Outsourcing Your Content Marketing: The Whole Enchilada 

Outsourcing your content marketing needs can revolutionize your brand’s reach and engagement.

Instead of getting bogged down by endless blog posts and content creation, hiring a skilled content marketing writer allows you to focus on your core business.

A great content marketer brings unique style and expertise, crafting content that resonates with your target audience.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to effectively outsource your content marketing needs, what skills to look for, and how outsourcing can benefit your business in the long run.

Ready to crush your content marketing goals? Let’s go!

Content Marketing: What the Heck is Even That?

Valid question, and a solid place to start. 

While blog posting is a fairly large part of content marketing, there is so much more to it than that. 

Content marketing writing is the act of creating and publishing written material (typically online) to attract and retain customers.

A great content marketer can craft compelling blog posts, social media updates, and email newsletters that educate, entertain, and persuade your audience to take a desired action (like signing up for an email list or buying a product).

Don’t let the serious-sounding name fool you – content marketing writers are super fun and creative! If left to their own devices, they’ll flex their writing muscles, let your brand personality shine through, and make your business stick in the minds of your readers.

How Do I Know I Need a Content Marketing Writer?

Many different facets of writing fall into the category of content marketing, and you’ll find that some writers are better than others. That’s cool. We need writers of all sorts of different skill sets to make this space-ball turn. And, I’ll be the first to admit that there are certain things I’m not great at…

What Types of Writing Can a Content Marketer Handle?

Here are some of the tasks or content types that you might need to hire a content marketing writer for.

1. Case Studies

Case studies can be an incredibly effective form of content marketing. They provide concrete examples of how a product or service has been used to solve a real-life problem for a specific customer. This helps your audience better understand the benefits of your offer and how it can meet their needs.

In addition to simply describing the problem and solution, a good case study should also include information about the results customers have experienced, such as increased sales, improved efficiency, or cost savings.

Bonus points if your writer will pick up the phone and interview people – this gives you, your audience, and your writer some unique insights straight from the horse’s mouth. 

2. Newsletters/ Emails

Emails and newsletters are highly effective elements of content marketing, as they allow you to reach out to your audience directly and share valuable information with them regularly. 

When writing email sequences or newsletters, there are a few key things that a talented writer should do:

1. Speak to your audience: They will understand who they are writing for and what kind of content will be most relevant and valuable to the reader.
2. Have a clear purpose: Emails or newsletters will always have a specific goal or purpose, whether it’s to promote your new product, share industry news, or keep your audience informed about what’s happening.
3. They’ll keep it concise: Your audience is busy and they don’t have time to read long emails or newsletters. A good writer will strive to keep the content focused and to the point.
4. Use compelling subject lines: The subject line is the first thing people see when they receive an email, so the writer must make it interesting and informative.
5. Use formatting & design elements effectively: They will use headings, bullet points, and other formatting elements to make the content easy to scan and read.
6. Will always include a call to action: Always be selling, am I right? The writer will always include a call to action that urges the reader to take specific action, such as visiting your website or purchasing a product.

By following these practices, the content marketing writer will create effective emails and newsletters that will engage your audience and support other content marketing efforts.

3. Trend Stories

Trend stories, also known as trend pieces, are articles or other types of content that examine a current trend or phenomenon.

In the context of content marketing, trend stories can be a useful way to capitalize on a related hot topic and generate interest in your brand.

To write an effective trend story, the writer will need to demonstrate the following:

1. Can help identify the trend: This could be anything from a new product, a popular event, to cultural phenomenons, or anything else currently in the news or generating buzz relating to your industry, brand, or company.
2. Will gather factual data: The writer will collect information about the trend, including statistics, quotes, and other relevant details.
3. Analyze the trend: This will consider why the trend is happening, it’s impact, and how the trend may evolve.
4. Write the story: They’ll use the research and analysis to write a compelling trend story that captures the attention of your audience and highlights the relevance of the trend to your brand.

Trend stories can be a truly powerful way to generate interest and engagement, but they need to be timely and relevant to make the most of the opportunity.

4. How-To Guides/ eBooks

How-to guides and eBooks generally provide step-by-step instructions to complete a specific task or achieve a particular goal.

In the context of content marketing, they are used to demonstrate your brand’s expertise on a subject, provide value to readers, and ultimately, drive traffic to your website.

