One of the inherent values of understanding marketing, is that you’ll know which audience you are targeting your article, press release or essay for.

By understanding what a client’s needs are, you will prevent miscommunication and rewrites. Entrepreneurial marketing (or small business marketing) can also help you with your self-promotional needs, as you create a marketing strategy to “target your market” and grow your business.

Many “writing” positions are sometimes found stuffed in the “Marketing/Advertising” section of your newspaper or online classifieds; often market research requires you to write results, surveys, promotional materials, etc. The nice thing about these positions is that marketing positions are easier to get into full-time, but don’t pay as well as a technical writing or research writing position.

If you’re a fiction, non-fiction writer or novelist, market research is as easy as taking a peek at the books on your bookshelf. Assess which category or genre your work falls in to, then take a glance at the authors you feel are similar to your own work. Research what company published those authors (and when), and very soon you’ll find that you can hone your product into something that can reach a particular audience.

Regardless of how you perform your marketing strategy, learning how to “sell” your work and come up with a way to add value to your writing is essential to being a freelancer.