3 Important Reasons Why You Need a Content Strategy Before Hiring a Writer

Hiring a content writer without a content strategy is like shopping for clothes without knowing your size.

Sure, you can fill your closet with pieces here and there, but you won’t know what you’re missing out on, and you won’t be able to maximize the investment.

While content is the foundation of every online business, not everyone understands why they need to invest in creating a content strategy and how it affects their business goals.

A recent study shows businesses are spending an average of $1.8million annually on content marketing.

This shows that brands are investing in content marketing, but without a proper plan in place, you aren’t likely to achieve the results you expect.

If you don’t know exactly what you need, how can a writer create it?

Why Does Strategy Matter?

A strategy is important for a business to communicate its core values and establish a direction for its team.

You need a plan. Not just content, but an actual strategy for your brand that will inform any piece of content you create.

Your strategy should consider:

• What type of content do you want to create that meets your business goals?
• What message or information do you want to convey through each piece of content?
• What KPIs (key performance indicators) will you measure to know if your content is successful?

Why You Need a Content Strategy First

You don’t go to the gym without a plan. You don’t run a marathon without training. Your business shouldn’t create content without a plan, either.

Before hiring a content writer, it’s important to have a clear content strategy. You should know exactly what you want, what the purpose of the content is, and what type of outcome you’re looking for.

A documented content marketing strategy about your industry, brand, and target audience is your blueprint for creating quality content.

Also this gives your content writer a rational idea of what to create and why it needs to exist.

This is the first stage of the process before engaging a writer, and I see many businesses skipping it.

If you are one of those that haven’t created a content strategy, then here is why you need to do it before hiring a writer.

#1: Without content goals, you won’t know if the content is going to work for you

Content strategy helps you create a clear picture of your target audience. This allows the writer to answer the questions: “what type of content should I create? And who are my audience?” before beginning writing.

Without clear goals, content can become generic and may not be relevant to your target audience. It’s like throwing spaghetti to the wall and seeing what sticks.

Without a clear idea of the topics you’re going to cover and how they’re going to fit into the larger context of your business, you’re more likely to end up writing random content based on what you think will work.

It is important to have a content goal, as without a goal it will become very difficult to measure the success of your content marketing strategy.

Read also: 5 worrying signs of a weak social media strategy

#2: With no call-to-action in your content, what should readers do with the information they learn about your business?

For content writers, strategy provides direction for the pieces they’re creating. This helps them to write targeted articles that will most likely result in conversions.

Content is the bridge between you and your audience, and it should be created with the readers’ needs in mind.

How can you ensure that your content has a chance of leading someone to take action? One effective method is by including a call-to-action.

A call-to-action is any piece of information that tells your audience what steps to take next after reading your content. It’s like the driver for a car, it takes you where you want to go.

For your content to be effective, call-to-actions should be tailored to specific business goals.

Without a content strategy, how do you know what call-to-action to include in your copy?

#3: Without documented guidelines for your writers, information put out there won’t be seen as valuable.

Even the most enthusiastic writers need some direction from the team. If you don’t have a content strategy, you don’t know if what the writer is putting out there will work.

Successful content doesn’t happen out of the blues, they’re a product of strategic planning. Provide content writers:

• Detailed style guide
• Customer personas
• Onboarding materials

It is important to have a content strategy in place. This ensures that you’re preparing the right content for your audience and allows your writer to put valuable information out there which will be read by potential customers.

Without a strategy, you won’t have a structure for your writer to follow.

Read also: Steal these 42 amazing content ideas for social media

Wrapping Up

A great content strategy starts with your marketing goals: things like increasing sales, building brand awareness and attracting new buyers.

Without a goal, your content is just a series of random events.

Having a content strategy before hiring a content writer will give the writer enough context to produce high-quality content that drives traffic, leads or sales.