The best place to work to build a strong foundation for your content writing career
So, you’ve told yourself that you’re actually going to give a writing career a whirl. But where the heck do you start?
Do you hop on some volunteer internships for experience? Do you apply to entry-level jobs for pennies? Do you work as a barista while you start your own blog and just see what happens? Make an UpWork account?
There are a ton of ways to start your writing career. I did start on UpWork, made my own blog, and worked some entry-level jobs. But more specifically, my writing career momentum really ramped up when I eventually worked for a marketing agency. This was truly the jumping off point I needed to understand where my next steps needed to be, and here’s why it could really benefit you, too:
- At an agency, you’re exposed to a TON of different types of marketing. Rather than working for an internal marketing department for one company where they may only do social media posts and blogging for example, you’ll be working with a handful of clients at one time where one is doing blogging, another is doing paid ads, another is building a website from scratch, another needs email marketing, and on and on.
- You get to DO more marketing. You don’t only learn about the different types of content and campaigns and strategies, you may actually get to be hands on depending on your role. At the first agency I worked at, I was literally building display ads, editing website copy, setting up search and social campaigns, and so much more. I got my hands in as much as I possibly could.
- You learn marketing and how you can apply it to your writing. Working at an agency is like getting paid for a marketing degree that helps you understand the language you need to use in the marketing space to improve your writing for it!
- You’re exposed to different types of companies and/or industries. Depending on what your agency’s target audience is, you may have the opportunity to be exposed to different industries, or at least different companies, that will teach you so much. The more companies you can work with that are different sizes, that offer slightly different services, and have different marketing or sales goals, the more you will learn.
- You learn faster. Since you’re constantly engaging with different companies and different marketing tools and strategies on a daily basis, you learn much quicker than if you were to work for an internal marketing team for a couple years, and then switch to another, and then another. At an agency, you could be communicating with two to even ten different companies per day. The exposure is just incredible.
- You’re constantly surrounded by insanely creative people. I can’t tell you how impressed I was with my coworkers’ creative projects outside of work and how that influenced their work at the agency. I worked with artists, musicians, photographers, videographers, rappers, writers…it was very inspiring and great to be surrounded by like-minded people.
Speaking of getting a start…the first thing you want to do when starting a writing career is build a killer portfolio! Don’t worry if you don’t have samples or haven’t been hired by anyone to write, I have a guide that will show you the way to writing samples that you’re proud of. Access the guide below and join my newsletter for weekly tips and inspiration for your writing!
It’s because of my experience at marketing agencies that I learned all about these types of marketing:
- Search ads (when a business gets a chance to appear at the top of a search result)
- Display ads (those banners you see following you all around the internet)
- Social ads (ads that appear in your social newsfeeds)
- Website (like the one you’re on right now!)
- Google tools (like Google My Business)
- Copywriting (writing for ads/promoting a product or service; writing to persuade)
- Content writing (blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, etc.)
- Social analysis (analyzing a company’s social engagement, followers, high-performing posts, impressions, etc.)
- Market/competitor analysis (compiling information about competitors to see how a company compares to its competitors in terms of offerings, website elements, branding, technology, etc.)
What would have taken me many years to be exposed to all of this at different companies, I learned in two years at one marketing agency.
This could be you! An agency is just a really great place to begin and get a feel for marketing as a whole and how you can apply your writing for it. Some agencies may need more experienced marketing professionals while some are built for more entry-level professionals, so be sure to research different places that could be the best fit for your experience level.
Once you’ve scored an interview, learn the best way to stand out among your competition here!
Still feeling a little overwhelmed or not sure if this is a good starting point? Luckily, I just launched my coaching calls where we can talk one-on-one about your specific writing career concerns, desires, challenges and more. Check out how we can talk together:
