#060: A Clever Way to Land a Ton of Work from Trade Shows (Without Leaving Your House)

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey everyone. Thank you for joining me for episode number 60 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find detailed show notes to this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 60. If you're the kind of person who enjoys learning new and clever strategies for landing repeat work from better clients, you definitely need to check out this episode. So here's what I have for you today. Freelance writer Amy Dunn Moscoso. She has been using a unique and very effective strategy for landing work from trade shows, of all places. And I'm not just talking about a project or two. In many cases, we're talking about a ton of work, a lot of repeat work, enough to keep her busy for months. Now here's the best part, because when I first heard about this, I thought, okay, well, I've heard of right prospecting at trade shows and all that, but you know, you gotta travel and it's costly, it's risky. The best part is she's been doing this without even having to leave the house. She's not even attending the show. And in this episode, she's gonna explain exactly what she's been doing. She's gonna talk about the strategy, what it's all about, why it works so well and how she's implemented so effectively. So this is one of those episodes, guys. I think everyone can walk away with some ideas they can put to use right away and start getting results. I'm actually surprised that I hadn't heard of this before. I don't think a lot of writers are trying this today. There are enough shows out there to keep everyone very, very busy. I think you're really going to enjoy this, so get ready to take some notes. I think this is one you're going to want to refer to a couple of times and develop a plan from it. So with that, let's get right to the interview. Amy, hi, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.

Hi, thanks so much for having me on.

Why don't we start with telling us a little bit about yourself, the work you do, clients you work with, your previous career, where you came from, that sort of thing.

Sure. So right now I'm a freelance business to business Writer. So I work primarily with marketing directors who are in some kind of a techie business and who are very into content marketing and they're using it strategically to drive business. So most of them already know what they're doing and they know exactly what they need. And I sort of translate their techie talk into website pages, guides, white papers, things like that that clearly show their audience why they need their product and service and how it's going to help them and make their life a little bit better. So it's often people in software as a service, apps, sometimes property management, those kind of companies.

Okay.

Yeah. So for example, one client right now, they're a healthcare software company. So they, you know, in Canada we have, we have free healthcare, but sometimes it takes a really long time to get in to see specialists. You can get lost in the system. This company, for example, basically the doctor, when you're seeing them, can just refer you to a specialist right now, tell you how long it's going to take. You can check in yourself. So it just saves tons of money.

Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah. So fun. Kind of fun, right? You're solving a lot of business problems.

Yeah.

And yeah, I used to work for agencies, so I have a bit of a thing for boutique digital marketing agencies. And I've been working as a, you know, a remote contract writer and also I used to be a senior publicist in house. In a content. Sorry, a marketing communications agency.

Interesting. Okay, so a very diverse background, strong marketing background in today. Are most of your clients direct clients or through agencies?

They're actually direct clients. So about a year ago I decided to stop working through agencies and to just go out on my own.

And what do you think so far? What do you prefer?

I really like having my own clients. I can basically. I was on maternity leave when I was working for an agency and I used to. My mom used to babysit my baby inside while I would take cars, do conference calls in the car because I had to pretend they were in a fancy downtown Vancouver agency. And now I'm much more myself. You know, it's more. I can arrange it around my own schedule and I just can pick people that I really like that I have a rapport with and pick the projects that are just. I find them fun and projects that just, you know, I really like doing and that work well and the pay is, is much better.

Yeah, yeah, it's. So I agree with you. I think there's, there's advantages and disadvantages to each one. But what you said makes sense. Everyone has to make their own decision. So let's get down to kind of what we're going to spend most of our time here talking about, which is kind of the. You have kind of an unconventional way of finding great clients and involves going to global trade shows and being very strategic there. So tell us more about that.

