Margaret is a medical writer, creator, LinkedIn manager, and founder of the Writing Hackers Academy, where she coaches aspiring and existing writers on becoming in-demand talent.
Over the years, Margaret has worked with prominent brands like Medical News Today, Forbes, WebMD, Healthline Media, and Fitbit, among others.
In this interview, she shares how she’s building a medical writing career with her pharmacy background, her process for getting marketing leads, and much more.
How did you get into marketing and become a content marketer? What’s the story and what’s the blueprint for it?
This is a very funny story; if I think about it, I’ve never really said this to anybody outside my mom.
I started this whole freelance writing thing in December 2019. I started talking about it with my mom and someone close to me then. I was saying that I wanted to start helping people do their math assignments.
I wanted to start helping people to do their math homework. I knew that Chegg.com does something similar, so I thought, “can I work under them?”
I was very good, and I’m still good at math. It was my favorite subject at that time, but the job wasn’t forthcoming. I just knew that I wanted to do something online, and it had to do with helping people to do something.
So, it was an option between doing maths and writing articles and essays for college students.
In early 2020, when COVID was looming, I decided I wanted to go into freelance writing. I saw this flyer on my friend’s WhatsApp status about someone teaching freelance writing. It was going to be a three-day class.
At that time, I just knew that it was a handwriting-on-the-wall moment.
I’d just gotten into pharmacy school. So, I was still trying to figure out how to manage my labs and read my books. I didn’t really have the time but I knew I wanted to do this.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the N2,000 fee for the class. That was how broke I was. So, I borrowed it from my mom, and I can tell you that it has been a wonderful journey since then.
The funny thing is that I didn’t even have the time throughout the class duration, but when the lockdown started, and everyone in school was sent home, I had enough time to listen, read through, and learn.
A month or two later, I got my first client; the rest is history. But yeah, that’s how I started building my personal brand.
Two years ago, I registered my company.
Now, I’m focusing on medical communications for health brands to help them reach their patients, their audience, and other professionals with marketing. That’s what we’re doing at MedTech.
How will you explain the concept of content marketing to a five-year-old, or in layman’s terms?
Content marketing is using content in its various forms to talk about your business.
For instance, if you sell car phone holders that Uber drivers use for holding their phones up in their car. That’s what your company is all about.
A content marketer’s job is to use videos, blogs, infographics, email, social media, and other forms to help you reach an audience — reach the people you are trying to sell it to.
In essence, they are using content to tell your story. A podcast is content. Video is content. Email is content. Social is content. And so on.
That’s why I feel like Google hasn’t done justice to what content marketing is. When you search for the different branches of digital marketing, they tell you content marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, video marketing, SEO, and PPC.
But the thing is, content marketing in itself is encompassing. When you talk about blogs and promoting a business through blogs, that’s content marketing.
Most people try to separate video marketing or SEO from content marketing, and while I understand that they are more in-depth on their own, content marketing talks about them all.
It talks about videos, emails, podcasts, and social media. It even talks about mobile marketing. As long as you are trying to tell a brand story, whichever means you use is content marketing.
What is the process of marketing leads for you? How do you get clients to write for?
For WebMD, it was actually a referral, and I thank God for Bob.
I wasn’t looking to work with WebMD. I was actually looking to work with Medscape, which is like a brother site to WebMD. But my portfolio at that time didn’t match the medical writing content on Medscape and their brand. So, Bob sent me a contact in WebMD that would accept my work, and they appreciated what I was writing.
For Healthline, I was reached out to on LinkedIn. I often talk about the power of LinkedIn, optimizing your profile, and all that, so this is a true example. That was how I got the job for Healthline.
Fitbit is quite a complicated story. I went through the experience section of one of my LinkedIn connections and found out that she writes for Pfizer. So, I reached out to her and asked how she got to work with them.
She told me she works with an agency connecting her with these big brands. And I’m like, “Oh, which agency?” She told me and gave me a contact at the agency. I started talking to them, and down the line, they gave me the job.
That is how I got to work with Fitbit. I do not have anybody’s contact in Fitbit, but I got featured on Fitbit through that agency.
You get hired by a startup or an established brand relaunching a new feature, and they’re asking you to help with the launch. What advice would you give them to get the word out there based on your experience with content marketing?
Well, I’ll give them a lot of advice, so they should get a paper and pen.
If you are trying to launch a product, you have to ask yourself, what is my USP? What is my unique selling point? What is it that my brand has and other brands don’t have?
