To create content in-house or to outsource it? This is one of the easiest and yet difficult questions in content marketing.
On the one hand, with the right team, resources and time, you should be able to create top quality, customer-focused content to attract and retain customers.
On the other hand, creating these types of content involves a large team. Content creation cuts across different marketing channels which includes but are not limited to social media, blogs, email marketing, website landing pages and so on.
Marketing channels are increasing and so is the responsibility of content creators. Top quality content takes time to research, create and publish.
If you need to create content consistently without dropping its level of quality, you need to consider outsourcing your work to professionals.
Outsourcing your content creation allows you to save time, maintain a reasonable level of consistency and quality.
And the perks of it, freelancers are less expensive than full-time employees.
However, before outsourcing your content creation to freelancers you should ask yourself these questions.
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#1: Do you have the resources to create and publish original content at a regular interval?
In online marketing, consistency is king!
Content creation requires some level of consistency if you’re going to achieve your business objectives.
Creating original and high-quality content for your target audience can position your brand as a thought leader in your industry, allow you to reach new audiences, increase your inbound traffic and search engine rankings.
It also has the capacity to build confidence and trust in the long run.
Content marketing isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. You can’t create engaging content this week and then fizzle out the next week because you lack the resources or time to keep publishing consistently.
To-do list:
- Analyse the resources you have at your disposal
- With the resources you have at hand, how often can you publish content?
- What platform can you successfully manage with the resources on ground? In order not to spread yourself too thin, you have to focus your attention on those platforms that you can conveniently manage.
- What kind of business do you operate and what channels do you need? For example, if your business is fashion-related, you can’t do without Facebook and Instagram.
- Have you conducted a content audit? Not conducting a proper content audit is a red flag in content creation that content marketers need to avoid.
Ensure you prepare a document and record your observation.
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#2: Do you have the resources to maintain your content marketing channels?
I’m a big fan of the economic principle of comparative cost advantage.
In summary, it states that a country should produce for export those commodities it can produce more cheaply and import those which it can produce at a higher cost.
Let’s align this to the subject matter.
You should create content in-house for the marketing channels that you can conveniently manage at a lower cost, but outsource other content which will cost you more.
Outsourcing your content is a cost-effective approach.
Similarly, you can’t publish the same content on all your marketing channels. This is a social media marketing myth marketers need to be aware of.
Cross-posting may appear as a convenient way to save time and resources, but it’s not a best practice.
As a content marketer each communication should be tailored to its corresponding channel.
As the channel differs, so does your target audience and their expectations.
Focus on quality over quantity, that’s how you gain a loyal customer-base for your business.
To-do list:
- Take account of your paid, earned, shared and owned media.
- Do you have tailored content for each of these platforms?
- Can you maintain these platforms conveniently? If not, strike out the channels that may cost you more to manage.
You need to employ the theory of comparative advantage at this stage. Create content for the channels you can manage, outsource what’s left.
Read also: How to boost sales using non-promotional content
Conclusion
Unless you can confidently answer yes to these questions, it’s a good idea to outsource some or all of your content creation efforts.
However, ensure you’re doing so to an agency or freelancer with proven industry expertise and a track recording of creating high quality content on a consistent basis.
Hi,
Good observations. But outsourcing content writing is something not great and it would be a thin content in most of the time, rather some other content writing in different way by every content writer.
I think it is time consuming but you should try your own.
Thanks!!
Thanks a lot for your contribution!
Although I should add that outsourcing content may not be ideal if you run a small team and are not looking to expand any time soon.
However, if you’re not getting value from the hired agency or freelancer, you need to find someone else.
Always give your freelancer your brand style guide if you have one. It’ll help them create content in line with your brand personality.