Since 2004, more journalists have lost jobs than coal miners. Over 2,000 newspapers have shuttered. One-quarter of newsroom jobs have vanished. The dream of writing for the local town paper is now a tattered myth, replaced by a dispiriting race for dwindling pay on freelancing sites and content mills.
If you’re curious what that life is like, look further than the 30,000-person strong subreddit for freelance writers which is rife with woe.
That’s the bad news. The good news is the number of content marketing jobs grew 33 percent in 2018, according to Conductor. Brand writing is inevitable for those who want to pay the bills and yet it doesn’t mean that all is lost for those who long to tell meaningful stories. Companies desperately need you. They can pay, and offer wide latitude.
I’ve found that it only takes a little sales know-how to carve out a high-paying career where you can do what you love, especially if you specialize in business to business, or B2B.
The opportunity
The team at Fenwick primarily writes for companies that sell to other companies. It seems niche, but it encompasses one-fifth of all businesses and if you can’t think of any such firms, it’s no surprise. These brands are less visible to the public, simply because they don’t sell to consumers. All of us have heard of Sony, Amazon, and Kellogg’s. But how many have heard of Rockwell Automation, SAP, and Salesforce?
Yet these are multi-billion dollar titans with an insatiable appetite for writing and few writers knocking at their doors:
- They want to pay you 23 percent more for that degree in literature. You might say this sector is starved for clear and compelling writers. Even halfway decent ones get paraded around like celebrities.
- They need your editorial guidance. The technical nature of the products these companies sell bestows on their writers a boorish preoccupation with specifications and features. It makes the copy dense and daunting, even to insiders. But the best B2B writing features human subjects and uses simple language and if you can help with that, you’re in high demand.
- It’s relatively easy to find work. Most writers are still begging magazines and newspapers for work. Virtually no one is emailing B2B editors. Many will respond same-day and have ongoing projects.
- Your consumer bylines still count. B2B editors will infer a lot if you’ve been published in a national publication like The New York Times, Fast Company, or similar.
More than anything, and I do mean more than the pay, it’s a fascinating world to spend time in. Linger here and you’ll realize that brands are filled with strange characters. The companies themselves also have personalities. It’s like watching the warring houses of Game of Thrones, nations rising and falling in the geopolitical theater, or sports teams sparring.
And for any consumer interest of yours, there is a network of B2B companies that support it. Love good design? Adobe and InVision publish stories about graphic designers. Love food? Revel Systems and ShopKeep feature restauranteurs. Love travel? Sojern and Skift want you to write about it. Whatever your inclination, there’s likely a B2B corollary, and a wide range of writing needs you can address.
The challenge
B2B writing also has its challenges. The reason a lot of consumer writers are repelled from these shores is they don’t have an abiding curiosity about how businesses work. They alienate readers by elaborating on elementary topics that everyone else already gets and give bad advice like some sort of business consultant from Mars, saying things no person in that sector would actually say.
In B2B, you have to both understand how your client makes money, but also how your clients’ clients make money. And for that, I built an online course. It’s based on my experience as a software sales rep turned freelance B2B writer, and covers everything from finding your first client to managing your business and saving for retirement.
All it takes is one—having one B2B client makes you a B2B writer and unlocks a career path devoid of content mills and freelancing sites, and I can say from experience, it’ll take you places your local paper never could.