Is your product cheaper? Are you more affordable? All of it matters, no matter how little, because when we start talking about messaging, we promote and amplify your brand’s voice.
Everyone wants to hear what is different.
Let’s look at an example; if LG was bringing out a new washing machine model into the market, how do you knock off Thermocool?
So, I ask the question, what does LG do differently?
It helps to reduce your electricity usage. It doesn’t need so much water for you to wash your clothes. It’s quick, it’s fast. These are the things people want to hear, and these are the things we will focus on.
For our messaging, we’re not just talking about washing machines. We’re talking about the country’s economy and how people want to save on bills. LG can help you stay stress-free yet get your clothes washed.
And then, when you’re done with identifying your USP, the next step is to decide what channels you want to use to promote.
Are you using social media? If yes, would we be contacting influencers? Are we looking at influencer marketing? Or are we looking at UGC?
However, UGC is cheaper and as effective (or sometimes more effective) than influencer marketing.
So, which one are we looking at? Are we looking at using your own social media channels? Are they strong enough? Are we going to set up PPC — pay-per-click ads — with Google Ads and all of that?
The target audience will influence the platforms and channels we use to promote that brand.
When we finalize the plan, we can then bring in the experts that are needed at each point to ensure that this project runs smoothly, from the graphic designers to the project managers. Everyone has to be on board and carried along.
We will have a small team that attends feedback meetings. If we’re going to hire three graphic designers, only one graphic designer or the creative team lead will be in the meeting of people who decide the next steps.
The thing about marketing is that once you have your blueprint set out and that campaign starts running, you don’t want anything that will cut it short. We’re trying to test here, we’re trying to record what we are doing. Is it working?
I was running an ad for the recent launch of my cohort last month and along the way, I decided to stop the ad running to Nigerians and try Nigerians abroad. What happened? It flopped because we needed a bigger budget to run that. I was able to note that down, and it has helped me if I want to run the ads again for foreigners.
So that’s the thing: you need to understand that we are going to be taking notes. So you don’t want anything that will cut that campaign short.
If you were allowed to only choose one marketing channel, which would you go for and why?
I’m going to use my own brand as an example. So, the Writing Hackers Academy is my brand, where I teach freelance writing, content marketing, and how to make money online. Passive income kind of stuff.
If I were to go back in time and choose a marketing channel for that beautiful brand, I would start with Instagram.
Why? Because of all the channels I have, Instagram is really hitting the ground running.
I started that account last year in May, and as of now, we have 2000 plus followers compared to other accounts I have started long before that. It’s really growing; maybe not as fast as some people out there, but considering the effort I’m putting in, it’s growing well.
It’s about where your audience is and the platform.
If, for instance, the platform supports new accounts, that would affect your decision, considering where you want to start.
I’m going to give you an example. For MedPenPal, I talk about how I can help brands with their content marketing, particularly in content management of blogs and all the rest. I also talk about how I can help health brands grow on LinkedIn through personal accounts or company page management.
Now, Medpempal is active on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and LinkedIn. On Twitter and LinkedIn, I talk more about the content marketing aspects, showcase my writing skills, and tell you how to grow your blog to attract editors looking for people who can manage their blogs.
But I focus more on the LinkedIn aspect on Instagram and TikTok.
Why do I separate this thing?
I have done my own research and found out that most people interested in all these things we talk about, like content marketing, are on LinkedIn and Twitter compared to TikTok and Instagram. I’m looking at my audience. Where are they?
So, if a startup needs to pick a marketing channel, look at where your audience is and which channel will favor you; then start with one.
If you know that most of the people you are trying to look for, the people you’re trying to attract, and people that will pay you are on Twitter, then go all into Twitter.
Take out twelve months, focus on Twitter, and see what happens when it starts growing. When it kicks off, you can decide to go to LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok.
Why is LinkedIn important for business owners and marketers? What can it do for them?
The reason why I chose LinkedIn is because that’s where people are going to pay me. Like I said earlier, the person I reached out to when I worked with Forbes, I found her on LinkedIn.
WebMD, Linkedin. Healthline, Linkedin. Fitbit, Linkedin. So why not LinkedIn?
As a service provider, most people with the money to pay you what you deserve are on LinkedIn. The best thing you can do is focus on building your brand there, and people will naturally reach out to you. Opportunities will find you!
