The business blogging hype can get monotonous, but it really does affect your bottom line. On average, blogs increase both indexed links and inbound links by 97%, and lead to 434% more indexed pages. That means businesses that blog get more search traffic from Google and more visitors surfing in from other sites, which benefits sales, ad revenue, and brand loyalty. It’s not just the obsessive bloggers who reap the rewards, either. One Hubspot study found that just 1 – 2 blogs per month can boost B2B leads by 70%.
But with so many businesses blogging, Google competition is fiercer than ever. A Chitika study found that 92% of search engine traffic goes to the first page, with 33% going to the first organic result alone. Businesses that don’t have good blogging strategies risk being buried in search results, making it much harder to connect with customers.
And it’s not just traffic that’s at stake. Blogs are rated as the 5th most trusted source for online info, with 29% of consumers viewing them as more accurate than other online sources, including news sites, online magazines, and brand sites. With more consumers doing research, comparison shopping and purchasing alone (by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships online without talking to an actual person), having a blog that’s accessible, trustworthy and highly ranked is crucial to gaining an edge across your business.
Why Do Companies Outsource Blog Content Writing?
For Candice Galek, outsourcing blog content writing is the only way to produce all the material she needs. Her online swimwear company, Bikini Luxe, outsources “the majority of the content, solely on the fact that we need so much of it.” Her company relies on outside writers for “everything from product descriptions to blog posts, newsletters and pitches to reporters.” Good content is important, and she realizes how vital it is that businesses have strong copy supporting their website:
“For
our newsletters, press releases and product descriptions we have an
amazing team of authors from all around the world. We find this to be a
much quicker and more efficient way to get the content we need quickly.”
For most of the respondents that contacted me, however, getting an
outside writer (or a few of them) was a way to complement in-house
talent, rather than replacing it. Conrad Lumm, Marketing Director of
online sign retailer SmartSign, runs multiple blogs
with the help of outsourcing. Because his bloggers don’t have his
industry expertise, he needs to be a part of the process. However, the
writers bring an invaluable outside perspective to his company:
“In
the same way that being too close to your own website can mean
overlooking its flaws, being too close to your own company's products
can be a problem, too. We work with traffic safety products, and people
in our industry sometimes have strong opinions that don't translate well
to the general public. The freelancers I work with are often better
than I am at framing content when I'm looking for more consumer-oriented
writing rather than B2B content.”
While talented content
writers have helped both Candice and Conrad, not everyone who has tried
to outsource blog content writing has had a fantastic experience.
How Outsourced Blog Content Writers Let Some Businesses Down
When I started interviewing business people about their blog
outsourcing strategies, I expected a range of opinions, from “mystery
content marketing elves take care of all my online needs!” all the way
to, “hell no, no one touches my blog!” But the thing that surprised me
most (aside from the fact that mystery content marketing elves aren’t
real) was how many negative experiences people had had. Some respondents had a very narrow niche, which made it hard to find the right person. Mark Aselstine, founder of wine club, Uncorked Ventures, needed bloggers immersed in the local wine culture. “It turned out to be difficult to get a real coherent blogging strategy with people we hired,” he said. “We only sell wine from California, Oregon and Washington, so articles and stuff on a Bordeaux tasting they attended didn't seem appealing to us.” He eventually went back to blogging for himself, because he couldn’t find anyone who could keep his customers informed of wine news in his area.
Will Schneider had a similar problem with warehousing and fulfillment company FulfillmentCompanies.net:
“With
each attempt at outsourcing, we ran into the same problem — the
outsourced writers didn’t have enough specialized knowledge in our
industry to write articles that contained specific enough information.
On the flip side, as a small business, the highly specialized writers
within our niche charged quite a bit more per piece, where it wasn’t as
cost effective for us to outsource. We found the happy middle ground for
our company was to keep it in house.”
For others, it was the quality of the writers that sandbagged their outsourcing. Margo Schlossberg, Marketing Manager at Gently Loved Jewelry,
was initially told by her boss that her time was “too valuable” for
blog content writing, but ended up taking over blogging duties when they
couldn’t find the right people. According to her, the bloggers they
contract with “never seemed to have a consistent voice with what our
story is and how we speak as a company and as a brand.” The whole experience left her skeptical of outsourcing. Teaching, training and explaining their brand to an outsider “who does not have the same vested interest in the organization and in its success” just proved too much of a challenge for her.
Creative Control Worries: Is This Really My Content?
The problem isn’t just unreliable bloggers or a lack of expertise,
however. A lot of businesses that might benefit from outsourcing are
reluctant to trust someone else with their voice. Strategist and entrepreneur Ross Simmonds is an experienced blogger and marketer, but when it comes to his coffee subscription site, Hustle & Grind, he didn’t want to give up control:
"We
initially thought about outsourcing our blogging efforts for Hustle
& Grind but came to the conclusion that the best approach would be
to let people write under their own name as guest bloggers. As a
consultant, I see the benefit of outsourcing your blogging efforts but
as a founder — I see the struggle of giving up your voice to someone
else."
Christopher "Zippy" Kaufman, a voice actor, comedian and prolific blogger from Stamford, Connecticut went even further:
"Maybe
it's because I'm a one-man shop, but I think it's crazy to outsource
blogging. To me, blogging is as much of a conversation as it is me just
throwing thoughts down in a doc file. If that conversation is being
outsourced, then you're not having the convo with me; just someone who
has an interpretation of what my voice sounds like."
What a Blogger Should Do to Make Clients (Or Themselves) Happy
For an experienced blogger like Ross, or an entertainer like Zippy, sometimes keeping everything in house makes sense, but many other respondents really wanted to outsource. They were busy business owners, operators and marketers with limited time, but they couldn’t find a way to let go and trust outsourced blog writers to uphold their vision. Lisa Chu of children’s formalwear company Black N Bianco puts it best:
“Trusting
someone to speak on your business’ behalf is a very big deal, if you
hire the wrong outsourced blogger they can damage your brand and even
offend some of your readers.”
I was impressed by their
integrity, and had to give them credit for trying, but I can’t help
feeling many gave up too soon. Blog content writers aren’t here to make
you feel disempowered, or to take control of your brand — we’re here to
amplify your voice, to help you reach and connect with your audience and
to save some of your precious time. read more of this post at, http://goo.gl/gtewfMIf you are still struggling to get content up on your site, we provide a content service to our clients at a very reasonable cost, to make it easier for them to take care of their business. If you would like for our team to provide content for your business, visit probizranker.com and click on website Business services for content services.
No comments:
Post a Comment