3 Secrets to Column Writing for Business Success

Newspaper or magazine columnists are seen as local experts who gain tremendous exposure in a medium that higher income consumers regularly rely upon for advice and guidance. Also, many homeowners associations have newsletters that might be open to your column to educate and inform their members.

If you are an excellent writer and are quick with ideas, this could be an effective way to promote your business. I’ve been a regional newspaper columnist providing the main real estate content for a newspaper chain with my column and now I am a columnist with Chattanooga’s only business magazine, EDGE.

Curious where to start? You can purchase a book online on how to write a column. Here are three secrets to landing a column:

1. Study local magazines and newspapers.
   Find an area that would be of interest to consumers that is not being addressed. Find an “itch” in the market that is not being “scratched” and you will quickly attract an editor’s attention.
2. Create a “pitch letter.”
   Write a succinct letter proposing what your column will be titled, a description of what the column would be about, how many words(typical columns are 600 words), and what are your credentials to write it.
3. Create 3 sample columns.
   Write these sample columns and attach them to your pitch letter. Then hand deliver or send to the publication’s editor. This may require follow up but it is worth being persistent.

While this may not be something you would normally have thought of to grow your business, I can assure you that you won’t have any of your competitors beating you to it.

So, go ahead, and try it!