One thing to keep in mind when outsourcing blogging, copywriting, SEO copywriting or other content creation, is the voice of the expert vs the voice of a reporter. Anyone who is a good researcher or journalist can research a topic and write an article. However, they come from the voice of a reporter, rather than voice of the expert. It's best to find someone well-versed in your industry or field. Another thing to take into consideration is to make sure that the articles your outside source is sending you is unique content -- not massed produced. Test it by taking the first few sentences of a sample article and copying it into the Google search box. If it comes up more than once, then it's mass-produced. That won't help with SEO as the original article's website gets the authority.
I've been fortunate to work with a number of high-profile SaaS companies over the years, from Cloudflare to Proton Mail, and the most important consideration I've come across when producing blog content is to understand and determine the audience. A blog can server multiple purposes, and not all content types are there for top-of-funnel market awareness, and acquisition, but also for communicating the brand and brand messaging. More generic, acquisition content targeting awareness and the TOFU users can be outsourced and scaled, leaving in-house writers to pursue topics closer to the brand, articles focused on customer retention, and refining content based on product updates and features.
Outsourcing content creation can be a fantastic idea depending on the size of your team, budget, and organization. It allows you to channel your company resources into non-content tasks such as building funnels, collaborating with sales, and strategy creation. However, the risks with outsourcing content are also valid. Realistically, unless you provide the agency/freelancer with an ideal customer profile, keywords, product information, etc., you will likely have to do some lifting to ensure the content is what you originally had in mind. An in-house team already (hopefully!) knows your product, customer demographic, and especially your brand voice. You won't need to teach these to an agency/freelancer, and it allows your team to produce content faster without as much of an uplift.
If you feel the costs of keeping blogging in-house are constantly rising while the number of published posts and their quality is decreasing, it is time to think about outsourcing blogging. The costs of having an in-house writing team are always higher than outsourcing. However, it's worth bearing them until your team creates quality content regularly. However, over time and for various reasons, its efficiency may decline. Old team members have decided to change jobs, new ones aren't feeling the vibe, or you're running out of fresh perspective. That's when efficiency and quality start to decline, driving up costs. If such a scenario occurs in your company, it is worth outsourcing blogging to external writers. Here, your most significant consideration and the reason behind the decision to outsource should be an answer to the question, "will it pay off for the company financially."
The most successful content programs I have managed have involved a mixture of in-house teams (to reach our 1st party audiences) and publishers (to reach 2nd and 3rd party audiences). Blogging should be executed by in-house teams who live and breathe the brand. Outsourcing this content to third parties - even with a strong brief - often results in lower quality content that just doesn't resonate authentically. Scale can be achieved through publishers who work with your brand to understand goals and KPI's and create collaborative scale. It's a balance.
Protecting intellectual property is a primary reason to keep company blogging in-house. A freelance blogger might have a great portfolio, but they typically don’t have a particular allegiance to any one organization. Even if they are honest and trustworthy, they could be approached by competitors to share their knowledge and experience from past work. An in-house marketing team is great to exercise more control over the company narrative and secrets.
If the company is looking to establish thought leadership in their industry and generate leads from their blog content, then it may be worth keeping the blogging in-house. This way, the company can control the messaging and ensure that the content is aligned with their business goals. If, however, the company is looking to save time and money, then outsourcing the blog may be the best option. In this case, it is important to find a reputable and experienced blogger who can produce high-quality content that aligns with the company's brand.
Leave the SEO blog writing to the professionals. If no one on your staff has in-depth experience in this area, you can outsource this writing more affordably than if your full-time team member took the time to learn this craft. Successful blog writing is not just writing content, but also incorporating the relevant keywords so the article has a chance at ranking high enough to be seen at all. Freelancers can knock out a 1,000 word article in 2 hours for $50, while your staff might take all day and not do as good a job. If you have an expert on your team, use them, otherwise outsource to a freelancer you can find on a website like Fiverr.
Some people imagine that blogging is a simple task that almost anybody can do on the side. The reality is that to do it well, especially if you want your blogs to be optimized for search engines, it requires specialist knowledge and skills. So, consider how many blogs you will be publishing per week, and the resources you will need to achieve this. If the volume is too low to justify hiring a specialist for the task in-house, then it's probably best to outsource it. You also need to consider who will be responsible for proofreading, formatting and publishing your blogs. And who will take care of on-page SEO and promoting the content once published? If you outsource just the writing part, you will still need to cover of all these tasks in-house.
Discussing long-term goals is one of the most crucial considerations when determining whether to outsource or keep blogging in-house. Outsourcing could be an obvious selection, but you need to invest well to train your employees, endow them with an adequate skill set and continue doing so to get more benefits in the long run. Sometimes outsourcing gives them leverage to excel and obtain your short-term and long-term goals in the future by aiding you in focusing on the core business. Often, small businesses benefit from upskilling their in-house team. Recruiting in-house is advantageous if the long-term goals are closely aligned.
