Article Summary
Outsourcing content creation allows brands to tap into writing talent beyond their in-house team's capabilities. This provides increased output, lower costs, and access to niche expertise that delivers high-quality, optimized content. Embracing content outsourcing best practices enables businesses to elevate their content marketing and fuel scalable growth.
As a content writer, I know first-hand the challenges of producing high-quality, optimized content at scale. There are only so many hours in a day yet Google expects sites to publish fresh, valuable content constantly. This leaves many business owners and marketers overwhelmed and struggling to keep up.
The solution? Outsourcing your content production. In this article, I’ll explain why you should consider outsourcing some or all of your content creation. By partnering with professional freelance writers, you can publish more content more efficiently.
This enables you to reach and convert more readers while saving time and money. You can access writing experts to create optimized, engaging content that fuels your digital marketing success.
Read on to learn why outsourcing content creation is a strategic move to boost productivity, improve quality, and gain a competitive advantage with your digital content marketing.
Cost Efficiency of Outsource Content Writing
Producing high-quality, SEO-optimized content requires significant time, effort, and resources. Many businesses try to handle all their content in-house, hiring dedicated writers to churn out blog posts, articles, ebooks, and more. However, maintaining an in-house writing team can be surprisingly expensive.
When you factor in full-time salaries, benefits, overhead, and constant content needs, the costs add up quickly.
For example, paying a skilled in-house writer $60,000 annually breaks down to over $28 per blog post, assuming they produce 1000 words per day. To gain an edge in competitive SERPs and satisfy voracious search engines, most companies need to publish way more content than one or two in-house writers can handle.
This is where outsourcing your content writing pays off. By leveraging professional freelance writers, you can drastically reduce costs while scaling up your content production. Outsourced writing provides all the benefits of an in-house team at a fraction of the price, enabling businesses to get more high-quality SEO content for less.
An outsourced content writer is less expensive than hiring an in-house employee. You don't have to pay taxes, benefits or social security.
Other Benefits of Outsourcing Content Writing
Quickly increase output and diversity
One of the biggest perks of building an on-demand content writing team is the ability to quickly scale up output and increase content diversity. Unlike limited in-house resources, outsourcing provides access to an unlimited pool of writing talent.
You can tap into dozens or even hundreds of skilled freelance writers, each with their own unique writing style, voice, and expertise. This variability in writing skills and backgrounds allows you to produce more content spanning a wider range of topics and formats.
If you need more blog posts, more case studies, more white papers, more ebooks – it’s easy to get more content in the door. With an ever-growing freelance team, you can ramp up publishing on your site, diversify the content you produce, test different content types, and optimize your efforts for more online visibility and traffic. Having an on-demand content writing team gives you the output velocity and content diversity needed to fuel today’s data-hungry search engines.
Access industry specialists
Accessing industry specialists is a major benefit of using a content writing service. The best content combines authoritative information with engaging delivery, which is difficult for generalist writers to consistently achieve.
By tapping into a content writing service with screened, specialized, and professional writers, you gain access to talented writers who are niche experts and live and breathe your topic.
Whether you need in-depth financial content, nuanced technical explainers, or compelling healthcare pieces, there’s a professional writer ready to deliver. This talent pool includes experienced subject matter experts like doctors, lawyers, engineers, and professors.
A quality content writing service vets writers and matches projects based on their background knowledge and writing skills.
Working with topic-specific, professional writers ensures your content is substantively strong, accurate, and conveys expertise – all essential elements for ranking highly in SERPs. The right talented writer matches make your content better.
A 2020 report found that 84% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers are outsourcing their content creation.
Maintain quality with the right partners
A concern businesses have about content outsourcing is maintaining high-quality standards. However, when you find the right content creation partners, outsourcing can actually improve the consistency and quality of your content output. The key is choosing content providers with effective systems for producing high-quality content at scale.
Look for content outsourcing services that thoroughly vet their writer pool, have processes for matching writers to projects based on their background and skills, provide training on producing optimized content, and offer multi-layer editing and quality checks.
This makes certain that they are consistently producing high-quality content aligned with your brand and SEO needs. Maintaining quality at scale is difficult for lone in-house teams.
However, a content outsourcing partner with the right systems, talent pool, and oversight can publish hundreds or thousands of high-quality articles and blog posts to elevate your content marketing.
