Hiring a freelance writer can make your life easier. Whether you need an expert wordsmith to craft the perfect message or simply have too much work on your plate to keep up with content creation, a professional freelance writer can get the job done.
If you haven’t hired a freelance writer before, you may not know what to expect and how to get exactly what you want for your money. These five tips will help ensure a positive experience for both of you and increase the likelihood of getting engaging, on-point content that generates results:
Know what you want to accomplish before work begins. Do you need a blog post that attracts potential buyers to your website? Are you looking to boost engagement with your existing customers through social media? Will a white paper, case study or thought leadership article position your brand as a leader in your industry? Clearly communicating goals and objectives will better enable your writer to compose copy that meets these aims.
Set expectations at the start. Making sure you and your writer are on the same path will go a long way toward creating a smooth process. Put a contract in place that defines the scope of work including the type of content, desired length, number of interviews, if any, and how many rounds of edits will be provided. Specify deadlines and payment details. It can also be helpful to discuss work process. For example, will your writer be expected to participate in meetings, collaborate with editors or designers, or upload documents to a particular platform? Tell your writer whether the work will appear under their name or someone else’s. Most writers want to include work in their portfolios so be sure to alert them if there’s a reason they can’t.
These five tips will help ensure a positive experience for both of you and increase the likelihood of getting engaging, on-point content that generates results.
Help your writer understand your organization and target customer. Sure, they can check out the “about” page on your website but by sharing buyer personas, product details or your mission statement, your writer will have a stronger grasp of who you are and what you do. Describe your company’s preferred voice, tone and brand messaging, and define any corporate jargon or buzzwords that are to be included in the content. Pass along a writing sample, if you have one.
Provide an outline and resource material if possible. It can be helpful to write an outline yourself that includes ideas you want a blog post or paper to cover, or at least give your writer a topic and angle. While freelance writers are experts at conducting interviews and research, you can lend them a hand if you share existing marketing collateral, studies, published articles or data that they can use in preparation or cite in an article.
Give feedback during and after the project. Make your writer aware of any revisions that need to be made. If they missed the mark, rewrite a couple of sentences to indicate what you want. In addition, point out something that you like so they can head in that direction. A brief conversation can also clear up any confusion. Conversely, they’ll appreciate knowing if they did a great job.
The longer you work with your freelance writer, the better they will understand your organization and be able to deliver on your content needs. Ultimately, you’ll want to develop a lasting relationship that achieves your content goals from the first project well into the future.
Kristin Alexander is a Seattle-based freelance content marketing writer. Her specialties include cloud-based SaaS, ecommerce, government, wine, sales tax compliance and the nonprofit sector.
This article originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse.