If you already have a company blog, you know that maintaining it and posting regularly is hard work. Maybe it’s so time-consuming that you’re entertaining the thought of hiring a blog writing service to help lighten the load.
But just as you know that you can’t start a blog with the snap of your fingers, there’s a certain amount of thought that must go into working with a blog writing service, even though you won’t need to spend the time writing as you have in the past. Therefore, it’s important to prepare yourself for some of the common problems that might crop up when working with somebody outside of your company to provide content for your blog. Here are three common problems you might encounter, and what you can do to avoid them if you’re in the market for hiring a blog writer.
Problem: The writer doesn’t have the level of industry expertise that I have.
One reason to start a blog is to establish your company as a thought leader in your industry. While this is a worthy goal, it presents a problem when hiring a writer: Industry knowledge is not necessarily highly transferrable. Professional writers are experts at communicating, but they might not have the depth of experience with your industry that you do.
Solution: A blog writing service can provide ideas and guidance on posts that will appeal to a more general audience of potential customers at their own level of understanding. Many readers won’t have inside knowledge of your industry, and may be looking for information that is accessible. You can continue to provide your own high-level expertise on the company blog under your own name.
Problem: Topic ideas are hard to come by.
If you hire a blog writing service to simply create a blog for you, it’s going to be difficult for the contractor to find ideas for your blog if they don’t know a lot about your business or objectives behind the blog. Therefore, it’s necessary to put a little thought into potential topics and goals before beginning a project with a writing service.
Solution: The good news is there are plenty of ways to solve this problem. Some of our previous blog posts on the topic can help. One of the best places to start is with FAQs from customers and the most popular search queries that bring people to your website. If a writer is given some guidance, he or she can assist you in brainstorming ideas. An SEO expert can also help with topic ideas that might help drive traffic to your blog.
Problem: This doesn’t sound like me.
Just like seeing your son or daughter off to college, it’s not easy to say goodbye to your content. The good news: You don’t have to completely surrender control of your content, just look at it from another perspective.
Solution: Embrace the view from afar. A good writer from outside of your company might be able to speak in a language that’s more familiar to the average person, since their view of your company is similar to that of your customers. If you are able to provide the writer with enough information and direction, they can get your points across while also writing in a way that’s more identifiable to the average reader.
What other issues have come up for you when working with contractors for your blog?
