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Today, a content marketing strategy is something that businesses can’t be without. Several studies point to the value of an effective content marketing strategy to fuel web traffic, generate more leads, and attract more customers. All these benefits could be in the hands of business owners for a much more inexpensive price than digital marketing. Marketing agencies too, can leverage content marketing to expand their bottom line and drive customer loyalty.
The catch: content creation is not easy. In fact, it is one of the most challenging aspects of inbound marketing. For one, content creation means making something out of practically nothing. It requires skills, creativity, dedication, and thoroughness – things that many marketers or business owners aren’t confident they have. And since content creation is hard, it becomes relegated to the back burner and forgotten as a marketing strategy.
Well, we’re here to argue that content creation should be treated urgently by business owners and marketing agencies.
Reasons to Outsource Content Marketing
One of the biggest obstacles to deciding to outsource content marketing is that no one can tell their story like it is. Since it is personal to them, having someone write that for them wouldn’t do it justice. Well, this argument isn’t entirely unfounded. Your stories are indeed extremely personal, and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who can capture it the way you’d like. But the reasons for outsourcing content marketing are often practical.
Outsource so you can be more productive. Even among marketers who are hesitant to outsource at first, several realizations make them decide to. One, they accept that even if they could write their content, they simply don’t have the time to create it. Another reason is that while marketers and executives can manage to write, it is not their top skill. The time they struggle on trying to become good at something they currently aren’t can be time spent on aspects of marketing they’re excellent at.
Outsource to welcome new ideas. Aside from outsourcing as a solution to a skills gap, another reason why this is a good idea is that it enhances your team’s effectiveness. Welcoming another individual whose expertise is on a niche your team hasn’t explored yet will do wonders for innovation and creativity. The more diverse the members of your team, the more likely you get completely new perspectives and approaches.
If these situations sound familiar to you, then deciding to outsource content is a logical next step. The issue that needs to be addressed is: how do you outsource content creation?
Outsourcing Content Creation: How It’s Done
It’s not easy to outsource content. There are a lot of factors to consider in outsourcing content that is high-quality and effective.
- Know what you need and have. You need to begin by determine what exactly you need and how much you’re capable of spending to address this need. There are several freelancers and content marketing agencies out there. The important thing is to match their skills and track record with your needs. You have to first come up with a content marketing strategy. Draw up an assessment of the current skills set you have with your team so you can identify exactly which content to outsource. Afterwards, decide on a working budget. Doing this will narrow down your search field when you begin looking for outsourcers.
- Evaluate ROI. Another important step is to evaluate the ROI of outsourcing certain elements of your content marketing strategy. For instance, if your team takes forever to write website content, or if they’re not creative enough to come up with topics, then the smart move is to outsource these components. Evaluating your ROI can help you decide which tasks stay and which should go. If you have a task that rarely gets done and with a low ROI, maybe just do away with it. However, if a task that doesn’t get done has a high ROI, you should outsource them. Focus only on outsourcing high ROI tasks so you enhance your bottom line.
- Do a test project with the outsourcer. When deciding which outsourcer to hire, looking at previous writing samples or their website helps. However, sometimes this isn’t enough. It’s best to start working on a test project to get a sense of the dynamic you have with an outsourcer. This way, you can also evaluate quality, turnaround time, and overall professionalism. Through this test project, a great outsourcer will leave communication lines open and feedback loops welcome. If you have enough resources, test a number of outsources to select the one you feel is a perfect fit for you.
- Divide your content needs for scale. Aside from rating ROI of each task, consider the type of conversion funnel each type of content falls into, and where you need to pay attention. Do you need top-funnel content to entice visitors and generate web traffic? Or do you require middle-funnel content that could convert these visits into leads? Or maybe, what you really need help with it low-funnel content that drives purchases. Decide on which level you’re happy to outsource with little supervision. Some businesses usually prefer outsourcing top-funnel content to freelancers, mid-funnel content to an experienced outsourcer, and low-funnel content to in-house writers.
- Give the outsourcer with all the facts they need to write for you. You can’t expect an outsourcer to write your story without you sharing facts and data. Great content creation requires a good partnership between two parties. Whatever resources, photos, content guidelines, or style guide you feel should figure into content creation, share this with your outsourcer. Remember that whatever is written on your website reflects who you are. The content on your website alone speaks volumes about who you are and the business you run.
Conclusion
We hope this article gives you a basic framework of why you need to outsource and how to do it if you’ve decided to hire an outsourcer. Content creation is already a marketing staple. The best thing going forward is to choose a content creating partner that is your perfect match.
