As a content marketing writer, I love to work with marketers and business owners who sell products and services that I believe in, and excite me.

After all, it’s a heck of a lot easier for me to write about things that I like, and understand.

It’s always helpful to write for clients who I’ve developed a great relationship with. I’m sure that fellow freelancers can understand what I’m talking about, right?

But, while many other writers (and other freelancers) out there seemingly look for projects using the will work for food marketing approach, I like to look for work by taking a more deliberate approach with finding clients, for the following reasons:

1. Everyone likes to work with those that they like.

2. I like to provide my clients with added value.

When I’m able to identify and find likeable clients, then I’m able to go all-in for their marketing needs, to the best of my abilities. While I don’t have the time or the budget to create a comprehensive marketing plan for the clients, I have no issue with using my personal resources and tools to get the word out about my client’s websites.

Let’s face it: Our clients ultimately want to earn money. They might have far more marketing resources at their fingertips than freelancers do, but they could still use all of the positive help they can get.

It’s one thing for typical employees to offer their business owner extras-the future of the employee’s prospects in the company often depends upon their ability to give more than what is expected. But as a freelancer, there’s no reward in offering more to a client without being asked or told.

Or, is there?

Here’s what I’ve figured out: When I volunteer a bit of my time to offer my clients more marketing, no matter how small, then this provides my clients with an additional (and free) marketing avenue, and hopefully my efforts lead to a sales conversion.

When my efforts lead to a sale, then my client is earning money. Earning money makes them very happy, and it gives them an incentive to keep me around on a continuous basis!

I love win-win scenarios that allow everyone to earn money while helping each other reach higher goals, don’t you?

So, with this in mind, let me give you the inside scoop on how I’m able to easily and efficiently create this type of scenario without burning up all of my content production time.

I Create Content With Overarching Goals In Mind

It’s crucial for content marketing writers (or any other type of freelancers) to deeply understand their role in assisting their client’s marketing needs. Sure, just about every online property has a blog/article section, and that section needs to be filled with valuable content that assists the marketer’s goal of thought leadership and staying at the top of their subscriber’s minds.

I mean, really, imagine the marketer trying to build a long-term relationship with subscribers by begging them for a sale all the time!

So yes, these goals are important, but there’s another goal that every content marketer who gets it should have in the back of their minds, always:

The content should at least do a great job of sparking interest in a sale.

The mind of a writer is a very busy, creative place. There’s so many topics to discuss, and there’s so many angles to discuss them in. This is why many writers fall into the trap of submitting note-worthy, thoughtful articles that are ultimately of low value to their client.

Unless the article is being used for thought-leadership or for staying at the top of minds, the client ultimately wants to use articles as conversion-bait.

While I place the interest of the site subscribers at the front of my mind when I’m producing an article, I’m always hoping in the back of my mind that my article will lead to a conversion for my client.

If I may use a recent post as an example….

I Find Excuses To Link To My Client’s Sales Page

Before I started producing blog content for private clients, I wrote SEO content for digital agencies. One of the most important skills that I learned was how to insert linked keyword phrases in the body of my copy. I learned that when I linked a phrase in my article, this did a great job of leading readers to the client’s sales page.

At the very least, the article reader would be led towards the agency client’s home page.

While conversion practices have changed drastically since I started writing in 2010, the need to lead article readers by the hand towards my client’s sales page hasn’t changed. It only takes a second to insert an appropriate link or two in my article, and my client is able to enjoy another traffic source.

I’m A Social Media Sharer

Any online freelancer will tell you that they eat, sleep, and breathe the internet. As such, we tend to be a lonely group of people, and social media is our life-line! So, to say that I spend a huge chunk of my time on social media would be like saying that I need to brush my teeth in the morning (Duh!)

Since I’m blasting out messages of all sorts anyway, why shouldn’t I take a few more moments to promote my clients online, too? Social media promotion isn’t an actual part of my job description, and the truth is, many people charge an extra fee for comprehensive social media promotion.

But, the way I see things, promoting my clients in this way provides me with job security. And, since I align myself with clients who I like and believe in, promoting my clients is like promoting a project for my friends-it’s a joy for me to help them to succeed!

For example, one of my favorite clients shares his content via his email subscriber list. Email lists are awesome, but promoting links back to the content is even better. Knowing this, I often highlight eye-catching phrases pulled from the body of the article. Then, I copy and paste the phrase or the sentence in my social media, and I hit send.

Take the articles on this blog for example. One day, I noticed that when I moved my mouse to highlight a sentence, a box appeared. My highlighted sentence appeared inside of the box, and the box gave me the option to sign in to my Twitter account. After doing so, the highlighted sentence was sent off into the Twitter-verse, and I didn’t have to pull up another tab to manually sign in to my account!

What’s more, I noticed that every time I sent off a highlight in this way, the sentence or the phrase remained highlighted. This allowed my client to take note of attractive sentences and phrases in the copy. I later learned that it was the SumoMe app that made marketing and promotion tasks a heck of a lot easier.

Now, when see that a new article has been published, I’m able to easily promote my client’s site, my article, and the articles of other freelance copywriters on the site, too.

And, as a personal bonus, the software helps me to look like a genius when I’m able to easily share thoughtful content on my Twitter feed. Seriously, I attracted new Twitter followers who specifically asked me to continue to share the great content!

Here’s something that landed in my personal inbox that I was happy to share. Twitter also lets me add my own commentary to the share:

A good content marketer is one who can produce stories that site subscribers want to read. A great content writer is one who understands the end goal, and the role they play in helping their clients to reach the goal.

Let’s Talk: Share creative, inexpensive, simple ways that you add more value to your client relationships. Do you notice a difference when you work with clients that you personally like or when you work with clients who sell a product or service you love?