Potential Drawbacks of Outsourcing Content
Perceived loss of control
When you choose to outsource your content writing, it can initially feel like you are losing control or oversight of the content creation process. However, there are ways to ensure quality and maintain control when you choose to outsource your content production.
As I will continue to stress the key is finding an experienced content outsourcing partner that allows you to provide guidelines and direction while leveraging their resources and expertise. Make sure to clarify your expectations upfront by providing stylistic guidelines, content strategies, target personas, and optimization goals.
Seek out samples of their work and read reviews to ensure they can execute high-quality content aligned with your brand. Maintain open communication channels for providing feedback and direction.
Though you choose to outsource your writing rather than handling every piece in-house, you can still steer the ship through thoughtful partner selection and ongoing collaboration. This empowers you to tap into the benefits of outsourcing while maintaining a perceived loss of control.
Need for brand voice guidelines
When outsourcing content creation, it’s crucial to provide clear brand voice guidelines to align with your overall content marketing strategy. Though you hand off the actual writing, the content still represents your brand.
Begin by defining what tone and style epitomizes your brand. Analyze what topics and formats you want to prioritize to attract your target audience. Compile specific examples of language, terminology, and phrasing you want reflected in the content for your brand.
Specify if there are compliance or legal considerations. Providing these brand voice guidelines upfront ensures the writers understand what sort of content marketing aligns with your business before they start producing content for your brand.
Brief writers on messaging, personality, word choice, and attributes you want the writing to project. The right partner will study your guidelines and create content that consistently aligns with your desired brand identity. Don’t neglect this step – brand alignment is too important.
How to overcome these challenges
The key to overcoming potential outsourcing challenges is implementing processes to ensure alignment with your brand, quality standards, and content needs. Start each project by providing a detailed content brief highlighting your precise requirements, guidelines, topics, target keywords, and optimization goals.
Conduct an initial review of the draft content, then provide thoughtful feedback and revisions to align the content with your vision. Request revisions if the content misses the mark. Leverage services that assign you a specific account manager to collaborate on getting the content right.
Set scheduled check-ins to evaluate if the content is achieving your targets and making pivots if needed.
The more details you can provide upfront and robustly monitor ongoing results, the better you can ensure the outsourced content accomplishes your marketing objectives. With the right briefs and oversight, you can overcome outsourcing obstacles.
Alternatives Like Using In-House Writers
Advantages of in-house writing
Having dedicated in-house writers creates tighter control over aligning content with your desired brand voice and style. When writers are fully immersed in your organization, they intrinsically understand your messaging, audience, and content goals to optimize your content accordingly.
In-house teams can more easily collaborate cross-functionally to create content that resonates. And with writers down the hall, you can nimbly pivot content approaches and ideas in real-time. In-house talent focuses solely on creating great content specifically for your brand, not juggling multiple clients.
This level of undivided attention typically translates into content highly tailored to your business needs.
While outsourcing can still be advantageous for subject matter expertise and output velocity, in-house writers do allow closer management of your branding and optimization through total content focus.
Disadvantages of in-house writing
While in-house writers align well with brand voice, relying solely on internal teams for all your content creation also has limits. No matter how talented your in-house writers are, their skills, knowledge, and capacity to write highly optimized content are confined.
They can only produce so much content themselves and may lack expertise in topics outside their wheelhouse. The volume of fresh, high-quality content to be written to sustain search engines and audiences is nearly impossible for a small internal team to tackle alone.
In-house resources are also more prone to writer’s block or burnout without outside perspectives re-energizing them. Staffing constraints can stall output when turnover arises.
The finite nature of in-house skills and time means you may still need to augment your internal writing with external specialists for optimum content results.
The Hybrid approach
Rather than strictly using in-house writers or fully outsourcing content, many companies find success with a hybrid approach. This involves having a dedicated in-house content manager oversee an outsourced writing team.
The in-house content manager understands your brand voice, audience, and goals to guide the external writers accordingly. They brief and provide guidelines to writers to ensure alignment.
Combining a dedicated in-house content manager with outsourcing article writing provides optimal control over brand messaging while accessing diverse writing skills.
This hybrid model allows you to tap into many writers with varied expertise that your internal team likely lacks.
The content manager curates and edits the outsourced writing to fit your needs. This dual approach provides scaled content production powered by niche writers while ensuring brand consistency through an internal content captain steering the ship.
