🤑Sarah Colley’s Post

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Sr Content Manager @Animalz | still a freelance writer, content consultant & strategist | B2B Content Marketing Unicorn 🦄

With so many new job postings for freelance and in-house content writers, I'm wondering how many of these teams actually know what the writer needs to get started. Why? Because it's a question I've heard so. many. times. If you're just hiring a writer (or several), here are the basics: 💂♀️ Any onboarding or branding documents that help them get to know your brand/ audience 💂♀️ A demo walkthrough (even if it's just a recording) 💂♀️ An example article that demonstrates the format, tone of voice, structure, and kind of content you want the writer to produce 💂♀️ A content brief with the relevant internal resources they need to create the piece 💂♀️ Access to internal SMEs, or at least things like video recordings on the subjects, or at least a slack channel that allows them to ask questions. 💂♀️Editorial guidelines These are the BASICS. If you have a more advanced/ expensive writer, you could do away with a comprehensive brief and simply give them details like: -the pain you're trying to solve for -the key message of the piece -any internal links they HAVE to have -where the article sits on the buyer journey -CTAs You should still give them any resources they might need to inform the piece... BUT, if you're really setting them up for success, you'll go deeper than that and allow them to research within your content library (if you have one). Chances are, you don't. I've seen it only a handful of times in my 12 years in marketing. (P.S. I do help teams create internal content libraries) A content matrix is also nice, but a lot of advanced writers also know to simply do a site search ("site: URL/ keyword) and it'll turn up some relevant pages from your website. I generally do this kind of search even if the brief has internal links for me, because there are often others that might work better or in conjunction with those links (as long as there aren't too many). Anyway, I'm starting to ramble... The point is, your writers need resources to succeed, especially if they're freelancers. Don't give them the good stuff, and they'll have to resort to Google searches (and if you're lucky, some external SMEs).

Anita Coltuneac

🧙🏻♀️ SEO content writer & copywriter for B2C & B2B brands | Mental health advocate | Your brand voice is in good creative human hands.

2mo

The difference a well-built brief makes in terms of how the content turns out is huge. I've worked with various clients over the years that did or did not give me a brief. I may not have that many years as a freelance writer under my belt but I now know that having your own brief template to share with the client or at least use it as a basis for a 1:1 conversation & ask questions is essential for any blog, guide or whatever content you must write 😁 When you're working with multiple clients as a writer, you seldom have the time to connect all the dots if the brief doesn't do it for you. We might be an extension of their team but it only goes so far as our capacity for each project.

Shari Berg

Copywriter / Content Strategist / Relationship Builder / Content created by humans, for humans

2mo

Most of the listings I see for freelance writers aren't true freelance positions. They are companies confused about the difference between employees and freelancers. They clearly want the tax benefits of hiring a freelancer yet maintain the control of an employer-employee relationship.

Victor Ijidola

Co-founder @ Leaps | Easy, organized insights from your experts for PR and content

2mo

Access to internal SMEs is MAJOR. Or the unique expertise and POVs brands have will remain locked inside their team's minds. While the writer projects their own POVs.

Haviva Karon

Full Funnel Content Marketing Strategist | Content that targets and converts your ICP | I help B2B brands triple their ROI with scalable content | Digital Enthusiast | Wife and mother of 2 adorable children

2mo

The bar they set for writers is very high. People should expect quality work. But undercutting their wagea and refusing to share the resources they need to do their jobs well isn't setting up for success. Sure, there are people who aren't great writers. But you are only as good at what you do as the knowledge, materials and tools you are given. Thank you for this post, 🤑Sarah Colleyy

Geraldine Mongold

Senior product manager, project manager, non-profit leadership, writer, educator

2mo

Basically a good writer is also an analyst. You want them to write about your product? They need to understand your product, your target market, and how you differentiate yourself. You need to plan to invest in onboarding a writer just as you would an engineer. 

Amna Aslam

B2B freelance writer for SAAS and e-commerce companies|Data analyst|

2mo

I wish every team provides these resources to their writer.

Farah Farooq

Operations Manager @AlMokahalCo Sourcing and Procuring the Best Industrial Solutions| Remote SEO Content Writer | Poetess at Heart

2mo

Absolutely agree with this! A lot of times I have felt like Rumpelstiltskin trying to spin hay into gold with the inadequate briefs and resources clients provided. To top that all, the pay does not match the effort these clients expect from the writers 😔

Deborah Klaus

Award-Winning Freelance Senior Copywriter, Editor & Publicist // Personality-Driven Copy & Content For Clients Who Value Creativity, Personality & Human Intelligence // Now in Columbus, Ohio // debthecopywriter.com

2mo

A fantastic read for anyone supervising freelancers.

Shalabh Garg

Helping SaaS, Finance brands grow organically with content-driven SEO | Content Writer

2mo

It's hard to produce the quality content they want without those basic details.

Harpreet Singh

Freelancer Web Designer

2mo

maam i am intrested

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