To succeed as a content marketer today, you have to create fresh content on a regular basis. Marketing media such as email, social networks, and search engines have become busier of late, and every marketer has to create more content to cut through the noise. According to the unwritten rules of the blogging world, you should publish new blog posts 3-5 times a week for maximum growth of your blog. Most marketers find it impossible and undesirable to have that volume of content created in-house.
While you could curate a small percentage of your content, original, branded content is the crux of any content marketing strategy. So what’s an efficient and cost-effective way to keep up with content demand? You could work with content partners.
Types of content creation partners who can fuel your marketing efforts
There are three major types of content partners who you could work with to create content for marketing activities – content agencies, freelancers on aggregation platforms and freelancers whom you discover and contact directly.
I. Content agencies
The advantage of working with a content agency is that it is a fully managed affair, and you don’t have to worry about back and forth with writers, edit work and think of topics. Content agencies take complete responsibility for content delivered, allowing you the freedom of making specific demands. Most agencies have account managers and project managers who assess requirements, choose the right content writers, editors and deliver content as per your requests.
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- Godot Media – If you are looking for an affordable yet fully managed content writing service, Godot Media is a good bet. They work on different types of content such as eBooks, blog posts, whitepapers, copywriting and product descriptions. When an order is placed at Godot Media, an account manager is assigned to understand project requirements, quote and help you place the order. The projects team then assigns the work to an appropriately skilled and experienced content writer. The content is also reviewed and edited by an internal team, which is a big bonus.
- Great Content – If yours is a global business targeting diverse demographics, you may want to consider working with a content agency such as Great Content that can create content in different languages. While this service may increase project cost, you can efficiently target and connect with different groups of people by creating content in their native tongues. However, this strategy also requires you to optimize other parameters of content marketing such as publishing time.
- Brafton – For content marketing to work, you need the right combination of a smart marketing strategy and effective marketing content. Brafton is a content agency that helps businesses create their content marketing strategy. Unless you have a specific content strategy or requirements in mind, you can benefit from the analysis and strategy-building skills of an established content agency like this one. Brafton also aids in the promotion of the content created based on their strategy.
- EditorGroup – This content agency provides enterprise level content creation and editing services that can be useful in creating internal documents such as annual reports for marketing meetings. If your needs extend beyond content creation to include activities such as the creation of proposals, prospectuses, style guides, brochures and video scripts, EditorGroup is a content agency with which you can consider working.
II. Freelancers on aggregation platforms
Freelancer aggregation platforms ensure delivery of content, but can’t generally mediate to ensure quality or the implementation of your specifications. The advantage of working with such platforms is the flexibility of being able to make small orders for quick deliveries. However, if your content projects are time-sensitive and quality-dependent, it’s safer to work with a managed agency that guarantees high-quality results.
- Upwork – Upwork or Hiring Headquarters is a massive online platform that hosts a network of freelance copywriters, web content writers, technical writers, marketing copywriters and other types of writers whom you can hire for one-off or ongoing content creation projects.
- Copify – Copify is a comparatively compact freelancer hiring platform that works with only previously assessed and approved copywriters whom you can hire for urgent copywriting requirements. In addition to having freelance writers for common content creation requirements, Copify also hosts freelancers specialized in providing email writing services and eCommerce content writing services.
- WriterAccess – WriterAccess is a relatively small freelancer hiring base that has an added advantage of built-in content marketing tools such as persona builder, journey mapper and content distributor to ensure users a fully-rounded experience. However, the platform works on a monthly subscription basis and not a pay-per-project basis.
- Textbroker – Textbroker is a freelancer hiring platform that hosts content writers who are US based. If you are creating content for a US-based business and would like to work with writers who have that background, you may consider Textbroker to find your content writers. The platform works with writers of different skill sets and pay grades, so you can make the right choice within your budget.
- Scripted – Scripted is a freelancer hiring platform that favors long-term relationships between businesses and freelancers. If you want to hire a certain writer whom you want to work with throughout the year, but sporadically, you could consider engaging a content writer from Scripted.
III. Freelancers whom you engage directly
Successful marketers typically work directly only with freelancers whom they know well. The challenge of working with new freelancers directly is that you can’t be certain of their performance or dependability. There’s also no way for you to hold independent freelancers accountable. Further, finding freelancers specialized in the skills you desire can be tough. Freelancer discovery requires posting on multiple job sites and screening of a large number of applications. However, you can consider working with freelancers who are skilled and dependable when your budget is very limited.
- Craigslist – Craigslist is an unconventional but effective platform to find a freelance writer with whom you can work directly. However, if you want to attract high-quality leads via Craigslist, ensure to use the right terms in your job postings. For instance, make sure to mention a location and use words such as “ghostwriting”.
- Freelancer.com – Freelancer.com is a massive network of online freelancers with whom you can engage in one-off projects. Each time you post a project, freelancers make bids which you can assess and accept based on your requirements. The downside of working with a website such as this one is that you have to filter a large number of bids before you arrive at the one which you want to accept.
- Moonlighting.com – Using Moonlighting.com, you can share project requirements and get matched with pros in your location who are willing to work on demand. However, since the website isn’t dedicated to supporting content creation projects, your choices are more likely to be limited.
- LinkedIn – On LinkedIn, you can use terms such as “Technical writer”, “Freelance content writer” and “Freelance copywriter” to manually find high-quality leads of people who you could work with. While this technique of identifying freelancers is very effective, it’s also very time-consuming.
- Twitter – Twitter’s another great social network through which you can find qualified content writers. Top-notch content writers typically stay active on such social networks to build a presence and attract quality jobs. You can even assess a writer’s ability by viewing their social media posts.
When choosing your content partner, ensure that you make a choice based on your project requirements and budget. Accordingly, you can switch between content agencies, freelancer aggregation platforms and freelancers whom you contact directly so you optimize your content creation process year round.