Google reports that 51% of shoppers used Google to research a purchase that they plan to make. With over 1 billion websites in the world, how do you stand out? How do you build a website that will rank in Google Search for your potential customers?
One of the best ways to grab the attention of Google is by creating high-quality, relevant, and fresh content. Major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing LOVE fresh content. Whether you are prepared to write an article yourself or hire a freelance writer, publishing SEO-focused, industry-specific content is a great way to bring new traffic to your website.
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Getting Started with Your Small Business Blog
While many business owners can see the benefits of adding a blog to their website, the concept of starting and maintaining a blog can quickly become overwhelming.
How do you get started? What do you write about? What if you aren’t a writer?
If you already have an active website, getting started may not be as challenging as it seems.
With many website platforms including WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix, a blog can easily be added right in your site builder or dashboard.
For those without a website, this is a great time to get started! A high-quality website is a smart investment for anyone that is looking to leverage the power of the internet to reach their business goals.
With more people than ever logging on to find answers to their day-to-day questions, the internet is a valuable tool in your marketing efforts.
Creating a successful blog is about more than just writing whatever comes to mind and hitting publish. There are thousands of blogs online, so you need to stand out. This can be accomplished through offering high-quality content and posting consistently.
How to Create High-Quality Content
You set up your blog, and now it’s time to start planning out your content strategy. Whether you are a writer with a passion for the English language or someone that has no interest in creating your own content, there are options available to help your business succeed.
The three most common ways that business websites acquire the content for their blog are:
Writing Yourself
Have you always had a way with words? Are you interested in creating content on an ongoing basis?
There are many business owners that love writing for their own blog as a way of channeling their self-expression and creativity. If this is something you will enjoy (and you have enough time in your schedule), you may want to take on the task yourself.
Hiring an Internal Writer
If you are looking to keep your work internal or prefer to have face-to-face contact on an ongoing basis with your writer, you may want to look at hiring someone to work as a writer for your business.
This could be someone that is solely writing and creating content or part of a larger content marketing role within the company.
Hiring a Freelance Writer
Contracting with a freelance writer means outsourcing your work to a third party. Freelance writers are professionals in content creation, working with different brands and individuals to help fill their content needs.
Contracts can vary based on the timeline and the amount of work that you would like to have completed.
There is no ‘right’ answer, all three of these options can be highly successful.
Choosing the right approach to content marketing for your business starts with assessing which of these options will work best for your unique situation. Look at your current team (even if that team right now is just you), the skills that each team member possesses, and the time that they are available in their schedule.
If you’re asking yourself whether you should hire a content writer for your website, I’m here to help.
In this article, I’m going to look specifically at why you should consider working with a freelance writer, as well as how to find a writer that connects with your business and your vision.
10 Reasons to Hire a Freelance Writer for Your Small Business Website
Free Your Time
As a small business owner, your time is valuable. Wearing so many different hats within your business can be demanding. While you CAN take on writing your content yourself, this may not be the best use of your time.
You can free up your time to focus on other areas of the business where you are needed most by hiring article writers to take over your content creation.
Lower Cost
Deciding whether to hire a freelance writer or create an internal writing position?
There is a lot to consider financially when hiring someone to work for your business, including training costs, benefits, wages, and more. Furthermore, you may not have enough work to justify the costs of creating the position, especially if you are just getting started with your content marketing plans.
With a freelance writer, you don’t have to worry about any of these additional costs. Instead, you are solely responsible for your agreed-upon rate for the work that you would like completed.
In addition to saving on personnel costs, working with a freelance writer means that you aren’t responsible for any office-related expenses.
This includes equipment costs, furniture, utilities, and a large enough property to provide the additional space needed for another employee.
Flexibility
Continuing to build on the last point, in terms of not having enough work to create an ongoing position, contracting with a freelance writer gives you the flexibility to match your needs.
You can contract as many or as few posts as you need to have completed at the time, allowing you to work around your schedule and your budget.
Leverage Professional Experience and Knowledge
Many freelance writers will specialize in a specific niche or a small number of niches. This reflects their life experience, educational background, or, simply, the niche that they have the most experience writing about.
You can leverage all this knowledge for your blog by selecting the ‘right person’ for the job, even if that person is different from project to project.
Improved Availability
When hiring an in-house writer, you may find yourself working around major life events including weddings, growing families, or medical leaves.
This can make it challenging to meet your needs when something timely comes up. On the other hand, when you hire a freelance writer, there will always be a writer available.
How is that possible?
If the first writer that you talk to is currently going through a busy time in their lives, you can request a referral to someone that is available to complete the work in the timeline that you require. Many writers network with one another to help make sure that their client’s needs are always met.
More Than a Writer
As previously mentioned, freelance writers are professionals in their craft. They don’t just ‘write well’, they are able to focus on your content marketing goals, targeting their content specifically to help you achieve them.
Being skilled with words is only one small piece of the value that a freelance writer will bring to your business.
