Content is an effective marketing strategy to boost SEO rankings, increase visibility, and use writing to build a loyal following. Unfortunately, content writing and content creation that resonates with your audience take up your marketing team's time and effort. This realization often precedes many business owners to seek to outsource their content marketing strategy.
Consequently, the internal costs associated with social media marketing, marketing automation, email marketing, or any other marketing function are why many companies opt to outsource content marketing for enhanced success.
With nearly 5 billion people online and more than 4.5 billion using social media, it's no wonder most companies use content marketing to reach their prospective customers. Harnessing the expertise of a marketing agency for outsourced marketing is becoming more of a necessity than a "nice-to-have."
The internet has empowered today's consumers to conduct their own research on products and brands they want to patronize. As a result, they're more discerning in their solutions to their problems. They know what professional content looks like when they see it. A one-shot blog post no longer cuts the mustard. An effective marketing plan has become absolutely essential and outsourcing content creation has become commonplace.
However, outsourcing content writing and content marketing allow companies to hire a writer to create tailored articles directed at specific audiences to ensure a higher likelihood of conversions.
But marketing agencies are really expensive, right? Well, not necessarily. Outsourcing marketing can actually save your company money even as it leads to an increase in sales. Keep reading to learn why, when, and how small businesses, SaaS companies, and companies of all sizes should outsource content development and content marketing to make the most of this impactful digital strategy.
Content marketing involves writing and publishing relevant, useful, and engaging content that resonates with an audience's needs. Businesses employ a content writer or content writing services to create blog content, attract a certain following, generate interest in a brand and its products, and convince people to convert to customers.
However, to create meaningful content, companies must know who their audience is, what their needs are, and how those people prefer to receive information. Delivering the right message to the right people at the right time is key to content marketing success. It represents the ultimate marketing goal for any marketing department.
Content outsourcing can include any of the following online marketing staples:
While many companies choose to write their content, most businesses prefer to outsource their content marketing to content agencies and freelancers. They must trust an external freelance writer, marketer, or content marketing agency to create material for their brand.
This company, writer, freelancer, or another marketing team will learn about your business. Any digital marketing agency worth its salt will seek to gain an understanding of your goals.
The marketing professional will then write content that resonates with your audience and helps drive marketing strategy success. Additionally, by outsourcing content marketing to an agency, companies can benefit from the expertise of a third-party team. Outsourcing marketing frees you up to focus on other aspects of your business.
The video linked directly below provides further detail about how to go about outsourcing your content marketing.
Size, budget, and marketing needs determine whether outsourcing your content marketing is right for your business.
It's important for any business owner to identify particular challenges that third-party agency writers can solve. Here are four reasons to outsource content marketing and how to recognize when it's time to consider making the move to an external marketing expert, agency, or another marketing firm for outsourced content.
Growing a business requires significant expenses. That's why 70% of companies outsource tasks to reduce overall costs. By delegating your content marketing to a third-party company, you save the cost of hiring a full-time employee to write your blog post. Through outsourced marketing, you can focus more attention on your sales team. Content outsourcing and marketing also eliminates visible and hidden onboarding costs that average $4,425 per employee.
If you don't have the resources to hire a full-time staff member, it's time to consider outsourcing your content marketing to an agency or other external marketing department. Step one, then, is to compare the cost of hiring a full-time employee against that of engaging with an outsource content writing team. Outsourcing digital marketing is not something you ought to do on a whim.
Maybe you have several terrific ideas for effective content, but you simply don't have the time to put everything into action. Perhaps writing isn't in your wheelhouse or you don't want to add marketing responsibilities to your work week. This is just one example of where outsourced marketing can represent a solid investment.
Hiring an outside writer or agency to take over your digital marketing services reduces your workload and frees up your time to focus on other job responsibilities. If you're feeling overwhelmed or having trouble getting everything done, you may need to outsource your content marketing.
If you don't have enough people in your marketing department to write your content, or you simply don't have a qualified writer to effectively communicate your ideas to your audience, outsourcing to an agency may be a viable option. Outsourcing content creation gives you access to a wider agency talent pool with various skills, training, expertise, and experience. Oftentimes marketing dollars can even be reallocated to outsourced sales, further improving your bottom line.
Choosing an agency with the necessary background to write meaningful and relevant content for your specific audience cuts down on project completion time. It allows your outsourced marketing team to publish expert content that is effective and efficient.
When your marketing department must multi-task, their stress levels rise. Distractions actually impair brain function.
Not only does this diminish efficiency, but it also impedes your marketing campaign productivity. When you outsource content writing, you relieve your staff's workload and allow them to give undivided attention to specific tasks.
Outsourcing to a digital marketing service helps your team complete projects sooner. They can tackle new projects more quickly, boosting overall business productivity. If workers are spread too thin, outsourced content creation is a viable solution. In fact, an outsourced marketing department might positively reshape the way you do business.
You can make the shift to outsourced marketing in five easy steps if you feel content outsourcing is right for you.
Assess your content marketing plan and determine what projects you should outsource. Maybe all content writing needs to be delegated to a third-party writer. Or maybe you have in-house experts who could tackle some of your topics. Whether it's individual assignments, social media posts, or content marketing in general, you must first identify which tasks you want to outsource.
Identify which areas of your content marketing efforts are costing your business money, time, and resources. This step alone might help you make your marketing outsource evaluation.
You can resource any part of your strategy with low ROI to a professional writer who can quickly and easily complete the task. Make the most of your outsource content writing investment by ensuring your content marketing plans are full of high ROI tasks.
When you assign content creation to a third-party marketing service, it's imperative that you give clear instructions to your content creator about what you want and what goals you're trying to achieve with your marketing effort.
If you're unclear, the writer at that marketing firm may deliver content irrelevant to your audience and must be rewritten. This takes more agency time and may cost more money, negating the benefits of outsourcing to a content writing agency in the first place. Avoid confusion by providing clear expectations to your content agency for outsourcing marketing from the get-go.
An outsourced marketing writer armed with plenty of helpful resources is more likely to succeed at their inbound marketing task, whether that's blog writing, visual content, or other high quality content.
Prior to beginning content production, supply your agency writing team with any information that would be useful in broadening their knowledge of your company, your audience, or the topic of the assignment. The less an agency writer has to research on their own, the lower the chances of the designated content team delivering erroneous or mistaken information as part of your outsourced marketing package.
It's important to know whether your hired writers are hitting the mark with great content for your audience. This is where marketing technology (such as Google Analytics) can lend a hand as you make an outsourced marketing decision. Marketing agencies will be quick to ask you for these numbers at your first meeting. Don't attempt to build your marketing plan or brand awareness strategy without them!
Track the progress of your outsourced content with metrics that reveal click-through rates, engagement, and how long people remain on your blog post or web pages to read your content. From these results, you'll be able to tell whether your readers are finding your content useful, which marketing materials are resonating, and what areas need improvement.
Outsourcing your content marketing strategy can be difficult at first. Any outsourced marketing should not be viewed as a cure-all. Marketing agencies will need your advice and partnership to generate quality content. However, once you start the outsourced marketing process, you'll see content is just another piece of your marketing activity puzzle to solve.
Struggling to start with your own content strategy? Thinking you might benefit from outsourced marketing services? Outsourcing content creation might be a solid first step in the right direction. Maybe you do need to look into a growth marketing agency to help pick up some of your public relations slack. We're here to help!
Image Credit: Lukas; Pexels. Video Credit: Jason Whaling. (2019, September 23). Stop Working So Hard To Make Content! (How To Outsource Content Creation) [Video]. YouTube.
