Friday, February 6, 2009

Cultivating Profitable Partnerships

Clients are good for your business. Partnerships are great for it. As a freelance writer, your services perfectly complement a variety of different businesses--people who need your writing to make their own client services better. A good partnership can be like an ongoing client, bringing you stable work month after month. Here are a few partners out there who are just waiting for you to get in touch--so they can take their businesses (and yours) to the next level.

SEO's. SEO's need writers to deliver ongoing content to their clients--because good white hat SEO doesn't happen without a steady stream of relevant writing. Approach SEO firms with your relevant web writing experience--maybe you're used to blogging, got your start writing for other people's article marketing campaigns, or can do some killer keyword research. Send some samples of articles or a link to your blog. They're looking for dependable writers who do quality work and who can incorporate their own optimization best practices and standards.

Graphic designers. Nobody likes to see their beautiful design soiled by a poorly-worded, misspelled headline. Graphic designers design print and online communications including brochures, websites, ads, blogs, white papers...the list goes on. An independent graphic design firm can raise their own profile and offer more to their clients by partnering with a strong writing firm. Having a writer on call sets them apart from other designers who leave clients to fend for themselves when it comes to copy.

Web designers. The pitch is the same for web designers, except they'll be working exclusively on the web. You'll need to know a range of web writing skills to be good partners with web designers--be proficient in web copy that sells and typical marketing writing like developing taglines, as well as web copywriting best practices, web content and SEO writing, and online marketing methods like e-blasts, blogs, and so on.

Ad agencies. Ad agencies big and small work with freelance writers on a regular basis. Get in touch with them either in print or online--they are sometimes more traditional than SEO's and web designers, although a few specialize in online marketing. A good ad agency in your client stable can really boost your business.

So who are you partnering with these days?

1 comment:

Lori said...

Excellent post, Jen! Times like these, we need to get creative in where we look!