#156: Jennifer Gregory’s “Audience First” Method for Finding Potential Clients

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 there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. Just a reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com episode 156 and those notes will include a summary of our discussion as well as links to all the resources we mentioned during the show. Before we get to this week's episode, I wanted to let you know that I'm looking to coach and train a handful of writers who are already working with paying clients but aren't yet earning $2,000 a month consistently. If you decide to join me, we're going to work together over the next six months to get you to that income level. If you'd like to work with me on this, send me an email to edwaunchherd.com put the word accelerate in the subject line and I'll reply to you with all the details. All right, let's get to this week's episode. You probably already know that having a well defined target audience is a critical first step to freelance success. I talk about this all the time. In fact, all my coaching programs start with really refining that because that is the foundation. If you don't really understand, or if your prospects don't really understand whom you best serve, it's going to be an uphill battle. Everything else is window dressing and doesn't really matter won't have the desired effect if you're not really clear there. But we all know that that's just the beginning, right? It doesn't end there because once you've identified your target audience, you now need to find some prospects to contact. And that's where many writers get stuck. If you're in that situation now, or if you've ever been there, and who hasn't, right, you're going to get a ton out of this podcast episode. My guest is the brilliant Jennifer Gregory, who's the author of the new book the Freelance Content Marketing Writer. Find you'd perfect clients, make tons of money, and build a business you love. It's a book I highly recommend. Jennifer is a seasoned freelancer writer. She's been doing this for a long time. She is a great strategist and she's particularly good at breaking things down into simple steps. And that's what we're going to be doing today. In this conversation, Jennifer is going to detail her three step audience first method for finding potential clients. And I think you're going to find her approach to be both simple and incredibly effective. In fact, it's something you can start using right away. So please don't miss this one again. I think you're going to get a ton out of it no matter where you are right now in your business. I hope you enjoy it. Jennifer, great to have you back on the show.

Thank you so much for having me, Ed. I really appreciate it.

It's always fun to talk with you and I'm excited about today's topic because this is something that comes up a lot and you know, I know you address it frequently, but I, you know, today you're going to walk us through a very specific process that I think a lot of people can benefit from regardless of where they are in their journey. But before we go there, for those of you who don't know you, which is starting to be a smaller, smaller segment of my audience, give us a little bit of background talk about, tell us what you do, what types of clients you serve and so forth.

Sure. So I've been freelancing for about 10 years and I primarily do content marketing and my clients tend to be the B2B technology clients. And my people that I've worked for in the last year include at&t. I do a lot of ghostwriting for Hewlett Packard Enterprise executives, Verizon, Adobe, Samsung, IBM and a number of other large technology companies. And I also have a blog that is one of my favorite things to do. I share ideas about how to make money as a content marketing writer and how to find clients. And I'm also a secretary at the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

And you also foster dogs and have kids and wear the Superwoman costume?

Yes. As we speak, there's a six year old dachshund that was on the do not make it till tomorrow list that's sitting under my feet that I rescued this weekend.

So that's amazing. I love your energy. But you know what's really cool about what you do is it shows that you can always find the time. I mean, if you really want to do certain things, if there's a will, you'll find a way to get it done. And you're perfect example of that. I talked to so many people, as I'm sure you do as well, that they just can't they time. Lack of time is the excuse. But I Find that you know, when, when you need something done, give it to a busy person because they make it work.

I also think you have to pay attention to what you're actually spending your time on because that's where what you care about and where you should probably try to figure out how to make that more productive and turn that area into your income. Because I think looking at what you do find time for is a really good example of what you're passionate about.

So true. So true. All right, well, let's switch gears a little bit. Today we're going to be talking about finding potential clients, which I know is a. Is really kind of a challenging thing for a lot of writers to do. Many times it's not how do I market myself, how do I prospect? That's many times that's not the problem. It's how do I find clients to even reach out to. Before we go there, I'd like to get your thoughts on the whole target market or niche things, because I know there's several camps out there. What are your thoughts on having a clearly defined target market or niche? Are you for, against and different and why?

I am a million percent for. However, I think that you can have as many as you want. So you can actually be a generalist and have 10 different subspecialties. But it's a matter of presenting yourself as an expert to that potential client. So it's how you package yourself to whoever you're marketing yourself to. So one time I did on my blog, I wrote my loi four different ways and I didn't even sound like the same person. One was an insurance writer, one was a technology writer, one was a hospitality technology writer, and one was a stadium technology writer. And it had completed different experiences. So I think you have to have it, but I don't think it limits yourself. You can write about totally unrelated things.

Now I'm curious, how do you do that when you have a website, right? And let's assume they're going to check you out.

I have a landing page for my portfolio where I have, I think it's six different niches and you click on. I have a separate page for each. One is the way that I do it. So if I'm marketing to someone who's in financial, I just send them the link to my financial portfolio. If I'm marketing to someone in hospitality technology, I do hospitality technology page. And so it looks to them that I'm a specialty in just that. And people, when they go click on portfolio and they see the six I'VE never had someone get confused. They just click around. So I have one that's a features page where I put just stuff that shows I can write.

Gotcha. But they then go to the other pages of your site. They're not presented with conflicting information. You're saying that because they saw the really focused stuff first, then they now have the right context when they navigate through your site.

Yes, I have found that work really well. And a lot of times, especially if I'm sending a link through an loi, the they don't even go look at the other niches. They just look at the one I send to them.

Gotcha. And by the way, for people who are not familiar with the term. Can you tell us about Lois, what that is?

Oh, yes, it's letter of introduction. So the difference when you are pitching a story to a journalist publication is you're sending a pitch which is selling an idea or a story. A letter of introduction is you're selling yourself. So it's the same concept. It's just more you're selling yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your expertise. Not your weaknesses, of course, but your strengths and your expertise to them.

Gotcha. Okay, cool. I just want to make sure if anyone's listening and they're not sure what that is. Letter of introduction.

Great caption. You mentioned that a lot of people struggle with finding clients. And I just want to say that if you feel that way, you're not alone. I get that comment the most. And I think it's because if you're pitching to journalism publications, it's tangible. You can go to a bookstore and see the magazines, you can Google the magazines. It's a finite list. But the thing about content marketing, which is writing content for corporations, is the possibilities are infinite because every single business needs content. So it's a good and a bad thing. Because your possible clients are infinite. It's hard to know where to start. And that's why I've developed. What we're going to talk about is how you can kind of narrow that down.

Yeah. And to add to that, let me just clarify, because I think there are really two big steps here. The first step is finding prospects to approach. The second step is converting those prospects into clients. Okay, so when we're talking here in our conversation about finding clients or finding potential clients, we're talking about identifying prospects that you can reach out to, correct?

Absolutely. Yes. And that's a very good distinction. Thank you, Ed. Because it is a two part. And I often recommend people do the identifying prospects. I do it A lot during NFL games because I can kind of watch the TV and Google and come up with a list. And then when I sit down to actually reach out, I have a list. So. So for me, it works better to keep it in two parts. And I found that from other people as well.

Yeah, and I completely agree with you that the challenge here is, I think, twofold. First is like, there's so many of them, where do you even start? And I've found that causes analysis paralysis and people don't even start. The second, the second one is they don't even know because many of them are what I call invisible prospects. In that unlike publications, you know what they are, you know which ones they're out there. Most of them, you don't even know they exist. In fact, most of the clients I've ever written for, I didn't even know they were a thing. I never even heard of them until I found them or I approached them. So it's hard in that way.

It's absolutely. I was talking with a writer a few weeks ago who worked. She was a writer and worked part time at a church office as a bookkeeper. And so we started talking about church technology and that she was familiar with the technology they used in their offices, in their office, both to run the technology for the church worship service and the front office. We did some Google searches on the phone and we were shocked. We found A list of 174 church technology companies that neither one of us knew existed.

