 is going to go!

Have you tried any of SaVanna’s tactics? What were your results like?