This Trillion-Dollar Industry Offers Steady Income, Great Rates,
and Little Competition
By Jen Phillips April

No matter your interests, there’s a “hidden” side that many newer freelance writers don’t consider.

This “backroom” opportunity pays well and offers steady work, and there’s less competition.

Plus, it’s a broad market …

Literally any topic you can think of has a lesser-known side that fits this category …

• Cooking
• Fishing
• Finances
• Food and Wine
• Interior Design
• Automotive
• Building and Construction
• Gaming
• Travel
• Anything

What is it?

It’s B2B.

B2B stands for business-to-business, and it simply means businesses that sell to other businesses.

It also stands for a super-lucrative opportunity for you.

Take cooking, for example.

What’s the business associated with cooking? That’s right, restaurants. What goes into operating restaurants?

• Cookware
• Equipment like stoves and prep stations
• Tables, chairs, silverware, glassware
• A payment system
• Scheduling system
• Bookkeeping software
• And on and on

Each of these segments offers a different entry point into the fascinating world of restaurant B2B writing.

How about this? Do you know any real estate agents?

You probably do …

However, you probably don’t know that the real estate software market was valued at $2.45 billion in 2022!

Most of the content about such software focuses on helping real estate agents work smarter.

There’s software to help them attract and manage leads. There are website-building tools to help agents have beautiful and easy-to-navigate websites. There’s yet more software to help them manage their listings.

Then there’s property valuation software, and online digital signing tools, and … well, you get the idea.

The list goes on.

You can even break the real estate market into different segments — each with its own focus.

• Residential Real Estate
• Commercial Real Estate
• Short-Term Rentals
• Hotels

There are dozens of software tools servicing each of these markets.

And do you know what all this software has in common?

It all needs content to promote it.

Blogs, landing pages, emails, websites, and so on.

This content is meant to educate the real estate agent on growing their real estate business. It’s rarely technical. Instead, it focuses on helpful tips and simple business practices. You could even write profiles of successful agents.

B2B real estate writers look for companies that sell to real estate agents.

Now apply this thinking to every industry you can think of:

• Financial Advisers
• Personal Trainers
• Veterinarians
• Dentists
• Physicians
• Human Resources
• And many more …

Each industry is a multimillion-dollar market of companies that help these professionals do their jobs more efficiently.

And you can make a nice living writing for them.

Now, you may be wondering what you’d write. Let’s take a look at seven in-demand B2B writing projects …

7 Types of Content B2B Companies Crave

Many companies use some of these marketing materials or a blend of all of them. You could position yourself as a specialist in one or two to start and add more later. There’s a six-figure business waiting for you in any of them.

1. Blogs

B2B companies use these short online articles to build trust and credibility, and get found by prospects. Best of all, no one publishes one or two blog posts. They publish a few times a month, which means you can collect recurring revenue.

Blog articles range from $250 to $800 and up. And, since someone needs to decide what to write, why, and when, you can also set up a monthly calendar for them, adding $500–$800 per calendar.

On the low end, if you write four blog posts per month for a company at $250 per post, you’re looking at $1,000 per month per company. Add on a calendar, and you’re at a minimum of $1,500.

2. Social Media

Have you spent hours on Threads? Do you love studying what works on LinkedIn? If so, you can earn a good living helping businesses build their brand on social media.

Successful social media requires consistent content creation, posting, and engagement to see results.

Which means another opportunity for recurring income.

B2B businesses pay social media managers from $750 to $1,500/month or more, depending on what you’re doing.

Better yet, as you build their social media presence, they’re going to want to turn those followers into paying customers. This means you’ll need to create a reason for those people to click a link or sign up to download a free report.

That’s another opportunity for you. Someone needs to write that free report or manage social media advertising.

3. Websites

Every business needs a website in the 21st century. They also need frequent updates to reflect updates and acquisitions, or simply to revamp existing copy. You can learn SEO skills in a few hours and then apply them to your client’s web copy so they get great results.

Here are a few examples of website projects businesses need:

• Website homepage content: $1,500–$3,000
• Additional pages (About, Products, Staff, Contact): $250–$1,000 per page
• Revamp existing copy: $100–$250 per page

Plus, they need product descriptions, FAQs, and much more. One B2B web project could bring you between $3,000 and $5,000. These types of projects tend to be ongoing, too, because businesses are always adding new pages and updates.

4. Emails

Emails are some of my favorite writing projects. For two B2B clients, I write educational emails driving traffic to the blog post I wrote. I also write their emails announcing new updates.

For another client, I put together regular emails sharing industry tips.

Companies need frequent emails, so there’s a ton of opportunity here. We’re talking six-figure income potential from just a few clients.

Consider this: An autoresponder series goes for $100–$1,000 per email. Promotional emails are $250–$2,000 each, and email newsletters go for $800–$2,000 apiece.

Businesses don’t send one or two emails and call it done. They send them throughout the month. You can build a solid writing business by writing emails with just one or two B2B clients.

5. Case Studies

Case studies are the perfect storytelling vehicle. Positioned as before-and-after stories, they share the tale of a customer who found a solution to a problem through your client’s product or service.

Typically, you interview the customer to find out what they did before working with your client, what pushed them to choose your client, and how their work has changed since.

They’re a lot of fun to write, and clients will pay $1,250–$2,000. Additionally, most clients want ongoing case studies.

6. White Papers

Designed to attract potential customers, these usually address some timely aspect of the industry in exchange for an email address.

Because they go in depth on a topic, you’ll probably chat with multiple industry subject matter experts for their perspectives. I find it fascinating to “talk shop” with experts.

Rates are $2,000–$10,000, depending on length and complexity.

7. E-books

Sometimes clients refer to e-books and white papers as the same thing. Sometimes e-books are broader in scope than white papers and are designed to provide more of a 101-level education, whereas white papers are meant to inform in a non-sales manner, highlighting proof, facts, and statistics.

An e-book can go for $2,000–$7,000, depending on your client’s focus as well as its length and complexity.

B2B Writing Projects Can Give You the Life You’ve Dreamed Of!

Frankly, I come from a nonprofit history background. I’ve never worked in corporate America and did not understand B2B when I started my writing business.

However, as I’ve worked to build my business, I’ve explored different industries and found that B2B clients are some of my favorites. I get to dig into industries I didn’t know existed and become a valued contributor to a marketing team.

Plus, it pays better and has less competition than most consumer-facing stuff I’ve written. Better pay, less competition, fun to write, and a strong business need? What more could a writer want?

With all the existing and new opportunities in B2B, there’s never been a better time to be a B2B copywriter.