How To Outsource Your Content Marketing & 5 Benefits Of Doing So

You’re here because:

• You’re struggling for time to write copy
• The content that you produce isn’t getting you the results you want
• You need to ramp up the amount of content you create
• Your blog and social media profile looks tragically empty
• You just need help with your content and marketing

These are perfect reasons to explore outsourcing your content marketing.

But let me tell you. You may be sat there thinking you can write. Technically, anyone can write some words. Maybe even form a sentence. The difference however when working with a professional content writer is that they will create quality content that resonates with the reader. And that content may even force that consumer into taking an action.

That’s the difference between a novice ‘writing words’ and outsourcing your content to a professional copywriter who will create compelling content.

You may know your business better than anyone, but we know how best to communicate with your audience.

Let’s dive into how you can outsource your content marketing and the benefits of it.

How to outsource your content and copywriting

Outsourcing is worldwide, and it’s something that’s all around us.

A delivery from your favourite online store isn’t hand delivered by the founder themselves, it’s outsourced to courier specialists to deliver it to your home.

Content marketing has become a necessary element of any successful business plan. Specialist content writers and copywriters produce marketing material that is engaging, concise, and perfectly suited to your brand.

To outsource your content marketing, you first need to know what you need, what you’re missing out on, and what would benefit from content marketing.

Finding the right content professional, and knowing they’re right for you

The ideal content writer or copywriter for your business will not only have strong written skills. They need to have an understanding and hunger to learn about what builds a great brand, and the identity of your brand.

By that, you can weigh up the copywriter by the information they want from you about your business and/or content plans.

A great copywriter will want to know:

• What’s your brand’s personality?
• Do you have a set tone of voice?
• What are your marketing goals?
• What channels will I be writing for online?
• Do you have a brand message book?

Based on all of this, a content professional will be able to write content just right for you, but also recommend what content you should consider writing too.

Take time to understand what it is you need from a copywriter

By understanding what it is you’re looking for the better chance you have of finding the right writer.

There are companies with copywriters ready to assign to you, and freelance writers who work for themselves ready to go. But if you don’t know what it is you need or what you want to achieve from your content, you may not find or get the right copywriter on your side.

This decision comes down to a few key elements, and how important they are to you. These include:

Cost

Content can be sourced inexpensively from the dozens of outsourced content websites, but do be wary of these; low cost in almost all cases means low quality.

You could go down the route of working with a marketing or copywriting agency – they will assign a copywriter to you, maybe even a couple of writers to you.

Working relationship

You’ll need to weigh up what kind of working relationship you need with your outsourced writer. The scale runs from email correspondence through to phone, video and face-to-face meetings. Choose the one that suits your needs.

Remember, more hand holding means more time they’ll bill you for. But this may be essential, so be prepared to pay for a closer relationship with a copywriter.

Size of job

An entire calendar year’s worth of content cannot feasibly be given to different people throughout the year, you will want consistency. A one-off piece of work however gives you more flexibility.

Know your content and marketing strategy. You may need one content writer for your website and a UX copywriter for your app, product or software.

What type of writer can you outsource to?

Independent and freelance writers

Independent freelance writers are self-employed contractors. They either operate under their own name or under their brand/business name. Essentially, they’re not a full time employee.

You can find an independent, self-employed, freelance content writer on Google. They will most likely have a website for you to have a nose through.

Any copywriter will have a portfolio along with testimonials and reviews, so do be sure to check them out before you outsource your content to them.

The cost to outsource content to an independent writer will be around £50 per hour, and a day rate of £350 – £500.

Agencies

There are many types of agencies out there, many of which provide content and copywriting services as an extension of their speciality. PR agencies, design agencies, branding agencies, digital marketing agencies or SEO agencies, there’s a variety who may offer content as a service, but it won’t be their speciality.

These agencies usually have in-house copywriters to take on content projects. There are even some agencies who outsource the content themselves to independent writers, or even those cheap writers on gig-based website we said about above.

So if you outsource content to an agency, you’ll likely be outsourcing your content to an agency that outsources your content… that’s a real content outsourcing chain right there!