Who knew.

He was shocked. And she was like, oh my gosh, I'm the audience for every one of these in my day job. I am perfect. So you're right, they're invisible. She never would have known it if we hadn't talked about it.

They're not household names and especially in B2B. All right, so with that, let's dive into this three step method for finding potential clients. And I'm going to let you lead here, walk us through this and maybe also give a little bit of context as needed.

Perfect. So I call it the audience first because it's so easy for people to jump in at the product. You know, for example, if you thinking just of the product. So we're going to start the three steps. The first is to identify an audience that you're familiar with. So, Ed, this is going to be, you know, interviewer participation. So the first to tell me a B2C audience that you're familiar with that you would feel comfortable writing for.

Well, in B2C, I'm not really sure. Why don't I do this? I'm going to give you an audience that recently came up in one of my coaching calls that I think is really heavy on B2C. It's got both. But senior living.

Perfect. That's a great one. So that's the step one is the audience and let's kind of refine that to be as seniors who want to age in place in their home. Does that work for you?

Yeah, yeah, let's go there.

So the second step is to come up with a list of products and services that that audience would buy. So let's come up with a list. What are a couple things that that audience would buy. I know like my mother in law, we've looked at getting her the life alert type devices as well as we have put rails on her front porch. So I would write down both of those if I was doing it. Are there some that you would think of, Ed?

You know one of the ones that I thought of is that there's got to be all kinds of financial services specifically for people in that situation because there's now a different set of options, things they have to think through. And I would think that all these financial services companies are they have packages and products specifically for that audience.

So that's exactly what I'm talking about when I say come up with the list. So really think out of the box. That's absolutely perfect. Even another one may be some of the cell phones. I know that we have a cricket for my uncle. So make a list of all the products and services and the financial services, the stuff for the house, the cell phone. And what I would also recommend is not just rely on your own knowledge but go talk to some people that are in your audience. So go ask friends, neighbors and have them and write down what they come up with. So you really want to spend a lot of time coming up with a list of products and services. So some other things that I also recommend is looking at publications geared for your audience. So for this one I would recommend going and looking at the ads in AARP and other magazines that senior citizens typically read. And then also and then come up with that is the list. And then so that's part two is what do they buy? And then step three is you pick each one and you spend some time on your friend Google. And this is what I usually do during watching football games and come up with the companies that make that stuff. And that's your list of companies that you're going to prospect to. So it's who's the audience, what stuff do they buy? 3. Who makes that stuff? And then you do it to B2B2C. And then we're going to do one for B2B. Because it's important to flip it.

Yeah. And stuff, meaning just want to emphasize, think products and services. A lot of times we think of stuff, especially on the B2C side, as products. But there are all kinds of service opportunities there as well.

Absolutely. And I want to. The more time you spend there and the more different perspectives you get, the better list you come up with. And everyone that I've ever known that has done this has been shocked at the ideas that come if they really let themselves spend time in step two.

So just to recap, audience first. Right. The name of the audience. Then brainstorm list of products and services. And go deep here. Go deep and wide. This shouldn't be like a one hour exercise because you want to talk to people as well. And then finally companies that make those products or that provide those services.

Absolutely. And then let's do one for B2B. Because I think that a lot of people forget that as an audience. And in many ways that's where the higher paying gigs come in. Because a lot of companies value B2B knowledge a little more, fortunately or unfortunately.

Yeah, let's go with one that's maybe a little bit unconventional. Like I don't want to go with a typical high tech and financial services and healthcare. So let's go with cpa. CPA firms, perfect.

So the audience would be, let's say mid sized CPA firms.

Yeah, yeah. So not the really big ones. But that's really the sweet spot because that's where most of them are.

