Content marketing is a powerful tool that can help your brand reach customers and grow your business. But it’s only as effective as the content you produce, which means you need to find a good writer who understands the strategy and will be able to help you leverage your content for maximum impact. Read more about the difference between a content marketer and a content writer here.
Hiring the right writer can be one of the most rewarding parts of running a content marketing strategy. The right writer can create relevant and engaging content, which will give your audience an incentive to read more. In this article, we’ll be exploring everything you need to know about hiring the right content writer for your business.
But Why are Content Writers in High Demand Now than Before?
Content marketing has been a long-time marketing strategy, but brands didn’t embrace it until recently. Here are some of the reasons why:
a. Forced Digitization
The COVID-19 period was an unfortunate time, and it forced brands to go digital in any way they could, and e-commerce sales skyrocketed. Consumers who were used to traditional marketing started to get more accustomed to online content marketing. After the pandemic, companies continued to make use of digital marketing, hence the need to hire more content writers.
b. Freelancing is Now Widely Accepted
Freelancing used to be considered a side job or something writers did between jobs. Unlike now, freelancing wasn’t considered a full-time career. Brands are now hiring more content writers because of the advantages that come with it. Freelancers give businesses the opportunity to create and dissolve teams for a particular project. They can also hire specific writers for specific niches when necessary.
c. Emergence of New Niches
So many industries are now buying into content marketing. Different niches are created e.g. technical writing, medical writing, legal writing, SaaS, etc. Companies are now looking for writers who can research effectively and also complete a task from start to finish i.e., create content and also manage the content on social media.
Importance of Content Writers to Business Activities
Hiring a professional content marketing writer is necessary in order to improve your brand’s value, make more sales, and generate leads by creating original and engaging content.
Content writers are important for business activities because they help with the following:
a. Better SEO
Search engine rankings are highly important for a brand so as to reach a wide audience. A professional content marketing writer knows how to create content that will drive traffic and rank highly on Google.
b. Social Media Marketing
The importance of social media marketing as a marketing tool cannot be overemphasized. However, it capitalizes on quality content creation in order to promote products and services. That’s where content marketing writers come in.
c. Quality Research
Content marketing writers do a lot of research when they are creating a promotional campaign or writing content. Without doing proper research, a lot of time and money would be wasted.
d. Necessary Advice
You might have a little experience with content marketing, but it can never be as good as an expert. Content marketing writers will give you the best advice possible on how to create content, the type of content to create, and how to promote your content.
How are Content Marketing Writers Hired?
If you need to hire content writers, there are lots of professional writers available on upwork, fiverr, and other content marketing agencies. They are available as:
a. Freelance Writers
A freelance writer works as a self-employed writer. They work for one or several companies at the same time. Hiring a freelancer for your comatose comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. With freelance writers, you will be saddled with less responsibility for your company’s content creation. Once you have a good strategy in place, you leave the rest of the task to a writer. Also, hiring a freelance writer is a way to cut labor costs.
On the other hand, hiring a freelance writer can be expensive and you might even experience strains in communication, compared to having a full-time writer. You need to spell out your expectations and deadlines before committing your content marketing to a freelance writer.
b. Contract Writers
This refers to a writer who has a temporary contract to do a particular task but is not an employee of your company.
c. In-house Writers
This is the opposite of a freelance writer. An in-house writer is a writer that works for your company full-time. They work for you and create content to meet your company’s goals in exchange for a fixed monthly salary. In-house writers are equally as good as freelancers; they are more dependable, and they take deadlines seriously. However, finding a reliable in-house writer can be a huge task, from putting out job adverts to conducting interviews.
What to Look out for in a Writer’s Application
If you’ve been following the article, you would have noticed I occasionally brought up talks about good writers and bad writers. It takes a certain amount of expertise to be able to create content that drives sales and generates leads.
Here’s what to look out for in a writer’s application when hiring:
(i) Previous Work Experience
When interviewing a content marketing writer, you have to look out for their past work experience. Look out for writers with a background in journalism, copywriting, and blog content writers with experience in digital marketing.
(ii) Technical Knowledge
If your business is technical, then you should look for a writer who understands the nature of your industry. The writer should have experience writing white papers, e-books, and other relevant content.
Other qualifications you should look out for include knowledge of SEO, professionalism, and versatility.
Necessary Skills A Content Writer Should Have
An excellent content writer is an essential part of a content marketing team. How can you find one for your business? You just have to look out for the necessary soft and hard skills.
Soft skills refer to essential behavioral skills that make people want to work with you, while hard skills refer to technical skills. A good writer should have a combination of both skillsets. Here’s a short list of the essential skills your next content writer should have:
(i) Adaptability
I would like to relate this to “versatility”. A good writer should be able to write in different tones based on clients/audience needs.
(ii) Time management
This goes without saying. A good content writer should be able to meet and stick to deadlines.
(iii) Problem solving
You hired a content writer because you needed to improve your content marketing strategy. A good writer should offer solutions instead of compounding the problem.
(iv) Research Skills
Experienced content writers are well-versed in researching on a wide range of topics.
(v) SEO and Content Strategy
Lastly, you might have the most beautiful content but still won’t be able to get it to readers. Experienced content writers use SEO tools to keep your website ranking highly on Google.
How much should you budget to hire a content writer?
The cost of hiring a content writer depends on whether you are hiring a full-time writer, a contract writer, or a freelance writer. If you are hiring a full-time writer, the average pay per year is $48,715 (N 20,341,922.55), according to research by Glassdoor.
Most freelance writers charge per word, and typical pricing ranges from $0.05 (N 20.88)- $1.50 (N 626.36).
What the Job Description of a Content Writer Should Look Like
The job of a content writer is to create content that will promote the products or services a company offers. Here is a sample “job description” you can put out when you want to hire a content writer.
“ Here at Hera Marketing, we are one of the leading marketing agencies in the country. We have a 4.0 rating from our employees. We are currently hiring an experienced content writer to join our content marketing team. If you are dedicated, ambitious and interested in this role, please apply here.
Responsibilities
- Produce well-researched content for publication.
- Create content schedules/calendars.
- Communicate and work closely with a writing team, including a content manager, social media manager and editor.
- Use Search Engine Optimization in writing to increase the chances of online visibility of a website in search results.
- Create related content for multiple platforms like websites, videos, blogs, email marketing, etc.
Qualifications
- Should have a good command of the English language, idiomatic expressions and current trends in slang.
- Ability to work independently with little or no daily supervision.
- Strong working relationship: willingness to communicate with clients, colleagues, and management.
- Good time management skills.
- Proficiency in digital writing tools like Google docs, Microsoft Word, Excel, Spreadsheet and PowerPoint.
- Familiarity with clients’ requirements, brand image, products, and services. “
In Closing
Still thinking of hiring a content writer? Then you shouldn’t look too far.
Hera Marketing is one of the best content marketing agencies, and we boast of competent content writers. Save yourself the stress of setting up interviews by outsourcing your content marketing writing needs to us. You can also read more about our services and what suits you.
We have worked with over 24 startups to drive conversions through increased community presence and relevant blog posts that we help distribute. To understand our process, book a 15 - 30 minutes meeting with us.
