Content marketing has opened a world of opportunities for businesses of all sizes to showcase their expertise and attract new customers online.
To that end, many businesses—and the marketing and public relations firms that serve them—have ratcheted up their content development efforts. In fact, in a recent survey, more than 90 percent of marketers said that content is critical to their strategies.
While the opportunities are many, this presents a challenge to small business owners and marketing/PR firms: finding good writers to create all this content. Rather than trying to find freelancers to assist with your digital marketing strategy, you’re likely to find a better solution in a content creation service.
Here are just a few reasons why:
No more tracking down and managing freelancers
When you hire freelance writers individually, your job becomes much more than simply setting up an editorial calendar and the editing content that comes back. You also must manage more people and ensure they hit their deadlines consistently.
This can be especially frustrating if you run a public relations or marketing firm and you’ve brought on freelancers to create content for your clients’ editorial calendars. If your writer misses even one deadline, it can cause a serious rift in the relationship you’ve worked to establish with your client.
Account managers are busy enough. Adding the management of freelance writers to their plates only makes their job more difficult and can lead to big problems if those writers fail to deliver.
Access to vetted and experienced writers
With a reputable content creation service, the work of finding, testing and training writers has been done for you. In other words, you only have to make one hire—after that, it’s up to the copywriting agency’s editorial staff to ensure you receive content that’s both timely and of a high quality.
A legitimate content writing agency will have processes in place to find copywriters, ensure they write strong content, conduct background checks and test the content they write for plagiarism or duplication. These tasks are expensive and time-consuming for a small business or marketing firm, which is why working with a content provider can be so helpful.
Built-in editing and proofing
When you try to hire freelancers on your own, there’s no telling whether they will provide you with quality content on a regular basis. If they don’t, you may have to spend hours editing content that should have been ready to publish from the start.
That’s far from ideal for any small business or marketing agency. It’s costly and requires a considerable time investment from your staff.
A content creation service will have highly skilled editors and project managers who focus on making sure the content you receive meets the highest possible standards of quality. And, if you do need revisions on a piece of content, the agency’s editors will take care of it at no extra cost.
Easier to find writers with experience in your industry
If your business competes in a niche industry, you may experience difficulties locating freelance writers who know how to write for your target audience. Searching for several writers who know the world of craft beverages, for example, can take weeks. And even if you find some candidates, they might not be the right fit for your content needs.
Again, with a content creation service, this work is done for you. Some copywriting agencies focus on specific industries, and thus have writers on staff who can create exceptional content for your business. You don’t have to waste time training writers on the basics of your industry.
Often a more affordable solution
You might think that working with a content creation service would be more expensive than hiring freelancers. But in many cases, it’s actually more affordable—especially when you factor in the time and cost savings you’ll realize when you don’t need to spend so much time locating, training and managing freelancers.
Even still, you’ll likely be surprised to find that the rates of a content creation service are typically about the same or less than what a freelancer would charge.
As you develop the content strategy for either your own business or your clients, consider the numerous benefits a content creation service delivers. It just may be the solution you’ve been searching for to sustain and scale your content marketing efforts.