Hire SEO copywriter: The Challenges and Tips For Success

Hiring a professional copywriter is an obvious choice. Then you get quality, but it costs money. The decision to hire SEO copywriter comes with benefits like:

• It frees up time for more strategic tasks (61.3%)
• It allows you to scale up our content production (57.6%)
• The quality is better thanks to the efforts of professional writers (46.9%)
• The expertise of the writers adds a lot to the content (29.1%)
• The process is efficient and streamlined (18.4%)

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Research, outcomes, and tips

What other advantages and disadvantages to hire SEO copywriter?

Over the past 3 months, we conducted our own research to find the answer to that question. We approached several hundred people via social media and e-mail. A total of 559 people completed the survey. Marketers, entrepreneurs, and managers formed the largest groups. The answers together give a delightful picture of all the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing your writing. Below we share the results with you and give you tips so that you can make the right decision in the future to keep writing texts in your own hands or have them written by a professional copywriter.

Nearly two-thirds of our respondents are active in the business-to-business (B2B) market, while one-third focuses on private individuals. Roughly two-thirds of marketers, entrepreneurs, and managers sometimes outsource their writing, one-third do not. What drives the first group to hire an external copywriter? What prevents the second group from doing this? What challenges do both parties face? We asked them.

Group 1 (63.3%): Yes, I sometimes hire SEO copywriter.

The respondents who sometimes outsource writing, do so mainly to get more traffic to their website in an organic way (60.7%) and to get better positions in search engines for specific search terms (52.8%).

In particular, it appears that there is a need for: time to consistently produce and publish new content; writing skills with SEO knowledge and expertise, and manpower to scale content creation. However, outsourcing sometimes leads to five issues:

1. Too little understanding of brand values, tone of voice, and/or positioning by external copywriters (53.7%)
2. Briefing external copywriters are too difficult (31.1%)
3. It is difficult to choose topics and type of content (16.7%)
4. Hassle around the administrative/financial settlement (13.3%)
5. Lead times too long (12.7%)

Tips to successfully hire SEO copywriter

List at least 50 topics

Think about the most important feature of your product/service and the problem it solves for your customer. Take this as a starting point. Make a list of 50 topics. Do you find it difficult to do this alone? Then gather a group of people for a short brainstorm. You have that list so full.

Establish 5-10 substantive themes

Determine what the most important substantive themes on the list are and make five to ten so-called ‘content pillars’. If all goes well, it should also contain the USPs of your product, service, and company. Smaller topics are grouped under the content pillars. You now have plenty of topics to draw from and brief a copywriter.

Determine content type

What is your goal with the content? There are several types of content to choose from for every purpose.  How do you avoid this ‘hassle’? Use a specialized online platform. Online platforms such as Upwork, Text broker, and of course Fiverr take a lot of the pain and friction out of this process. These organizations generally have a well-designed platform where the entire process is automated and therefore does not cause you any ‘hassle’.

Lead times too long (12.7%)

Writing a good text takes time. Whether you do it yourself, have it done internally, or outsource it. This is because a good text is written by someone who prefers to first delve into your briefing, industry, and message. This is followed by an initial design, structuring, checking, adjusting, and delivery. So it’s a good project. Yet it can feel like a long lead time for a – in your eyes – simple text. How can you ensure that your expectations are met?

Take into account an average lead time of one to two weeks. This is the most common turnaround time. You may not be the only client and the copywriter has to plan your project. Make clear agreements about deadlines. A good briefing also includes a deadline. Take into account two extra days for correction rounds. The text may go back and forth between you and the copywriter a number of times.

Use (again) a specialized online platform

These organizations often have access to hundreds of good copywriters with different specialties. With a complete brand book and a good briefing plus a back-up from other freelance colleagues, you can keep lead times to a minimum.