Sure. So I've got a strong history in trade shows, so I know how they work and I know that they have a huge need for written materials. And global trade shows are great because there's companies coming into, you know, I'm in Canada, coming in here, and if they're not sort of properly, you know, they need blog posts, they need written materials, but they need materials that work here as well as for their company. So I look for global trade shows in specific industries, so things like software, telecommunications, ones that are using a lot of technology, and then I start going through it. So I look for the show manager. That person is a referral machine. They know every single person at the trade show. Every single person at the trade show is one of their clients. So they already have a relationship.

Just to clarify real quick, Amy, so this would be your contact, your referral source, but you're seeing your target audience is the presenters at the show, right, not the organizer?

Well, sometimes it's the organizer and sometimes it's the sponsor of the show. Sometimes it's exhibitors who are there, sometimes it's special guests, and sometimes it's all of them.

Okay, okay. Interesting.

There's lots of different people to target there. They've got a huge time crunch. They often don't have enough time and resources in house to get ready for the trade show. And it's a very clear project. So you start it, you end it, and it finishes. So they have a very high need for written materials and I can see.

All those audiences having that. So maybe give us a couple of examples of some recent wins that you've had from a show.

Sure. So actually a fairly recent one that just sort of closed last week was I'm actually moving to Tianjin, China next week, on Thursday. Oh, wow. So I had looked up a bunch of different trade shows in that city. So there are tons and tons and of tons, tons of Fortune 500 companies in China and there's a lot of international trade shows there going on. So I emailed the show manager and sent her a letter of introduction about myself and didn't really hear anything back. And then suddenly I got a referral from a company in France, contacted me and somehow knew this show manager. And they're going to be there, but they're also coming to do a presentation in Toronto in Canada, and. And they needed some help with. The CEO was going to be doing a presentation and they needed help with the presentation. They needed help putting in local references. They didn't know there was a huge kerfuffle there with the mayor and things like that. They're also French, from France. We have French in Canada. They wanted to know could they throw in some jokes, was that appropriate or not? And I helped them work that out. I'm going to also meet them at the trade show in China and go around and write up a few blog posts before the show, help them with some media relations materials and then at the show, walk around, interview people, take some pictures of them with different kinds of people for their blog and then also fix up some of the. They've got people in China, but I've been fixing up some of the translations, you know, people who are non native English speakers. So it's turned out to be a huge amount of work from one letter of introduction.

1. And that's one client.

Yes. And it wasn't even the client I was targeting. So that person just knows everybody.

Wow, that's. That is amazing. I mean, that could keep you busy for, you know, months sometimes.

Yes, absolutely.

So you've already talked about kind of the shows that you like to target. I'm curious. The show so far, and I know you're about to move, but so far the shows that you've attended, have they been local to you over there in the Vancouver area, or have you traveled?

Some of them have been local, but a lot of them are not shows. I don't live right in Vancouver. I live about 50km outside. So I've been targeting some in Vancouver, some in Calgary, which is where I had worked before, and quite a few in the United States and in Europe. So they're not necessarily shows where I'm ever going to meet these people or that I'm actually going to attend. All the work is done remotely.

Gotcha. Okay. And so unlike, you know, I've talked to people who have used something similar, but they've actually gone to the show. So there's some, you know, prep that they have to do. They make some contacts virtually and then a lot of it is done at the show in terms of the introductions and discussing some potential projects. So what you're talking about is very different in that you're using the show as a trigger event in a way, you're using it as an opportunity because, you know it's going to create a significant need for content. And you're contacting prospects to get them ready to help them get ready for the show. And it doesn't really matter where the show is.

That's right. And I'm contacting them at about the three month mark before the show runs when they've kind of sort of kicked into trying to get ready for it and maybe have suddenly realized that there's, there's literally no way they can do their work and get ready for the show and write this material and do this and this and this.

Interesting. So let's get down to some of the specific steps that you take. And you've shared some of this already, but just so I can kind of wrap my head around this. So you mentioned three month mark. You pick a show, what are you looking for specifically? Now you mentioned technology, maybe what are some of the other criteria?