It's tempting to try to outsource your blog from the very beginning - but that can be a mistake. This is especially true when you're looking to have a blog with personality and serve as a resource that people want to come back to. Before you outsource the bulk of your blogging, it's essential that you have developed a style and personality that your outsourcing partners can follow. This won't become apparent until you've written a good bit of content yourself - especially if you don't consider yourself a writer. When you've done this, yourself, you can give clearer guidelines when outsourcing and they person or team you're outsourcing to will have a lot of reference material to work with.
Getting a fresh perspective can outweigh knowledge of the company. Outsourcing blogging can be a risk because much of a company’s data, brand voice, and understanding of the work process can be taken for granted by those working in-house. Outside bloggers may need time to get up to speed with new information. However, having a new voice from the outside can benefit your blog because they can bring something new that internal voices may not think of. It can be a great way to find new talent and bring a new voice to your company.
Founder at TEFL Hero
Answered 4 years ago
The more complex your product or industry is, the more valuable an in-house writer is - they are able to learn the landscape, talk about your users' pain points, and sell your product or service effectively. On the other hand, if your industry is straightforward and easy to understand, outsourcing is perfectly fine - there is much less upside to hiring in house.
Blogging is all about passing the information to your audience and the way they perceive that information is based on several factors, some of which include what content is on the blog, and what is the source of the blog. If your in-house blog is already big and established, and you have thousands of loyal readers, it could be a great option to utilize it. There is a good chance you will lose some readers if you hire staff or start adding external guest posters. But if the content of your blog is diverse and has several themes, then a company can outsource a blogger, provided they have knowledge for the job and similar writing styles that fit the company’s brand. The main thing to consider when determining whether to outsource or use in-house bloggers is the privacy of the content. You do not want to have bloggers from outside accessing company secrets in order to create blogs for you. They may use that information later to jeopardize the operations of your business.
Outsourcing Blog Content to Industry Specialists Gets You More Diversity. Hiring an in-house writer limits the types of blog and social media posts you can publish. When you outsource your blog writing needs to a platform with a diverse group of specialists, you don’t need to worry about limitations. Also, getting a fresh perspective is a good thing someone outside of your company will have an easier time creating emotional distance from your brand and producing content that is credible and objective in the eyes of the audience. But also creating content in-house is not entirely bad, one benefit of having a competent in-house team is the ability to eliminate dependency on outsourced content. With the right skills and experience, your team can create high-quality content at scale. Your writers meet your content needs.
Easing the workload and getting a new point of view. Outsourcing can be to get more content out without giving extra duties to in-house team members, but more importantly getting an outside perspective can yield a new and exciting voice for your company. The disadvantage would be that an outside voice would have less internal knowledge of the company and the process, which would take time to learn or lead to inaccurate posts. Having a fresh perspective that can bring something new to the blog is the best reason to outsource.
Companies should wait to build a strong relationship with their readers before considering outsourcing blogs. They should understand the tone and style their readers love to hire writers who understand their website. Additionally, it allows them to educate writers and set expectations in their plans for the type of content they will receive.
If blogging is being used as a way to market your brand, one must consider who you trust the most to provide honest and accurate content that’s a reflection of your principles and expertise. If you only trust people in-house to do that for you, then you should only allow for in-house bloggers to write on your behalf. If the subject matter isn’t as specific and you do trust outside content creators to help you build your business brand, then by all means, go ahead and hire from outside the firm. The upside to outside sourcing is that you’ll find the best writers. The upside to keeping it in-house is that you’ll find those with the most expertise on a subject. Your best bet might be to use in-house bloggers and hire a third-party proofreading service.
The budget you allocate for a specific project and the cost difference between an outsourced party and an in-house employee must be considered. During the onset, it would be best to have a particular project for the project, inclusive of its resource needs. Hence, it gives you a transparent direction in making the correct choice. In the above-mentioned case, the small business owner didn’t have a transparent view of the budget needed to recruit an in-house resource or obtain outsourced skills. Mainly, small business owners consider charges the best factor in outsourcing vs. in-house decisions.
In-house vs. outsourced blogging: In-house blogging reduces costs. Spending money on a freelance writer or blog management software is expensive. If you want to avoid editing blog posts yourself, expect to pay at least $45 each article. Better posts In-house blogging produces better postings. People take greater pleasure in their job when they're directly involved. Give employees voice and power Engaging and empowering employees by letting them write or produce for the organization. They'll like becoming a business voice and building their writing portfolio. Outsourced blogging advantages Time-Saving Depending on research and connections, writing a blog article may take 1-3 hours. Authors' authority Find a reliable writer. By association, personal blogs will boost your blog's authority. SEO-optimize: Now freelancers aren't only writers. They know SEO best practices and offer optimized, professional articles.