The Dangers and Benefits of Outsourcing Your Copywriting

Having fresh, engaging content is one of the most important aspects of any website or campaign. Yet actually producing the content is the #1 challenge companies and marketers face. 

A few of the reasons for this we hear from clients include:

- Our subject matter experts on staff don't have the time to write articles, and it's not part of their job

- We created a content strategy years ago, but always fail to execute

- We are [their job title], not writers 

- We aren't seeing the results compared to time spent

So, perhaps you are considering leveraging your marketing agency or a freelancer? Let's consider some dangers and benefits of outsourcing your copywriting.

Dangers

1. The agency or freelancer is not as versed in your industry and lingo, which might result in posts that are missing the mark or need to be rewritten completely.
2. Content creation can be very costly. A good copywriter conducts research, writes drafts, proofreads, sources images, optimizes and publishes. This adds up quickly... to the tune of hundreds of dollars per post.
3. The tone or style of a writer might not jive with your company culture or industry audience. 

Benefits 

1. A copywriter is an expert at what they do and are likely more efficient and effective than your team at writing.
2. They understand the technical and SEO best practices of writing for the web - setting you up for better results.
3. Consistency and volume. Your website and blog can finally stay updated on a consistent basis.
4. Reduce internal costs and time. Often companies underestimate the time and cost of taking something on internally vs. outsourcing. For less than the cost of a full-time marketer, you could be using freelancers or an agency to produce great content.

Set yourself up for copywriting success

If you opt for a copywriter, there are a few best practices to help optimize this choice.

1. Provide the writer or team with an outline for each post or trusted industry resources and links for them to conduct research. This will help avoid an off-the-mark article.
2. Find the best way to collaborate and utilize both your internal team's skills and the copywriter. For instance, for one client of ours, they write the content themselves and then we produce, optimize and post. The process has been refined as the relationship has grown.
3. Utilize a content mapping tool such as Trello to organize your progress and gather content topics/ideas. Activate the calendar view to schedule posts and ensure you stay consistent.
4. Don't be afraid to test a few copywriters out and choose the one that works best with your culture, industry and budget.
5. Contact ArcStone for help with your content marketing strategy or to outsource some writing to us.