When it comes to small businesses, their owners often hesitate before hiring a staff writer. Their hesitation is understandable, especially when the business isn’t only small but also only growing. Under these circumstances, paying a person for things that could be seemingly done by some of existing staff members can be considered a risk.
However, small businesses still need to build up an online presence. The competition is high and good blog posts that get shared a lot can not only help you find new clients but also lead you to the top of search engine results, helping to overcome the competitors. That’s why investing into blog writing can be a wise decision.
But is a professional blog writer indeed better than any of your staff members who claim they can write? Yes, for the number of reasons. And if you still hesitate, here are 10 signs you should consider hiring a professional staff writer.
1 Your blog doesn’t update regularly
Writing could be challenging and unpredictable. Even professional writers can struggle with estimating the time needed to write a post, though it happens rarely. Sometimes the research turns out to be too complex, sometimes you need something to add value to a post (for example, an expert quote which might take some time to get).
People who don’t do writing professionally find it even harder to estimate the time needed to finish an article. Moreover, they tend to write more slowly due to the lack of experience. What a professional writer can finish in a day, an inexperienced staff member can write for a week or even more.
Delivering an article later than expected might seem like not a big deal. However, consistency is the key when it comes to professional blogging. If you do want to promote your business with the help of a blog, you need to ensure it would be updated regularly and the deadlines would be always met.
2 Your content isn’t as unique as you would want it to be
If you don’t have a person responsible for writing on your team, there’s a big chance that your staff member (or members) simply rewrite someone else’s content instead of crafting their own one. This is understandable as less experienced writers don’t know much about the importance of producing unique and fresh content. If they have other duties, they also might not have much time to create posts that aren’t someone else’s afterthoughts.
However, Google values unique content a lot, so you should always aim for fresh posts and ideas to get to the top of search engine rankings.
3 Your writer runs out of ideas
A staff member responsible for writing probably knows the industry well enough to generate some ideas on their own. However, they rarely know what the other niche bloggers are writing about – and this could lead to them coming up with ideas that aren’t fresh at all.
But even if they do explore the niche regularly, they still might have troubles generating the posts’ ideas all the time. This happens because in order to generate fresh ideas 24/7 you need to be trained to do so. This comes with experience that professional writers surely have – no wonder it’s much easier for them to generate ideas that are not only unique but interesting for the audience.
4 The writing doesn’t attract the clients you’re interested in
Speaking of the audience – you do need to understand who is it to make the most out of blogging. While you might have a clear vision of who your target audience is, it isn’t always enough to produce audience-oriented content.
A professional writer knows how to tailor posts to a specific audience. They also know how to create content that would be easily understood by anyone, which you might also need from time to time.
5 Your staff writer cannot handle the SEO
SEO is very important for any business. But SEO is also a complex field not anyone can understand easily. Most of us know that content has to be SEO-friendly to show up higher in search engine results – but what exactly does this «SEO-friendly» mean? Does a content need to include plenty of keywords? Or is okay to use only a couple of ones?
SEO trends and rules also change very often, which definitely doesn’t make the process easier for many. Professional writers, however, know how to make the content SEO-friendly. They keep in touch with the latest trends and know how to create posts that make people stay on a website longer, want to comment or share them, generating leads for your business.
6 You want to become one of the experts in the industry
There’s a whole number of reasons why companies start blogging in the first place – and the desire to build up an audience is not even the main of them. Some companies create blogs to share the insights on their business processes, therefore increasing the audience’s loyalty and building a more open, positive image. Some companies create blogs to share their experience, case studies, and opinions on industry’s latest trends and events, wanting to be seen as an industry authority.
If you do want to look impressive and experienced, hiring a professional writer would only benefit you. A content written by professional would be taken much more seriously than an amateur one, so this would be a good investment in the long run.
7 You need to keep in touch with trends
Every business needs to keep in touch with the trends. However, not every business needs to follow each of these trends to succeed. On the contrary, while some trends could indeed turn out to be beneficial in the long run, the others should be avoided.
Reacting to trends, however, is a completely different thing. This doesn’t require you to change your company’s business processes – but it can boost the content a lot and even help it to become viral. That’s why you shouldn’t miss an opportunity.
However, in order to achieve this result, you need to have a person who not only keeps in touch with the trends but also is experienced enough to distinguish the long-term and short-term ones. Otherwise, you might risk posting an article on a trend that was popular only for a week and missing a more promising one. Hiring a professional writer would prevent this from happening.
8 Your blog’s content isn’t well-written
Anyone can write, they say. Anyone indeed can – but only a few are able to write well from the start. In most cases when a writer doesn’t have much experience, they end up repeating the same mistakes: using cliches, copying someone else’s style, picking the ideas that aren’t actually interesting, and so on.
The best thing about hiring a professional writer that they know perfectly well how to write. They can switch styles, depending on the niche and the target audience – but at the same time, they avoid things that are a taboo in any style (overused ideas and words, for example).
9 You don’t have a content plan
A content plan ensures a couple of things:
– that the content will be published regularly;
– that the content will be published on time: each Monday, twice a week, on the first day of each new month, and so on;
– that the content will be diverse: for example, it could include researches, case studies, information about the trends, tutorials, company’s news, and so on;
– that the ideas will be fresh and interesting.
A content plan is a must for every company that wants to succeed on the internet. However, an inexperienced writer cannot create a content plan – or at least a proper one.
On the contrary, a professional writer isn’t only able to create one – they can also adjust it easily as well as make it as precise as possible. For example, they are able to estimate the best time for posting (be it Monday evening, Friday morning, etc.) and stick to that time.
10 Your blog doesn’t look consistent
Maybe you have one of staff members writing posts for your blog. Maybe you have even two or three of them. However, it isn’t always great. On the contrary, when various writers (who don’t have much experience) contribute to your blog, the posts can look like all coming from different sources.
Moreover, even one writer can create posts that look inconsistent if they aren’t experienced enough and don’t have a clear style.
A professional writer can not only create consistent posts but also choose a style that would suit your business’ image the best and stick to it.
Summing this up, while a professional writer might require more investments, hiring one would definitely benefit you in a long run. While it isn’t always necessary to hire a writer for your team (for example, if you don’t plan to expand your online presence and work with offline clients mostly), you should consider doing so if you plan on building a strong small business online.
Guest Writer:
