In the marketing field, content is the most important key to deciding whether the campaign is successful or not. “Content is king”, said Bill Gates, every successful entrepreneur recognizes marketing content as the strongest sales driver. According to MarketingProfs, outsourcing product marketing content is an effective strategy. To know how to have satisfied cooperation, follow the below article.
First of all, yes, product marketing content can be outsourced effectively. Many freelance contractors are capable of understanding your complex product and creating essential content—from whitepapers to sales enablement collateral—to help drive revenue.
Wait, you say, Why not just hire another product marketer?
Two reasons: outsourcing is cheaper, and it can produce more content. Most product marketers get pulled into so many meetings and deliverables with engineering and product management that writing falls by the wayside. That frustrates demand generation and sales teams that are waiting for content.
A good product marketing contractor can focus on your content needs, and create spectacular content, without the interruptions that plague in-house product marketers. You just have to manage them effectively.
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Find a great marketing contractor
Most companies need product marketing writing expertise in at least one of three areas:
Consider which of these are a must-have versus nice-to-have, then reach out to your network. LinkedIn is a great tool to search for someone with the appropriate experience, but it may be more effective to create a detailed post and ask your network to respond. Let them know what you are looking for, and you’ll be surprised at the options that will surface. You can also reach out to investors. Most investors in startups have a good network of experts for hire who have helped them in the past.
Notice that I haven’t mentioned freelance sites or placement agencies. You can certainly try them, but, in my experience, writers with a higher level of expertise don’t list themselves on those sites or with those agencies.
Give contract product marketers what they need to be successful
Before any work is done, contract product marketers need to understand your brand and your process, as well as whom they will be working with.
What they’ll need:
As each asset or project is assigned, give the writers the context they need to write successfully:
Invest in a long-term partnership
Historically, product marketing work has been contracted out on a project basis—a single whitepaper or a product launch, for example—which is not very effective, because each project requires ramp-up time.
Plan for a long-term relationship wherein the contract product marketing writer becomes a valuable extension of your team. To start off the relationship well, you might do the following:
You should train contract writers as you would new employees, which means you also need to spend the time to help them improve and give them feedback to help them learn your style and preferences. If you can give them consistent work, do so—to help keep them happy and ensure they are more readily available to meet your needs instead of being busy with other clients.
A great project for a new product marketing writer is a case study. You get the benefit of customers’ being more willing to speak the truth when talking to a third party, and the writer gets the benefit of hearing firsthand the value of your product.
Create a simple way to manage deliverables
Not many people love to manage contractors, but with a few simple tools, the task can be incredibly easy.
The first tool is a basic spreadsheet. It should include task, target audience, due date, status (including reviews/edits), document links, and comments. Ensure that it’s kept current and that it’s a shared document so that you and your writers can always see where things are.
Set clear deadlines and expectations, then ask your contractors to check-in with either a five-minute weekly call or a weekly email. Contractors should report on what they worked on that week, how many hours they spent, and what their plans are for the following week.
Protect their time
Product marketing contractors are more productive than in-house product marketers because of meetings—or rather, the lack thereof. Giving your product marketing writers uninterrupted time to write is the key to getting great results. Of course, you’ll need to have a few meetings to convey the information that your writers need, but they don’t need to be involved in internal team meetings.
Also, you are the expert in your company operations and must ensure that content reviews are done, interviews are set up, and approvals are complete. Making contractors try to wade through internal dynamics is a recipe for failure.
Ask for their input
You are not perfect. Chances are that your contractors have worked with many marketing departments and seen the good, bad, and ugly of marketing. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to get an outsider’s viewpoint on how you are doing—your process, your output, your website, etc. You may find a lot of opportunities to make improvements.
This content was originally published here.
