blog writers

You’ve seen the data. You know that content marketing adopters have conversion rates that are nearly 6x higher than non-adopters. You’re finally ready to take the plunge and focus on content marketing as a key strategy in your lead generation arsenal. But then it hits you. How are you going to produce all this content? HubSpot is telling you that, in order to optimize your efforts, you need to publish 16+ blog posts per month. “16 per month?!? My team and I can’t produce that many high quality blogs per month!” Fortunately, you don’t have to go at it alone. The proven effectiveness of content marketing has helped to create tens of thousands of capable blog writers that you can handle much of the work for you. You just need to know how to efficiently find and work with them. And, through this post, we’re going to teach you how to do it. Let’s get started. The Business Owner’s Guide: How to Work With Blog Writers to Create & Publish High-ROI Content Let’s start at the fundamentals: outlining your writing standards. 1. Creating Writing Standards to Communicate to Writers If you have a blog, then you probably already have some type of vague writing standards in place. And while your current standards can be used, they will almost certainly need to be expanded upon now that you’ve decided to outsource your writing. Your standards set the stage for how you will communicate, hire, and work with your blog writers. Establishing the Goal of Your Blog The first thing you’ll need to do is to clearly establish the goal of your blog so it can be communicated to the writers you work with. HuffPost contributor Danny Wong provides a few options. Some of them include: Tell your brand’s story Express your brand’s identity Build an email list Attract top industry talent Build credibility Become an authority figure in your industry Connect personally with customers and fans Capture media attention Facilitate word-of-mouth Create a competitive advantage After browsing this list, you’re probably wondering why you can’t just focus on all of these goals. The simple answer is…because having too many goals and priorities doesn’t work. As Harvard Business Review contributors Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi have said, your business needs to stop chasing too many priorities. According to a survey they conducted, having fewer strategic priorities can actually lead to higher revenue growth for your business. If you’re determined to chase multiple goals, make sure they work together. For instance, your goal can be that you want to build your email list while connecting with fans and facilitating word-of-mouth marketing. Or, it can be to build credibility and become an authority figure in your industry in order to create a competitive advantage. Each example has three goals that work together. Hone your focus and create goals that you can clearly communicate to your writers. It will make working with blog writers a much smoother process. Helping Writers Create Amazing Content You know that creating amazing content is essential to high ROI content marketing. You may even know how to do it. Don’t assume, however, that the writers you’re working with automatically follow the same rules of creating great content that you do. If you’re looking for a checklist to provide to your writers, KissMetrics Director of Marketing Sean Marks created a great one. It includes nine ingredients. They are: Make sure the content is original Focus on creating a strong headline Make the content actionable Provide answers to reader’s questions Include accurate reporting and sourcing of information Make the content engaging Communicate through visuals Eliminate fluff and get to the point Update the blog regularly Your outsourced writers will be responsible for producing content that includes the top eight ingredients. You and your team will be responsible for the last one. Determining Content Length for Writers While it will obviously be much easier to get to 16 blog posts per month if they’re of the 400-500 word variety, the argument for long-form content is too convincing to ignore. If you want to achieve your blog goals, ranking for targeted keywords on search engines is the ticket to getting there. And if you want your content to rank on search engines, long form content is the way to go. Just take a look at this illustration produced by SerpIQ: Sure, it’s going to be more expensive to outsource long form content than it is to do the same for 500-word articles. As you can see, however, the ROI of long form content is significantly higher. And isn’t the point of marketing to achieve the highest ROI possible? Breaking it Down At this point, you should have a solid understanding of what you want your writing standards to look like. Now you just need to communicate them to your writers. Here’s a quick example of what you can tell them: Focus on the goal of our blog Utilize the ingredients of creating amazing content Make sure the post is long form (1,500-3,000 words) 2. How to Hire the Perfect Writers for Your Blog Your writing standards help create an overview of the type of writers that you want and need for your blog. Your job now is to seek out writers that have already proven capable of following the standards that you have established. This can, for the most part, be done in one of two ways; hire a freelancer or work with a writing agency. Freelancers vs. Writing Agencies Ahh, the great debate. Should you hire freelancers or go with a writing agency? And while there are many advantages and disadvantages to both choices, your decision should always come down to the value provided. Let’s break down the process of working with each so you can make the best possible decision for your business. Working With a Freelancer The typical process for hiring a freelancer involves a few steps. They include: Find a freelance job posting site. Upwork, Freelancer.com, Textbroker, and even Craigslist … Read more