So I'm looking for shows that are large, that have companies coming in from around the world. So they are global and they've got. I often look for companies. There are companies like DMG World Media, for example, they run trade shows all around the world, very organized, very professional shows. So I take a look at those big companies that run events and I look for shows that have sponsors because that's an indication of sort of a sophisticated marketing behind the show. And companies that, you know, shows that have everyone. So from great big companies, you know, sometimes there's, you know, Fortune 1000 companies there and there's also local startups. So it's got a broad range of different kinds of exhibitors going to that show. I often look for special presentations or sort of industry leaders are attending the show. That's a sign of a high profile show. So it's not just, you know, mom and pop shops, that kind of thing. They've brought in and paid for high level speakers. Mm. Yeah.

So yeah, that makes sense. And I can see how even though you've narrowed it down significantly here, there's still a lot of shows out there that meet this criteria.

Tons and tons. There's just, it's a huge business. Right. And then I look for companies that maybe have a bit going on their blog about the show, like they're trying to do some kind of marketing about the show or maybe doing blog posts or social media. But it's, you know, there's gaps. Like maybe they've did a blog post three weeks ago, but now there's nothing. So I look for things where they've already got something in motion, but they're clearly struggling a little bit to really make it happen.

Okay, so let's now walk. You've identified a potential show. You've mentioned earlier that you try to look for the show manager. So tell me more about that and then how you approach that individual.

The show manager is the person that's their full time job, usually running this show and they often run more than one. They go out and get sponsors, they go out and land all the exhibitors. Those are their clients and they've often got a marketing and PR budget. So they are what I would call the referral machine. I've worked with these kind of people a lot of times just as a, you know, PR and I know what their needs are. So they're often under, you know, lots of pressure, but they have a lot of decision making power and they have a lot of influence. I often will connect with that person and offer my services to them, but then also just say, hey, you know, if you, if you know anyone who might need this that you're in contact with right now, that would be great if we could connect. Or sometimes I'll ask them, oh, could you introduce me to this company as well? And sometimes they will.

And how do you contact them? Phone, Email?

I often contact them on by email first.

Okay.

And then I ask them if we can do a, you know, if they have interest, stuff like that. Sometimes it goes back and forth a little bit. I'll try to get a phone call quickly and link up with them on LinkedIn. Once you link on LinkedIn, you can see everybody that they're connected to.

Gotcha. So you might, have you used that, have you leveraged some of that before saying, hey, I see that you know this person or a little bit.

But to be honest, I've had sort of an unexpected high rate of success to the point where I'm, I'm really busy and I haven't sort of used all those little strategies I had set out at the beginning.

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, so it sounds like you just, just by contacting the show manager, you have a pretty good success rate. And so you start with email. I assume it's a very short introductory email.

Very short. And I try to come with, you know, a little bit of friendliness but also solutions in hand. So I'm not, I don't have my hand out saying, hi, do you need writing work? And you know, can you hire me? That kind of thing. I try to show up with solutions in hand. I can help you get better PR results with a press release or I can help you feature some of your sponsors. They're always struggling to feature the sponsors in an appropriate way, an easy way that you can solve that problem. You can interview their sponsor, who's often a really big company, and they can put that on their blog. The sponsor's happy, they're happy, and you get to meet both of them. Super.

So how do you. How do you stand out? How do you make yourself stand out or. Because I'm sure these guys and gals get hit quite a bit. Maybe not necessarily from writers, from all different kinds of people.

Sure. Well, what I try to do is identify their problems, not all of them, but two or three, and offer ways that I can help them. I've also written up a few case studies based on my past experience that I offer. Once I, you know, I make contact and see if there's a need, and then if they're interested, I send those over to them. So I'm demonstrating how I've already solved this problem before, and I understand how busy and how sort of torn in a million directions that they are and that I'm a person that can help them. So I'm not there to bug them and ask for work or referrals. I'm there to help them, help them with their relationships and basically make them look good. That, I think, makes me stand out a little bit.

