Out-of-Work Writing Talent Means Huge Opportunity for Brands

The following is an excerpt from Joe’s new book, Corona Marketing: What Marketing Professionals Need to Do Now to Survive the Crisis. It includes 13 strategies marketers need to employ now. Download it free today.

In 2008, the financial climate started to take a turn for the worse in the United States and around the globe. Media companies began to lay off droves of journalists and writers in our industry. Nonmedia companies, who in some cases had robust print custom magazines, began to lay off portions of their content teams.

Never in my career had I seen so much journalistic talent without a job (sound familiar?). At the same time, some of the greatest media titles on the planet were struggling to keep up with content demands since letting staffers go.

So we initiated a twofold plan.

Contact Content Creators Out of a Job

The first was, whenever possible, get quality writers involved in Content Marketing Institute projects. In some cases, we couldn’t pay very much, but these journalists and writers were happy for the work.

Where do you find them? Just go to the digital masthead (check the About Us page) for the media property. In it, you’ll find both staff and freelancers. In many cases, the freelancers “used” to be staff, but now only write when there is overflow (which there usually isn’t at a time like this).

You should also check the news of any layoffs for media companies of interest. Once the news gets out, you’ll be able to check individual LinkedIn pages, where generally the writers and journalists will have notified their community that they are actively looking for work.

Explore Media Partnerships

Second, we reached out to media brands with a number of content ideas, stating that we would gladly create content for them at no charge, and without pitching any products or services. This worked brilliantly, as a number of media companies were EXTREMELY open to content ideas of any kind.

Not only did we pen articles, but we helped construct research projects, we coordinated small in-person events, and we gladly served as guests of multiple webinars.

Both these initiatives helped us become known as the leading provider of information on content marketing once the recession broke.

Joe Pulizzi is the author of seven books including Corona Marketing and his marketing thriller novel, The Will to Die.