Finding the right words can be a challenge and time-consuming, which is why many businesses choose to outsource content writing. However, outsourcing also comes with a few challenges.
Successfully outsourcing content creation requires you and the writer to be on the same page. Taking the time to clearly define your goals and expectations increases your chances of getting what you want from the content.
Keep reading for more insight and tips on outsourcing content writing.
Define Your Objectives
You should first decide what you hope to achieve with your content. Setting goals helps with the development of your overall content marketing strategy, as it helps steer the direction of all important decisions, including choosing the type of content to produce.
For example, if you want to generate more sales leads, your content may focus on the creation of webinars, white papers, and other in-depth content. If you mostly want to generate more web traffic and boost your online presence, your content marketing efforts should focus on web page copy and informative blog posts.
Defining your goals helps the content creator understand the purpose of the content. With clear goals, writers are more likely to produce the quality of content that you’re looking for.
Goals also help measure success. By choosing measurable goals, you can track the performance of your content and decide whether it’s a success.
Research Your Audience
Researching your audience helps with the selection of keywords and topics and allows you to tailor your content to make a stronger connection. You can select a tone and style for the content that your audience is more likely to find engaging.
Here are some of the details to consider when researching your target audience:
- Demographics
- Interests and hobbies
- Values and beliefs
- Lifestyle choices
- Personality traits
- Browsing habits
- Preferred communication channels
- Language and tone preferences
You can learn more about your target audience through social media, forums, review sites, and any other sources of online feedback. Try to summarize the information that you find to create a short description of your typical visitor.
Whether you use internal staff or hire article writing services, writers can use the description of your average visitor to better understand your audience and how to write directly to them.
Search for Keywords
Next, you need to come up with some topic ideas. Use a keyword research tool to search for keywords related to your products, services, or marketing goals. Look for keywords that get quite a bit of search traffic but without high competition. This includes keywords that your audience is likely to use in a search engine. You’ll also use these keywords as topic ideas for your content.
You can also analyze your competitor’s content to find the keywords driving traffic to their sites. Perform searches on Google using relevant industry terms and the keywords that you found with your earlier research. Look at the sites that appear on the first page of the search results. You may gain some insight into what helps your competitors rank for specific keywords.
Set a Schedule and Deadlines
Set a schedule for releasing new content and stick to your deadlines. Consistently releasing new content helps you grow your audience faster. Using a content calendar can help you stick to your schedule and keep everyone involved on track. This is especially helpful when using a content writing service, as you need to make sure that you have time to review and request revisions, if necessary, before publishing.
When outsourcing, set deadlines that give you a window for dealing with revisions and other steps in your content creation process, such as adding visuals or links.
Create Detailed Content Briefs
Create content briefs for each piece of content. A content brief gives writers clear instructions and expectations. It outlines the goals and desired outcomes of the content to help eliminate any confusion.
Here are some of the details to consider including in a brief:
- Target audience
- Tone and style
- SEO requirements
- Content structure and formatting
- Key messages
- References or examples
Content briefs range from simple to in-depth. If you want to make sure that something is included in the content, such as a specific subtopic, include it in the brief. Some briefs include complete outlines while others offer a target keyword and a word count.
Use a Content Writing Service
When you’re ready to create content, consider turning to an article-writing agency to streamline your content creation process. You can ensure a steady stream of high-quality content to keep up with your content release schedule.
Working with an agency tends to offer several important benefits over hiring individual freelancers. Here’s a closer look:
- Consistent results
- Ability to meet deadlines
- Greater scalability
- Long-term partnership
Along with these benefits, working with article writing services reduces your management burden. Instead of dealing with individual freelancers, you can interact with a service provider that manages the writers.
Review and Revise Content
After receiving your order from content writing services, review the content to make sure that it meets your expectations. If you detect any issues, do not hesitate to contact the article writing agency to request a revision.
Reputable writing agencies offer revisions at no extra costs, guaranteeing that you can receive what you’re looking for. Provide clear instructions about what you’d like fixed or updated.
With your final revisions complete, you’re finally ready to publish your content. Track the performance of your new content and decide whether you want to continue using the same writer.
One of the benefits of working with a content writing agency is that you can typically request the same writer or a new writer, depending on your satisfaction with the quality of their work.
Last Thoughts on Outsourcing Your Content
In the end, outsourcing content creation using a content writing agency is a great way to get the content that you need without dedicating internal resources. You can simply request the content you want when you need it and wait for a writing agency to deliver it.
Ensuring long-term success mostly comes down to finding the right agency and providing them with as much detail as you find necessary for your requested content.
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