Hiring Writers: What to Look for in a Writer for Your Business

Hiring writers to help you accomplish a business project or a personal project can be a good experience or a nightmare, depending on your approach. When you are in the process of hiring writers–be it a copywriter for a marketing brochure or hiring SEO writers for an online website copy project–you need to know what to look for in a writer.

Industry Experience

Your first step in hiring writers is to start with a pool of writers that have experience writing for your industry. If you hire a writer that does not know your business, the lingo and who your customers are, it is going to take time for the writer to learn this before they can start working on your project. When you start with writers that are familiar with your industry, you break down the learning curve, so the writer can gather information on your project and dive right in to complete it.

Verifiable Samples

Once you have a pool of writers who have experience working on projects that are similar to the one you have at hand and are familiar with your industry, then you can start narrowing down your choices by reviewing their work samples. A red flag that you need to move on to the next writer is a writer who cannot produce numerous samples of their work. Once you review the writing samples and feel the writer has what you are looking for, it is imperative to verify that the work samples belong to the writer.

References

You should also ask for and go through the process of checking references. Try to obtain the contact information for other businesses the writer has worked with on writing projects. If possible, ask for businesses that are similar to your own or had projects similar to the one you have at hand. Gather details such as what types of projects the writer worked on and with whom in the company they worked with on the completion of the projects. Contact the references and discuss their working relationship with the writer.

If you are hiring SEO writers, discuss the results obtained after a writer produced SEO copy for the client. For example, if the SEO copy was for website copy, ask the client if they saw an increase in traffic after the copy on the website was optimized by the writing produced by the SEO writer.

Your Role in the Process

After hiring writers to work on your projects, you play a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining a successful relationship. Make sure that you provide clear and concise instructions on what you expect from the project for the writer to follow. Keep the lines of communication open so while the writer is completing the project, you can answer questions and make suggestions to keep the project moving in the right direction.