Susan Guillory is the President of Egg Marketing, a content marketing firm based in San Diego.
She’s written several business books, and frequently blogs about small business and finance on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, and Nav.
Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.
How did you start out as a marketer?
I’ve always been a writer and thought I wanted to be a journalist, but after completing my MBA, I realized a lot of marketing involves writing, and that it might be easier to break into marketing than journalism (in an era where journalists were rapidly losing their full-time jobs).
Looking back what is your hardest struggle when it came to delivering results?
I tend to focus on content creation and less on results, so it’s been important for me to see the bigger picture of how the content I write drives web traffic and conversions.
How did you get your first client back then, and what kind of service did you do for them?
Great story. After quitting my corporate marketing job, I was unsure of what I wanted to do.
I browsed MySpace Classifieds (this dates me; also, yes, MySpace had classifieds!) and found someone looking for a press release.
I thought, “I can write that!” Once I did, I realized I could do this for any business that didn’t have the budget to hire a full-time marketer.
What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
I love working with really smart people who maybe don’t have the time or skills to write their own content.
We have a conversation about their area of expertise, and bam! I turn it into an article.
I love seeing how happy they are to see their words on paper.
We have a lot of readers who are bent on becoming freelancers, aside from freelancing how else can someone earn online, and what is your advise?
I made the decision early on to create a company rather than operate as a freelancer.
I felt it gave me more gravity and made me look more professional.
It takes very little to set up a business with a name and website, so why not?
If you were given the chance to build your career all over again what would you do differently so that you will achieve your dreams faster?
I would have identified the projects I hated doing and wasn’t good at and focused on a few key services earlier on.
How is your typical work day structured?
I work best in the morning, so I churn out as many articles as I can.
By afternoon, I’m experiencing a creative slump, so I’ll have coffee and step away from my home office for a while.
Once the cobwebs clear, I’m back to it.
If I’m actively looking for more work, I’ll spend part of that time looking on freelance writing sites for projects.
Can you tell us about a past situation where you had to juggle multiple projects with competing deadlines?
This is every day of my life! Google Calendar has been a lifesaver.
As soon as I get an assignment, I put it on my calendar a few days before deadline so I don’t forget it.
I prefer writing several assignments for one client at once while I’m in that zone, but I still end up switching from client (and subject) to client.
What recently-developed marketing strategy, technique or tool interests you the most right now?
I’ve been paying more attention to SEO trends, thanks to some of the SEO companies I work with. It’s interesting to see how those trends change over time.
Can you tell us about a project you’re most proud of from your past work history?
As part of my own marketing, I’ve always guest blogged on other sites.
I started writing for AllBusiness.com years and years ago, and was lucky enough to stumble into a syndication opportunity that gets my content on Forbes.com.
What advice would you share with other Marketer’s who want to become more productive?
Stop reading other people’s advice!
You have to figure out what works for you, from what hours you do your best work to which tools support you.
If there’s one Marketing Guru you’d recommend who and why.
Neil Patel has a really good pulse on how marketing changes and how SEO plays into that.