Outsource Content Marketing without Compromising on Quality: Profitable Tips & Tricks!

As per the 2017 research conducted by State of the Creator Economy, the total number of marketers using content marketing exceeds 70%.

In fact, numerous entrepreneurs prefer to pick an in-house content writing agency for availing top quality write-ups for their business. The purpose being, an excellent in-house team adept with the content trends will undoubtedly produce authentic write-ups.

Additionally, with proper implementation of keywords in the content, proficient writers develop articles which are sure to guarantee businesses a profitable ROI.

However, sometimes it can be harrowing for a content marketing agency to cater to all the demands of clients.

Imagine this –

Your company is overburdened with too many projects already, and suddenly a well-paying client drops by with a demand for say, social media post writings.

But, with the number of projects on your hand and lack of manpower to deliver the social media post will you let go of the chance?

No way! So, the best option herein is to outsource content marketing to any designated freelancer.

Hold up right there? Is that even allowed?

Well, for starters in the era that’s hiring virtual assistants for menial tasks at home, outsourcing some of your write-ups is a legitimate way to manage workload. Also, everyone is out here to do business right?

So, with the pace the content marketing domain is moving, if you’re not on the same page with your competitors you’re losing out clients & opportunities.

In fact, look at the following scenarios, which compel well-established content companies to outsource content marketing –

·    Lack of efficient manpower & specific talent.

Let’s understand this point with an example!

Assuming that you got Facebook posts on women empowerment, but most of your writers are used to creating mundane write-ups on technical blogs, it can be a matter of crisis.

The subject of women empowerment requires the coercive emotive tones that can initiate a feeling of pride amongst women & men. So, if your writers are mostly dealing with technical blogs, on short notice they can face issues delivering authentic write-ups with the correct tone & information.

Hence, in such a scenario, outsourcing content marketing to a freelancer can be an effective solution.

·   Too much to do, too little time!

Your agency is working on a few premium projects that require the undivided the attention of all your writers.

However, will that mean that your subsidiary projects are to suffer?

Never!

The solution at hand is to outsource content marketing for some of your small-scale projects to freelancers and other writers. This can help tackle the problem of timely delivers and stop your writers from tearing their hair apart to focus on multiple projects simultaneously.

Nevertheless, if you’re thinking to outsource content marketing, the few following issues can crop up –

·         Quality issues

·         Formatting

·         Diverting from the topic at hand

·         Negative content, without adequate information.

·         No proper call to action tone implied.

·         Filler content

Now there, before you go all sceptical, the issues mentioned above aren’t a huge dilemma! With the correct content marketing tips and instructions, you can easily outsource your write-ups to others and still deliver content that begets substantial web traffic. 

However, there’s a catch! You can’t outsource to a content marketing agency!

Wait, why not?

Most content marketing agencies end up making this big blunder. However, imagine this; if you outsource content marketing to an in-house agency, the following discrepancies can occur –

•  You might be overloaded with projects, and you carelessly pick any agency to do your subsidiary write-ups! With a massive team at hand, the agency might prove to be a potential threat. How? Well, the chosen agency might find similar clients and deliver more projects than yours, leaving your company at a disadvantage.

• You might be outsourcing your content to get the work done at a cheaper rate, but in-house agencies change a lot more than freelancers.

Hence, it’s best to pick freelancers to get the job done! But, yes considering the fact, that freelancers might be inexperienced, the issue of quality remains. So, herein comes the content marketing tips to save your day!

How to outsource your content without worrying about quality?

Quality issues in the content are the devil. Lousy quality write-ups will not only fly your client out of your hands, but it builds a bad reputation. You have worked hard and diligently to take your company to the top, and all it takes is one bad content to make it come crashing down.

So, to avoid the tag of ‘give a dog a bad name & hang him’ read through the useful content marketing tips for outsourcing your write-ups –

Tip 1: Hire the best freelancers!

Sometimes, when your team’s head is clouded working on premium projects, and you’re worried about meeting deadlines, you might end up opting to outsource content marketing to any passing freelancer.

This is a grave mistake!

Outsourcing your office projects to any writer can lead to serious quality issues. Hence, it’s always advisable that you pick a designated writer who has proper grammar skills. You can select a few writers and request a few sample writings.

After giving them a read, check if their writing pattern and style can effectively counter your content requirements. If the content samples fit your taste, then hire the writers and outsource content marketing.

Tip 2: Teach your freelancers!

Your company is renowned for quality so, even if you’re outsourcing the low-budget project to the writers, quality must never be compromised.

So, firstly, be vigilant before choosing a writer. Simply don’t pick a freelancer, because you’re in a hurry. Hence, after you select your new team of potential writers, brief them with careful consideration.