In terms of the cost to outsource your content to an agency, it widely varies. Agencies are typically the most expensive option when it comes to outsourcing your content, due to the fact they have a full time writer in-house, or they outsource your content to an external writer. They need to see a profit, so the costs with an agency writer will range between £60 – £150 per hour. Day rate of £500 – £750.

Note: Although we’re an ‘agency’ ourselves, we’re set up more as the independent/freelance writer category. Also, we’re not like other agencies, we’re a specialist Content Marketing Agency. 

Freelancers on gig-based platforms, like Fiverr (not recommended)

Writers on these types of platform are usually junior writers just starting out, or completely inexperienced and untrained writers.

That’s why their rate is usually very, very cheap. You may be able to get content for $5, but the quality will be extremely low.

Whoever you choose, this is our top tip

Steer clear of cheap writers. Paying cheap for content will in most cases give you a return of poor content that doesn’t read well or convert into sales. Worst of all, it’s negatively impacts the perception of your brand.

Content writing and copywriting is a specialist skill. It should never be cheap.

For a decent copywriter, expect to pay around £50 per hour. For a content consultant, it’ll be £75 per hour. Check out our copywriting cost guide here for more on realistic cost estimates for quality freelance writers.

The benefits of outsourcing content

When you want to start content marketing properly but you lack the experience and knowledge to effectively create your own content, outsourcing content is a great option for you.

You remove the risk of investing a lot of time and money into hunting for an experienced writer or content manager to bring into your business in-house and full time.

Recruitment costs for an experienced content professional are extremely high. It’s difficult to find quality writers who have the knowledge, experience and seniority to lead your content strategy. And if you’re looking for a writer with relevant industry experience then it’s even harder.

Another challenge is that there are so many different types of content professionals out there:

• Content strategists/consultants
• Content writers
• Copywriters
• SEO copywriters
• Editors
• Technical writers
• Content designers

This is the difference with outsourcing your content – your network of writers is broader.

With a range of freelance writers to choose from you will have more chance of finding a writer with the skills you need. They may operate as a sole trader, or they may even work with a creative content writing agency and have a broad experience with content marketing for a range of businesses.

Outsourcing content can help increase your business’s brand awareness and generate more leads while also increasing sales.

Top 5 benefits to outsourcing your content writing

1. Good content takes time – time you don’t have

Content marketing can quickly take up a lot of your time. A thorough content marketing strategy cannot be delivered over night, and in most cases, it cannot be achieved in just a month.

Content is a long term commitment as it’s needed for any marketing strategy you have.

A typical business will have laser vision on one channel, or aspirational businesses will be looking to create content for several channels, like blogs, landing pages, ppc copywriting, social media copy, internal comms, PR, and everything in between.

The best content marketers will also explore ways to distribute your content. They won’t publish a blog and leave it at that, they will look to optimise it for SEO and create other content opportunities for additional blogs, videos or social posts.

2. Consistency is key – have a dedicated copywriter for all of your content

By devolving these responsibilities to one person or a small team, you’re halfway to outstanding and attractive content marketing.

You can now create a consistent tone of voice throughout your content.

Communication between your content writer will allow you to: 

• Understand the key words and themes to introduce into your campaign
• Create a full content calendar for the month, quarter, or year
• Get to know the strengths of your content writer, and how best to take advantage of their expertise
• Set deadlines and ensure consistent uploads can be achieved

3. Leave it to experts – they’ll do a better job at writing than you or any ‘wordy’ person in your team

It can be easy to palm off content tasks to the ‘wordiest’ people in the office. Sure, it can help to paper over the cracks content-wise, but it is by no means the best use of everyone’s time.

A novice will take longer, need more support, and be more likely to make mistakes. If they have a different role, their mind won’t be focused on the content. And worse, they’re not a professionally trained copywriter!

An expert copywriter will continually deliver engaging and high-quality content every time to get you the results you need.

Working closely with a content marketing specialist helps to tick every box.

Search engine optimisation, check.

Distribution plans for existing and new content, check.

Discovering other content opportunities, check.

4. Spend a little, get a lot

Content marketing is growing fast. More and more businesses around the world are turning to content marketing as their main approach to growing their customer base.

