outsource blog writing

outsource blog writing

The Art and Science of Outsourcing Blog Writing: Maximizing Content Quality and Efficiency

1. Introduction to Outsourcing Blog Writing

Keep away from business blogging, though, if you’re much less comfortable with the activities that accompany writing, such as structuring content, doing research, forming logical arguments, making smooth transitions between paragraphs, and punctuating sentences properly. For one thing, writing will always be much less efficient overall, despite any fleeting joy it brings, and therefore much more expensive for your business than a professional blogger’s craft. For those in the innovation economy, communications technology is beneath the surface of your life and therefore something you might take for granted. Small business content creation done right, though, helps customers identify you as the better-priced, full-service alternative with its finger on the industry pulse. Given your immersion in electronic gadgetry, programming interfaces, social media, and blog platform software, you’ll likely seek practical advice about how to outsource blog writing like an expert.

Whether you have years of work on which to draw or you suddenly have the urge to write, outsourcing blog writing is a way to turn ideas into words. When your fingerprints are all over everything your reader sees, you might grow tired of naming that inner writer. It could be time to look outside your core of expertise for a hired gun. What better place to begin than with a reader like you, a purveyor of ideas and technology, who enjoys every facet of the writing process and spends virtually every waking hour in the presence of creative content? If you’re involved in the innovation economy, you’ve likely spent much of your life thinking, tinkering, and creating. You probably also run a business and want to increase your interactions with clients and prospects by producing social media-friendly material that also communicates your business philosophy. You’re about to take marketing automation to the professional writing level through outsourcing blog writing.

2. Benefits of Outsourcing Blog Writing

My top five are quality, efficiency, resources, specialization, and cost. This hierarchy is similar to a list for outsourcing in my previous article. However, their relative importance and the underlying specifics are different. This different importance warrants going into detail about each item.

I discussed the potential motivating factors for outsourcing in my previous article. The same factors may also apply to outsourcing blog writing. However, the concrete benefits may be even more apparent in a caveat emptor manner. As discussed in ‘The Art of Science of Quality Content,’ a poor write-up with multiple grammatical and/or typographical errors can detract from the immediate persuasive impact of a page and reduce the positive perception of a blog and site for both consumers and forces (Google and Bing). What are the potential benefits of blog outsourcing?

3. Choosing the Right Outsourcing Partner

3.1 Freelancers and Small Writing Firms These are the first sources most companies turn to, and that makes sense. Writing is a critical skill for many people, not gender- or age-biased but often a least differentially distributed skill. So in many cases you may already have many of the resources you need. In seeking this resource, take the time, in your lead-in, to provide the prospective partner with the detail appropriate to a serious inquiry. This indicates to the writer that you are at least a knowledgeable buyer, ensuring you get a response to your ‘RFP’ that matches your requirements.

In a simple world, you’d hire the first wedding photographer referral given by that friendly neighbor or the first tax professional you see on a street corner. In reality, we carefully scrutinize the capabilities of these professionals before engaging. As an outsourcer of core business functions, you should equally use caution in choosing a partner for creating the very material that represents your company to a worldwide audience. Here are several types of providers to consider.

4. Best Practices for Managing Outsourced Blog Writing Projects

Start with a one-on-one meeting. The first meeting is to inform the outside blogger of the following: one’s immediate goals; the need for quality content; the value of the information the blogger is providing; which content is to be written; the writer’s role; the brand’s tone; and the deadlines for posting, including the fact that the blogger may be the last person in the process and must sometimes post without a meeting. This is also a clear example of talent management and view of expectations, as well as a care and alignment meeting.

Before and during the completion of the initial few blog writing assignments, it is important for the company’s project manager to establish the best practices and processes to manage the relationship with the individuals responsible for blog creation and execution. This will help ensure that desirable results are frequent and that a sustainable content-creation process evolves. Here are some of the best practices that will lead to success in working with outside bloggers. These are the best practices that have been found to be most helpful in managing the relationships and the content-creation process at this writer’s company. While some may need to be modified to fit the resources of other companies, best efforts should be put forth to conform to them as much as possible.

5. Measuring Success and ROI in Outsourced Blog Writing

There are some concrete measures for success that can be applied not only at the end of the blog writing initiative, but intermittently along the way. These include the level of trust the audience has toward the content; ensuring that what goes on the blog fits with the goals of the organization; making sure the content clearly communicates whatever the specific key performance indicators are and being able to prove that the blog was not only cost-effective but also delivered value. The value of a single, highly effective blog post can often transcend any type of measurement applied to a collection of posts. That is why the first initiative of an outsourced blogging program should never just be individual posts – they should always be defined as a longer-term content strategy.

One of the biggest concerns companies have when outsourcing blog writing is how to measure the success of the content and ultimately demonstrate a solid return on their investment. More traffic to the blog is the easy metric to gauge success, but the quality and effectiveness of blog content can be more difficult to judge. Depending on the objectives defined for the blog and the specific initiative being measured, the focus may be on traffic, engagement, share of voice, brand lift, inbound links, click-through rates, conversion rates or the ability to simply generate positive word of mouth.