Note from Jennifer: I love hearing about what happens after writers follow my advice. Mostly, that’s because I love helping others celebrate their successes, but also because those stories can inspire others who aren’t convinced about what they should do. Today’s guest post is one of those inspiring success stories, from Elizabeth Hanes RN. Beth has shared wonderful advice on my blog in the past, and I encourage you to go back and read her other guest posts here, here, here, and here. You should also follow Beth on Twitter as well.

By Elizabeth Hanes RN

Taking Jennifer’s advice landed me a $30,000 project. On March 13, 2020, Jennifer published a post titled, “Why You Need to Reach Out to All Clients (Current and Past) in the Next Few Days.” At the time, many companies had paused or canceled content projects due to the coronavirus, and everyone felt very nervous about how the situation would unfold and how it might affect our livelihoods.

In that blog post, Jennifer laid out her strategy and call-to-action: Immediately reach out to current and former clients to let them know of your availability.

Although I felt relatively insulated from the coronavirus content slowdown because I work in the healthcare vertical, I had been hunting for a new anchor client for months and months before this pandemic hit. Some of you in the Freelance Content Marketing Writer group on Facebook may recall every week when Jennifer posted “what is your goal for this week?” my response was always “one new client.” It wasn’t entirely a joke.

And now one of my two remaining clients demanded I renegotiate my monthly retainer contract to effectively reduce it by 50%. It was a blow that put my business into real financial jeopardy.

So, as I read Jennifer’s blog post that day, I thought, “Yes! Circling back to old clients is exactly what I need to do.”

Where did I put that, again?

Locating the contact information of my former clients wasn’t easy. I’m not very organized about that (memo to self). But searching through old emails, invoices and paper contracts yielded a paltry six potential contacts to reach out to. Six. I thought my time had been wasted on this task, for sure.

Nonetheless, I sent my “reach-out” emails to the six former clients the very same day Jennifer published her post. I quickly received six very polite, thanks-but-no-thanks responses. And I figured that was the end of that.

Time was on My Side

One of the former clients I’d reached out to was a major senior care corporation I’d worked with for four years, producing much of their consumer-facing content. It had been another four years since I’d left that relationship, owing to burnout from writing intensively on the topic of dementia care so much. 

When I initially sent my circle-back email, the team expressed delight in hearing from me and asked if I would serve as a “substitute writer” on standby in case one of their team members became sick. I told them I’d be happy to. They knew I understood their style guide, voice and tone intimately after producing literally thousands of assets for them over the years – and that knowledge would make it easy for me to get back up to speed very quickly.

Five weeks after sending that email, my contact at the company reached out. Despite the financial and work-life havoc wreaked by the coronavirus, the company had decided to forge ahead with a major website redesign as scheduled, and my contact needed a writer she knew could handle the job on short notice. She wondered if I’d be interested in the gig.

Happy Ending

Today I inked a contract for a three-month web copy project that will pay out more than $30,000. And not only that, but the company has some ongoing writing projects they’d like me to help with, too.

All thanks to one blog post by Jennifer.

That former client likely never would have thought to contact me for this gig if I hadn’t previously reached out to them. Jennifer’s call to be proactive really paid off for me.

If you are struggling to get work, I suggest you follow up with all those former clients you contacted last month who gave you a polite “no.” The coronavirus situation continues to evolve, and even if they didn’t need you last month, they might this month. Staying top-of-mind might pay dividends.

I wish everyone reading this (and their families) health, wellness and security during this strange, strange time. Hang in there!

Special offer for my blog readers: Beth is relaunching RN2writer on May 15^th is offering a discount for 30% off any version of her “Health Journalism Basics for Nurses” workshop. (Here’s a sneak peak of the first lesson.) It’s designed for nurses but open to everyone. The workshops are available as a self-study version ($297), a premium version (includes assignments that she provides feedback on – priced $397) and an “ultimate” version that includes four half-hour coaching sessions with her ($597), so a 30% discount is a great value on any option.