One of the main reasons that businesses are turning to content is that, on the whole, it’s inexpensive to hire a copywriter to start producing content for your business. Even better, there’s generally a greater return on investment when hiring a writer to consistently write for your brand – whether they’re in-house or freelance.

One of the main reasons that content is a worthy investment is because a lot of the digital content you publish will be what we call ‘evergreen’. This means that the content you produce now will be live and read for years to come.

And the more it’s seen and read, the more people it will convert into a paying customer for your business.

That then leads to that initial investment into hiring a writer to produce that piece of content will pay itself off.

Content is a great money maker when it’s done right. If your content is selling effectively, you can pay off the money you paid to a writer very quickly.

Another element to weigh up with your content is how many sales will your content need to generate to pay for itself? This will vary from business to business, but make sure to consider this when looking at your copywriter’s rates.

The initial investment into your copywriting will be worthwhile, especially if that content becomes your lead sales person!

5. Ultimate flexibility – scale up or simmer down the content output

With an outsourced content marketer, you’ll be able to act on what your business needs.

You may scale your content output for six months and then simmer it down if you need to. Or maybe you’ve been tentative in the amount of content you’ve been creating and seen some positive results, now you want to scale massively!

How many companies outsource their content marketing and writing?

According to Statista, ​​the types of content creation services outsourced by marketing professionals worldwide last year included:

• 37% outsourcing copywriting
• 31% outsourcing editing & proofreading
• 25% outsourcing their content marketing strategy

Some business owners think outsourcing is a poor or lazy way to manage business content. It isn’t, a lot of companies do it to scale their content creation.

Why companies outsource these types of content

Upwards of a third of businesses in the world outsource their content writing. It’s a good way to keep great content going up on any brand page; blogs, landing pages and website pages. It also means you can get home at a normal time, rather than spend your evenings struggling to create content.

Outsourcing one of the heaviest portions of the content creation process, editing, is a really smart move, especially if your team is small.

Editing can take hundreds of hours based on the amount of words written! And put a foot wrong, mistakes and poorly written content can heavily impact your brand’s reputation.

We’re also not surprised about the 25% of businesses worldwide outsourcing their content marketing strategy.

Creating a strategy is not something copywriters or content writers can do. Content strategy is a different ball game and requires a specialist content professional to define a strategy. For a deep dive into your content, always work with a content marketing consultant.

Outsourcing is not an uncommon strategy! And why? Because it’s one of the best ways to generate well written, high quality content that provides a lovely ROI.

If you’re struggling with your content, then outsource to a content professional. Drop me a message if you like, I’d be more than happy to help you out!

Types of content you can outsource

Outsource editing

Within the writing process, it’s the editing that takes your content from first draft material to something you can publish with pride.

Without a good editing process, you can seriously damage your business’ reputation. Simple spelling mistakes can impact the trustworthiness of your content.

But seeing as this process can take hours for even just one article, outsourcing your editing is a good way to save both time and money. And many companies see that. It’s why over a third of businesses in the last year decided to work with expert editors outside of their team.

Outsource social media content creation

Social media can be tricky to master. It’s a whole different world of content, fast paced with instant impressions, compared to anything you publish on your website. Because of this, thousands of companies outsource their social media content creation day by day.

Not only should you be posting business updates, but you’ll need to vary your posts to make them interesting to anyone scrolling past.

Posting videos, stories, product updates, news, and competitions on a regular basis is the most enticing grab-bag for any customer to interact with.

And remember, this isn’t just for one site. This is why outsourcing slows down the social media content creation funnel. It’s much easier to manage the workload of an Instagram feed on top of a Facebook page and a Twitter timeline when an expert is crafting content for you.

Outsource blog content

Your blog is the best place to build a rapport with customers. Blog content has a lot of innate creativity that can provide value to the reader. You can increase your viewer retention, which search engines love, as well as build that trusting relationship you need with your customer base.

If you misuse this section of your website, you cut out a big portion of your potential profit. Why? Anyone interested in your product can get really stuck in here.

