Should You Outsource Content Writing, Develop Talent In-House, or Both?

Quality content is quickly becoming a brand

differentiator for businesses trying to compete for online visibility.

Companies able to maintain a steady stream of great content can capture larger

online audiences, earn higher search engine results rankings, position

themselves as thought leaders and strengthen the overall performance of their

marketing funnel.

The question for businesses, then, isn’t

whether they need a content writer but rather how they should go about working

with one. Hiring a full-time writer (or a stable of writers) as part of your

in-house marketing team is one option while outsourcing the work to various

creative agencies or freelancers is another option. Some business also choose a

mixture between the two.

Deciding which route to go for your own

content marketing needs depends completely on your unique goals, how you want

to portray your brand online, and how those requirements might shift as time

goes on.

To help you come to a conclusion, consider the

following pros and cons of outsourced content writing compared to developing

your own in-house team. The information can provide food for thought as you

develop your own content writing strategy and whose shoulders the

responsibility will ultimately fall upon.

Pros of Hiring an In-House Content Writer or Writing Team

Having your own writer or writing team as part

of your staff provides you with embedded talent that is always available to

fulfill your needs. You can have them oversee and contribute to many different

project types, and you can also use their expertise in a consulting capacity to

review any copy created by anyone else.

Think of it as having someone with who is

intimately familiar with your brand and your processes on retainer. Rather than

worrying about billing costs or scheduling for each individual project, they

can take on as much as their bandwidth can carry.

Developing talent in-house also ensures that

you have total ownership over your brand voice. A freelancer you develop a

great relationship could cut and run, leaving you struggling to find a

replacement.

Some brands go even so far as to have an

entire department dedicated to content writing, copywriting, PR and similar

projects. Cisco embraces this approach as a type of corporate newsroom, where

brand-focused journalism is always available on tap and content is produced in

substantial volumes on a consistent basis.

Cons of Onboarding a Full-Time Content Marketing Writer

Despite the convenience of having someone in

the office handle all your writing needs, there are also many limitations.

The most obvious limiting factor is money. Not

only do you have to pay a writer a 30k – 60k or more salary, but you must also

pay for their worker’s comp insurance and their employment taxes as well as any

benefits you offer. They will likely get sick days, annual leave, family

insurance coverage and other add-on overhead that ends up not directly

translating to work performed.

Speaking of work, even the most productive

full-time writers only have so much time in the day. If you have a huge project

coming up, you may need to onboard even more talent or resort to outsourcing to

other freelance writers and agencies.

On the reverse side, if you have a lack of

writing-heavy projects on the calendar, your employee still gets their regular

salary.

In addition to the problem of fixed capacity,

in-house talent can sometimes end up getting overexposed to brand messaging.

Their approach may end up sounding biased or too salesy. By comparison, a

freelancer will share your projects with many other diverse client projects,

helping keep them objective and focused on their audience, not just your brand.

Finally, some companies have difficulty

retaining writers. They end up investing time and money onboarding and then

developing them only to have them jump ship later on.

Pros of Using a Content Freelancer or Marketing Agency

Outsourcing content marketing allows you to

have predictable costs on a fixed per-project or ongoing package basis. You

also gain access to content production capabilities at scale — presuming, of

course, that multiple writers are capable of producing the level of quality you

need.

Flexible capacity also means that you can have

a highly variable workload. If you outsource a large project to a content team,

then you don’t have to worry about them twiddling their thumbs when the project

ends. You can also decide to skip your regular content output for a period

without having a sunk employee cost associated.

Another benefit to outsourcing is convenience.

You don’t have to add to the complexity of your organization with new

departments, managers and case loads for HR to handle. Instead, you have one

source of billing, one line of correspondence for content needs, and a

relationship with a cohesive group rather than individual employees.

Ultimately, outsourcing content marketing

provides flexibility, convenience, and the ability to adapt the type of content

you produce as your company grows and changes.

Cons of Outsourcing Content Marketing to Others

The biggest risk with using an outside writer

for your content needs is that they can end up controlling your brand voice.

Unless you offer strict guidelines on voice, formatting, and the overall

writing approach to your content, then each writing task will leave a lot open

to interpretation.

Problems arise not just when someone comes up

with a bad interpretation but also a really good one. Suddenly, you are

dependent on someone not within your organization for your digital marketing

success.

Even if your content quality isn’t beholden to

one person, both freelancers and agencies contract on an at-will basis. They

can suddenly decide they don’t have the capacity to work on your projects or

demand a higher rate. You must then weigh your options, which can be nearly as

time-consuming and costly as onboarding an actual employee.

All that said, most of these risks are

completely hypothetical. If you are able to locate a good outside content

writing source and develop a relationship with them, then you can receive all

of the benefits described above with none of the associated drawbacks.

A Hybrid Approach — The Best of Both Worlds?

An alternative to a 100% in-house or 100%

outsourced content writing solution is to share duties between the two.

For example, you can have a copywriting and

content production team that occasionally outsources projects when they hit

their capacity or want to embark on a large project.

Or, you can have someone in a marketing

leadership position who happens to be a talented writer. They can perform small

projects and lend their writing expertise to any tasks they share with others.

When it comes time to outsource, you have

someone with experience and craft knowledge to shape the requirements of your

content projects. They can also edit the projects as they come in to ensure

they match your brand voice.

In both situations, your team has ownership

and control over the quality and aesthetics of the content you create. They can

have a strong say when it comes to vetting and selecting an outsource partner.