Outsourcing Content Writing: When It Makes Sense and How to Hire the Right Writer

Writing your own content works until it starts taking time away from everything else you’re supposed to be doing.

Maybe the blog keeps getting pushed to next week. Your team has plenty of subject knowledge but no time to turn it into finished articles. Or you’ve already tried outsourcing, only to discover that rewriting someone else’s draft takes nearly as long as writing it yourself.

Outsourcing content writing can solve those problems, but handing the work to someone else isn’t automatically the same as taking it off your plate. The right writer needs to understand what you’re trying to accomplish, learn the subject, get a feel for your audience, and send back something you can actually use.

If you’re trying to figure out how to outsource content writing without creating even more work for yourself, start with what you actually need from the person you hire.

When Does It Make Sense to Outsource Content Writing?

You don’t need to outsource everything just because your business publishes content.

If your team has the time, writing ability, and subject knowledge to handle it internally, keeping the work in-house might make perfect sense.

The problem starts when content writing keeps competing with everything else that needs your attention.

You may be ready to outsource when:

• Content keeps slipping down the list. You have articles, website updates, emails, or other projects planned, but nobody has enough time to finish them.
• Your subject experts aren’t writers. They know the material better than anyone, but turning that knowledge into a clear article isn’t the best use of their time.
• You need to publish more consistently. A writer can handle regular production without asking someone on your internal team to squeeze another assignment into an already full week.
• You’re spending too much time editing. Outsourcing doesn’t help much if every draft comes back needing three hours of surgery.
• You need skills you don’t have internally. That might mean research-heavy articles, search-focused content, customer-facing website copy, or simply someone who knows how to organize a complicated subject.
• There isn’t enough work for another full-time employee. A freelancer gives you another option when the workload calls for ongoing help but not another permanent position.

The question isn’t whether your business could write the content itself. Most businesses could.

The better question is whether that’s where your time is best spent.

What Can You Outsource to a Content Writer?

“Content writing” covers quite a bit of ground, and different writers handle different types of work.

Depending on your business, you might outsource:

• Blog posts and articles
• Long-form guides
• Website and landing-page copy
• Email content
• Case studies
• Product and category content
• Industry and educational content
• Research-heavy pieces
• Existing content that needs to be updated or rewritten

You don’t necessarily need one person who does all of it.

If you’re hiring someone for a technical guide, research skills may matter more than experience writing promotional emails. If you’re rebuilding a website, you’ll probably care more about messaging, structure, and brand voice.

Start with the work you actually need instead of looking for someone who claims to do everything.

What Should You Look for in a Freelance Content Writer?

A polished portfolio is a good starting point, but there’s more to the job than writing nice sentences.

If you’re trying to hire a freelance content writer, pay attention to how they research, explain unfamiliar subjects, adapt to different clients, and handle the working relationship.

They Know How to Research

Industry experience can be useful. It isn’t the only way a writer can become good at a subject.

A strong researcher knows how to find reliable information, separate useful sources from weak ones, understand unfamiliar terminology, and keep digging until the topic makes sense.

That’s particularly important if your business works in a specialized industry.

You shouldn’t have to teach a writer everything you’ve learned over the last ten years before they can touch the assignment. You should expect to provide information that only you can give them.

There’s a big difference between the two.

They Can Make Complicated Subjects Easier to Understand

Knowing something and explaining it aren’t the same skill.

Look at a writer’s portfolio and ask a simple question:

Did I understand the subject better after reading this?

Good content doesn’t need to make the writer sound clever. It needs to give the reader the information they came for without making them fight through the writing to get it.

Their Portfolio Doesn’t All Sound the Same

A writer has a voice of their own. Your business does too.

Those shouldn’t automatically be identical.

Read several samples from a writer’s portfolio, especially pieces created for different businesses or audiences. If every article has the same jokes, sentence patterns, introductions, and favorite expressions, there’s a fair chance you’ll get more of the same.

The better sign is range.

Can the writer sound conversational when the client calls for it and more restrained when it doesn’t? Can they move from a technical guide to customer-facing copy without dragging the same personality into both?

Your content should sound like it belongs to your business, not like you’ve rented somebody else’s voice.

They Understand Who They’re Writing For

A technically accurate article can still miss completely if it’s written for the wrong reader.

Someone shopping for their first e-bike doesn’t need the same explanation as a bicycle mechanic. A small-business owner evaluating software doesn’t need the same information as the developer who built it.