But a blog takes time to fill, with both trendy and evergreen content needing their moment. That’s why choosing to outsource blog content is the most popular way to outsource content in the modern digital age.

Interested in outsourcing your content?

Discover the support that we here at TJ Creative can offer. Content excites us, which is why we provide high-quality outsourced content management for a range of brands; from startups like Celebration Carts to national brands like British School of Motoring.

Get in touch with me, Tom Blake, today regarding your content marketing plans!

Outsourcing content vs Hiring copywriters in-house

When it comes to building your very own content team, there are several things to consider:

• What kind of writers you need
• Whether a content lead is needed to manage your content marketing
• How many writers you need to meet the objectives of your content strategy
• Whether you’re outsourcing all of your copywriting, keeping all content in-house, or a mix of both

Now that you have a whole load of questions swirling around your head, one of the first things to decide is whether you will be recruiting for content experts in-house, or if you need to outsource your content to freelance writers, an external team of writers or a content marketing agency.

We’ll help you to decide what is best for you and your business.

Your business is an original, which means that your content needs a unique too. There’s no straightforward answer to what’s right for kicking your content strategy into action. The decision of whether to outsource content or build an in-house team will be significantly affected by several factors.

Your considerations to building your content team include:

• The industry you work within
• Your budget
• Your content goals (including the quantity of content)

The business world is very competitive and an excellent content marketing strategy can make all the difference to your business. Content creation is the process that makes sure your business gets seen and doesn’t tumble down below your competitors.

There’s no right or wrong answer as to whether you outsource your content or not, but you can even take a hybrid approach and do both.

This blog is here to help you decide what works best for you and your business. So let’s take a look at outsourcing content vs recruiting in-house content managers, strategists or content executives.

Why outsource content instead of hiring in-house

Here are some of the benefits to outsourcing your brand’s content.

Outsourcing content is flexible to you, your business and industry

Outsourcing content offers you a flexible option as you can always hire the number of writers you want, depending on your project size. You’re in control of content quantities you wish to hit and when the best time to write content is through the year.

A freelance writer’s work can be ramped up or even paused whenever you see fit. A full time employee on the other hand has more rights than a freelance writer. They will be set to your working hours and have a much stricter contractual agreement than a freelance writer or content provider.

If, for example, you’re in an industry that has popular seasons for business, then out of season where potentially you need to recoup your money, you will have a full time writer being paid and potentially their content not providing ROI. This could be an issue for your business’s finances. If you’re outsourcing your content there’s a very good chance you could put your content activities on hold until business picks up again.

Outsourcing your content is usually cheaper than in-house content creation

Once again, you’re in control of your content output. This means you could go heavy on writing and publishing content in the first quarter and not publish for the rest of the year, or you could even keep up regular posting all year round. Either way, you’re in control of when an outsourced writer works with you and when you invest in new content.

An in-house content creator is usually on a higher salary, but there’s also other costs associated with hiring in-house. You will have to factor in training, equipment cost, as well as overheads that come with having other workers.

Outsourcing content means you don’t have to get stressed about overhead costs or replacing IT equipment when it breaks. The independent writer or writers at a content agency will have their own equipment.

Outsourced content is created by writers from agencies that factor in every cost into their overall rates, making outsourcing even cheaper for you.

The cost to outsource your content is covered in our freelance copywriter rates blog – it’s worth checking it out for more information on different types of content and different ways to pay. The cost of a freelance copywriter will be £50 per hour or £500 per day.

Find out more here about copywriter costs.

What’s the salary of an in-house content expert?

• In-house Content Managers will be on a salary of at least £60,000 per annum.
• An all-rounder Content Executive will have a salary starting from £25,000. A more senior Content Executive will cost around £40,000.
• Hiring an experienced in-house Copywriter will also cost you anything from £30,000 up to £60,000, and sometimes more depending on your industry.

Fast and efficient content production

You get your content written quickly and efficiently. Independent writers (quality writers that is) and content marketing companies have well trained and qualified content creators that generate content to the tightest deadlines. It’s the environment they work in due to writing for many different businesses and writing for different target audiences.

