This is How I Get Press Trips and Regular Writing Assignments

Master writing a Letter of Introduction as an invaluable tool

Jul 03, 2024

Greetings, Substack readers! I hope you’ll forgive my long absence—I have had writing and coaching projects and family life pulling me in all directions and I have been just barely keeping my head above water!

This week, the holiday has given me a moment to breathe and come back to writing my Substack newsletter—because I still have lots of topics I want to cover here!

Today I want to talk about the Letter of Introduction (LOI) and how it has been not only a useful tool to master during my writing career, but I’d even say it’s been invaluable. Along with pitching, one of the scariest things as a writer when you’re just starting out is asking for something. I went through a phase where I was too intimidated to ask for things or to send out my ideas, but I soon came to the realization that the worst that could happen is that I get a no. Once I was over that and could easily take no for an answer, sending out the writer’s equivalent of a sales cold call got much easier.

Share Breaking Into Freelance Writing with Rebecca Treon

What is an LOI?
An LOI is just what it sounds like—you’re emailing a potential client or a PR representative you’d like to work with or know to let them know about you, your skills, what you write, and why you’d like to work together.

The way I look at it, they aren’t going to know you exist if you don’t put yourself in front of them! So much of being a successful freelancer is marketing yourself and your skills, so sending LOIs is a really solid part of a good marketing plan.

On the writing side, I have used LOIs to get into the stable of freelance writers someone uses and assigns articles to for travel, food, and lifestyle trade publications. Those introductions turned into regular assignments and columns and actually make up half of my income now. I don’t have to pitch anything—all the work is assigned—and all it took was an intro and being a reliable freelancer that follows through with quality work, assets requested (photos, etc.), and meeting a deadline.

On the PR side, I have introduced myself to PR professionals to learn more about the clients they work with, go deeper with clients that are of interest to me/have an interesting story, and to be included on press trips.

I’d say about 75% of my writing LOIs get some kind of response—even if it’s ‘We’re not looking for additional writers at the moment, but we’ll keep you in mind for future projects that might be a fit.” Oftentimes, I will check back in with them every month or two, and it has resulted in eventually getting assignments when the opportunity came up.

The number of responses for PR LOIs is probably higher, and usually results in an exploratory phone call to see how we could potentially work together.

A few things about LOIs:

*You can send multiple LOIs pretty much all at once with only minimal changes to the format.

*What you’re trying to do is establish contact and start building a relationship (as opposed to selling a specific story idea).

*Editors and PR pros want to know two things: that you understand what they are all about and that you can demonstrate how YOU are the ideal person to work with them. You’re going to solve their problems with the content you create and take something off their shoulders.

What an LOI should include:

*Your background.

*The specific content you plan to create.

*Details that are relevant to the specific client.

*Keep it short and focused. It shouldn’t sound like a spammy sales pitch, rather it should engage the editor, resonate with them, be approachable and get them to respond.

Keeping it organized:

*Create a list of potential clients/PR companies.

*Either make a spreadsheet or use your Trello board to track your LOIs with the magazine/PR company name, the date of outreach, and when you get a reply, plug that in, too, so you can follow up again in the future.

*Example: LOI sent to Quinn PR 6/23/24. 7/2/24: got a response, scheduled call for 7/10/24. Or something that helps you keep track of your outreach.

*Pick a blast day. On Fridays, you can send out 5 or so LOIs to publications you know create assigned content using freelancers or to PR companies you’re interested in working with.

Sample Letter of Introduction:

Subject line: Letter of Introduction: Rebecca Treon, Freelance Writer

Hi Editor/PR Rep First Name,

My name is Rebecca Treon and I’m a Denver-based freelance food, travel, and lifestyles writer.

I’m reaching out to introduce myself and to be on your radar for writing work you might be assigning in the future. [For editors, this might be a place where you specify something you’ve read in their publication that you’d like to be considered for, such as e-commerce product roundups. Then you can include any relevant things you’ve worked on before that are similar. For PR companies, you might say something about someone on their client list that you’re interested in learning more about.}

My work has appeared in AARP, AFAR, AAA, Costco Connection, BBC Travel, Eater, Huff Post, Hemispheres, Travel + Leisure, Wine Enthusiast, and many others. You can find my portfolio here.

I’d love to chat further about opportunities for us to work together, either by email or on the phone. Let me know if you’d like to schedule a call. I’d love to discuss my experience and interests with you.

Thanks for your consideration; I look forward to connecting soon.

Best,
Rebecca

Additional notes:

*Don’t forget to follow up! One of my recent assignments, about a unique whiskey brand, came from following up every month or so for literally 6 months. When my editor finally had something to assign that was a good fit for me, she let me know. It’s ok to be persistent without being a pest.

*I count sending LOIs as “pitches” when I’m challenging myself to send a certain number of pitches in a month.

*You can do it!

Thanks as always for being here and reading! Have a great week!

Rebecca

Breaking Into Freelance Writing with Rebecca Treon

This is How I Get Press Trips and Regular Writing Assignments

Master writing a Letter of Introduction as an invaluable tool

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