That’s why I say LinkedIn. As a marketer, LinkedIn is where business owners and decision-makers are. There are VPs, VP assistants, and heads of departments on LinkedIn. So why won’t you take advantage of that opportunity and grow your brand on LinkedIn?
Later on, you can choose any other social media platform to get more people and eyes for your business.
On Twitter, people say that there are redundant roles in marketing. Some say growth marketing should be part of content marketing. Others say content marketing or sales should be a part of digital marketing. Are there roles that you think are presently redundant in marketing?
I do not think any role is redundant in marketing. I’m constantly learning every day and recently, I found out that there’s a kind of marketing called Account Based Marketing (ABM).
Now, if someone comes out and starts telling me that ABM is supposed to be under B2B, it doesn’t make sense to me because these things are there for a reason. Something like growth marketing now is technical. You have to start analyzing metrics and all of that.
So, I do not really think or agree that these things are redundant. I believe that content marketing is a part of digital marketing, but inasmuch as it’s a part, it also has its own function for a brand.
Despite the fact that sending out emails is a form of content marketing, email marketing exists on its own. So, you can’t say that email marketing is a part of content marketing. It has its own field, it has its own section.
If you own a content marketing agency and part of your service is writing emails, you cannot underestimate or undervalue an email marketing agency that only focuses on emails. They are as valid in their service as you are valid in adding emails to your service. That’s just it.
How do you repurpose your existing content to reach newer audiences?
When most people say repurpose, they think that it’s just to collect something you posted six months ago and post it again. That’s reposting. That’s not repurposing.
If I want to repurpose content I posted three months ago, I’ll look at it and identify another angle I can use to create a new post.
For instance, if I posted three ways you can start or thrive as a finance writer in Nigeria, I can go back and pick one of those ways and repurpose it, saying, “This is one of the ways my student has been able to use and thrive as a finance writer in Nigeria.”
So, I repurposed that old content. I didn’t have to think of a new idea and I was able to get something fresh.
Additionally, another way is that if you write long-form content, you can break it into bits and expatiate on those bits. For instance, you can repurpose a blog post into a video for LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok.
You can even interview someone to talk about that topic on a podcast and break it down as newsletters.
If you were to pick a brand to work with presently, based on the amazing and prominent brands you’ve worked with already, which would it be?
I don’t have any brand at the top of my mind, but if you are talking about qualities based on my own experience, I’ll look for a brand that would help me be better because I believe there is always room for improvement.
I also don’t want to be in a situation where I’m not free to ask questions, give my opinions, or make my decisions. That’s what I’m looking for.
Right now, I’m in the stage of selecting who I work with, and that’s what I also encourage my students to do right from the onset: you shouldn’t just make yourself available for every job out there and always look out for yourself.
As much as you are trying to help somebody, you also need to be helped. And that’s exactly what I would consider if I am looking to work with a brand at this point.
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
One thing I’ll say is “never give up.” As cliche as that sounds, I know how many times I’ve wanted just to pack up my stuff and quit. Fortunately, I haven’t, and the result has been amazing.
God is so amazing. He has made my 30 years to be three years. That’s how I see it. So, I would tell my younger self to cling and hold on to God because it would be much easier when you do that.
Don’t give up. It’s not an option. My friend always says, “Last, last, we go dey all right, and if we no dey all right, we never reach the end.” This is translated to mean, “In the end, we will be fine, and if we are currently not fine, the end is not here yet.
That’s what I believe. That’s what I’ll say.
What automation tools do you use as part of your medical writing workflow?
I use Notion for everything that has to do with managing my business. It’s beautiful! I use it to outline the activities I have for the month in my community, The Freelance Writers Haven Ng.
I use it to outline my content calendar and ideas for my brand, The Writing Hackers Academy. For my other brand, MedPenPal, I do the same.
My content marketing friends and I organize our ideas for the Nigerian content marketers’ hangout (a Twitter space held monthly) on Notion.
I organize many other things on Notion — my emails, email list, and articles. You can literally do everything that has to do with running your business on Notion and connect it to Slack, where you will have conversations with people that you are working with.
The other automation tool will be my virtual assistant, which is not like a tool, but it’s a tool if you get what I mean.
Where can we go to learn more about Margaret?
Margaret Etudo on LinkedIn.
LinkedInmetro on Instagram and TikTok.
MedPenPal on Twitter.
In addition, you can also follow The Writing Hackers Academy on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn to learn freelance writing or get tips on how to make money online.