And I'm assuming the case studies are case studies with other exhibitors or with other show managers, that sort of thing. So very relevant.

Yes, very relevant. And, you know, they're not always in the same industry, but I try to emphasize, you know, maybe it's research or maybe it was just getting a sponsor feature, getting a sponsor in the newspaper through a press release, things that they immediately are already struggling with and think, oh, yes, that would be great. Wow.

I'm curious, I don't know if you have any way of knowing this or maybe if you can just do your best guess what's your success rate when you're contacting show managers in terms of at least getting even a lukewarm response?

Well, so far, I would say it's probably been about like 70%. Wow. I don't send out tons. Like, I don't do the five minutes. I sort of approach it almost like you would a magazine. So I read a few back issues, I look at their website, I look at their social media profiles. I try to trace their information and see, you know, where do they come from? What kind of person are they? Sometimes you can see that in their personal social media, they Love high end wine or something like that. And I try to make a connection that's meaningful. So I try to make a, I look for a win win solution and I look for a person that when I look at them online I already like them. I do a little bit of in depth research and I don't mass send these things out. I tailor it very specifically to that person.

Man, I tell you, if anyone listening, if you walk away with one thing, I hope this is it. I can't emphasize that enough. This is exactly what I teach when I talk about warm email prospecting and doing things like that. It's not about quantity, it's about quality. I'd rather spend couple of days researching someone, you know, even if it's going to be extremely short email, then I would maybe sending five emails in that same amount of time.

Right?

It's not about the quantity.

No, it's not. And I find that once I know exactly who I'm targeting and I know what their problems are already and when that person responds, they're often already the kind of person that I already know I like working with.

Yeah, that makes sense. So you've contacted them, hopefully you've established some dialogue via email. You said that the next step, you try to get them on the phone at some point or schedule some sort of phone appointment. Tell me more about that.

Yes, so I try to schedule a very short 15 minute phone call. It often goes way beyond that, but I know that they're very busy people and I try to offer them basically two or three times over a week that they might be available and I try to get that scheduled in right away and I offer to call them and I usually send them a confirmation the day before, you know, just touching base, making sure this still fits in your schedule. Because I know that they have a crazy schedule a lot of the time and basically just have a, you know, a short conversation. I have questions that I've prepared, I research their company. So it's this little job interview. If they've agreed to a, a 15 minute conversation, they have some interest and try to find out, you know, basically get them to do the talking and tell me, you know, what their problems are. That conversation of 15 minutes often turns into an hour conversation that moves on to, you know, you kind of get through all the objections and stuff like that and get straight into what they need and oftentimes it ends with a request for a proposal.

Okay, sure, I can see, I mean if you've gone that far, you have someone who's very Interested and you've moved beyond. Obviously they trust you, you like them, they like, you know, at some level and enough to at least want to do business with you.

Yes.

And tell me a little bit about what tends to work better. I guess it depends. But do you find that at this stage you typically get kind of like a pilot project or something immediate to start with, and then once you show what you can do for that particular client, you can demonstrate your expertise tangibly, then it kind of opens it up? Or do you find that a lot of people want to give you many things right off the bat?

I often offer basically like a single blog post because I find in that moment you can find out if you're going to be a match or not. And I often try to offer something of high value, like why don't we try interviewing, you know, your top exhibitor or someone that you maybe want to, really want to come back and they're not sure about your show and do a blog post that they can share on social media, that person can share on social media, and that makes them all look really good. And then that's a low risk for them. It's low risk for me. But often it just leads into all kinds of other things. So some people want to try that little trial thing. It depends on how much time they need. The more time crunch they're under. It's a bit of a risk for them to suddenly give you all this stuff. But a trade show is a low. It's not a low risk, but it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's not an ongoing blog that goes on forever. It's a short, quick, highly effective marketing event, and then it's over. So if it really doesn't go well, they just move on. And so do you. I haven't had that happen.

