Should You Hire Writers? Here’s What You Need To Know

The internet is overflowing with written content wherever you go. Even most of the videos you watch went through a writing stage at some point. When you decide it’s finally time for you to start producing some written content of your own, you might try to tackle the task yourself — or you may wonder if it would be worth it to hire writers or copywriting services to do it for you.

But just how hard is it to hire writers and is it worth it? By understanding the pros and cons of producing your written content yourself and working with a hired writer, you can better appreciate the role writers embrace, as well as how to go about hiring a quality writer for your needs.

First, let’s talk about the basics. We encourage you to consider whether hiring a writer is the right solution for you.

Should You Write Content Yourself?

Your first option for any job is to learn how to do it yourself. Writing seems like an easy enough thing to do, and you might feel confident that you have the needed knowledge and grammar expertise to produce the content for your site and business. Execution can be another ball game, though. Even if you think you did a lot of writing in school, writing for marketing purposes takes a different approach.

First, whatever you write needs to be relevant and engaging to readers. If your company specializes in hair products, you could write a step-by-step hair routine for curly hair, benefits of using a certain type of conditioner or anything that can benefit a reader in your niche. What you should avoid, however, is to write about car parts, weather trends or topics that don’t connect to your products or overall messaging. Brand consistency not only helps build the credibility of your brand but also helps readers know what to expect from your blog posts.

Second, SEO is a huge part of website content. If you want to do the work rather than hire writers for SEO purposes, it helps to have a basic understanding of search engine optimization before you make a writing plan. This can ensure that your content is working hard to organically increase your business’s appearance in searches.

This means coming up with a marketing strategy, something that many businesses create entire teams for. Do you know what keywords your target audience is searching for online? Do you know how visitors to your site are finding your pages? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you decide what kind of content to create. On top of this, is writing your own content the best choice for your business’ marketing needs?

Advantages of Writing Content Yourself

There are a few benefits to handling the content yourself, the first one being the money you are likely to save by not hiring a new employee or outsourcing your content. You also directly oversee the content and have complete control over your brand voice and the information you present to your target audience.

Disadvantages of Writing Content Yourself

Controlling the work has its benefits. However, you may already be spending 50 or more hours per week on general business matters, and it can take hours to create content. While you might save money by doing the work yourself, you should also factor in the time it costs to create written content. In addition, not everyone is a skilled writer, and that’s OK. If writing is not one of your strengths, then perhaps hiring a writer or content agency is the way to go.

Should You Hire Professional Writers?

Outsourcing writing content is not uncommon. In fact, approximately 64% of marketers in B2B use outsourced writing services. As website content continues to be one of the top ways to increase your pool of customers and grow your business, outsourcing is becoming more well-known. Buying content from writing services looks a lot different today than it did a decade ago, and the options are only expanding.

However, if you have never used a writing service before, you may not know what to expect. There are a lot of unknowns, especially if you are just getting into content writing. Do you know how often you want content and the topics you wish to write about? Having a general content plan can help you sort out the details.

It’s important to find writers who will do a good job and get you the content you need in a timely manner. Choosing a professional writing service is a lot like hiring an employee; you need to build a solid relationship and trust that your content is in good hands. But should you hire writers to do the work needed for your website? And how do you know if outsourcing is the right decision for your business?

Advantages of Hiring Writers

Hiring a professional writer to handle your online content production allows you to keep your main focus on running your business and making your clients happy. Depending on the writing services or freelancers you work with, you can order a lot of content and get it back in a timely matter. Once you give directions, address any specifics and answer questions beforehand, you can let the professionals do their work.

Some content companies are more than happy to work with you to customize your content to ensure your brand voice and information requests are met. And with most professional writers, you can expect quality content that is engaging and error-free. To help with marketing purposes, you can hire writers who are trained to use SEO techniques.

Depending on the writers you work with, outsourcing can also be a cost-effective choice for your marketing budget. According to DemandMetric, content marketing can generate roughly 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing, and it costs less! With a strategic marketing plan, written content can make a difference for your business, and outsourcing can be the smartest way to make this happen.

Disadvantages of Hiring Writers

Of course, it’s important to be aware of your options when you hire writers. Some high-quality writers may charge a higher rate for their professional services, which doesn’t always fit with every business’s budget. You could also potentially run into delays if the service you work with has a heavy workload and not enough writers to get through it quickly.

There is also the risk of using a service that produces low-quality content, which is why it is always important to review your order carefully and provide feedback. A good writing service should welcome feedback and seek to improve with every order.

In the end, you are the one who needs to evaluate your business model, budget and content needs. Writing the content yourself or handling it in-house can be a better choice for some businesses. Others may find it more budget-friendly to hire a professional. Only you can decide if insourcing or outsourcing is best for your situation.

Where and How To Hire Good Writers

If you decide you need someone else to handle writing for you, even if it is an employee you plan to have work in-house, then your applicant search has begun! Finding a good writer doesn’t have to be hard; you just have to be active about vetting your applicants’ skills. There are a few methods you can go through when you hire writers: through a job listing, requesting the services of a freelancer or working with a content company.

Hire Writers Through Job Listings

For an in-house writing position, you would want to list a job description where potential writers are likely to see it. You’re the one who needs to decide how much experience your writer may need and the other job requirement details. It is useful to go with someone who has some familiarity with SEO content writing or experience doing freelance writing projects for companies.

You can decide whether to include a typing test, grammar test, sample content or another metric by which to gauge the skill of your applicants. You will also need to find the time to interview interested writers and make sure you have the budget to keep them on staff. If you are working closely with them, you may want them to be experienced in your niche, as well.

Hire Freelance Writers

Depending on your content needs, this may be a useful option. Freelance writers or independent contractors work for themselves, typically on a project-by-project basis with clients. If you are able to contact an experienced, high-quality freelance writer, you can typically expect good content. However, this high-quality writing can sometimes come with a hefty price tag, depending on the writer’s experience and their hourly or per-word rate.

Before you decided to hire writers who do freelance work, you should get an estimate for your project upfront, request samples or a portfolio if the writer has one available and compare the cost and quality against other independent contractors. You should also expect to spend a significant amount of time familiarizing your chosen freelancer with your brand voice and expectations.

Hire Writers Through a Content Company

Content companies are businesses that usually work with other businesses to build a brand and organically rise in search engine rankings through SEO. Some content companies have their own staff of writers to choose from while others work directly with contracted writers to fulfill client orders.

When you work with a content company, you still have control over what you want your content to say, but the management of the actual writing process is handled by someone else. While you may need to spend some time upfront helping such companies understand your wants for the project, if you work with the same company regularly, you could get into a scheduled flow of placing an order and expecting it filled by a certain time — depending on the company’s capacity for work and current load.

This is a great option for businesses that want a lot of content and order regularly. If you find a writing agency that you like, you can skip out on the hassle of hiring writers and instead build a relationship with the content company.

An in-house writer can be expensive in the long run, especially if you do not have enough content to produce to keep the writer busy. However, that writer has the added advantage of learning more about your business and gaining firsthand training at perfecting your brand voice.

Freelancers can be effective, but you have to ensure you go with a quality, reputable writer who has the capacity to fulfill your content needs by your requested deadline. That sometimes means paying a higher price.

A content company can be a nice middle-ground, especially if you go with an experienced company with a solid reputation and willingness to customize your orders.

Qualities of a Good Writer

When you hire writers, another tricky yett important part of deciding on which kind of writer or content service to go with is knowing what makes a good writer. Whether you need writer services from an agency or you work with a single writer, you can spot a good provider by the following:

Researching and Writing Experience

You don’t always want to discount young companies or new writers, but there is something to be said about having experience under your belt. It takes some time to get familiar with SEO practices and what good website content should look like. Experience with fulfilling orders is also helpful because it allows the writer or writing service to more accurately gauge how long a project will take. Don’t just take a writer’s word for how much experience he or she has. You can request references, samples or a portfolio to vet the work for yourself.

Expert Communication

You need to be able to know you can contact your writer or service with questions about your content at any time. It’s easy to get an initial feel of your chosen writer’s communication habits when you first reach out to ask about writing services. Is the writer prompt in responding to your messages? Does he or she answer all of your questions, or even ask questions about your needs? Good writers and content companies keep you in the loop so you know what’s going on with your project from start to finish.

Content Punctuality

How often you publish new content is ultimately up to you; the importance lies in publishing high-quality writing at a comfortable frequency. You need to be able to trust that your writer will have your content finished when you need it. Typically, a writing service provider can give you at least a general idea of when to expect your finished content as soon as you send over the order. If your writer is constantly missing or pushing back deadlines, especially if there is no communication about the delay, you may need to find a new writer.

Writing and Content Feedback

Whatever method you use when you hire writers, there will be a learning period where you explain what you do and don’t like about the content initially. This helps the writer or company to better understand your brand voice and match the finished work to your expectations. This means your writer must not only be open to feedback and constructive criticism but able to apply it to your future content. Good writers may offer suggestions or reasons for approaching an article, blog or webpage from a certain angle, but they shouldn’t fight or argue with you about what you want from your content.

Positive Rapport or Customer Service

Because you will probably be working with your writer closely, having a good relationship is important. Your first interactions with writers or companies gives you a good taste of what their customer service will be like going forward. Developing a solid SEO marketing strategy is not a short-term thing; you will most likely be working with this writer for a while. Make sure you choose someone you are comfortable interacting with regularly.

What To Avoid When You Hire Writers

It’s easy to hire good writers if you are willing to put in the effort upfront. However, you do need to be aware of potential “too good to be true” situations when looking at candidates. There are a lot of companies out there that sacrifice quality for quantity. When it comes to content creation, keep your bar high and search for writers who add validity and sincerity to their work.

Luckily, technology has made it easy to look up reviews on individual writers and companies. This is a great initial step to create a list of possible candidates. Keep these standards in mind as you start your search:

• The lowest rates can be an indicator of low-quality content.
• Higher rates don’t always mean the best content.
• Plagiarism is never acceptable.
• Loyalty is built, so treat your writers well.

As you search with these tips in mind, you’ll be sure to find high-quality writers and content companies that match your needs.

Hire Writers From BKA Content

If you’re not satisfied with the results you’re currently seeing from your content strategy, it may be time for an overhaul using an experienced writer or a content service like BKA Content. You don’t have to go far to find a writer; you just have to go to the right places.

What qualities do you find to be the most important when you hire writers for SEO? What has helped you in your search for the best writing services? Share your insights with us in the comments below.