It’s important to note that an in-house salaried writer has zero incentive to hit a certain quantity of work (unless it’s agreed into their KPIs) compared to a freelance writer hired by you or with a content marketing agency. Outsourced content writers are paid by what they produce, so they work quickly, concisely and produce quality content.

A slight warning about agencies: There are many amazing agencies out there, but some agencies make the same error: they offer services that they’re not quipped to do. You will find that they offer content writing services, however, they don’t have high quality writers available and they’re working to the tightest deadlines possible. They work on high cost and quick turnarounds. That’s the agency model, I know I’ve worked at many. This is something to be aware of. If an agency doesn’t specialise on content creation, don’t use them. If it’s a sub service, then the quality will be sub standard.

You get more time to work on other things

A proper content strategy requires more than just writing. The best content creation has a thorough process; topic research, keyword research, brief, writing, editing, proofing, and publishing content. And the work doesn’t stop there, you then need to track and measure its performance.

Getting your content live is one thing, then you need to get eyes on the content, then you focus on search engine optimisation and then getting in front of the right people on social media. There’s a lot to focus on and an outsourced writer will know how best to achieve all of this for the best results.

Make the most of writers with wide industry experience

By outsourcing your content, you get the chance to use a pool of professional, experienced and skilled content creators. They will have experience working with other businesses and sectors.

You may be able to recruit an in-house writer who has vast experience in planning and executing a content strategy for a range of businesses. These a content professional with this seniority and experience will cost you.

Make the most of a fresh outside perspective

Unlike an in-house writer, an outsourced content creator is not influenced by any type of internal bias. They will have a fresh view of your business and will provide honest feedback to you and your content strategy.

Discover writers with experience in your sector

Many content writing agencies hire writers that have different specialties and experience. This means that you can specify someone with particular expertise in the topic you want. And most independent freelance writers have experience in a range of industries. They will be up front whether they’re comfortable writing for your business or not.

Content offers measurable value and ROI

Many people aren’t sure whether they’re getting the most out of outsourced content to make it a worthy venture. It’s so easy to track and measure the value and ROI of outsourcing your content. There are some things you can measure in outsourcing, including:

• Conversions on a piece of content (people buying or getting in touch)
• Increase in sales and revenue
• Growth in social media following, engagement and shares
• Increase in online presence (more people finding and coming to your website organically online)

The benefits of hiring in-house

Content might be king because your web content drives organic traffic, revenue, and leads, but it’s vital to get it right. And just like many other business owners, you might be wondering whether you should hire in-house or outsource.

The following are some of the benefits of hiring in-house content creators:

Independency

Having a salaried content creator means that you won’t have to depend on a third party to do the job for you. You’ll have your very own content strategist, content manager or junior content executive.

You will feel in control when you write your own content.

Industry know-how

No one knows your business better than yourself and your employees. You have the knowledge of your industry and, more importantly, understand and know your customers as well as their needs. You can appeal to those needs with a writer who works with your business constantly and is constantly within your environment.

Cost

Budgeting for an in-house writer is different to budgeting to outsource your content. By pushing your in-house writer to write a certain quantity, you could potentially see a huge ROI on your copy. But because they’re an employee you won’t need an additional budget set aside for content creation. Your workers are already on salary, and creating content is part of their daily responsibilities.

It may be wise to still outsource content to a content marketing agency for additional support. Especially if your in-house content manager/strategist needs help with creating new content. Writing content across multiple platforms is extremely time consuming. For a single in-house writer it’s not possible to write and publish a huge amount, especially if they’re writing content across your entire website, blog, external article, guest posts, social media channels, Google My Business posts, magazine features, paid ads and wherever else you wish to feature your content.

The salary you can expect to pay an in-house content expert

• For an in-house Content Manager, you can expect a salary of at least £60,000 per annum.
• An all-rounder Content Executive will have a salary starting from £25,000. A more senior Content Executive will cost around £40,000.
• Hiring an experienced in-house Copywriter will also cost you anything from £30,000 up to £60,000 and sometimes more.

With the above costs you can see that hiring in-house experts is a real investment. It makes it paramount to set clear goals and KPIs for your in-house content team and make content worth the investment. And of course, to ensure you actually get a return on your investment.