Yeah, yeah, no, I like that approach. And that does make sense that even if they really excited to be talking with you, just to try something small and low risk, that usually solidifies that. That relationship, doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

Tell me about from there. What do things typically happen? How do they move to maybe getting an introduction to an exhibitor or somebody else who you could potentially help as well?

It often happens for me when we start talking about, you know, who. Who could they profile or something like that, and they'll say, oh, you know, this marketing director is going crazy. They just had to, you know, their person just went on maternity leave and they're just going nuts. They often offer to refer me to them. So I actually have almost never asked for referral. It often comes up when we're talking about, you know, who are. Who are the. They already know another thing about them. They already know who's easy to work with, who's professional and who isn't. So they often don't refer you to someone that you don't want to be working with. They refer you to people who are similar to themselves.

Yeah.

And, you know, sometimes I've just mentioned, there's these other companies, and I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm going to introduce you to this person and this person and this person. Like, great.

That's wonderful. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. These are. This is what a great way to do this. Because you just see, you know, you do great work for this person and they're trusted. They can refer you to people who, you know, they don't need to see that much if it's coming from Bill or from Cynthia. That's what they need to know. And then, of course, at least that gets you the conversation. You have to take it from there. But.

Yeah, but then, because they're at the same trade show, they might suddenly see that, you know, the show manager suddenly getting all these interviews, or the show managers got this amazing blog going on. They can see the results right there, and they can ask them about it right there, and then they can tell them about you. So it's like a highly visible little marketing event with a lot of results that everyone can see and everyone can feel it. Or if they're a competitor, suddenly their competitor is taking off. Everyone's at their booth, and they don't know why. Well, they've got all these blog posts, they've got social media going on. They have different amazing marketing materials or whatever is going on over there. And suddenly it's like, oh, like, I want that. How do I get that? A lot of it happens before the show takes place.

So let's say that someone listening right now is thinking, you know, I'm an experienced writer. This makes sense. I'm excited. However, what I'm worried about is that I'm not an experienced PR person. I don't have the PR experience that Amy has. Do you think that person, assuming they're a great writer, can. Can still use this approach?

Absolutely. I think you have to go with your strengths. Right. So I go with mine. But these people need, you know, maybe you're a, you know, you're a copywriter and you've got all kinds of experience, and you go to these trade shows. If you if you even take just a quick look at some of their brochures or the marketing material or even their signage, sometimes you just think, wow, what's going. These people need help, right?

Yeah.

So if you come in with solutions in hand, whatever your strengths are. Right. You know, hey, I am an amazing brochure writer. And, you know, this is some similar samples. You don't have to tell them that their brochure stinks. Maybe they wrote it and they're proud of it, but they can just sort of look at it and think, yeah, you know, we're already spending all this money going to the trade show. We already have a huge marketing budget and spend here. Like, let's step it up a little bit. And maybe that's your strength, is copywriting, so you can approach them that way. The show manager needs copywriting. They need ads. Right. They work with agencies, but sometimes they need freelancers that they can just go to and get help right away.

Sure. And it seems to me like shows are the types of events that generate just about any type of writing. Like you just. You just said. Right. So it's not just pr, it's going to be things. Some things that are kind of pr, kind of more case studies, white papers, articles, blog posts, brochures, all kinds of.

Collateral, all kinds of things. Advertising.

Advertising. Signage. I hadn't thought about that one.

Yeah. You wouldn't believe how sometimes signage, when you're inside of a company, sometimes you think everyone gets you because everyone, you know, gets it because you all work at the same company. And when you're just a person wandering by and just look at their, you know, sometimes it's a huge company. Just think what is going on here? I don't even know what they're selling.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I've actually done now that you mentioned that years ago I wrote the signage or the booth copy for a client of mine. I'd never done it. It's the first time and only time I've done that. It was a lot of fun.

