As a small to medium-sized company, it’s typical to have an ‘all hands on board’ approach to operating. You are often made to wear multiple hats and do a variety of different jobs, which can not only be overwhelming but may also extend beyond the capabilities of your skillset. Because of this, outsourcing certain tasks can start to make a great deal of sense.
You will quickly find that content creation is a large portion of keeping your business updated and relevant online. Search engines and readers alike love to see fresh, new content, updated regularly. While you could spend all of your time dedicated to this task, delegating it to a professional leaves you free to focus on the rest of your business needs.
The person you choose to create and market the content for your business will essentially become the voice of your company and brand. It’s for this reason that this is such an important decision when it comes to finding and hiring that person. Here are some excellent tips for what to look for when hiring your content marketer, so you attract and find the best person for the job, who will put the best face on your company.
#1 Good grammar is just the beginning
It’s pretty obvious that your content marketer should be flawless when it comes to grammar. They’ve also got to have a passion and enthusiasm for their work that takes them above and beyond. When these two qualities come together, you’ve found the perfect storm of excellence for your content creator.
Nowadays, we live in a world of 140 character tweets, acronyms for every action and emotion and autocorrect. Not only has this taken the skill out of our writing, but it’s also zapped much of the heart and soul out of it as well.
Take the time to ensure that your new content creator candidate has got the skills necessary for the job. Read through some of their previous work for the obvious errors. When it comes to the more complicated grammatical stuff, Hemingway App can help you find any other mistakes.
But, it’s not all about the grammar – no, that’s just the start. If a writer doesn’t have a passion for their subject, it’ll show through in their writing. When someone loves what they’re talking about, it absolutely shines through. Emotion and personality in writing are what makes it more engaging and exciting for your readers.
#2 Getting to the heart of it
Along the same lines as having a passion for the topic, your content creator should recognise the elements of your business that get to the heart of people so they can inject their content with those selling materials.
Headlines, images and other elements of your content that invoke emotion and interest are the things that will get your content read and shared. And, it’s a great asset if your content creator can recognise and utilise these things.
#3 Knowing the how and the why
Your professional content marketer should have no problem telling you how, and maybe more importantly, why they’re using a certain content strategy. They’ll know the ins and outs of SEO and be able to give you details on why one approach is likely to work better over another.
For instance, if you’re looking to get long, detailed content written, your writer may let you know that they’d prefer to keep any text within 2,500 words because that seems to be the magic number where higher rankings on search engines happen. Perhaps they’ll use a word counter like Easy Word Count to make sure they’re sticking to that number.
Remember that you’ve hired this person to do this specific job, so trust in their abilities and let them do the job they were hired to do.
#4 Trust in them
There’s no reason why you should have to micromanage or constantly look over the shoulder of your writers. There should be a certain level of trust in the relationship, where you know they’ll do their job to the best of their abilities, and if anything should arise that you need to know, they’ll come to you for advice. As stated above, you’ve hired them for a reason, so let them do that job they were hired to do.
Your content creators should feel a certain sense of creative autonomy, where they have individual liberties to produce what they want without being stifled. Their skills and instincts should be trusted until they prove otherwise. But, if you’re on the fence and need to ensure there’s no plagiarism happening, look to Australian Help and Academized for plagiarism checkers and guides on grammar and writing accuracy.
#5 Education is never ending
A professional writer who is truly committed to understanding their subject, audience and market will always be looking for ways to improve on their work and better understand all aspects of their job. There’s no substitute for someone who is driven to do better and has the commitment to want to learn. Sure, there’s the technical factor they need to have, but if they’re missing that element that drives them always to want to do better, you may be missing a big piece of the puzzle.
Business is always changing; things evolve, new technologies and strategies are developed. If your writer isn’t willing to learn about them and adapt to them, they may end up holding you back.
#6 Polished perfection
In the end, your content sets the voice and tone for your business. It’s what your customers will read to get a sense of you and your company overall. For this reason, not only does it have to radiate with enthusiasm about the business, but it’s also got to be spot-on when it comes to grammar, spelling and all other elements of writing.
Mistakes, especially those prominent ones that are easy to spot, can cause a reader to pause and think twice about the overall credibility of the information. They may wonder if it is laziness or incompetence that allowed those mistakes to be made – and either way, it can hurt the credibility of your business and lessen the level of trust your readers have in what you’re telling them.
When it comes to accuracy, take the time to make sure everything is perfect. It’s better to take a little extra time to review something than trying to rush it out only to realise after the fact that it’s full of errors. Especially when you’re referencing outside sources, you want to make sure things are done correctly, so utilising a tool like Cite It In will ensure you’re properly citing your sources.
Hiring content creators for your business is a task that should be taken seriously, with plenty of attention and time devoted to seeking out and finding the absolute perfect candidate. They will ultimately set the tone for your company and be the voice speaking to your readers. But, at the same time, it should not be a stressful or hectic endeavour. Use these incredible resources to find the best candidates and hire the standout ones who will take your business to the next level.
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Upwork
Whether you need someone to do a one-off job for you or you’re looking for something more long term, there are available freelancers in any area of expertise through Upwork. Set your parameters around timeline and budget, then let candidates bid on the job.
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Freelancer
Sit back and let the qualified freelancers compete for your approval. Payments are only made after the job is done and you’re totally satisfied with the work.
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Essayroo
Turn to the professionals at EssayRoo for reliable, premium quality content writing and editing assistance. Always available, and always completing your job to your total satisfaction, the crew at EssayRoo is stacked with experienced professionals in the field. That means your work will always be done by someone who knows what they’re talking about.
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Text Broker
When you use a service like Text Broker to get your content written, you’ll be getting a premium service for a fraction of the price. That means you’ll be able to get even more content created to satisfy your readers and to keep the search engines purring. Have freshly updated information whenever you need it and stay within your budget with Text Broker.
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People Per Hour
It takes just a few minutes and a few easy steps to get that much closer to finding and hiring the perfect content creator for you. On People Per Hour, there’s always someone who’s able to get the job done for you, no matter what you need to be done on any number of topics.
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Boomessays
Quick turnarounds, quality writing and your complete satisfaction – that’s what Boom Essays is all about. Submit your project for them to complete, and they’ll pair it up with one of their experts best suited to do the job. Each member of their team is an experienced pro in their field, so you’re sure to get relevant, quality written work, no matter the topic.
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Craigslist
Yes, you can even find that on Craigslist! You’ll still have the opportunity to work with anyone, anywhere, but an added advantage to being able to use a localized search with Craigslist is that you’ll be able to look for local talent to work with, so you can sit and speak face to face about what you’ll need, and even set up regular meetings to go over details of the business.
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Ukwritings
You’ll never have to worry about the quality of content you’ll be getting when you leave your project in the hands of the team at UK Writings. Because each of them is a professional and vetted expert in their field, you can be sure your content will be quality, topical information that your readers will be interested in getting their hands on.
Take the time to hire the perfect person to represent your company through the creation of content. Even if it’s a one-time project, the tone being set through language or errors can impact your business in the long run. What resources are you using to find content marketers for your business? Which tips can you give that are missing in the list? Let us know in the comments so we can all learn from each other!
Gloria Kopp is a web content writer and an e-learning consultant from Manville city. She graduated from the University of Wyoming and started a career of a creative writer. She works as an editor at Resumention resume writing service. Besides, she is a regular contributor to such websites as Studydemic, HuffingtonPost, Engadget, etc. Contact her via LinkedIn.
