When it comes to content marketing, small businesses often find themselves struggling to produce the same level of quality and quantity of content as their larger counterparts. This can be a result of a lack of time, resources, or both. Outsourcing content marketing can be a great solution for small businesses looking to improve their content marketing strategy without breaking the bank. But before outsourcing, it’s important to understand why and how to do it correctly. A post on relevance.com can give you more information related to outsourcing content marketing for small companies.
Content is an effective way to boost SEO rankings, increase visibility, and build a loyal following. Unfortunately, drafting material that resonates with your audience takes time and effort.
That’s why many companies opt to outsource content marketing for ultimate 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.
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. Content marketing allows companies to create tailored articles directed at specific audiences to ensure a higher likelihood of conversions.
Keep reading to learn why, when, and how small businesses and SaaS companies should outsource content marketing to make the most of this impactful digital strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Outsourcing content marketing allows you to benefit from the expertise of a third-party company while freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business.
- From saving you money to increasing productivity, there are many benefits to outsourcing your content marketing.
- When you’re ready to outsource your content marketing, you can do so by following five simple steps that will help to ensure overall success.
What Does it Mean to Outsource Content Marketing?
Content marketing involves writing and publishing relevant, useful, and engaging content that resonates with an audience’s needs. Businesses use it to attract a certain following, generate interest in a brand and its products, and convince people to convert to customers.
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.
Content marketing can include any of the following:
- Email campaigns
- Social media posts
- Blog articles
- Website content
- Infographics
- White papers
While many companies choose to write their content, most businesses prefer to outsource their content marketing to content agencies and freelancers to create material for their brand.
This company (or freelancer) will learn about your business, gain an understanding of your goals, and write content that resonates with your audience and helps drive conversions. By outsourcing content marketing, companies can benefit from the expertise of a third-party team while freeing themselves up to focus on other aspects of their business.
The following video provides further detail about how to go about outsourcing your content marketing:
Source: Jason Whaling on YouTube
4 Reasons to Outsource Content Marketing
To determine whether outsourcing your content marketing is right for your business, it’s important to identify particular challenges that third-party writers can solve. Here are four reasons to outsource content marketing and how to recognize when it’s time to consider making this move.
1. Save Money
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. This 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.
2. Save Time
Maybe you have several terrific ideas for effective content, but you simply don’t have the time to put everything into action. Hiring an outside writer 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 on staff to write your content, or you simply don’t have qualified writers to effectively communicate your ideas to your audience, outsourcing may be a viable option. Outsourcing gives you access to a wider talent pool with various skills, training, expertise, and experience. Choosing someone with the necessary background to write meaningful and relevant content for your specific audience cuts down on project completion time and allows you to publish expert content that is effective and efficient.
4. Greater Productivity
When staff members must multi-task, their stress levels rise, and distractions actually impair brain function. Not only does this diminish efficiency, but it also impedes productivity. When you outsource content marketing, you relieve your staff’s workload and allow them to give undivided attention to specific tasks. This helps them complete projects sooner and tackle new projects more quickly, boosting overall business productivity. If workers are spread too thin, outsourcing is a viable solution.
Outsource Content Marketing in 5 Steps
You can make the shift in five easy steps if you feel outsourcing is right for you.
Step 1: Identify Tasks to Outsource
Assess your content marketing plan and determine what projects you should outsource. Maybe all content 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.
Step 2: Consider ROI
Identify which areas of your content marketing efforts are costing your business money, time, and resources. You can resource any part of your strategy with low ROI to an experienced writer who can quickly and easily complete the task. Make the most of your investment by ensuring your content marketing plans are full of high ROI tasks.
Step 3: Give Clear Instructions
When you assign content creation to a third-party source, it’s imperative that you give clear instructions about what you want and what goals you’re trying to achieve. If you’re unclear, the writer may deliver content irrelevant to your audience and must be rewritten. This takes more time and may cost more money, negating the benefits of outsourcing in the first place. Avoid confusion by providing clear expectations from the get-go.
Step 4: Supply Helpful Resources
A writer armed with plenty of helpful resources is more likely to succeed at their task. Supply your 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 a writer has to research on their own, the lower the chances of delivering erroneous or mistaken information.
Step 5: Track Progress
It’s important to know whether your hired writers are hitting the mark with your audience. Track progress with metrics that reveal click-through rates, engagement, and how long people remain on your web pages to read your content. From these results, you’ll be able to tell whether your readers are finding your content useful, which topics are resonating, and what areas need improvement.
Outsource Your Content Marketing Strategy
Outsourcing your content marketing strategy can be difficult at first. However, once you start the process you’ll see content is just another piece of your marketing puzzle to solve.
Struggling to start with your own content strategy? You may need to look into a growth marketing agency to help pick up some of the slack. We’re here to help!
Image Credit: Lukas; Pexels; Thanks!
Video Credit: Jason Whaling. (2019, September 23). Stop Working So Hard To Make Content! (How To Outsource Content Creation) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2fJyAWsSWY
This content was originally published here.