A writer should want to know who the audience is, what they already understand, what questions they’re trying to answer, and what you want them to do with the information.

If you already have customer research, audience data, buyer personas, sales insights, or recurring customer questions, share them.

They’re useful material.

They’re Reliable

This part isn’t glamorous, but it matters.

Can the writer follow the brief?

Do they hit deadlines?

Do they ask useful questions?

Do they disappear for a week whenever you send feedback?

Do the same problems keep showing up after you’ve already discussed them?

A brilliant paragraph doesn’t make up for a working relationship that constantly needs managing.

They Understand SEO When the Work Calls for It

Not everything you publish needs to target search traffic.

When it does, your writer should understand more than where to put a keyword.

Search-focused content still has to work for the person reading it. Keywords, headings, internal links, and other SEO elements matter, but they shouldn’t get in the way of content created primarily for people.

That means a writer working on search-focused content should understand things like:

• Search intent
• Natural keyword use
• Headings and page structure
• Internal linking
• Source quality
• Descriptive titles
• Giving the reader a complete answer

SEO should support useful writing, not replace it.

How Much Work Should You Have to Do After Hiring a Writer?

You should expect to be involved, especially at the beginning.

You know your business in ways an outside writer doesn’t. There may be internal information, product details, customer insights, opinions, or brand decisions they couldn’t find through research.

Give them that information.

You’ll probably need to give some feedback while the writer learns your business and you learn how to work together.

What you shouldn’t have to do indefinitely is rebuild the work yourself.

If you’re routinely:

• Rewriting entire drafts
• Rearranging every section
• Correcting the same problems
• Finding basic information the writer could have researched
• Re-explaining your audience on every assignment
• Removing language that never sounds like your business

—then you’ve technically outsourced the writing, but you haven’t really outsourced the workload.

A good working relationship should get easier as the writer learns your business.

Do You Need a Content Writer, Content Marketer, or Content Strategist?

These titles overlap, which is why job posts sometimes ask one person to do about fourteen different jobs.

At the simplest level:

A content writer creates the material. That may include research, interviews, writing, editing, and sometimes SEO work depending on the assignment.

A content strategist decides what should be created and why. They may plan topics, define audiences, build publishing calendars, map content to different stages of the customer relationship, or set the larger direction behind a content program.

A content marketer works with the broader marketing effort around that content. Depending on the role, that can include distribution, promotion, analytics, campaigns, lead generation, and other channels.

One person can absolutely have skills across those areas.

Just don’t assume that every good writer is also your SEO strategist, social media manager, email marketer, analyst, and marketing director.

Figure out what you need before you start interviewing people. You’ll have a much easier time finding the right person when the job itself is clear.

How Much Does It Cost to Outsource Content Writing?

There isn’t one useful answer.

A heavily researched technical article involving interviews and original sources isn’t the same job as a short blog post built from a detailed client brief. Website copy isn’t priced the same way by every writer either.

Freelance writers price their work in several ways, including by the project, hour, word, or through an ongoing retainer. What you actually pay can also depend on the writer’s experience, the subject, the amount of research involved, and how much is included in the scope.

Freelance-writing rates can vary widely, which is one reason comparing prices without comparing the work behind them doesn’t tell you much.

You may run into:

Per-project pricing: One agreed price for a defined deliverable. This gives you a clear cost before the work starts and works well when the scope is easy to define.

Hourly pricing: You pay for the writer’s time. This can make sense for consulting, editing, research, or projects where the final scope isn’t easy to predict.

Per-word pricing: The price is tied to the finished length. It’s straightforward for some articles but can become less useful when two pieces of the same length require very different amounts of research.

Retainers: You reserve an agreed amount of ongoing work or availability each month. This can work well when you need content consistently.

Don’t choose a writer on price alone.

Compare what you’re actually getting for that price: research, interviews, revisions, SEO work, meetings, turnaround, subject knowledge, and how much work will still be sitting on your desk when the draft comes back.

The cheapest draft gets expensive pretty quickly if somebody on your team has to rewrite it.

Where Can You Find a Freelance Content Writer?

There are good writers in plenty of places. The search process just looks a little different depending on where you start.

Ask for Referrals

If another business owner, marketer, editor, or agency has worked with a writer they trust, ask for an introduction.

A referral doesn’t replace your own vetting, but it gives you information a portfolio can’t: what that person is actually like to work with.

Ask about communication, deadlines, first drafts, revisions, and how much direction the writer needed.

Those answers can be more useful than “Yeah, they were great.”