In addition to sharing your message in a way that resonates with your audience, they will focus on the technical quality of their work (spelling and grammar), proper blog post formatting, and optimizing your content to rank with search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Are you looking for content that is specifically focused on selling your product or service? Hire a freelance copywriter that specializes in landing pages and sales pages for professional advice on how to boost your sales with your website content.
Outside Perspective
You may not want to hear this, but sometimes you are simply too close to your business. By contracting a freelance writer, you are bringing a fresh perspective into the equation.
Rather than looking at the blog post or project as a business owner, they are looking at it as someone on the outside. This will make it easier for them to explain the topic at hand in a way that the ‘average Joe’ will understand.
This means eliminating any ‘jargon’, explaining concepts that you may realize need explanation, and identifying how to reach potential customers that don’t know yet that they need what you have to offer.
Create A Network for Future Work
Each time that you contract a new writer, consider it an opportunity to see if they are the ideal fit with your business. This includes writing in a way that matches the overall tone of your business, embodying any important messaging, and staying focused on your business goals.
Take note of the writers that you ‘click’ with. These are the working relationships that you want to continue building. In the future, when you have a big project, you will know exactly who you can trust to deliver the content that you need.
If you hire a freelance writer and it doesn’t quite work out, this isn’t to say that there is anything wrong with you or the writer. Sometimes, it just isn’t a good fit.
Business owners that regularly hire article writers can attest to the comfort in knowing that you have a list of writers that you know you can rely on when something comes up!
Faster Turnaround
In general, you can expect a faster turnaround on your projects when working with a freelancer. Why? They understand that time is money.
Their income depends on how many projects they can reasonably take on while still delivering quality content. For this reason, they understand the importance of productivity.
An in-house writer that is paid hourly or on a salary basis understands that they are going to get paid even if they aren’t fully focused and productive 100% of the time.
Additionally, if they have other tasks within your business, your blog work may be put off in favour of bigger priorities.
This isn’t to say that you can’t find highly productive in-house staff, but productivity is an important factor to consider when deciding how to spend your hard-earned money.
Reduced Overall Risk
While no one wants to consider the potential risks of hiring an employee, this is something that every business owner must take seriously. For example, will your new employee end up costing your business money long-term due to legal or liability issues?
When outsourcing your work to a freelancer, you can avoid most of these potential issues.
This includes human resources issues, wage disputes, liability concerns with your office location, and more.
Where is the Best Place to Hire Writers for Your Business?
Are you considering hiring a freelance writer? If so, the next step is to find someone that will meet your business needs!
As I previously mentioned, you want to seek out a writer that has expertise in your industry.
This could be a writer that previously worked in your industry in another capacity, someone who went to school for subjects relating to your industry, or someone that has established a reputation as a source of knowledge in your industry.
There are many places where you can find a freelance blogger for hire at the lowest possible rate, but the lowest price doesn’t usually mean the best quality content.
Consider your website content as an investment, not an expense.
Some small business owners have luck with websites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer. However, others report that the quality of the work from many of the writers they find there is questionable.
You can also post on online job boards like Indeed or Monster, or the job search options on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Always ask for a portfolio so that you can see the style and quality of work that each writer has previously produced and whether it fits with your business image.
While each of those options can connect you with a great writer, the best option to hire a freelance writer is through word of mouth.
Reach out to others in the industry and find out who they have worked with before.
With freelance writers being contract workers, they can work with multiple clients in a single industry without creating a conflict of interest, so you aren’t ‘stealing’ a writer from anyone in your network.
Don’t forget, every business is different. You may find that the perfect freelance writer for one of your network connections isn’t a good fit for your business at all, and that’s okay! The right fit is out there, you just need to find them!
Are you currently considering hiring a freelance writer in the pet or outdoor travel industries? Contact Me to discuss your options and any questions that you may have about the process!
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Given my dyslexia, if I was running a business through a website, rather than just my blog, I think I’d prefer to call on the services of a freelance writer so I could get that professional touch.
Your points about hiring a freelance writer also makes sense, especially regarding costs. If you don’t need a lot of consistent writing doing, hiring a freelancer would save money
That’s a great example of when it would make sense to work with a freelance writer.
One of the best things that business owners can do for their overall success is to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, and not be afraid to connect with those that have strengths where they don’t!
You’ve shared some really good points about the benefits about working with freelancers; it just goes to show you that there are a variety of people that would fit a particular purpose/job. Great post!
Yes! Being able to identify your strengths and find people that fill in the spaces in between is the key to building a successful business.
Excellent info! I am an author, photojournalist, and editor by trade…and you hit on some great points! I recently took on being a freelancer for someone else’s blog. It really does help someone who writing is not in their wheelhouse. Marketing is always a desire and need. Thanks for this great post. Pinning to share (and keep to refer to).
Yes! Many of the best public speakers struggle to put their thoughts into words on paper. We all have our strengths. The key to success is to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses and connect with those that can help to fill the gaps in your business.