Yeah, it is fun. And it's a different kind of writing. And even if you just help them by telling them to make that font bigger, like way bigger, you've already done them a huge service.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. Before we wrap up, anything that. Any parting advice, you know, for people listening who are thinking, wow, this sounds like a great way to find good paying clients.

Yeah, I think just, you know, send some things out. Don't pick, like, don't go to the trade show and pick out the mom and pop shop and think you're going to work your way up to the sponsor. That's not the way it works. Pick out some great people that you'd really like to work with and just send out a few things. So try an loi letter of introduction. If it doesn't work, who cares? It doesn't matter if you've sent out a bunch of things and it's not working. Go to the trade show, then walk around, maybe meet some people, take a look at things going on there. Don't solicit them at the trade show. They don't like that because they're there to sell things. But look for solutions that you can bring. So you might see terrible signage and think, okay, I can help with that. You know, you can even go to a local trade show, maybe not the one you're targeting, and just take a look and see what's working and what's not, how you can help someone and then just send some stuff out there. Even, like, even my worst loi, my worst letter of introduction generated something like, you know, when I read it now I think, ooh, I can't believe I sent this. Just taking a small action is a huge noise. There's just huge impacts to it.

Yeah, the response rate on no action is zero, right?

Yeah, it's always going to be zero and you can sort of quiver in your house but it's, they need you like they need help and they want it. They just don't know where to go.

You know, one thing I forgot to ask you is, is it easy to find the name of the show manager? Is that something you can if you're researching shows website, is it can. Is that easy to find?

It's often easy to find under the exhibitors list because they're selling space, they need people to contact them. So instead of going there and thinking like a consumer, think about if you were an exhibitor, who's the person that you need to contact? They often have their email, phone number, picture, little bio, everything. Because that person is a public person that everyone needs to be able to find so they can buy booth space.

That makes sense. Makes sense. Well, Amy, this has been fantastic. I mean, I got a whole page full of notes in here. Give me some great ideas and I appreciate you again sharing this with the audience. Where can listeners learn more about you and your work?

I've got a website, it's ww.content siren.com and I also hang out on LinkedIn all the time. Amydenmiscozzo Fantastic.

Well, listen, thank you again and great luck with your move. I hope everything goes well. What an amazing experience.

Yeah, I'm really excited about it. Our main problem is importing our dog. That's the problem we're solving right now. Where's Ziggy?

They have to get quarantined, right?

Yeah, for seven days, so. But he'll be okay, I think.

Well, I wish you all the best and I hope that goes well.

Thanks very much, Ed. It was a pleasure to be on your show.

Well, folks, I hope this show and this interview really lived up to the hype that I built up at the beginning. I'm just really, really excited about this idea. I think you could take this and run with it right away, and I think the possibilities are endless. I love the simplicity of it. And, you know, for those of you who have taken my warm email prospecting program, man, I tell you what, you could do some damage with that here, as Amy has described here in the interview. So wanted to remind you that you can grab the details shown us for this episode@b2b launcher.com forward/episode60 in fact, I encourage you to go through that. I encourage you to go back through this, take some notes and start developing a plan of action. Those are detailed notes that make great reference material, especially if you're listening to this in the car or, you know, you're out exercising or walking. So real quick, I'd love to hear your comments on this episode. And specifically, I'm curious if you've tried similar strategies to land work from clients who have an ongoing need and or who can refer you to a lot other potential clients. And even if you haven't, I'd love to know what you think of the strategy and how you think you can adapt it for your own use and what your plans are for implementing it. So please take a minute. I'd really appreciate it. And leave me a comment at b2b. Launcher.com forward/episode60 and of course, if you enjoyed the episode, I'd be very grateful if you shared it with friends and colleagues. There are social media sharing buttons on that page to make it very, very easy to do that. So that brings us to the the end of the episode. I am your host, Ed Gandia. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you have an awesome day. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher dot com.