Ready to give up on outsourcing content creation? Here’s your culprit.

September 18, 2017 by Patti Podnar

Outsourcing content creation can be a pain in the neck. Finding a good content writer who has availability, fits your budget, and doesn’t miss deadlines is no easy task.

The kicker is that sometimes, even if you find a content creator who meets those criteria and follows your instructions to the letter, you still feel a sense of disappointment. The writer did everything you said to do, but it’s just a tad bit…off. Why is that?

The most likely culprit is that, even if your content briefs nail the details, they fail to mention the big picture. I’ve seen some incredibly detailed content briefs over the years — briefs that delved into things like customer personae, competitors, market and company size, etc.

But with a few exceptions, nobody ever tells me what the content is for unless I ask. (And I don’t mean likes and shares. Those are metrics, not purposes.) Some may not know the answer themselves (which is a whole different problem); for others, it just never occurs to them that the content’s purpose might come in handy for the writer to whom they’re outsourcing content creation.

And that’s a huge mistake, especially when you’re working with a top-notch content writer. It seems counterintuitive, but the greater the expertise of your writer, the better your content brief has to be. There are plenty of content writers out there who will take your instructions at face value and deliver what you ask for. Experienced writers, on the other hand, drive you crazy with questions, because no matter how detailed your content brief is, these writers are looking for opportunities to use nuance and subtlety to make your content as good as it can be.

Let me show you what I mean. Here’s a hypothetical brief for a roofing supply company that’s experimenting with outsourcing content creation:

Client: Elvis’s Roofing

Topic: What’s trending in green roofs

Product: The client sells roofing supplies, equipment, and supports

Target audience: Contractors, facility managers, and building owners

What to avoid: Avoid mentioning competitors or linking to sources that mention competitors

That’s not a bad content brief if you’re just looking for an overview on green roofing options. But I’d be pestering you with questions:

Are you trying to support the sale of green roofing supplies?
Are you trying to discourage the sale of green roofs?
If you’re trying to discourage the sale of green roofing supplies, why? Is it because those products have a lower profit margin? Or maybe because previous clients have been less than satisfied?
Do you have a “soft” purpose for promoting green roofing supplies (like highlighting your commitment to the community)?
Are you trying to steer the market in a specific direction (like Google does with their search algorithms)?
If you are trying to steer the market toward green roofing, why? Is it because the supply side is becoming more green? Do you get tax credits for selling a green roof?

I know, I know — blog posts aren’t supposed to be obviously promotional. But there’s no need to be promotional when little tweaks work just as well.

This is where an experienced content writer really shines. Sometimes it only takes a word or two. The example I always fall back on is “Fully X% of Americans are trying to lose weight” vs. “Only X% of Americans are trying to lose weight.”

See the difference? Changing one little word completely altered the message. The first sentence is positive, while the second implies that more people should be dieting.

Little tweaks during the content creation process can nudge readers in the desired direction through things like:

Headlines and subheads
The order in which you present certain facts
The examples you use
The use of comparative adjectives: “fully” vs. “only”, “almost” vs. “not quite,” “success rate” vs. “failure rate,” “tried to” vs. “did.”

Yes, it really is that simple.

The bottom line on outsourcing content creation

Sure, some content writers suck. But many writers are capable of delivering far more than content that’s so bland nobody knows why you wanted it in the first place. And that means you’re missing out on some really amazing content.

If you’re not going into depth on your content brief, there’s a good chance you’re wasting resources by outsourcing content creation. Unless there are confidentiality issues, let your content writer peek behind the magic curtain. Share the big picture. Tell them what you’re trying to accomplish for each piece of content.

You just may get more than you bargained for — in the best way possible.

Feeling ignored because your content writer isn’t pestering you with the kind of questions that would make your content better? I can pester with the best of them, so just get in touch.

Editors and marketing managers: How to help your content writer succeed

September 5, 2017 by Patti Podnar

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For years now, I’ve described the internet as an all-you-can-eat buffet for content writers — meaning that there’s enough work out there for as many writers as want to partake. Unfortunately, the reverse is true, too. There are soooo many freelance writers looking for work, and, as far as work quality goes, they range from fried spam to reverse-seared beef tenderloin. And sometimes it’s hard to know what you’re going to get, which means that there is no single guaranteed way to help your content writer succeed.

