After I had gained a portfolio of work through freelance sites, I wanted to further develop my writing career. For me, the most obvious approach to this was through a mix of agencies.

The advantage of agencies is that they’ll find the clients based on your expertise/experience. This significantly reduces the time needed to look for repeat clients when first going out on your own.

My Approach

Finding agency work was easier than I imagined, and it was made simpler with some organization and research.

First, I drew up a list of SEO, digital marketing, PR and design agencies. Rather than message them straight away, I checked the ‘services’ pages, as some digital marketing and SEO agencies don’t offer writing services. Next, I took my time to look at the type of clients they worked with, and then narrowed down a list of the agencies I felt would be a good ‘fit.’

I used the ‘about,’ ‘media,’ or ‘team’ pages to find out the CEO’s name, or if they had a content manager. If they had a content manager, then I addressed my emails to them, as queries will often get passed to them.

I knew pitching was a numbers game so, when I first started, I sent out up to 30 emails a day. However, this approach wasn’t hugely successful so I changed my strategy, concentrating on quality instead of quantity. I also made sure my pitches were more tailored, and better suited to each agency.

To do this, I took a closer look at the agencies to assess their potential content needs, the type of content they produced, and the content their clients used. I then targeted my work samples, and adapted my letter of intent so they were a better fit with each agency/client.

This drastically increased my success rate in terms of responses, and was the most effective at landing me work. My first success was being offered $45 a blog post, which bolstered my confidence.

My next aim was to land higher paying work, which meant further streamlining my list of agencies. I narrowed down companies with the highest revenue. If I couldn’t find company revenue, then I went by company size.

Soon, I was being offered $100 blog posts, and $750 projects, which bolstered my confidence further.

The Next Step

My work with agencies gave me a list of big name client names that I could add to my resume, which would make a better impression when I started to direct email businesses.

In addition, getting a glimpse into how agencies work, and finding out more about the information gathering stage, etc. gave me a valuable insight into working with clients, and striking out on my own.

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• How I Got Steady Freelance Writing Work By Going the Extra Mile – by Ann Jamieson

Jane Fazackarley is a freelance writer with a special interest in health, small business and fashion. Her debut novel, Then He Left Me, is available on Amazon.

 

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