Research is essential here…

Unless the content marketing writer has direct knowledge of the subject matter, their research skills need to be on point. The writer will need to know everything about what is being written about and most importantly, how your product or service ties into the topic.

If you want your brand to become an authority on a particular subject, there’s no better way to gain the trust of your audience than through an in-depth guide, eBook, or how-to article. 

5. Social Media Posts

As you probably already know, social media posts are an important part of content marketing. They allow you to reach out to your audience at a place where they‘re already spending a large majority of their time interacting with others.

By creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content on social media, you can build relationships with your audience, establish your brand as a thought leader, and drive traffic to your website.

By regularly posting high-quality content on social media, you can create a positive brand image and establish yourself as a go-to resource for your audience.

But, there’s some skill involved. You can’t just post the usual pictures of your kid making a mess in the kitchen, or your dog sleeping in a funny position 4 times a day and expect results for your business.

A skilled content marketing writer will be able to create powerful messages using your brand voice to engage a targeted audience. 

6. Whitepapers

Whitepapers provide educational information to customers or clients, such as details on new technologies, predictions of industry trends, or solutions to specific problems within a particular niche.

Whitepapers can be a powerful tool for content marketing because they provide a way to share detailed and informative content with your audience and establish your brand as a trusted and authoritative source of information.

This is another one of those hefty research deals for the writer who’s been given limited information or has little to zero first-hand experience on the subject matter.

When you hire a writer, set them up for success and provide them with as much information as possible. The result will be hundreds of times better for all involved.

7. Blog Posts/ Articles

Consistently published blog posts are an effective way to support any content marketing strategy by providing a platform to share information and engage with your audience in an emotional and personal way.

By regularly creating and sharing high-quality blog posts, you can establish your brand as a thought leader, educate your audience, and drive traffic to your website.

In addition, blog posts can help to improve your search engine rankings and make it easier for people to discover your brand online. By including relevant keywords and phrases in your blog posts, you’ll improve your visibility on search engines and make it easier for people to find your content.

Depending on the industry, blog posts are the most valuable component of a content marketing strategy.

What Makes a Stellar Content Marketing Writer?

While this is a loaded question, there are some basics that any content marketing writer worth their salt will never deviate from. If a content marketing candidate doesn’t meet the following basic requirements, then it’s probably not a great idea to hire them. 

1. They Nail the Basics, Every Single Time

When reviewing a potential candidate’s work examples, ensure there are few grammatical errors, the subheadings are correct, and it’s easy to read and understand.

Can you read it out loud, and grasp the intended purpose of the content?

While not all pieces of content move through an editor before publication, many do. And, if the main point is still unclear after a few rounds of edits, can you imagine what the first draft was like? — I shudder to think…

Everything doesn’t need to be perfect, but deliverables should provide value by the first draft. If you don’t see it, you’re not working with someone who’s a good fit for your project

2. Has a Focus On Your Industry

Now, don’t be a smartass and take this literally, but the candidate should have some writing background related to your industry.

This doesn’t mean if you have an online store selling dog toys, you should only accept writers specializing in dog toys. That would be both weird and impossible.

Instead, look for a content marketing writer specializing in e-commerce. 

4. Knows Your Audience

If they don’t already know each other intimately, then ask what their process is to learn everything they can about your business’s target audience. While you propbably know everything there is about your customer base, a great content marketing writer will have a plan to get this information.

With that said, if you have buyer personas, share them with your writer. If you don’t, get some worked up – these are invaluable to a content marketer.

5. They Understand the Importance of SEO

This is pretty simple: Make sure your candidate has a deep understanding of how content is found by search engines. If improper (or zero) SEO is used in the content, it may as well be invisible, or not written at all — AKA: Flushing your money down the old porcelain throne. 

Do I Need a Content Writer or a Content Marketer?

In most cases, the writer and the “marketer” are the same person. I’m sure you’d rather have someone who possesses the skillsets of both than hire an entire team of writers to micro-manage every step of the way — what a pain in the butt!

Isn’t the whole point of outsourcing to take some work off your plate, not pile it on?

If you want a rockstar, find a writer with in-depth knowledge of content strategy. A writer possessing all of these skills that execute with success is a juggernaut that’ll make your brand unstoppable! But, don’t expect a writer like this to come cheap.

Word to the wise, they’re worth every penny.