Right. And you see what I did here where I kind of refined the audience, Both in our B2C example, where I refined the type of seniors and I'm doing that here with the business. You want to have it, someone you can picture in your head. So it has to be kind of concrete. So CPAs. So this is a good reason. I used to work for a CPA company. So step two would be what products and services would a CPA mid sized CPA firm buy? Do you have any ideas, Ed?

Well, one that comes to mind immediately would be technology. Right. Software and associated services there.

So you want to be really specific here. So one would be a lot of them. Some CPA firms actually contract out their IT services. So that may be one. But also. So it's kind of the services of running their stuff, running their technology and also the technology they use to do their job. So I think in this kind of a distinction too, there.

Gotcha. Makes sense. Makes sense.

So for technology, I know a lot of most CPA firms use software packages to prepare their return. So that would be one. I know that also the document signing software is a big component these days as well. So what I would also do if I was doing B2C for this one is I would look for trade publications if you geared towards accountants, and look and see what's in the ads. So also, are there training companies that sell training services to CPA firms? I know that there's a number of leadership companies, so that would be one as well that a CPA firm would buy training for their employees. So look in the ads for the magazines and you're going to find some great ideas. And at that point, don't focus on the company, but focus on what they're selling and write that down for steps. And so also when you're doing B2C, go look for conferences that your audience would attend. So go look at, you know, CPA accounting conferences and look at the vendor list and see what companies are coming. And also don't focus on the company this month, but what are they selling? Are there certain types of printers that print out tax returns better? All those things kind of look and see what they're selling and you're going to get some ideas that you never would have thought about and put those on step two. And then step three would be who makes that stuff? And so you would go through and find out who makes that stuff.

I love that. I would have, because those are great clues. If they're at the conferences, they're spending money on marketing, and there's a huge probability that they're writing marketing content in copy that somebody needs to write.

And they also have competitors. And so it's not just that they're there, it's what are they selling and who else makes that stuff.

Yeah, love it.

And I recommend doing it for every audience that you know. And it also sometimes helps the. I know a number of people that have been successful doing this with an audience that they understand personally. So a friend of a writer friend of mine who had diabetes, she did it for diabetes. What products and services do people with diabetes buy? And so it wasn't just stuff she had written about, but she was able to be an expert in that because of her personal experience. So I would be sure to include audience group groups that you are familiar with, audience groups you've written for professionally. Think about past Jobs too. Some of us forget about things we did 15 years ago that we still understand that audience. And so that's another one. So really think hard and go deep and wide as you say, Ed, about the audiences too.

Now one of the things that I know you talk about is for every category that you're considering, every market, consider a technology angle as well. Tell us about that.

So I think a lot of writers think that you have to be super high tech to write technology. And that's not true because of a couple reasons. One is that you're writing to a non technical audience. So for example, I write in hospital technology. And what this is is the hotels use all kinds of tech products to run their hotels. Everything from property management software, which controls every aspect of reservations, the rooms, the facilities. And they also do technology for the rooms, which is the room keys that now operate with cell phones and sensors that control the heat and air. So there's a ton of technology. The people that buy it aren't tech geeks, they're hotel geeks. So if you know the hotel audience, then you can write tech for them because you're not writing about the back end, how the codes and algorithms working. You're about how they use tech to better run their business. So you don't have to be a geek because you're really kind of translating geek to real people. So it's much more accessible than people think. And also it also increases the rates that you can charge because people are more willing to pay a higher rate because it's a higher level of expertise and you have less competition because a lot of writers don't think that angle or take themselves out of the running when they're more than capable of writing about it. We all use tech in our everyday life. So as long as you're not a complete technophobe, you can do this and you will increase your income. Think about the church bookkeeper who did not think she understood technology until we started talking about all the ways that she used it in her job. And last I heard she was sitting at Elleri and getting some great leads for that.