Control your growth

In-house content creation gives you better control over your team and business growth, which might otherwise not be attainable from an outsourcing viewpoint. If you see a good ROI from your content then you may want to expand the team.

Final considerations to outsourcing content or hiring in-house

There is far more flexibility when it comes to outsourcing your content. You are in control of how much content is created. You also can create a network of high quality writers for your business, giving you a huge advantage over your competitors.

Hiring in-house however may mean that you find a talented writer who exclusively writes for your brand. Again, this could be a huge advantage over the competition.

Either way, the lesson here is that hiring content professionals, external, remote or in-house, is right for your business and marketing efforts.

Whether you outsource or hire in-house really does come down to your and your business’s needs.

There are a couple more considerations which may confirm exactly what you need.

What content are you creating and what kind of writer/writers do you need?

If you’re like most business owners out there then you may be looking to hire a content creator for your company blog. So, in that case, you should look for an experienced copywriter. They should have blog writing experience, have great knowledge of writing for the web, and be clued up on SEO.

However, it is crucial to note that not every company will need a blog post. For example, SaaS and technology firms might need technical and informative content for their customers in the form of articles and whitepapers. This is very different and you will need a technical copywriter. This is a very specific and specialist type of copywriter that not every content writing agency can provide (we unfortunately cannot provide a writer for this!).

If you need your content to be rewritten then you can hire an editor or copywriter.

The industry expertise needed

How much industry expertise will you need from a writer to get high-quality content? If you’re in a larger industry, the chances are that you will have an easy time finding people with the right set of skills and levels of experience.

On the other hand, if you are in a niche industry, you’re more likely to have a hard time finding a writer with the writing talent and industry knowledge required to write high-quality content for your business.

That said, it will be very easy to determine if outsourcing is better than hiring or vice versa.

If you choose to outsource content to an agency or content provider

When outsourcing your content creation to an agency, you will realise that many content creating companies offer their services in the following ways;

• A managed service
• Self-service

What is managed service content outsourcing?

With managed services you will gain the extra value of convenience and customer service. Managed service content services mean you get access to a dedicated account manager who will consult with you on all your projects.

That way, you are only left with the responsibility of approving their strategy, suggestions and the content coming your way. It’s much like having an extension to your team with an external content manager.

Not all content creating firms have an account manager though, you may be dealing with a Content Consultant, or even the Copywriter or Content Writer themselves. There can be additional costs when you include account management, such as editing, content strategy, proofreading, images, meta titles and descriptions, keyword research, blog posting, and many other content jobs.

Self-service content outsourcing

In this type of outsourcing, you’re given a chance to use an online platform to place content orders. You can then quality check the content with every writer as soon as it has been completed.

This is the cheapest option and is almost similar to the process of cooperating with an in-house writer but with the liberty to manage content through the content creating company’s platform.

Be warned: The common issue with a self-service setup is that the writers in the pool are usually inexperienced writers. So although cheaper, it can also mean poor quality content.

Take content seriously and find the ‘write’ solution for you

Content is an effective sales driver and lead generator. Making the decision to outsource or hire an in-house content creator needs a lot of consideration. You may even want to go down the hybrid route and test what works best for you and converts for your business. The decision you make should be based on your target audience, the quality of work you need, the needs of your business and more so, your budget.

Both outsourcing and hiring in-house content creators have their own pros and cons. You need to understand your content marketing needs, with the final objective of delivering high-quality, exciting and compelling content to your target audience.

Whether you decide to outsource or hire in-house, or even go for a mixture of both, it’s crucial to find the perfect balance without compromising the quality of work.

Need some help getting your content strategy started?

If you’re undecided then you may want to go down the route of a hybrid content model. You can hire a content consultant to work with your in-house content creators. This can either be just to kickstart your content marketing strategy, or even ongoing for the foreseeable.

Additionally, if you do need help recruiting trained and skilled in-house writers, we can help you. Our founder Tom Blake has recruited over 15 quality copywriters and content executives for his content business and for some of the biggest brands in the UK.

Do contact us today for content recruitment support – I’d love to help.