Why hire freelance writers and how to best work with them

We preach a lot about the value of good content on your site, but we know it's not always feasible to make this happen on your own. One route we push many clients to take is to hire freelance writers. But then there's another obstacle: hesitation. The idea of freelancers makes us all weary as we don't know if we can trust a stranger nor do we know it's worth the effort. To ease these fears, I want to talk through all the perks that come with freelance writers, how to find them and how to use them in a way that most greatly benefits your content marketing. 

The perks of hiring freelance writers

We all assume that in hiring a freelance writer, you save time. But if it's only time, you can crank through some writing after hours, right?

Actually, there are tons of other benefits you get when you hire a freelance writer.

1. Strength in numbers (without the cost): In effect, they can serve as an additional team member, without the expense of a full-time employee. If you find yourself keeping "content development" on the team's to-do list, but not actually crossing it off, you could use some help. But we know it's hard to swallow the cost of a full-time content specialist. Freelancers are paid by project or hour, so you can allocate resources when you need them most.

2. Killer content: Maybe you have the time and staff to help, but your content is getting stagnant. Having fresh eyes and perspective could be a healthy change for your site and other content.

3. A bucket full of content: Besides better content, you'll have more of it. Having a few extra posts to pull from is always helpful as you can be pickier. You could also be more strategic with when you post what for optimal impact.

Places to use your freelance writer for maximum impact

Besides the perks listed above, many people don’t realize how many different places they could benefit from a freelance writer. Don’t underestimate the improvement professional writing can make on all kinds of material. You may want to consider enlisting them to help with...

• Website content—About Us, Contact Us, CTAs, Landing Pages, etc. 
• Marketing emails and newsletters
• Email templates and auto-responders
• Video scripts
• Printed material
• Ebooks and premium content offers
• Paid ad placements
• Social media copy
• Blog content

4 challenges to be aware of if you hire freelance writers:

Now, I'll be frank and state the obvious: freelancers come with some challenges. This is especially true for a very niche business or content that requires technical expertise and a high level of competency.

Some challenges of working with writers specifically include:

1. Achieving a consistent tone and voice across all your content and writers
2. Creating an authentic voice for your content
3. Producing content that conveys a high level of technical accuracy and industry competency 
4. Estimating and budgeting the cost of writing

Best practices for working with writers:

With solid planning and processes, most of these issues can be overcome. Do these things to help mitigate the challenges of working with external writers:

• Produce a style and “voice” guide for all writers to follow. Read about building a consistent brand voice »
• Give writers other industry resources and examples of content you like
• Have on staff “subject matter experts” (SMEs) that are available to check content for accuracy and aid in idea generation
• Create a content publishing calendar, give writers clear deadlines and budgets. This post discusses how we use the tool Trello to manage our content and work with freelance writers

If you'd like some further recommendations on finding the right freelancer for your industry, get in touch with us at ArcStone.