Blogging: do it yourself or have the texts written?

If you have (or want to start) a blog, you may choose to have texts written by a professional copywriter. If you blog in a structural and interesting way, you’ll increase your chances of generating a constant stream of leads. Those new customers are often a great match because they are informed about your expertise and the products and/or services you offer. As a consequence, they choose you or your company after great consideration. 

We often hear that even though entrepreneurs and marketers know it works, they still struggle with blogging. Writing is simply not for everyone. While one person can publish blog post after blog post with ease, another might have great difficulty writing even a few sentences.

“Writing is not for everyone.”

Blogging takes a lot of time and requires a ton of discipline. There are, of course, solutions, such as collaborating with guest bloggers, outsourcing the writing to colleagues, and reusing previously published articles. But outsourcing texts to professional copywriters saves a lot of time.

Blogging works

By now, you probably know that blogging is a good idea for your company. You are aware that organisations that write blogs often receive a very positive response.

For example, those that publish blogs regularly experience:

• More website visitors. Each time you publish a blog post, Google has another page to index. And every time someone shares your blog post on social media, it increases the reach of your website.
• More leads. Every blog post is an opportunity to convert visitors into leads. Add a clear call-to-action to every post that encourages your visitors to make a purchase, get in touch or take another action, and this lead flow will continue to grow as you publish more articles.
• More authority. By sharing your expertise with your target audience, you automatically gain an increase in reputation, positioning yourself as an authority in your field. And greater prestige as an authority leads to more and better customers, as well as less price pressure. These customers value you and are therefore happy to pay your prices.
• More continuity. Pages that rank well in Google often continue to attract visitors for years. A blog is therefore an excellent in-depth investment that will benefit you for a long period of time.

Suggested Reading: What is blogging? And does writing a blog make sense?

Benefits of outsourcing your texts

With a blog, you share your specific knowledge and vision with your target audience. The aim is to translate your expertise and that of your colleagues into readable articles in an efficient and professional manner.

If you wanted really good photos and videos on your website, you would hire professionals for that, right? Keeping that in mind, it is also smart to let a professional take care of the writing of your blog articles. There’s no shame in it at all. In fact, when you have your special knowledge and insights expressed professionally, you provide better, clearer help to your target audience. So shout it out loud: copywriter wanted!

“When you have your knowledge and insights expressed professionally, you also help your target audience better.”

Provide a clear and comprehensive brief for the copywriter. As a consequence, the writer will know exactly what you expect in terms of content. He or she can then convert your input into a strong text that is completely tailored to what your target audience wants to read.

Strong texts

Many of us are inclined to offer overly extensive explanations of topics within our field of expertise. Oppositely, we forget to explain certain things because they are obvious to us. A professional copywriter looks at the subject objectively and writes down everything in a way that appeals to the target audience. The expertise of the writer also adds a lot to the content. That makes your text even stronger.

Time efficient 

If you choose to outsource texts, you will have more time for other things. By doing so, you can focus optimally on your own activities, which will probably have a positive effect on your turnover and new input for the blog posts. After all, your expertise is showcased in your daily activities; that’s where you get your inspiration.

Scalable

A copywriter can provide you with many more texts than you could produce by yourself. The services are easily scalable, especially if you use a copywriting agency. Do you have a large number of texts to be written, or do you suddenly have five customers who need blog posts? A text agency will gladly take care of that.

Efficient and streamlined

Work with content planning and an external copywriter(s) and you will notice that your content process is suddenly running efficiently and smoothly. This enables you to publish new blog posts that contribute to your success. After all, consistent publications have a positive effect on your ranking in Google, which means your target group will have an easier time finding you. 

Suggested Reading: Looking for a copywriter? At a digital agency, you’ll get quality content written at scale.

Copywriter wanted! How can I outsource my texts?

Many organisations assign the writing for a blog to a colleague who is a good writer. A common mistake is that they see blogging as a sideline. As a result, these enthusiastic employees quickly become overloaded. And within no time, your most recent blog post will be five months old.

Fortunately, there are several ways to outsource your blog writing to professionals:

Have your texts written by a regular text agency

There are many hundreds—perhaps thousands—of smaller and larger text agencies in the Netherlands. Some are broadly oriented. Others specialise in a specific industry. Just like hiring an advertising agency or design studio for a new corporate identity, you can hire a text agency for your blog.

The advantage is that you usually get a good job done. But that often comes with a hefty price tag. A price tag that may make it unfeasible to regularly publish new blog posts. In addition, not every text agency will suit your company or style, so finding the right one is a time-consuming process that you would probably rather avoid.

Work with freelancers

There are many freelance writers who offer their services through websites, platforms or social media channels. The advantage of freelancers is that they are often cheaper than a text agency. You can also build a relationship with them, so they’ll need less guidance over time. They become familiar with your company and, after a while, they will be completely familiar with your style, tone of voice and working method.