For the sake of definition:

• A content writer is someone who delivers valuable content.
• A content marketer’s job is to convert prospects into paying customers.
• A content strategist is a person who decides the what, when, and where’s of the content. Normally, the strategist will head up most marketing projects (unless they’re one of those “unicorns” I just mentioned, and wear all hats at once).

How Much Do Content Marketing Writers Make?

To answer this question let’s take a look at this report from Ziprecruiter – the US national average salary for a marketing writer is $75,869 as of January 2, 2023, with the low end at $27,000 and the high end at $153,500 per year. This equates to an average of $36 an hour.

As you can see, the rates vary wildly.

The reason is this: There are thousands if not millions of so-called content marketing writers currently “muddying the waters”. Most of them are trying to make a quick dollar by delivering sub-par content, and a lot of it.

Please don’t fall for the thinking that we’re all created equally, because we’re not. 

Newer writers will normally charge less until they get some work under their belt. This doesn’t mean all new writers are total dog water, that wouldn’t be fair. I know plenty of writers that hit the ground running.

So, pay attention to writers at all levels. If it appears they are “too expensive,” look at what they’ve done — most of the time, you get what you pay for. 

If they look cheap, pay attention to how they communicate. Do they have all the knowledge required, but no work examples? Opening up deeper dialogue with these newbies could land you smack-dab in the middle of a gold mine.

Where Can I Find the Perfect Writer?

With hundreds of thousands, if not millions of writers worldwide, how can you cut the perfect one from the herd? 

Here are a few options to help you find the best writer to fit your needs:

Word of Mouth

Think about this for a minute; you’re bound to know someone who’s hired a writer in the past, either personally or in a social media group. Reach out to these people and see if they have a suggestion. 

If they do suggest a writer, reach out to them. If for whatever reason, it’s not a good fit. Ask them if they know another writer that would be a better fit for your project. Like you and your colleagues, we tend to look out for each other. 

I suggest trying this first because the information is coming directly from the “experts”. First-hand information and experience are always better, whenever possible.

Professional Networking Platforms

LinkedIn is a beast of a resource for the perfect content marketing writer. No joke, there are writers of all types crammed into every crevice of the platform, and I could see how this could be overwhelming.

I can guarantee with 100% certainty that your perfect writer is on LinkedIn, the hard part is narrowing down the list. 

Filter down the list using the variables your brand needs, such as job title, and field of expertise.

A better approach would be to narrow this search down to your “2nds,” that way you can reach out to the people you know for a referral to writers and get first-hand info (more or less).

Freelance Platforms

You can use platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, and Problogger to search hundreds of thousands of freelance writer portfolios and profiles to find the writer that will fit your needs. 

Remember earlier when I mentioned all the fly-by-night writers muddying the waters for all of us writers who truly care about our craft? Well, it pains me to say that these platforms are where the water is murkiest.

Unfortunately, these awful writers have created a culture of expectation that content marketing projects should be worth around 10 bucks an hour — which is laughable. This has caused most of us that know what we’re doing to exit the platform.

Note that there are still a few quality writers scattered across the freelancer platforms and content mills, and I wish you all the best in finding them.

On the other hand, most of these platforms offer some amazing resources for businesses looking to hire freelancers. On Upwork for example, if you don’t have time to scour through thousands of writer profiles (who the hell does?), you can enlist the help of an Upwork Talent Scout (for a fee) and have them do the heavy lifting for you.

Keep in mind that the final decision and vetting process rests with you. Only you will be able to recognize the perfect writer for your brand.

The Takeaway

Outsourcing your content marketing may feel like searching for a needle in a generic, bland, haystack. But, the perfect writer for your needs is out there, waiting to weave their magic and turn your mediocre content into words that are worthy of a gold star sticker. 

When hunting for a writer, consider their portfolio and see if their style aligns with yours — extra credit for experience in your industry and possessing a knack for understanding your target audience’s cravings. 

As for skills, your content marketer should be an SEO wizard, a social media guru, and have the skills to spot current trends before they become last season’s news. You can find these pros on job boards, freelance marketplaces, or social media groups (and no, I don’t mean Aunt Karen’s Facebook page). 

The key to hiring the right content marketer is not to settle for the first writer who can string a sentence together — and be ready to invest in someone who can turn your business into a legit traffic magnet!

Stop searching for the perfect writer. Give me a shout today and see if we’re meant to be!