If you’re considering hiring blog writers, here are some tips!
You want a company blog, but you don’t have the resources to build and develop it yourself.
We’ve heard this many times before. Often, CEOs – after coming across other great business blogs – understand that they, too, need a blog to make their company stand out from the competition. But how? What if the interest is there, and there are resources available, but no one to fill the shoes of writer, producer, and editor? This situation happens more often than you’d think.
In this type of situation, CEOs look to hire someone to create and grow their blog content. But even hiring comes with many additional costs. If you hire a writer to work full time in your agency, you’re looking at paying a yearly salary, benefits, vacation and sick time, and other additional costs such as office space and computers. You’ll also want to be sure that the writer you hire has experience managing social media accounts, is a pro at SEO and content management, and also understands how to interpret and utilize analytics.
We have a better suggestion for you. Hire a writer (like us) who gets it. You don’t have to pay us vacation time. You don’t have to give us health and medical benefits, and we won’t ask you to buy us a computer, either. When we write for you, we can use our bylines or ghostwrite and use yours. We understand that making the decision that goes into hiring blog writers shouldn’t be made lightly, so we came up with a list of questions prospective clients often ask us.
How will you know how to explain things that are intrinsic to my field?
The answer is simple: Research, and a lot of it. One of our clients was particularly stuck on this question at first. Working in the medical field, he couldn’t understand how we’d be able to describe procedures and medical techniques without the proper training. The truth is, we don’t need to be a surgeon to understand the theory of surgery.
We do, however, have to research thoroughly and interview key players in the field – including you. We’d never ghostwrite for a CEO without getting to know her company or product. We’d be sure to prepare all of our questions for editorial meetings and t0 continue the discussion throughout the process.
Will the writing sound like me?
If you’re looking for a ghostwriter, hire a great writer. He or she should be able to capture the essence of the person for whom they are speaking. Great writers understand that different characters – and in some sense, your staff are characters – have different voices. Some fields lend themselves well to more informal writing, while others might require a more professional tone.
The key is finding a partner that will interview you, take the time to learn your story, possibly even tour your office and interview your employees and use your product! If your blog writer takes the time to get to know you and your company, you can be sure he or she will put in the effort needed to make the writing ring true.
If I don’t know what content to share, how will someone else know what to write?
Hire someone who understands and appreciates analytics. Yes, it is your blog and you have the freedom to write about whatever you’d like, but if you’re looking to use your blog as a tool for publicity to get you more customers, you first have to understand what they are interested in reading. If you were to work with us, we’d provide you with a BuzzAudit before we even begin writing.
This report would detail what keywords your ideal clientele are already searching for, as well as suggested blog post titles and social media scheduling tips. Based off of your BuzzAudit, and more additional research, we’ll come up with even more suggestions for evergreen content to take your blog to a new level.
I think I know who my audience is, but I’m not positive. How will I figure it out?
The first step to preparing strong blog posts is understanding who your readers are and what they’re looking for. What are their motivations and desires? How would they benefit from your blog? The first step we take in determining your audience is creating a persona report. This will help you figure out how to target your blog posts. After reading this report, you’ll no longer wonder who your audience is anymore.
What if I’m not pleased with the content?
This is such a realistic and important question. Before hiring blog writers, you should be reading some of their current writing. Most writers will have easy-to-access content spread all over the web, and can point you to specific posts if they’ve done mostly ghostwriting in the past. You may also want to request writing used for different clients so you can see how the writer’s tone changes while working with different clients.
After you’ve read a writer’s writing, you should have a good idea of whether you like their style. We’ve found that monthly editorial calendars and client calls work well. We create all of our editorial calendars a month at a time in advance. It’s up to the client to work with us approving content, so you’ll never be surprised by anything we’ve written.
How will I know if it’s working?
Ah, such a tricky question. This may be the toughest, yet one of the most simple, answers yet. Let’s start with the tough part: With evergreen posts, some get immediate traction, and others take more time. The exciting thing about this is that some posts could gain readership later, and all of the posts will be optimized to promote your company for years to come.
Were you looking for the simple answer? It’s easy: Analytics don’t lie. Your analytics will be proof that your posts are working. What’s better than that?
Oh, right – increased sales.
Are you wondering what our favorite question that prospective clients ask us is? It’s “When can you start?” We love connecting with great small businesses who understand the importance of a company blog, and we’d love to talk more with you.
Are you ready to take the plunge? We’d love to answer any additional questions you may have for us. Contact us today!
