23 Ways to Market Your Freelance Writing Business

You can’t be successful as a freelance writer if you can’t find any clients

23 Ways to Market Your Freelance Writing Business

Among the first questions any nurse asks me about being a freelance writer is: Can you really make money at that?

Usually I chuckle before replying, “Oh, yes. You definitely can make money at that.”

But you can’t make any money as a writer unless you find a client willing to pay you. Marketing is the name of the game, especially when you’re first starting out.

Then the question becomes how should I market my business? I can think of 100 things I could do to attract a client, so how do I narrow down that list into something manageable?

I have 23 suggestions for you…

Marketing Strategies for Nurses Who Write

1. Write some articles for allnurses.com to develop your skills and generate some search juice for your byline.

2. Send story pitches to likely editors.

3. Take your own hospital’s marketing director out to lunch and express an interest in writing for her.

4. Reach out to organizations you’ve written for in the past, even in a charity capacity.

5. Network with other writers to share leads.

6. Network on LinkedIn by making strategic connections and also by publishing articles related to your writing specialty.

7. Contact healthcare marketing agencies.

8. Check reputable job boards like JournalismJobs.com https://www.journalismjobs.com/ for freelance gigs and also to identify publications to pitch health stories to. *

9. Publish a blog to demonstrate your expertise.

10. Publish a periodic (quarterly is fine) newsletter with updates about your business and articles of relevance to your subscribers.

11. Attend local business functions, such as Chamber of Commerce events and other in-person networking opportunities.

12. Attend a writers’ conference, such as the Association of Health Care Journalists’ annual event, where you can meet editors in person.

13. Set up social media accounts for your business. **

14. Offer to speak to local marketing organizations and other entities on topics like how to develop a content marketing plan.

15. Author well-placed guest posts or articles.

16. Mail postcards to local marketing directors.

17. Contact editors of university publications, especially alumni magazines and medical school mags.

18. Send letters of introduction by email to prospective clients.

19. Build a website that draws inquiries from prospects.

20. Offer a free download (ebook, white paper, case study – whatever) in exchange for adding a contact to your mailing list.

21. Participate in relevant groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.

22. Serve as an expert source for a journalist when it’s a good fit. ***

23. Join writers’ associations, set up a public profile (where available) and participate in their forums. A couple of likely candidates are AHCJ and AMWA (https://www.amwa.org).

* I recommend staying away from freelance marketplaces like Upwork, which tend to proffer extremely low-paying “opportunities.”

** The key here is to do this strategically. Use business social media accounts strictly for business: posting links, commenting on relevant posts, curating business-related links – that sort of thing.

*** Be sure to mention your business in any interview!

As I said, there may be thousands of ways to market your freelance writing business, but these 23 strategies should help you get started.

Which marketing tactics have you found most effective? Please share them in the comments!

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Elizabeth Hanes

About Elizabeth Hanes, BSN, RN

(Columnist)

Elizabeth Hanes BSN RN is 'the nurse who knows content.' For a decade she has helped major healthcare brands communicate with their target audiences to build relationships and drive business results. Learn more about Elizabeth at RN2Writer.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Burn/Trauma, Med-Surg, Nurse Education.

Did you always love to write? How did you truly get into writing? I love to read but have not tried my hand at writing. I would like to get published in the next year.

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Specializes in Freelance Writer, 'the nurse who knows content'.
On 3/3/2020 at 12:52 PM, NurseLizabeeRN said:

Did you always love to write? How did you truly get into writing? I love to read but have not tried my hand at writing. I would like to get published in the next year.

I did always love to write. My mother was an aspiring writer who, unfortunately, never managed to get published. But I think her example of persistently working at selling articles helped me realize that making money from writing was not a crazy idea.

Straight out of high school, I thought I was going to be a journalist. For various reasons, that didn't happen. Then in 1989 I had the opportunity to get a job as a PR coordinator for a local non-profit. The bulk of my job there, for the next five years, consisted of writing press releases and marketing materials.

From that experience, I came to understand that many publications use freelance writers. I started freelancing on the side, for extra money, in the early 2000s and went full-time around 2011 (I can't actually remember when!).

Getting started as a freelancer isn't hard. Decide on the type of writing you want to do (articles, essays, marketing materials, etc.), then identify outlets that publish that sort of work, search for a contact (marketing manager, editor, whoever), and send an email introducing yourself as an available writer. That's really it, in a nutshell.

Let us all know how it goes!!

Beth

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Burn/Trauma, Med-Surg, Nurse Education.

This was super helpful. Thank you Beth...so much!!!

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Specializes in Freelance Writer, 'the nurse who knows content'.

You are very welcome!

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