Managing freelancers on a project basis can be quite time-consuming and a hassle.

The disadvantage is that many clients find it difficult to determine whether a freelancer is really good. It is not easy and can take a lot of time to find the best out there. And when you do finally find a good one, there will still be obstacles to overcome. He or she might be going on holidays, taking maternity leave, or their calendar may already be full for the next six months.

Managing freelancers on a project basis can also be quite time-consuming and is often a hassle. And we haven’t even mentioned the bureaucracy and risks surrounding the relevant (tax) regulations.

Hire in-house writers

If you’re serious about getting started with a business blog, it might be a good idea to hire an in-house writer. Your own writer understands your brand values, tone of voice, target group and service or product like no other.

For many writers, it is quite mind-numbing to write about the same subject all the time.

The disadvantage of hiring writers on a permanent basis is that it is difficult to scale up and down. And for many writers, it is quite mind-numbing to always be writing about the same subject. It suppresses their creativity and motivation. It is also too expensive for many companies to hire someone full time just for creating texts.

The text agency of the future

How nice would it be if there was a service that takes into account the bottlenecks of the above methods? And:

• is significantly cheaper than a traditional text agency;
• is more efficient than a freelancer; and
• is more scalable than a permanent writer! 

That is exactly what CopyRobin offers you! It is a godsend, but the responsibility for success also lies with you as a customer. Good input leads to good output. A bad brief usually also leads to a disappointing text. At CopyRobin, we have perfected the briefing process, but even then, “clutter in = clutter out” is applicable.

Suggested Reading : Briefing a copywriter? Create the best brief for a copywriter.

We have set up our pricing in such a way that you pay less if you provide more detailed briefs. The more information you give the writer to work with, the lower the commission fee. Do you want to use the content expertise of the writer, or is an interview necessary, for example? Then you’ll pay a little more.

All of your assignments are also checked by a highly experienced proofreader. We check the spelling and look at the elaboration of the brief, the language, the tone of voice, and—if applicable—the search engine optimisation (SEO). If you have any feedback, we will gladly process that for you.

Our services are also scalable and flexible. Growing fast? We can deliver extra texts quickly and easily. If it’s quiet during a certain period of time, you can simply submit fewer or no assignments for a while. You can scale up or down and pause or stop your subscription at any time.

We work with 552 professional copywriters. All of them have their own specialisms. As a consequence, there always is someone who knows everything about your product or service, or who understands and uses the right tone of voice.

We provide all of this for affordable prices.

View our rates

What can I do better myself?

Whatever form of outsourcing you choose, writers will never know your business as well as you do. You and your colleagues have the necessary expertise and insights. You have direct customer contact. You understand the target audience and know the aims of your organisation best.

Choose a strategy

That is why it is better to formulate your content strategy yourself. An editorial calendar will often follow this content strategy. You can set this up with your copywriter well in advance so that you are never without new content. That helps a lot in respect of publishing new, valuable blog posts on a regular basis. Professional copywriters are usually happy to help you set up your content calendar—especially CopyRobin’s writers!

Tip: Use this free content planner template.

Also, don’t forget to link a realistic budget to the content strategy. A budget that is feasible both now and in the long term. That is important because blogging has to be sustained for a long time to achieve optimal results.

Gather knowledge

It is also best to gather knowledge within your organisation yourself. By doing so, you come up with the right blog topics and prepare complete, good briefings.

An alternative is to consider which expert within the organisation can be interviewed by the writer. In this way, he or she immediately collects all information at the source and can then easily write good content.

In short: provide clear input for the text for the best end result.

Promote your blog

Content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi uses the 80/20 rule for content marketing. In other words: 20% content creation and 80% content promotion. This division is a bit exaggerated, but it is a fact that just publishing your blog is not enough. You should also promote it. You can do this, for example, by:

• Building a mailing list;
• Organic sharing on social media;
• Paid sharing/promoting on social media;
• Deployment of influencers/ambassadors;
• Attending and promoting it at events; and/or
• Promoting it through traditional media.

Since outsourcing the writing saves a lot of work, you’ll probably have some time left for these marketing activities.

Conclusion

Blogging is a strong marketing tool for many companies, including those that are B2B. It provides your organisation with more visitors, leads, authority and continuity. Outsourcing blogging is a smart move. After all, the purpose of your blog is to convert the information in your and your colleagues’ minds into a clear, professional, readable blog post. 

You can outsource the writing of the blog articles to a text agency, a freelance writer, hire an in-house writer, or hire CopyRobin. They all have their pros and cons. Which solution best suits your organisation depends on your needs and budget.

You could do certain things better by yourself. For example, determining your content strategy, gathering knowledge and promoting your blog.

Are you considering outsourcing your blog writing? CopyRobin’s professional copywriters are happy to convert your story into strong texts.