15 Benefits of Outsourcing your Content Creation (Expert Insight)

Introduction

Content is everywhere, while there are different types coupled with the encouragement you have received to create content you might have decided to hit it alone and figured it is hard- and that part is unsung.

Angela Defranco, thought leader and product manager, Hubspot content strategy tool noted that “creating content is the hardest part of inbound”.

Anthony J James. CEO of trinity consulting and Linkedln influencer says “I pay ghostwriter about $800 per article for posts between 800 and 1200 words. If I had more time on my hands, I would write more, it saves me time using a ghostwriter who knows and works in my industry work space as well. That’s the key”.

If Seo, content strategy, writing, and planning is not your suit then you are better off outsourcing.

What is content outsourcing?

Content outsourcing is leaving your content creation and planning to an outsider this could be a freelancer, agencies or marketplace. If this makes you feel like you are losing control, well you are not.

Look at it this way, you can hire an expert, who understands your industry, review their work, spend 62% less and makes 7X ROI than paid advertisement. In this case you have not lost control, you only teamed with someone /a team to achieve your business goals.

How do you outsource content writing?

There are tons of ways to outsource your content, however, my focus will be on the major methods you can start with immediately.

1. Understand your needs: What kind of content do you need to be written? To whom are you writing? Do you have a brief? What is your goal for writing the content? Where in your funnel does the content fit? middle, top or bottom? When you understand these things you won’t be conflicted as to who to hire.

2. Have a budget: There are writers who charge as low as $0.01 and as high as $1 per word – it is good to note that you cannot get great content cheaply. Since you get what you pay for, have a good budget and know if you like to pay whoever you are outsourcing to hourly, per project or monthly.

3. Have a vision: In my early days, I had a case where I told a prospect I’m a freelancer and they asked to hire me full- time while my answer might vary, you should understand that it’s okay to opt for a freelancer, an agency or freelance marketplace based on your needs. Not necessarily wanting the other person to change how they work.

4. Get on content marketplaces, freelance platforms, and online communities. Read more here

5. Test individuals: You probably have a list of 50 writers now. Yes, you can hire them all if you own a unicorn and have a structure to keep them.

But if you don’t, what can you do then? Ask writers to send their portfolio, vet the tone, use of words, and other things you regard as important to see if they will appeal to your target audience. If it does that leads us to the next step.

6. Sample Test: Ask writers to write a sample. Follow this process to get the best result.

Choose a topic related to your business
Tell the writer the timeline.
Communicate your expectation
Send a brief

Pay the agreed price
Give feedback
Access the quality of the written piece
Decide to hire or not
Pay the writer either way.

7. Categorize your content based on your customer journey:

At the top of the funnel all you do is create awareness content, my advice to new business owners is to focus on the middle and bottom of the funnel content your competition has probably covered what you want to write at the top. Also middle and bottom of the funnel have most value. The intent of people at this phase of the funnel is commercial and transactional.

Example;

Let’s say you are a diet coach.

At the top of the funnel, people are asking questions like;

What is a keto diet?

Why a keto diet?

Middle-of-the-funnel queries

Keto diet VS paleo diet

Keto and weight loss

Bottom-of-the-funnel queries

How much does it cost to hire a keto coach?

Keto coach in Los Angeles

Share your goals with your writer: It is good to communicate this from the beginning as it helps you filter individuals who do not fit in

Note: Do not hire out of pity.

Words from 25 businesses like yours

I spoke with 25 business owners, these are the questions they have asked writers to help them get the right fit for their businesses.

I also conduct a skills assessment by asking candidates to create something on a given topic as part of the interview process. This allows me to see firsthand how they approach content creation and how they implement the skills and strategies they’ve mentioned in their responses.
Milosz Krasinski

Why do you think anyone will care about what you have to say? Lisa Stephenson
Are samples available? Faizan Ahmed Khan
Does the person also have a technical understanding of WordPress and/or other CMS? Christian Hoff

What writing experience do they have in your industry? Kate Smoothy
How do you stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends and technologies relevant to content marketing? Julian Scott
I will ask for the price and perhaps discounts for daily content. Toni Assaker
I like to gauge their passion and enthusiasm for the field of content marketing by asking about any ongoing learning or training they participate in to stay current. Rajan
I will ask if they use AI for making content. I don’t have any problem with using AI for content writing or content marketing, but as a business owner, I should know all the methods my co-workers or freelancers use. Philip Vam
Can you walk me through your process for developing a content marketing strategy, from researching target audience personas to defining KPIs? Dung Pham
What actions would you take on your first day here to build a content marketing strategy? Percy Grunwald
What tools do you use to aid your writing process? Patrick Cohen
Can you discuss a time when you had to pivot your content strategy mid-way through a project? How did you handle it? Sunny Kumar
How do you promote content? Aakash
What strategy do you have in mind to engage our audience? David Cohen
When a new project has you writing the same content more than once, how do you approach the project? Jonathan Alonso
Can you work independently or as part of a team? Andriy Bogdanov
What is your approach to keywords and SEO incorporation? Tonya Basque
What is their experience with social media content? Neil Paul
Can the candidate demonstrate an ability to create visual content? This could include designing infographics and creating videos. Manual Thomas
Can you describe how you balance creativity with the need to meet business goals and objectives in your content creation? Jessica Glazer

How do you ensure that your content is 100% original, plagiarism free, and won’t be flagged by AI detectors? Joshua Feinberg
Do they have experience using my target audiences’ primary platform? Nickie Cobble
How do you make sure you’re providing credible information? Arham Khan
What is your availability and turnaround time for projects? Ayo Isinkaye

Why you should outsource your content creation

Save time: Outsourcing your content gives you more time to focus on activities you excel at.
Diverse point of view: Outsourcing allows you to hire multiple writers at the same time and observe how they communicate their ideas and deductions with this pair of fresh views you are able to pick which suits your business.
Saving cost: When you hire freelancers you wouldn’t have to stress on 401K’s, training, insurance, and visa sponsorships. That fund can be diverted into other arms of the business.
Speed: Since outsourcing thrives on contract and agreement, you immediately know how long it will take for writers to complete a task, in most cases, you will save at least 3 hours because you have an expert onboard.