As the lead of one of our content marketing teams and a past freelancer myself, I know all too well that outsourcing content writing can be a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While outsourcing content has helped us to scale up our content marketing production significantly, it\u2019s presented a number of obstacles that I\u2019ve needed to tackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this post, I\u2019m going to share our now tried-and-true method for how to set up a content outsourcing workflow that really works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are several steps you should take to lay the groundwork for future outsourcing. They are essential; without them, even the most carefully designed content workflow won\u2019t be able to keep everyone on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I won\u2019t go into too much detail on each of the steps because they all deserve their own separate article, but I\u2019ve provided some helpful links in case you want to learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Setting goals for your content marketing strategy will give you a clear focus for what you need to create moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to boost organic traffic, focus on educational articles, research papers, and press releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you want to generate leads , create whitepapers, ebooks, and product-focused blog posts that feature a lead generation form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to giving you strategic focus, this can also help your writer understand how product-oriented a piece of content should be, and how to optimize a post for specific goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to defining your audience , you want to understand their core demographics, but you also want to go beyond the basics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understand their key pain points, and how your product or service can help solve those pain points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Determine how they interact with your business and flesh all this out with buyer personas .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use these insights to choose the right topics and keywords as well as the writing style and the in-post examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start by creating your semantic core. It will help you organize your keyword\/topic strategy, improving your ranking potential moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using seed keywords, conduct keyword research to find additional relevant keywords. A list of 10 seed keywords can quickly expand into a list of over a hundred additional terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organize these keywords by volume, keyword difficulty, keyword intent (to help you match the right keywords with the right posts according to funnel stage), and the pillar topic, removing any irrelevant keywords along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your semantic core will help you to choose your topics and create a content plan that will appeal to your target audience and help you reach your specific goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use sites like Quora , competitor reviews, and \u201cmost asked questions\u201d on Google to find topics related to your seed keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask your social media followers what they\u2019d like to learn about, or what questions they have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Check out what your competitors are doing and elevate it, either through keyword gap analysis or by repurposing their content and building upon it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you\u2019re clear about your goals, topics, content formats, respective funnel stages, and marketing channels, you can work out your content calendar . At this stage, make sure that you don\u2019t interfere with other teams\u2019 publishing plans (if relevant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recommend setting out your content plan and calendar on an Excel sheet, detailing the following for each individual item:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you know how much and what type of content you want to outsource, figure out exactly how much our team has to spend each month and on each individual piece before entering negotiations with writers. The budget can influence which writer I work with , how long the pieces will be, and what\u2019s involved in the creation process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Above, we looked at the steps you need to take to create a stable footing when it comes to your content outsourcing moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now it\u2019s time to move on to the actual process of outsourcing your content with a freelance writer or third-party content agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I usually request a draft at least one week before my desired publication date so I can carry out the quality assessment (either on my own or with my team) and request revisions if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember to ask the writer upfront how long they\u2019ll need for revisions, and factor that into the draft deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re working with a new content writer that you\u2019re not sure about, consider pushing the deadline up further if possible; this will give you more time as you get used to working together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When choosing a writer, my strategy is to choose the right person for the specific type of content that you\u2019re working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have one writer, for example, who I outsource high-value, strategic articles to, one who writes short-form copy, and another who excels at research analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re looking for a new writer , ask your network for referrals, and find someone who has the experience to do the job well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes third-party platforms like our Content Marketplace can be helpful, as we\u2019ve already vetted the writers for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A strong, detailed brief will communicate what you expect, including who the audience is, what keywords you want to be targeted, and how long the piece should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The keywords that you want to target, which can be pulled from the semantic core or through new keyword research<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does your content need to be approved by other team members? Make sure they see the brief before the writer ever gets to work on the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my experience, it\u2019s also best to think ahead. If you have several pieces around a single topic that you want to outsource, plan how you\u2019d like to interlink them and see if you can have one person write all of the pieces for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do a manual review to make sure that the content adheres to our branded style guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use third-party tools can help you assess the SEO potential and grammar. I use Alien Road SEO Writing Assistant and Grammarly , for example, as add-ons in my Google Docs to run a quick check when I get the first draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have an expert review the post. If your article is product or industry-specific, get the right team member to review the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter how many times you\u2019ve worked with a writer in the past, there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019ll want to request revisions after they submit the first draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll want to start by knowing upfront what the writer\u2019s contract allows . Some will limit the number of revisions, and some might limit the amount of text that they\u2019re willing to change. Take this into account, getting feedback from all team members before sending revision requests to the writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many writers will only include one or two revisions in their contract with the flat fee, but our Content Marketplace allows three .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if multiple revisions are available, make sure that you make all revision requests in the first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll also want to be mindful of word count when it comes to revisions. If you ask the writer to add another section, it may increase the word count enough that you need to pay more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For best results, be specific with your feedback . Give examples of what you are looking for and provide actionable tips for how the writer can get you the desired end result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Include visual guidelines in the brief that you send writers. Let the writer know upfront if you have specific requirements about<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will increase the likelihood that the writer will choose an image that aligns with your brand and message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if you do have an in-house design team, order the design in advance so it will be ready by the time you have your first draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can also use WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO and Alien Road SEO Writing Assistant to ensure that my post is good to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When uploading your post, take the time to tweak it as necessary. You should do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once your post is published, you\u2019ll want to start tracking it immediately. Use Google Analytics to monitor traffic and engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watch for posts that are performing well, which can give you and your freelance team more insight into what content is performing best and how to optimize the writing moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outsourcing content isn\u2019t always the easiest process, but having a strong workflow that\u2019s organized and optimized for success can make an enormous difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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How To Outsource Content Writing for Success As the lead of one of our content marketing teams and a past freelancer myself, I know all too well that outsourcing content writing can be a challenge. While outsourcing content has helped us to scale up our content marketing production significantly, it\u2019s presented a number of obstacles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31573,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31297\/revisions\/31573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}