Outsource content marketing, as well as traditional marketing, has changed. The question is no longer, “Should you be using content marketing?” The question is, “Why aren’t you?” A good content marketing strategy has the potential to generate three times as many leads as paid searches. It’s an excellent way to circumvent the problems associated with the increased use of adblocking software. Significantly, it undermines the effectiveness of more traditional forms of advertising.
Outsource content marketing presents its own set of unique challenges. It requiring great skill and a serious time investment to create engaging content that speaks to the correct demographic. Whether you need to generate regular content for your business blog or you want to keep in touch with fans on social media platforms, choosing to outsource content marketing makes it possible to effectively manage your time and ensure a steady stream of fresh content.
5 Reasons to Outsource Content Marketing
Most companies outsource content marketing because they lack the time, staff, or creative know-who to generate high-quality content consistently. Why is that so important? Looking at the figures behind the facts makes it easier to understand why outsourcing may be an important step in taking your content marketing to the next level.
Your Competition Is Outsourcing
The simple fact is that 62 percent of companies are outsourcing work. They can’t all be wrong, can they? Content creation is demanding. Often, it requires a skill set that doesn’t exist within your company infrastructure, especially if you run a small company and don’t have the budget to hire an in-house writer or editor. Even if you’re staying on top of your workload, are you able to create content at the speed you competition does, or are they leaving you behind? Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are spending an average of 22 percent of their budget on content marketing, with 37 percent of organizations planning on stepping up that budget. If they’re putting more of those funds into outsourcing, how much longer can you keep up?
Your Readers Aren’t Paying Attention
The old cliche “content is king” is true. The purpose of content marketing is to provide solutions and answers to the problems consumers are facing on a daily basis. It provides the incentive for them to look for your brand rather than you paying for advertising to grab their attention. However, there’s so much content on the internet it’s increasingly difficult to gain visibility. The median average time for someone reading an article online is just 37 seconds. That’s a small window of opportunity to hook someone’s interest. If you’re writing your own content, is it good enough to cut through the noise on the Internet and capture the interest of people with very short attention spans and countless distractions?
You Don’t Create Enough Content
Second to quality is quantity. When you put out lots of content, you improve your visibility in search rankings, and puts you in a stronger position to serve the answers to a wide variety of questions. You also build your reputation as a reliable source of quality information. Find time to create additional opportunities to engage with your audience and potential customers. The statistics speak for themselves. Companies that publish at least 16 blog posts per month get 3.5 times more traffic than companies that publish four or less blog posts per month, and 60 percent of marketers publish a piece of content every day.
You Don’t Have Time
Writing good content takes time. In the early days of your business, you may have the opportunity to create content frequently. As your business grows and more pressing matters take up more of your time, you may find it more and more difficult to produce new material. Furthermore, the most successful forms of content take the longest time. For example, long-form content (articles in excess of 2,000 words) generates nine times as many leads as short-form content. Additionally, marketers using video enjoy 66 percent more qualified leads per year, which is a strong argument for outsourcing this time-intensive form of marketing.
You Need a New Perspective
How many times are you going to write an article about your brand before you run out of things to say? Eventually you’re going to hit a creative wall and find it difficult to make content that’s interesting enough to engage readers. Fortunately, bringing in freelancers brings in new perspectives. Fresh eyes look at tired problems in new ways. With almost 50 percent of millennial workers in the U.S. freelancing (over 57 million people), there are plenty of perspectives to find.
5 Steps to Outsource Content Marketing
Outsource content marketing is a matter of finding the right people for the right job. Consider these steps:
Determine which jobs you want to outsource
Content marketing is much more than writing a blog or shooting a video. The task involves a number of roles (writer, editor, filmmaker, graphic designers, researcher, project manager). You may not want to outsource every aspect of the work.
Justify the cost
Outsourcing may work out to be more cost effective than employing full-time staff to do the same work. You still need to set your budget carefully and decide if your business is large enough to cover the expense. You may need to do the work yourself to keep your marketing costs as low as possible.
Define your goals
If you don’t know what you want your content marketing campaign to achieve, you don’t know which freelancers are going to be the best for job.
Document your strategy
38 percent of B2C marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, yet such a document has the potential to keep a campaign on course and minimize the risk of costly mistakes. As part of a strategy, it’s a good idea to have a written content brief so freelancers know what’s expected of them before any work commences.
Find good content creators
If you’re looking for a few writers or filmmakers, a content marketing platform is a great way to find the talent you need. Content creators join the platform and provide details on their skills and areas of expertise. They make it easy to search the database for the creators that are the most suitable for your needs. If you want to outsource every aspect of your content marketing, then a content marketing agency is a better option, providing a complete solution for your marketing needs.
Is Outsource Content Marketing Right for You?
Outsourcing isn’t always the right option. When you’re starting out, trying to get a fledgling business up and running, you may prefer to create your own content to help you find a voice and establish your reputation. However, if you only have a small team and lack the skills to create high-quality content, or if you want to keep down costs by avoiding hiring full-time staff, it makes sense to outsource content marketing.