Group 2 (36.7%): No, I do not outsource my writing

More than a third of the respondents do not outsource their writing. Have they ever considered it? Yes, say 50.2%. No, say 49.8%. So almost fifty-fifty. The reasons given for not outsourcing the writing work are ‘I write all the texts myself’ (62.9%) and ‘I have in-house copywriters’ (22.9%). To the question ‘What else prevents you from outsourcing writing work?’, the answer is:

1. Outsourcing writing is too expensive (39.0%)
2. Too little understanding of brand experience, message, and/or positioning by external copywriters (36.6%)
3. I fear that the required quality is not achieved (19.5%)
4. Below you will find tips for solving these bottlenecks.

Tips to successfully hire SEO copywriter 

Outsourcing writing is too expensive Solution (39.0%)

To determine this, we need to compare apples to apples. What does it cost if you do the writing yourself and have less time for your actual work? Further: Determine your budget and the number of articles in advance. Think in advance how many articles you need, what budget you want to free up for writing them, and be realistic. Do you really want five blogs a week or is a blog every two weeks enough?

Check different providers

Request quotes from various providers. You can choose from less experienced copywriters with a low rate and experienced copywriters with a higher rate. Specialized online platforms that offer Copywriting services have different subscriptions to make their services accessible to most organizations.

The golden mean to hire SEO copywriter

Scaling up content production while keeping costs low? Hire SEO copywriter for 50% and do the other 50% yourself.

Bonus tip: Collaborate with stakeholders

In our survey, a respondent indicated that he receives money from suppliers to outsource writing to professional copywriters. Check out who else has an interest in getting (organically) more traffic to your website and how you can work together.

Too little understanding of brand values, tone of voice, and/or positioning by an external copywriter (36.6%) As for Group 1, this is also a hurdle for Group 2 when outsourcing their writing. How do you ensure that an external copywriter is quickly familiar with your organization and product or service? We repeat the aforementioned tips below.

Create a brand book

Summarize it as concretely and clearly as possible:

1. Your brand story // mission, vision, standards, and values, customer journey
2. Your corporate identity // with logo, colors, and graphic elements
3. The tone of voice // language and tone
4. Hire SEO copywriter? Send the brand book along with the briefing for the specific assignment and the professional copywriter is fully informed about the identity of your company. The one-time effort, a great convenience.

Give the freelancer examples to hire SEO copywriter

Do you have examples of how you would like to see the end result? Then share it! The more concrete input for the external copywriter, the better. Everyone has their own specialism. Outsourcing is co-creating. Everyone has their specialism. The specialty of a copywriter is writing a good text, you hire that person for that. 

You are the content expert. You can therefore rely on the fact that you will receive a text – with or without SEO – that is well constructed, but may still be lacking on a number of substantive points. Check the text purely for content or have it done by your internal specialists. The copywriter adjusts it and you’re done!

I fear that the required quality is not achieved Solution (19.5%)

“Quality” is of course a subjective term. But let’s assume here that the text appeals to the right target group, communicates the right message, and perfectly conveys your company values. And of course, the text has the right language level for the target group. Finally, the text is of course free of spelling and grammar errors.

Choose wisely

Compare providers, both freelance copywriters, text agencies, and specialized platforms. Outsourcing is co-creating. As said before: outsourcing is co-creating. It is entering into a partnership, in which both parties strive for the best possible result. Continue to communicate about your wishes and make adjustments where necessary.

Request a test assignment

Some freelancers, text agencies, and platforms offer the possibility to write a trial assignment for you for free or at a reduced rate. Therefore, always inquire about the possibility of a test assignment.

Conclusion

Our research, therefore, shows that hiring external copywriters mainly offers advantages. To the question ‘What do you experience as the most important advantages of outsourcing writing work?’, the following answers were given: The copywriter is an outsider. That forces us to explain our story as clearly as possible, otherwise, the copywriter cannot write it. Our team is too small for the content needs within the company. An external copywriter offers a solution. I get money from suppliers to outsource writing to professional copywriters.