The reality is that there’s no amount of editing that will elevate the fried spam crowd, and the beef tenderloin writers will often “manage up,” making you a better editor. For everybody else — the center of the bell curve, so to speak — creating good content is a collaborative effort. And if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, even top-drawer writers won’t be able to do their best content marketing work.

So here are some tips on how to help your content writer succeed.

Start with a good content brief

Contrary to popular thinking, a good content brief isn’t a list of keywords to use. In broad strokes, a good content brief covers the following (at a minimum):

Your target audience
The target audience’s knowledge level
The target audience’s position in the sales funnel
What you want them to think, do, or feel after reading the content
Why that’s important
The names of any product lines that can be indirectly promoted through examples
Competitors, competing products, and anything else that should be avoided

In a nutshell, the most important thing you can do to help your content writer succeed is to tell them what the heck the content is for. What are you trying to accomplish with the content you’re asking them to write?

Realize that writing content is like baking cookies

This is an analogy I use with every new client:

Writing content is like baking cookies. I could bake the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet, but that’s not going to do either of us any good if you were hoping for oatmeal.

The point is that there are a gazillion “right” ways to approach a topic. If the copy your writer delivers is not at all what you were hoping for — sure, maybe you’ve encountered a lousy writer. But if the writing itself is pretty good, it’s more likely that the two of you just had a communication glitch. After all, J.K. Rowling isn’t the only best-selling author to receive repeated rejection letters. So did Agatha Christie, C.S. Lewis, J.D. Salinger, and other names you’d recognize. That’s because their writing wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t what those particular editors were looking for.

The point is that, before you give up on a writer, ask yourself whether you could be an oatmeal cookie lover turning your nose up at truly exceptional chocolate chip cookies. If that’s the case, ditch the first draft, but save the writer. Use your feedback to steer the writer in a different direction, and you’ll eventually get there.

Be specific with your feedback

Editing is as much of a skill as writing. Telling the writer only what you don’t like accomplishes absolutely nothing; your feedback has to include guidance on what to do differently.

I’ve been doing this off and on since 1990, so I thought I’d seen it all. But just recently, I was the recipient of this feedback: “This misses the mark.”

Uhm…OK. Sure — it was obvious that the editor didn’t like what I had written. But without any guidance on why she didn’t like it, attempting revisions would have been like playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey after a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc: just a matter of blind luck that, hopefully, wouldn’t include painful injuries or embarrassing face-palms.

Seriously, though: The one thing I wish editors understood about how to help content writers succeed (the ones who have been writers usually do) is that there are a bajillion different ways to approach a topic. Feedback such as “this doesn’t work” just narrows it down to whatever a bajillion minus one is — and neither you nor the the writer have that much time. For the love of all that’s holy, please be as specific as you can. Even if you can’t quite put into words what you’re looking for, at least be as specific as you can about what you don’t like.

Don’t trip yourself up by trying to be nice

There are probably some baby writers with a lot of potential who would disagree with this, and that’s fine. If you’ve got a promising baby writer to nurture, nurture away. We need them. But for those of us who have been there and done that — please, please, just get to the point. Experienced writers can tell when you’re dancing around something, and, unless you’re video conferencing, they’re biting their tongues to keep from yelling, “Just say it, already!” While you might think you’re being diplomatic, experienced writers will think you’re being vague and unhelpful.

Conclusion

Please don’t conclude that I think writers bear no responsibility. A writer who misses deadlines or churns out sloppy work should be immediately expelled from your rolodex (does anybody even use those anymore?). The writers you work with, whether freelance or in-house, should be every bit as professional as your other colleagues. But before you throw up your hands and ditch the fifth writer in a month, take a look in the mirror and see if there’s anything you could be doing to help that content writer succeed. If so — what do you have to lose by giving it a try?

For you writers out there…did I miss anything? What would you love for the editors you work with to know?

