How to Find the Right Content Creator or Team for Your Business

Your brand voice is integral to your business—make sure you hire the right person (or team!) to craft and share your stories.

You've no doubt experienced the power of content as a customer -- whether you've learned about a new product through?TikTok, scanned an email sent by your favorite sneaker manufacturer, or read a few articles on a brand's website as a result of Google search.

Knowing you need it is one thing. But when it's finally time to draft some copy, content can suddenly seem downright daunting to?create! If you're not really a?writer?-- or just don't have the time to keep your brand's channels updated regularly -- it's definitely worth bringing on an expert or a team who can help.?

I should mention here: I'm actually a writer by trade (I was a magazine journalist before I co-founded?my content marketing company). And despite that, I still leverage an editorial team to help create the articles, emails, marketing messages, and social-media posts that my business needs to influence customers.

One critical thing I knew from my publishing days is that not all?content resources?are created equal. To save time (instead of spending a lot more of it revising and revamping!) I'd need to bring on a team who really "got it" when it came to Masthead's voice, tone, and style.?

How do you find the right fit for your own business? As you look to find the resources (a person, team, or agency), keep this process in mind.

1. Start with a content plan or strategy.?

Even if you view your content needs as "small" -- for instance, you just want to get a few posts going on a blog or your social feeds -- I highly recommend starting with a content strategy or strategic plan, which a freelance content strategist or agency can help you create.?

A front-end investment in a strategy will help you avoid costly mistakes down the line, such as hiring writers who end up delivering poor or unusable content, leaving you at square one with a dent in your wallet.

By developing your strategy, you'll figure out exactly what kind of content you need and how often you need it. After your strategist presents the plan (and you approve it), you should have a pretty solid road map of next steps, and you can go on to hire a freelance writer or team of writers to execute that strategy.?

2. Set a budget.?

With a strategic plan in place, you'll have a stronger sense of how much content you can afford to assign out to a content team -- and what you may need to accomplish in-house.?

When preparing a?budget, consider that creating content assets requires more than just writing. You'll also need to account for editing, SEO research, and project management,?as well as any time needed to pull images, develop graphics, and load the finished products into a content management system or social-media scheduler. You'll also want to devote some time to reviewing analytics data to get a better sense of which content pieces are performing.

If your budget is smaller, you may want to assign out the writing portion only (the most time-intensive piece) and handle the rest in-house. But as your content starts to become more successful (or you have less time to devote to all of those additional elements!), you may want to consider bringing on a content marketing agency to handle the workload.?

How much should you plan to spend on writers? The range truly varies: Writers can charge anywhere from 10 cents to $2 per word depending on their level of experience. I'd recommend setting a price per piece of content, taking into consideration how long that piece is, whether it requires interviews and footnoted sourcing, and the rounds of revisions you expect.?

Content may feel expensive at first, but the return on investment is high. Unlike an advertising campaign, content can work for you over time, bringing in traffic and views year after year. Once an article is ready, for instance, you can repurpose it in e-newsletters and on social media, and you can optimize it (update sections of text) once it's a couple of years old.

3. Look for writers who "get" you.

This may be the most challenging part of the puzzle -- but it is incredibly rewarding to find the right fit!

I asked my editorial talent manager (who worked for magazines such as?Cosmopolitan,?Country Living, and?Modern Farmer) how she approaches hiring writers for our clients. She told me she looks for people with a portfolio, so she can see the subjects they cover and their writing style. She prefers those who have experience in reporting for editorial publications and for brands because they know how to weave brand messaging into content organically.?

Finally, she seeks out those with expertise in specific niches of a broader category. For example, she doesn't just look for "tech writers," but for people who specialize in driverless technology or hybrid cloud, depending on the client's needs.?

What I'd advise as you research potential writers is to ask others in your industry for recommendations. Also, sign up for industry-specific newsletters to see if any of their writers could be right for your needs. And of course, do a deep dive on LinkedIn. If you run a beauty brand, search for "beauty writer." Visit their personal websites where you can read their writing samples. Reach out to three to five writers you like to schedule a 15-minute call. Ask for their rates and availability during your time frame.?

4. Train up your voice and tone.

You may already intuitively know how your brand voice and tone should sound in a blog post or email. If you haven't communicated that in a clear way to your writing team, however, you may be pretty disappointed, or even confused, when you read their first few submissions.?

I highly recommend working with your strategist or agency to create a voice and tone document that your writers (and anyone who touches your content) can use to ensure that they're hitting the mark.

5. Expect some trial and error.

As you execute your content plan, try out three or four writers by assigning them each a short piece. Ideally, you'll get some usable content (you'll definitely need to do a little editing at first) and you can assign more to the writer(s) whose work you like best. There's no harm if someone doesn't work out. Just be sure to pay them, and beyond that, you have no further obligation to them.

If you're ready to bring on a content agency, expect to work with them for a minimum of six to 12 months to allow time for setup, strategic planning, content development, content indexing, and program measurement. The benefit of working with an agency is that if you don't like a particular writer, they will do the work of finding someone who's a better fit.

A final note so you don't get discouraged: Content creation is more of an art than a science. You may not see "perfection" from the get-go, but over time, it will bring you a steady flow of highly qualified, engaged potential customers.

Written by Amanda Pressner Kreuser.?Originally published on Inc.com on April 7, 2023.