Yeah, I like to say that think about what you bring to the table, that nobody can learn overnight, that you can't teach someone overnight. So like in the church example or if you've been in hospitality, not related to technology because you were in that role and in that market you have insider knowledge that a technology company could really use when you're writing their marketing materials, that's really what matters most. And I to your point than being a technical person, which I am not. And that was my target market, enterprise software companies. So I completely agree.

And I'm actually not a tech geek. And as you see from the the list I gave you when we first started, I've written some of the biggest TEC companies in the world. And I'm not a tech geek. I just can, I can translate it and I can translate it from boring jargon to readable, interesting articles. So you don't have to be another one. We were talking about the hot. The people that write and travel to think about hospitality technology, also people that write in food. I also recommend thinking about restaurant technology. I've had several writers be successful going in that direction. There's a lot of restaurant technology, even wine technology, that all of that, your expertise can be used and you can increase your rates in your client base by going that. But food and beverage technology is one that people overlook if they're a food writer.

Now, one of the things that I was curious about because I love this approach. I mean, first of all, it's very simple. It's surprisingly simple and I can see how effective it could be. I'm curious about your take on ad agencies for some of this work because, you know, once you've done your homework, there's a good chance that there are agencies out there that target those same type of prospects. Any thoughts on that?

Absolutely. And I recommend that writers have. And I personally, in my own business, I have a mix of direct businesses, which is what we were just talking about, and agencies that I work through. There's benefits and downsides of both. Writers automatically seem to think that you make less money when you work through an agency. And that's not necessarily true because while the agency takes the cut, they often take some of the work. So some of the projects that I work on, the agency works with the. The client to get the schedule to get the scope narrowed down. I've been handed source lists and outlines and I just have to go write it. So when you're comparing rates and you're working with through an agency, make sure you're comparing apples and apples because you need to make sure that what services they're going to provide that will decrease the time it takes you.

Good advice. Good advice. And you don't want to go ahead as far as.

Did you want me to share my ideas on how to find some agencies?

Yeah, that's where I was going. Absolutely, yeah. What's your take and what's been your experience approaching agencies when again you've done this homework and you're approaching it like you suggesting.

Well, I kind of take it as two separate exercises. One with what we just did, and then you take that list and you go approach those people. And then the second is the agencies. I think of them as separate. So for agencies, I recommend going looking for agencies where you meet one of these two criteria. One is local agencies, because people like to work with people that they have something in common with. And so if you're local, they feel even though you may never come have an in person meeting, they feel like they could. So I recommend doing a search on local agencies. And by agencies, I'm talking about public relations agencies, advertising agencies, marketing agencies, and content marketing agencies. My experience is that all of those often typically offer content marketing services to clients. And even teeny tiny agencies may have a big client or may have an outsourcing need. So I recommend starting with local agencies. And the second is a lot of agencies specialize in certain niches. So for example, I have found agencies that specialize in construction or retail or health care. So do a search on that. And often you'll find lists that were created for companies that will be best ad agencies for health care. And you can use those as kind of a cheat sheet. The Content Marketing Institute website has a very good list. It's overwhelming because there's about 400, but you can also do a pretty good search. I think you can narrow down by region and also by niche. So if you do that, then it becomes a little less overwhelming. I recommend starting there and also just good old Google searches.

And that's for the finding agency ideas. The Content Marketing Institute. Okay, very cool. I didn't even know they had that list there. That's a great starting point.

And Content Marketing Institute is also a really good site if you're looking for information, you know, the latest on SEO or how to write a white paper or what's a good headline. They really cover the trends and provide great information. So I recommend there as well if you're looking to learn. And if you're looking to learn, they often have some free webinars and ebooks on there too. So it's constantly changing. They do a good job of creating content, not surprisingly.