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7 Practical Times to Outsource Content Creation

December 26, 2016 by Patti Podnar

Well, partly because my kids are out of school for Christmas break — and partly because it’s just what you do this time of year — I thought I’d post a roundup of the main times you might want to outsource your content development. If you have more reasons to add to the list, please feel free to do so in the comments!

Your writer will be out on maternity leave, vacation, etc.

No matter how happy you are with your writer, things come up. People have babies, become sick or injured, take vacations, care for family members, etc. In other words, life happens. If you’re in a situation where your go-to writer is temporarily unavailable, outsourcing is a great alternative to either going on content hiatus, struggling to deal with it yourself, or hiring a temporary in-house replacement.

You have no time or no talent.

SMBs, especially, operate under an all-hands-on-deck mandate. Everybody is already doing as much as they can and stretching their skills to their limits. Deciding to outsource content creation is an alternative to asking on over-extended employee to take on yet another task or to pass it on to someone who has no talent or experience in developing marketing content. You wouldn’t ask your receptionist to write code for your SaaS product, so don’t ask her to write content for it, either. Contrary to popular opinion, there’s a difference between typing and writing. (If anyone finds that offensive, I didn’t mean it that way. I worked for a gentleman one time who would always ask me to “type something up” — and it stuck with me.)

You need to focus on core processes.

I’m the last person to downplay the importance of quality content, but let’s be real: You’ve got to have a viable business for content to make a difference. It’s kind of like being a parent. You can outsource things like childcare and education, but you can’t outsource the responsibility for developing your child’s character. There are some things only you can do. Figure out what those are; then think about outsourcing the rest.

Your current content isn’t getting the job done.

First, let’s clarify what “the job” is. Most content marketing gurus will tell you that traffic is everything. And, if ad revenue is your main source of income, that’s true. Depending on your business model, though, low traffic isn’t necessarily a problem if your conversion rate is high.

So your first job is to make sure you know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish with your content. Then, if your current content isn’t accomplishing whatever your goals are, you might consider outsourcing (especially if content creation was an add-on job for an existing employee rather than a primary job).

Sometimes, though, it’s more subtle. If you’ve got a subject-matter expert doing your writing, but your target audience consists of total newbies, you’re probably either talking over their heads or aiming too far down the sales funnel. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see things from the customer’s perspective, which is why I vehemently disagree with the notion that a writer has to be an industry expert. You’re the industry expert. Your writer needs to be an expert in writing, marketing, business, etc.

And then there’s the boredom factor. If your writer is bored — and, trust me, that’s pretty common — your audience is going to be bored, too. Sometimes you just need fresh ideas.

You want more than writing.

There’s a reason I don’t call myself a “freelance writer”: My services go way beyond churning out 500 words on a given topic. If you know exactly what you’re trying to say, why you want to say it, and how you’re going to get the message across, you need a writer. But if you want expert advice and guidance in addition to the writing, you need a content strategist. And, if you don’t happen to have one of those in-house, that’s a very good reason to outsource.

You have more content than you can handle.

If you’re in the fortunate position of having an editorial calendar that’s so full of content ideas that there’s no way you can get them all done, consider outsourcing some of the work. You can always hire someone in-house after you’ve verified the need and the effectiveness, but outsourcing is a great way to try before you buy.

You lose a writer.

Sometimes people move on, and hiring a replacement can take a long time. Outsourcing content creation can be a great way to fill that gap. And you never know — you could discover your next superstar employee that way.

Sure, outsourcing is the wave of the future, and there are many companies that decide to permanently outsource certain functions. But sometimes you need a temporary solution, whether it’s to cover a vacant position or to test your need for another permanent employee. I don’t know of a single writer who requires a long-term contract. Sure, most would prefer that. But, when you’re first starting out, they don’t know if they’ll like working with you any more than you know whether you’ll like working with them. So don’t be afraid to seek out temporary outsourcing — it can be a win-win for everyone involved.

And now for the shameless self-promotion: If you need content assistance — whether it’s a single blog post or an entire content strategy — I’d love to chat about how I can help.

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