The ABC’s of Creating an Outsourced Content Machine

Allow me to quote a little Shakespeare. He famously said “…words be made of breath. And breath of life.”
He understood. He got it.
And not just because he made his living off words. Words are really that invaluable, to every aspect of life. Relationships, education, even business.
Especially business.
Even in this hyper-graphical digital age of marketing, good words are every bit important as great imagery. They are often the only way that customers know you at all. Your business’s tone and voice can only really be communicated through words.
Even the most compelling, beautiful marketing video out there usually has a talented scriptwriter behind it. Writing is the absolute lifeblood of building trust and authority. This is why great writing can lead to more orders, more targeted clients and more profits.
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So why do so many business owners make the mistake of treating writing like a chore? Or a necessary evil that they force themselves check off their “to do” list.

Blogging, emails, white papers, press releases, advertisements, leaflets, catalogues. These all are necessary to doing business in the 21st century and they all need quality writing. So, too often, we slog through these painfully and try to do them ourselves.
That’s a shame. Because not only is it an arduous task for most of us… nine times out of ten we aren’t even that good at it
No, this kind of work does not have be done by you. It doesn’t even have to be done in-house. You can outsource writing, because there are gifted specialists hiding around every corner.
I believe that one of the most important ways to grow your company is to expand your staff to include at least one good, capable writer; maybe two. Each who are good at different things. Finding them, qualifying them and hiring them may take a bit of time upfront. But this is one hire that will truly pay off in the long run.
The fantastic news is that they are everywhere. It’s called outsourced content.
Interns, university students, stay-at-home moms, retired folk, out of work journalists. Writers abound. Some write articles, some are trained journalists, some specialize in email marketing, some are professional copywriters. It’s a case of where to look, who to look for and how to choose.
Here are the ABC’s of finding a great writer and locking them in.

Ask

The best way to find a great outsourced writer is to ask around. Ask your friends if they know any reliable, talented writers. Don’t worry about “stealing them” from anyone. Most writers want to take on a lot of different clients and it could actually help your friend if they become a source of referrals to their favorite writers.

Browse

The second best way to find a great writer is to know where they ‘lurk’ online. And these days, your best bet is to find them on sites that seem to have a lot of outsourced content writers, not just a few sprinkled in among hundreds of coders and designers-for-hire.
You want a place where writers seem to have set up camp. A place where many of them have created robust profiles and have lengthy reviews and histories.
Some great freelance writer sites include: Elance.com, ODesk.com, Freelancer.com, Fiverr.com and even traditional job search engines like Monster or Careerbuilder.com, which have the capability for you to post contract or hourly work.

Charm

While you might not want to go with someone fresh out of high school and utterly unproven, don’t hold a lack of experience against a writer. Great talent has to start somewhere. So if you find someone you really like, who’s got a little less experience than the others you encounter, give them a try.
Better to have a gifted writer whose prose excites you than an experienced writer who puts you to sleep. And if you save some money in the process, that’s not a bad thing either.

Due Diligence

Now, no matter how much or little experience your writer says he has, you need to do some checking. Ask for a lot of samples. Even if a writer hasn’t been around forever if they love to write they should have lots of unpublished stuff.
And check references. Find at least two other clients who are willing to rave about that particular writer.
I can’t stress this enough – you need to make sure they have the goods, before you give them dime one.

Expectations

Set them clearly, often and early. Once you have identified a writer you want to work with, send them one test assignment before you commit to something larger.
Let’s say someone quotes you $200 for a project. Now it’s time to get granular. Roughly how many words are you expecting? Do you want images included, a list of resources or a do you expect fully hyperlinked document?
How many rounds of changes are expected and covered by that amount? How much will be paid upfront and how much will be paid once the work is complete. Setting all these expectations from the get-go is the best way to keep an otherwise promising relationship from going sour.
All it takes is one misunderstanding for either of you to never want to work together again. Clear it all up ahead of time.

Finally…

Do you like this person? Maybe this writer has come highly recommended by people you trust. Or maybe they have the most impressive profile on the site you found them on. But when you get on the phone with them, do you find them…arrogant? Condescending? In any way off-putting?
Call it quits sooner than later. If you are committed to finding a writer for the long term, your time is better spent developing a working relationship with someone you click with. There’s no sense is investing any extra time into a writer whose phone calls you dread.
As they say – life’s too short. And there are too many writers out there for you to settle. Find someone you actually like.
So now its time to get to work.
Let’s get you moving and acting on these ABC’s (and D’s and E’s and F’s… Here’s an easy but effective way for you to dip your toe into the outsourcing ocean. I’ve kept it super affordable, too, so you have no excuse.

Now Do This

Identify an in-house written piece that could badly use a rewrite. Could be a web page, blog post, white paper, email text, leaflet, quote letter. Anything that’s been making you cringe for a while.

1. Go to Fiverr.com. Register for free. You can use your Facebook or Google Plus account or you can manually register.
2. Visit the Copywriting section and look around. Click on a lot of profiles to get a feel for who is out there
3. Then choose three writers who look good to you. Scrutinize their reviews and their ratings and see how you like their intro.
4. “Place an order” with each of them at $5 to edit that same article.
5. When they send it back, read all of them yourself first to get your untarnished, uninfluenced gut check on which you like best.
6. Sit down and review all three pieces with key staff. This could include partners, customer service reps, anyone who has a good sense of what your customer will and won’t respond to.
7. Choose your favorite. If you’re lucky, you’ll have two you love.
8. Now assign two blog posts, emails, whatever you most urgently need written to those writers.

You Did It

You found writers you like and you didn’t spend a ton of time or loads of money doing so.
You now have a sense of what a blog post would cost or what each custom brochure might set you back. I must add here that you should expect to pay more than $5 for quality content but Fiverr is a great place to get toe-dipping.
Start budgeting those per month and assign them out.
Before you know it, you’ll have a reliable self-starting, compelling writer cranking out regular content for you. Content that will make your customers love you, trust you…and buy from you.
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