3 Benefits of Working with a Content Marketing Agency

• Pre-Screened Writers—Content marketing agencies carefully screen writers before allowing them to produce content on behalf of clients. Without experience screening and hiring writers, finding the right person to meet your content needs can be difficult and quite time consuming. After all, when you look for a writer on your own, it can be difficult to tell if the person you are considering working with truly is a professional writer with the type of experience necessary to create the content you need.
• Content Creation Team—Content marketing agencies have a team of writers, each of whom has a unique voice. Rather than being limited to one – or a few – writers, you have many options when you work with an agency. Your content can be created by a single writer whose writing style is a perfect fit for your company’s needs or you can enlist the services of several writers with varying styles to speak to different segments of your target audience.
• Editorial Staff—When you work directly with a freelance writer, you will have to hire someone to proof and edit the content that you receive or you will have to do it yourself. When you work with a content marketing agency, however, the work will be professionally edited and verified before it is sent to you for review. You can feel comfortable that your content has been created and edited by experienced writing professionals before you receive it.

Mary Gormandy White is co-founder of Mobile Technical Institute, where she works with clients throughout the U.S. as a professional trainer, consultant, and speaker, focusing on topics related to HR, management, and public relations. She has extensive professional writing experience and is the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series.

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3 Top Reasons to Outsource Content Marketing

• Stay Focused on Your Business – Instead of spending your valuable time writing web content, hiring a content marketing agency to handle this allows you to remain focused on those aspects of running your business that only you can do. Allowing professional writers to assist with content marketing allows you to spend your time managing and growing your business rather than writing blog posts and articles for your website.
• Benefit from Expert SEO Content Strategies – Producing effective SEO content is a skill that requires specific expertise beyond just the ability to write informative, engaging copy. When you work with a content marketing agency, you’ll have an opportunity to work with professional freelance writers who have expertise in content marketing. They’ll provide you with quality content that is well written, has been properly edited, and that has been carefully crafted to attract visitors to your website using search engine optimization strategies.
• Maintain a Systematic Approach to Content Marketing – When you work with a content marketing agency, an optimal posting strategy designed to meet your company’s goals and objectives can be created. Rather that writing and posting when you can find time to fit this activity into your busy schedule, you can relax and know that this important marketing strategy is being handled for you!

Mary Gormandy White is co-founder of Mobile Technical Institute, where she works with clients throughout the U.S. as a professional trainer, consultant, and speaker, focusing on topics related to HR, management, and public relations. She has extensive professional writing experience and is the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series.

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“Ghostwriting”—when you hire a freelance writer to create content and then put your own name on it—has been an accepted practice for centuries. Celebrities often flesh out a book idea, create an outline, and then hire a freelance writer to do the work. The ghostwriter gets no credit, but he gets to cash big royalty checks because the celebrity’s name helps sell books.

Ghostwriting on the Internet is no different. You can hire a freelance writer and provide her with article outlines, ideas, titles, and other marketing materials related to your business. The freelancer writes the piece. You read it and approve it. Maybe the approval process goes through someone else in your company—someone who knows you well and understands how you think. That’s okay, too. The end result exactly what you would have written if you had the time, capability or inclination to write as well as the freelancer you hired.

When you hire a freelance ghostwriter, look for a writer who:

• Can adopt your unique “voice,” so there’s no doubts the content came from you
• Understands your company’s unique marketing message and can convey that message succinctly
• Will maintain confidentiality, never revealing her role as a ghostwriter

Ghostwriting is just one of the many services offered when you hire a freelance writer through a full-service content marketing agency like ideaLaunch.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

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Most business owners know that when they hire freelancers, they save money on:

• Social security and unemployment insurance
• Health and Retirement Benefits
• Overhead
• Office equipment
• Perks (coffee, food, etc.)
• Support staff required by other employees (such as payroll, HR and IT)

But did you know that hiring freelance writers is also a green business practice? Freelance writing is “geographically independent.” Freelancers can work from anywhere. Most choose to work from home. Fewer employees driving into your office each day reduces carbon emissions, lowering the overall carbon footprint of your business.

With fewer employees and more freelancers working from home, you may even be able to lease a smaller office space. Your electricity, heating and cooling bills will go down. With the money you save, you can even consider investing in other green practices—like buying carbon offsets or installing solar power.

With email, teleconferencing and Web conferencing solutions readily available, hiring freelance writers becomes a practical solution to reducing your budget and your company’s carbon footprint.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

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Baby Boomers

For many baby boomers who have been laid off during the recession, experience is not an issue in finding a new job. For some, a high level of expertise is working against their efforts to find a new job. These individuals have a great deal of knowledge and experience in the field they have worked in for decades. Freelance writing could be a great outlet for sharing that knowledge.

Recent College Graduates

Recent college graduates can usually make an easy transition into freelance writing since they are required to do a lot of research and writing to earn their degree, and likely have a strong base of knowledge in the subject they majored in. With this practice fresh in their minds, recent college grads are great candidates when hiring freelance writers.

Traditionally, many freelance writers have been in the middle of their career, after some experience following college and before the maturity of near retirement. These individuals are still a large part of the freelancer pool and each individual brings strengths and weaknesses to their work.

Jennifer Gniadecki loves to write. You can find her on any given day writing lists, blog posts, articles, assignments, outlines or fleshing out story ideas on her laptop.

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When you hire a marketing agency, the heart of your customized marketing strategy includes your unique website content. This content may include:

• SEO optimized articles
• Blog posts
• Premium articles
• Marketing copy
• White papers
• Newsletters
• eBooks
• Widgets… and more.

Your content is only as good as the writers the marketing agency hires to produce it. Before you work with a content marketing agency, ask these questions about their writers.

• Do the writers speak English as their native language? Steer clear of marketing agencies that hire writers (or find articles) through content mills or that hire writers who don’t speak English as their native language. Non-native speakers often miss subtle grammatical and stylistic nuances. Their writing may have a stilted, awkward feel.
• Are the writers professionals? Do they have publishing credentials? The content on your website creates the overall tone for the site and reflects on your business. You want professionals to create that content. Don’t settle for less.
• Are the writers well-versed in SEO best practices? The best magazine and newspaper writers don’t necessarily have what it takes to create captivating Web copy. Make sure the writers have experience in SEO and Web writing.  

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

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For most writers their background is in English, Journalism, or Communications. However, when hiring a technical or Scientific freelance copywriter a different approach by the writer is necessary to make sure the information presented is accurate and the proper terminology is used.

1. Hire a Writer that has a background in scientific or technical writing. technical writing is often considered dry by a freelance copywriter whose experience is mostly in sales copy or writing marketing copy for less technical products or services. If you hire a writer looking for a good time and hand them technical materials, you may find yourself reading copy that’s more fun than informative.
2. You can’t go wrong with a good list. Provide the freelance writer with a list of terminology that should not have other terms substituted for the terms given. In many highly scientific industries certain terms have very specific meanings and synonyms that seem acceptable will actually refer to very different products or services than the one being written about.
3. Make sure they get it. Hire a writer that is able to prove they understand the industry and the differences in terminology. Go over the list of specific terms that cannot be substituted with the writer before hiring to make sure they will be able to grasp the subtle differences in terminology that describe the specifics of the industry.
4. Hire a writer, not a scientist or technician. Although a Scientist or Engineer may know the industry’s terminology better than anyone else they may not have the writing skills necessary when writing marketing copy for the web.

Jennifer Gniadecki loves to write. You can find her on any given day writing lists, blog posts, articles, assignments, outlines or fleshing out story ideas on her laptop.

Online marketing is a new art and science. Traditional marketing firms accustomed to working with print publications, television and other media may not know what it takes to get your website to rank on the first page of Google, improve conversions, and track the results.

Work with Experts who Understand Internet Marketing
When you hire a content marketing agency, the firm will work with you to create a comprehensive plan. The marketing agency will:

• Create SEO-optimized content that appeals to readers and the search engines
• Use widgets, newsletters, and RSS feeds to draw traffic to your site
• Create compelling copy that leads to sales
• Write articles that showcase your company’s employees as experts in the field
• Test different website formats and layouts to create the optimum website
• Track the results

Work With Professional Writers
The best online marketing agency will hire only top-quality, professional writers who know the intricate ins and outs of SEO writing. Some of the services provided by these SEO writers include the creation of:

• News articles
• White papers
• Blog posts
• Test widgets
• Webinars
• Tip & Advice Centers

If you’ve been dissatisfied by the results achieved working with traditional marketing companies, look for a marketing agency with extensive experience in SEO.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

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Hiring a writer

1. Be clear about your needs. The path to multiple rewrites is a slippery slope. To make sure you’re happy with the content the first time around, be clear about your needs. To ensure keyword-rich, informative, unique content, provide writers with:
   • A keyword list
   • Relevant information about your target market
   • Resources where the writers can find the research information
2. Be specific about deadlines. You have every right to expect work to be submitted on time. It’s appropriate to have a “zero-tolerance” policy about deadlines, but you should also be easily reachable in the event a writer has a legitimate emergency that may prevent him from making your deadline. Being very specific about deadline dates prevents misunderstandings.
3. Offer feedback. Content writers are human. They like to hear if they’re doing a good job. By the same token, if you feel their work could improve, offer feedback so they can do better next time.

If you hire a content marketing agency, you’ll be assured of getting a quality team of writers to produce content for your site. Because you deal directly with the management company, you won’t have to worry about managing writers yourself.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

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When you hire a freelance writer, you should approach it in the same way you would hire any professional sub-contractor. While most writers work remotely, you can still garner a lot of information from a phone interview.

• Have you ever produced SEO-optimized content before? SEO writing—and writing for the Internet, in general—is very different from writing for print. An experienced SEO professional should know how to keep articles pithy and to-the-point, while including a 2 to 3% keyword frequency that sounds natural.
• What’s your experience with [fill in your industry]? Statistics show that customers are more likely to buy from you if you speak their language. Someone with knowledge of your industry will be comfortable using terminology familiar to your target market.
• What other industries do you write in? What techniques do you use to get to know the readers in these fields? You might pay more if you hire a freelance writer with specialized knowledge. However, a writer who is published in a variety of fields may have a knack for picking up the terminology for different industries and may do as well as a specialist—for less money.
• Can you provide a writing sample? The only way to know if someone can write is to read articles they’ve written. If the freelance writer you intend to hire cannot provide published clips, he should be willing to write a few samples to your specifications. You may offer to purchase the samples if you like the quality.

 ideaLaunch screens thousands of freelance writers with these same questions so that you don’t have to.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.