How to Get Started Outsourcing Content
Working with individual freelancers vs agencies
When outsourcing content creation, you can engage either individual freelance content writers or content marketing agencies. Freelancers allow you to hand-pick writers based on their skills and rates.
This offers flexibility but requires more time vetting and managing freelancers. Agencies provide access to pre-screened writing talent and offer more services like editing, project management, and consulting under one roof.
Agencies streamline production and optimize content, but typically have higher costs than freelancer fees. Consider your budget, goals, and how involved you aim to be.
For one-off projects, a freelancer could suffice. For large volumes or more oversight, an agency may be preferable. You could also start with a freelancer test run before shifting to an agency model. The ideal fit depends on your needs – both options can effectively power your outsourced content when selected strategically.
Key steps for outsourcing success
Once you decide it’s time to outsource your content writing, follow these steps to set your content outsourcing up for success:
- Decide if you want to outsource to freelancers or agencies based on your budget, needs, and preferences
- Thoroughly research content providers and request samples before selecting a partner
- Provide detailed briefs covering your brand voice, guidelines, SEO goals, and target audience
- Maintain ongoing communication and feedback loops throughout the content process
- Check in regularly on key performance indicators to ensure your content achieves goals
- Be prepared to guide your partner, request revisions, or switch approaches if needed
- Optimize outsourcing practices over time by analyzing results and adjusting processes
Following structured best practices in screening partners, briefing them effectively, monitoring content, and nimbly optimizing efforts can lead to great outsourcing success. Approach content outsourcing strategically and you’ll see your hard work pay off.
Types of content writing services available
When looking to outsource your content creation, you’ll find a range of service types and models available:
- Content marketplaces connect you directly with freelance writers. You manage the process but access affordable writers.
- Content agencies provide end-to-end content services. You get more support but at higher costs.
- Hybrid services combine marketplaces and managed services. You get curated freelancers with oversight.
- Specialized services focus on specific content like blog posts, web copy, or thought leadership.
- Niche services cater to specific industries like finance, healthcare, or tech.
- Enterprise services work with large companies on scaled content programs.
The right content writing service for you depends on your budget, topic area, brand needs, and production goals. Analyze which model best aligns with your resources, existing team, and overall objectives.
Samples, reviews, and clear pricing can help inform your selection. Choose wisely and your outsourced content creation partner will become a valuable asset.
Conclusion
Producing high-quality, optimized content at scale is challenging yet imperative for digital marketing success. As this post outlined, outsourcing your content creation enables businesses to tap into skilled writing talent and expertise beyond their in-house capabilities.
The plethora of benefits ranging from increased output and lower costs to accessing niche writers makes outsourcing an impactful strategy for long-term content gains.
By following best practices around partner selection, briefs, oversight, and quality assurance, brands can overcome potential obstacles and thrive by leveraging outsourced content. The versatile options for content writing services allow you to find the right fit for your brand’s needs and budget.
The time is now to embrace content outsourcing so you can focus on big-picture strategy while skilled writers power your content production. Outsource wisely and start transforming your business growth through optimized, scalable content.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can outsourcing content help my business?
Outsourcing provides cost savings, increased output, and top talent to produce high-quality, optimized content that elevates your marketing. This enables scaling content production beyond your in-house team’s capacity.
What kinds of content can be outsourced?
Virtually any content can be outsourced, including blog posts, articles, email newsletters, ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, web copy, social media posts, and more.
Should I use freelancers or a content agency?
Freelancers offer affordability and flexibility while agencies provide end-to-end services and oversight. Evaluate your budget, needs, and goals to determine the best fit.
How do I ensure brand consistency with outsourced writers?
Provide detailed content guidelines and briefs. Maintain open communication to align on voice and style. Leverage services with account management for oversight. Review and optimize as needed.
How can Quinney Media Group content outsourcing services help grow my business?
Our content outsourcing services provide strategic support tailored to your brand and goals. Our team of expert writers creates optimized content aligned with your voice and style guidelines. We offer hands-on account management, consulting, and editing to ensure your content accomplishes your marketing objectives. Our data-driven approach analyzes performance to continuously improve results. By outsourcing content creation to the Quinney Media Group, you gain access to top talent that follows proven processes to deliver high-quality, on-brand content that drives business growth.