Search LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an obvious place to start because you can search directly for the type of writer you need or browse its Services Marketplace.

Don’t search only for “writer.”

Try terms that describe the work you need:

• Freelance content writer
• B2B content writer
• eCommerce writer
• SaaS writer
• Technical content writer
• Website copywriter

Then look beyond the headline.

Read their work.

Look at Writers’ Own Websites and Portfolios

A writer’s website can tell you quite a bit before you ever send an email.

Look at:

• The industries they’ve covered
• The types of projects they’ve completed
• How different client samples sound
• Whether they explain their process
• Whether the writing on their own site is any good

Don’t panic if they haven’t written about your exact product before.

If you manufacture industrial pumps, you probably don’t need somebody whose entire career has been devoted exclusively to industrial-pump copy.

You need someone who can learn how your pumps work, understand who buys them, ask good questions, and explain the subject properly.

Use Freelance Platforms

Freelance platforms give you access to a large pool of writers in one place, along with profiles, work history, samples, and tools for managing the hiring process. 

Whatever platform you use, start with a clear idea of the work you need, what the writer will be responsible for, and what you expect them to deliver before you begin comparing candidates. Upwork has a useful freelancer hiring guide if you want to dig further into the process.

The benefit is choice.

The downside is also choice.

A large pool of candidates means you’ll probably need to spend more time screening proposals and portfolios to find someone who fits the work.

That’s not necessarily good or bad. It’s simply part of using a marketplace.

How Do You Hire the Right Content Writer?

By this point, you’ve probably narrowed the list.

Now make the conversation about the actual work.

Ask how they would approach your project rather than spending the entire interview on generic questions about writing.

Useful things to discuss include:

• What would they need from you before starting?
• How would they research the subject?
• Have they worked with similar audiences or content?
• How do they learn a client’s brand voice?
• What does their normal revision process look like?
• How do they handle conflicting or questionable sources?
• What’s included in their price?
• How will you communicate during the project?
• What happens if the scope changes?

And look closely at their samples.

A portfolio gives you evidence instead of promises.

If you’re considering an ongoing relationship, a paid first assignment can tell both sides a lot. You get to see the writer’s actual process, and the writer gets to see how your team communicates and handles feedback.

Nobody has to make a six-month commitment based on one Zoom call.

If you want to go deeper into the interview process itself, my guide to interviewing a copywriter covers what to ask and what the answers can tell you.

What Does Your Writer Need From You?

Hiring a capable writer doesn’t mean throwing them a topic and disappearing.

Give them the information they can only get from inside your business.

That might include:

• The purpose of the piece
• Who it’s for
• Brand or style guidelines
• Product and service details
• Internal research
• Customer insights
• Subject-matter experts they can speak with
• Examples of content you like or dislike
• SEO requirements
• Deadline and approval process

A useful brief gives the writer direction without trying to write the article for them.

The dividing line is pretty simple:

Give your writer what only your business can provide. Let them do the research they can reasonably handle themselves.

That’s part of what you’re paying them for.

Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing Content Writing

Is it better to outsource content writing or hire an in-house writer?

It depends on how much writing you need and how consistently you need it. If you have enough ongoing work to keep someone busy and want that person embedded in your team, an in-house role may make sense. If your workload changes from month to month or you need help with specific projects, outsourcing can give you more flexibility.

How do you outsource content writing successfully?

Start by defining what you need, who the content is for, and what the finished work needs to accomplish. Give your writer the internal information they can’t reasonably find elsewhere, agree on deadlines and revisions, and leave enough room for them to handle the research and writing you’ve hired them to do.

How much does it cost to outsource content writing?

The cost depends on the writer, subject, research involved, scope, revisions, and what else is included in the project. Freelance writers may charge by the project, hour, word, or through an ongoing retainer.

What should you look for when hiring a freelance content writer?

Look for strong research skills, clear writing, an understanding of the audience, flexibility with brand voice, reliability, and SEO knowledge when the work requires it. Most importantly, look at actual samples instead of relying only on how a writer describes their abilities.

Ready to Take Content Off Your Plate?

Outsourcing content writing should give you time back, not create another job to manage.

Look for someone who can learn the subject, understand your audience, adapt to your brand, communicate well, and send back work that doesn’t need to be rebuilt before you can publish it.

You don’t need a “rockstar,” a “guru,” or somebody promising to make your business unstoppable. You need a good writer who knows how to do the work.

If that’s the kind of support you’re looking for, tell me about your project.