Do you need to hire a content marketer? Why (and when) should you hire a content marketer?
Let’s take a look at the benefits of hiring a content marketer, whether that’s in-house or freelance:
Save time (and energy)
We all have limited time and energy. The more we use them on things we’re not as good at, or on things we don’t enjoy, the less time and energy we have for tasks we are good at and which we do enjoy.
All these tasks may help us grow our business, but if we’re not experienced at them, they won’t help as much as we’d like because we first have to learn how to do those things.
The solution? Outsourcing!
Or, if you’d prefer, hiring an in-house content marketer.
Either way, sometimes it’s cheaper to get someone else to write your content, do your taxes, or manage your social media than if you did it yourself. That way you cut out the learning curve and hand off those tasks to people who already know what they’re doing, leaving you to focus on your own strengths.
Build your funnel
Funnels are a huge part of marketing. If you publish content without a funnel in mind, it won’t perform as well as it could.
The best content is designed to guide prospects down the Yellow Brick Road to conversion.
An established content marketer understands how all these things work and how they can tie back into your business. They can help you form ideas that will work for your business and keep bringing leads in, long after it’s published.
Establish your business’s thought leadership
Every business wants to be a thought leader in their industry, but most don’t achieve it. Either their content is too focused on themselves, they don’t go into enough depth, or they don’t publicise their content enough for others to find it.
The best content shows off the breadth of your knowledge.
A content marketer knows what questions to ask to get that knowledge from your brain onto the page, or can conduct their own research to become subject matter experts themselves (if they aren’t already).
Translate your thoughts into content
One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen my clients face is being full of great ideas but finding it hard to translate those ideas into the written word.
They might self-censor too much, write like they’re still at school, or find the blank page a thing of nightmares.
This is where a content marketer comes in.
They can ask the right questions to tap into your knowledge, then translate that into a piece of content that sounds like it was written by you—even if they ghostwrote it.
Get your brand noticed
The more high-quality content you have, the more you’ll stand out in your industry.
Your site’s blog, podcast, or vlog will get noticed amongst the noise for how great it is.
You may even get invited to guest contribute to other sites, helping you to reach more audiences.
The more people who notice you, the bigger your pipeline.
Stand out in search engines
The majority of content marketers now create content with search engines in mind. This means their content is written centred around a keyword, without forcing it into the text repeatedly.
Content marketers use the keyword in the text in a way that sounds natural, and they optimise the text for readability first and search engines second.
These are just two of the two hundred factors search engines use to decide how to index your content.
An experienced content marketer knows how to optimise the post for SEO, and may well do this organically unless you specify you don’t want to focus on SEO. (Although I’m not sure why you wouldn’t—there are benefits for optimising posts at each stage of the funnel.)
Find your brand’s voice
Even the most well-spoken people can struggle to articulate ideas and information in writing sometimes.
Sometimes it’s worth growing those skills yourself, other times it’s faster, easier, more cost-effective, and better for your business if you outsource it.
An experienced content marketer can help you find your brand’s voice if you don’t have one already.
If you do, they can adapt their writing style to fit what you have, based on the information you give them. Their experience may identify any gaps in your strategy, from whether you use straight or smart quotes, to whether you talk about e-commerce or ecommerce.
Make more money
Getting the right content in front of the right people at the right time is what will grow your business.
It’s what will attract more people to your content through how interesting and helpful it is, and convert more of those people into leads and customers.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter where you are in your business—hiring a content marketer can help you build your brand, grow your business, and make more money.
If writing isn’t your thing, outsourcing it gives you more time and energy to focus on the parts of your business that are your strong points.
You’ve probably got—or considered getting—an accountant if you hate numbers, right? So why not hire a content marketer if you hate writing/marketing?
I’ve got some space for long-form content like ebooks, recurring blog posts, or content edits in my schedule. So if you’d like help getting more from your ideas—new or existing—get in touch today.