Great suggestions for Jenn, too.

Jenn, I am wondering if you're finding the right fish in your pond for financial services. It seems to me the best prospect is going to be the marketing and communications directors at corporate levels, not branch levels. Small independent financial service companies will not have the budget to hire you, nor will they understand the value you bring to the table. If you have to spend time educating a client as to why they need a copywriter, IMO, they're not a viable client.

My main niche sort of crept up on me. I started out writing business articles – sales, marketing, promotions, incentives, advertising. A lot of the advertising and promotion pieces dovetailed with entertainment (what networks or shows were commanding the big ad dollars, or how a company boosted sales with a promotional tie-in to a feature film), and before long the bulk of my articles were for entertainment trades.

Back then a writer friend cautioned me against focusing on one area. But I never really did that. I love the variety of assignments you get as a generalist so I've always tried to mix it up a bit, while keeping my main focus on the entertainment sector.

The funny thing is a few years later the same friend told me I was wrong NOT to specialize in just one area. I realized that particular writer wanted to feel like a freelancing expert, so whatever I did – or didn't do – would be wrong.

I actually like having a couple different areas of expertise. That helps keep the job interesting.

Have you tried making a case study showing the benefits of fresh content? If you don't have client successes in that area yet, you might want to interview some of the companies that are doing it right. Then you could perhaps present an article/blog post to your potential clients showing the results.

Some clients just won't see the value, but the more courageous will. For some reason, some clients are still a bit gun shy when it comes to the Web.

Thanks for the article. I want to write and market for the financial services industry, the problem that I find is that many in this area do not understand what keeping an updated website/blog can do for their business, they are stuck in the old ways of doing business and many are afraid of compliance issues. I have worked some clients in this with marketing and it is difficult for them to not make the writing boring and technical. Many are completely afraid of social media and the larger firms either have staff or make their brokers use canned articles. Many also do not understand that social media is great for engagement and want to know when they are going to get clients, they understand nurturing in the way that they have done things in the past but not nurturing clients through social media.
Any suggestions on to break past these barriers?

Jenn

Eileen, you have a fantastic specialty. I think it points to the fact that a specialty can require research and study. How long did it take you to come up to speed with the legal nuances?

I specialize in writing copy for dietary supplement companies, which is nuanced and has regulatory issues that marketers must be aware of. A lot of copywriters are drawn to this market but can't grasp the nuances involved to stay legal in their copy. Add to that a different perspective from each client on what's legal and what's not, and you really have to have wisdom.

Lately, I've refined my pitch even further, pointing out to prospective clients that one thing I'm particularly skilled at is taking scientific language and putting it into plain English that is also compliant with FTC/FDA regulations.

I am launching a separate niche – more for me than anything – that stems from over a decade of participating in the 3-Day Walk for the Cure. We'll see where the journey takes me. 😉