For example- Your Company frames content which is SEO optimised. Now, your in-house writers abide by the following content marketing tips to deliver the best –

•      Adding keywords in title, meta-title and maintaining keyword density in every write-up; for example, let’s say your writers are framing content on how to start blog posts. Then their write-ups will look something like this given below –

           

[Note: See the keyword – how to start a blog, is present in the title, Meta title, and in the first line of the content to make it SEO optimised. ]

•     Writing crisp, concise write-ups which are informative and practical, with fewer filler sentences.
•            Proofreading content to make sure there aren’t any logical & grammatical errors.
•            Proper formatting 

So, instruct your writers to follow the same pattern. Give them formatting guidelines and educate them about SEO a little. You can send them reference links in the work mail about SEO guidelines& techniques and the importance of optimising keywords.

Check the example below to understand more -

Tip 3:   Provide freelancers company style guide

Let’s take an example; your company prefers to provide write-ups following specific patterns & preferences. You may have your chosen style of fonts, formatting.

For example- you prefer to deliver contents with a shorter paragraph containing less passive tone, or getting the write-ups analysed by writing tools like Yoast & Grammarly.

So, give the required links to your freelancers to make sure they too, check the content thoroughly for errors. Also provide them with a company writing a guide, stating specific instruction on which font, style & pattern to frame the articles in.

You can provide them with the necessary samples and references to help them analyse the correct way to write & frame articles.

For example, your company have their personal grammar guidelines & tips to make sure there aren’t any visible grammatical errors in the content you deliver. In fact,  check this image below –

A specific company can mention their requirements and their focal areas to help their freelancers create authentic contents. 

Tip 4: Have good in-house editors

While instructing your writers correctly is vital indeed, often freelancers can end up writing contents which may have incorrect formatting or other issues.

Hence, it’s imperative that your company must have a proficient editor or two. So, the moment a file with incorrect formatting & poor grammar comes up, your editor can either point out the errors to the writer or correct it herself/himself.

Tip 5: Use proper instructions and metrics!

Framing the work mail is very important indeed! If your company is a reputed one, you can use metrics to measure the quality. These metrics in percentages can denote the quality or practices your content writing agency adheres by.

For example – if the article requires proper implementation of links and images frame a metric system like the one shown below and send it to your freelancers for educating them about what to write.

Tip 6: Strengthen your content marketing strategy!

When you think to outsource content marketing, it’s essential to measure your ROI. Ask yourself the following questions to formulate an effective content marketing strategy –

•        Which tools should be most useful to develop and promote content?
•         How to analyse & evaluate content results.
•        What to change to make sure final content delivered to clients are foolproof.
•        Which kinds of content are effective for my set goals

Hence, using your content marketing plan combines the efforts of you freelancers and consider the above points to delve out projects which will assure you a profitable ROI.

Well, now that you can successfully outsource content marketing without tearing your hair out about quality issues, here are the advantages –

      1. Money saved, more focus on in-house employees & premium projects

Freelancing few contents to writers helps in the art of proper work distribution. You can simultaneously finish your premium projects while training your best writers to develop authentic write-ups. Additionally, freelancers charge much less than in-house writers.

So, with a little guidance, the freelancers can write the required content for your subsidiary projects without compromising the quality.

      2. Multitasking is never easier!

Let’s assume that you require posting weekly blog updates about your company to boost SEO rankings. But, with your team busy head-to-toe with few nerve wreaking projects which are to post your blogs?

Of course your hired freelancers; these writers can work for your company and post the blogs you require. You might have preferences like adding images & links, and with the right instructions, you can get crème de la crème blogs for your agency.

      3. What you don’t have, they might!

So, another big-time benefit for hiring freelancers is they might have more expertise n few things your company doesn’t.

Because you hire experienced freelancers, who have been working in this field for a long time, these people might have a more thorough knowledge about a few trending content strategies. Additionally, say you need academic writers for a school project, but your in-house writers don’t have the explicit concept of academic project write-ups.

Hence, hiring an academic freelancer will assure you that you’re delivering the correct projects, with high quality, which would be difficult for your in-house writers to achieve at one, go.

      4. You gain an outside perspective!

Your firm may have been used to certain types of content creations. However, hiring freelancers can widen your content horizon.

These writers may introduce to various styles of content creation that can work in favour for future projects in your agency.

For example- you may find writers who include their own pieces of write-ups or prose’s in between content making them more appealing.

Using quotes, statistics, and viable references hence will make the content strong and compel users to click on them. This will build traffic and improve Search Engine rankings multi-fold.

There you go! All the necessary guidelines to outsource content marketing to freelancers, so now distribute the load and work smarter. Time to rule the content marketing domain!