Yeah, yeah, they do. Yeah, it's so content rich. Love their annual report on trends and they just do a really solid job of putting out great stuff every day, actually. So, you know what I love about this process, Jennifer, is that this is something that anyone can use. I mean, it doesn't really matter if you're Just starting out. If you've been doing this for a while but are still kind of growing and, and getting things going, or if you're a seasoned pro, I mean, this is, it's a very simple approach that you could use to uncover lots of prospects you could reach out to. So I think it's a brilliant idea on your part to systemize it this way into a three step process. One of the things I want to do before we wrap up is I want to ask you about your new book because I know this has been a labor of love for you over the past several months and it's finally out there. Tell us a bit more about it.

Yes. So five years ago I started writing my blog and after arguing with my writer friends for several years, I finally turned it into a book. It's called the Freelance Content Marketing Find your perfect clients, make tons of money and build a business that you love. And I'm overwhelmed at the success that it had. It was actually the number one new release on Amazon in several different categories and it's gotten fantastic feedback. Basically it walks you through the entire process of building a content marketing business. Everything from what we've talked about here as far as finding clients, how to create a website, how to actually write the content, how do you figure out what tone the client wants and then also, you know, how do you find time for the journalism projects and the other things that you want to do as a writer because that's what we all are at heart is a writer as well as a business person. So that's on Amazon. And yes, I am very proud of is a labor of love. It's basically my heart in a book. So it's pretty personal too. I share a lot of all the mistakes that I've made and my insecurities is going through this. So you'll feel less alone when you're reading it because you know, you'll see that people that on the surface may look like they have it all together don't all the time. I Talked about my 2am Mountain Dew binges because I decided I'm a fraud. So you'll know that you're not the only one that feels that way.

Well, I love that. First of all, it's meaty, it's content rich, and it's great for people at all stages of growth. Doesn't matter if you haven't even started or if you're already out there or if you've been at this a while, you'll definitely walk away with some great ideas.

Thank you.

I will make sure to put a link to the book in the show notes as well as your blog. So tell us, where is your blog and what do you typically write about just to make sure that folks know where that resource is.

It's www.jennifergregorywriter.com and I write about how to find, how to make more money as a content marketing writer. And it covers everything from, you know, different ways you can use LinkedIn to different, different types of clients. And I do a lot of guests post lately, which is people who have used my techniques and how it's actually turned out in real life. And that's been a lot of fun to see all the different ways. A few weeks ago, we had a guest post about someone that's using a video letter of introduction, which I thought was very intriguing. So there's a lot of different types of content and some of the stuff from the blog is in the book because it was very hard to. You find it on the blog. And the book's in a much more step by step order.

You know, I got to tell you something about your blog. So I get your email notifications every time you publish something, and it's one of the few emails that when I see in my inbox and I read the subject line, I go, oh, no, that sounds too juicy. Like, you know, like I'm on delete mode, right? It's like, delete, delete, delete or move for read later. And it's like the. One of the few things that just stays in my inbox because I don't have like the will to like, delete it or move it. I'm like, I need to read it now.

That's the best compliment I've gotten in a while. Thank you, Ed. I really. That's. That's awesome.

No, and I mean that. It's great stuff. It's great stuff.

Thank you. Yeah. And it's, it's neat to know that people actually read it. For the first year, it was me and my mom and my sister, I think. So it's, it's built to be a very good community. And I now have a Facebook group for people that read my Bible or my book. And there's a link on my blog to it. And that's become a very wonderful, supportive place very quickly where people have been helping each other out and cheering each other on as we're all on this journey to build a business that we love.

I love it. I really mean that. It's one of those things that it's just oh, that just sounds too good. I hate you, Jennifer. So check it out, guys.

I'll take that as a compliment.

Yes, it totally is. It totally is. Well, Jennifer, thanks for coming on today. It's great to have you back. This is very, very useful, practical advice. We need to make this kind of a regular column of sorts, if you will. You need to be one of our regular guests.

That would be awesome. Well, thank you so much, Ed, and I appreciate all the great work you do. And the same goes. I have your podcast on my list and I almost always listen to it very quickly. So the feelings mutual.

Awesome. Thanks again. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher dot com.