How to Work with Blog Writers to Create ROI-Focused Content

You already know that content can bring your ROI and more conversions. The numbers don’t lie – the conversion rates of companies who use content marketing are 6 times higher than those of companies who don’t use it.

Pretty compelling, right?

In order to get there, you need to work with blog writers, whether they are internal, contractors or agencies. However, there is a lot to support the fact that you’re better off outsourcing content writing than doing it in house – check out our article on it if you’re still unsure.

And, if you need another reason to work with blog writers outside your company, here it: HubSpot (the leading authority in all things related to content and inbound marketing) has conducted research that proves that you need to blog 16+ times per month in order to get real traction.

Photo source: HubSpot

I know what you’re thinking.

16 BLOG POSTS PER MONTH?!? Who’s got time for that?

Don’t worry; there are professional blog writers – you don’t have to do it all alone. But this begs another question: how to work with blog writers that understand your brand and can deliver ROI-oriented content?

The cost of copywriting services varies a lot from agency to agency and, sadly, so does the work quality. We wrote about how to hire SEO copywriters a lot. You can see another article here.

Now let’s assume that you found the right content writing firm. Let’s see how you can make the most out of your relationship with them.

How to Work with Blog Writers to Get ROI from Your Content

Sadly, just hiring the right people isn’t always enough. You also need to invest a bit of time in getting your blog writers on track. Here’s where to start:

1. Set Goals

Not just for when you work with blog writers, but for your own business and content. Be realistic. What are you trying to achieve? Business calls? Email subscriptions? Brand awareness?

Don’t go over the board, though.

It looks like chasing too many priorities can result in accomplishing no goal.

Image via Harvard Business Review

Once you have your goals all figured out, be sure to convey them as transparently as possible to your blog writers. Don’t worry; they won’t sell your strategy to your competition. But they do need to be read in if they’re expected to have results.

2. Set Standards

If this is not your first time blogging for business, then you must already have an idea about what a blog post or other piece of content should look and read like.

Start with content length. Ask the majority of blog writers and business owners about the ideal length of a blog and they’ll probably tell you “around 500 words”.

However, long form content has already proven to be more efficient. If you want to become a thought leader in your industry, you need to start by creating authority content. And that can only be long-form content.

Move on to tone of voice, CTAs and everything else you want included in your blog post. Whenever I onboard new clients for Idunn, I ask them about “mandatories”. I found that this is a great way to identify the main message or brand feature that the client wants to convey, but sometimes forgets to tell us about.

If you have a few pieces of content that you love (they don’t necessarily have to be yours – they can be written by competitors or even brands in other industries), be sure to send the links to your new blog writers.

Unsure about how you should proceed in terms of length, tone and others? No problem! That’s what the next item on the agenda is for.

3. Ask for Your Blog Writers’ Opinion

At Idunn, I make sure that all our SEO copywriters have some marketing background or flair. Because they need to have pertinent opinions about strategy, not just great penmanship.

A lot of our clients contact us and tell us upfront that they only have a vague (at best) idea about how to tackle content marketing. They just know they need to do it.

And that’s perfectly fine! As long as you work with blog writers with marketing skills, at least.

But, even if your bloggers aren’t marketers at heart, they do have more copywriting experience than you. And they’ve surely seen a lot of people succeed at content marketing and a lot of people fail at it spectacularly.

Ask them what they think you could do to avoid falling into the last category. They could suggest a different word length, a different approach on topics and so on.

Bonus: this is a great way to assess the value of blog writers you consider working with. If they have a pertinent opinion that they can back with data, you may have just found the right people to work with!

4. Give Them the Information They Need

Go a bit beyond your “About” page and tell your new blog writers more about your company. Your history, you mission, your team – all of these are relevant data. Tell them about your strength and what makes you different from your competitors.

For instance: “we use top brands for our beauty clinic. They are 50% more expensive than what our competitors use.” You may not be able to post this online verbatim, but good blog writers will find a way to use it to your advantage.

Most importantly, tell them what you’ve already tried, what worked and what didn’t work. Assume that the testing period is over as soon as you contracted their services and don’t wait for them to hit the same bumps in the road you already did.

The fact that you chose to work with blog writers that have tons of experience and are skilled doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take a bit of testing to get things right. Content marketing is not an exact science, so why waste time on experiments?

5. Give Context

Once you’ve got the general information part done, move to offering context to each piece of writing. How does it fit into your long-term strategy? What results do you expect from this particular blog post? Is it related to any major events in your company – product launches, for instance?

Again, if you don’t have all this figured out, ask for your writer’s opinion.

6. Give Honest Feedback

A skilled blog writer can tell from a million miles away when you’re giving bad feedback just because you want to draw their fee lower. And it’s not going to work. It will just waste both your time and that of the writer.

Instead, be honest with yourself and with the writer. Tell them if you see any problems in their work and ask for a few retouches – honest writers do this at no added cost.

You will see that, in time, provided you work honestly with your blog writers, all this will pay off. However, you need to avoid the common: “I wish it had more energy” or “I expected something different” types of feedback.
These offer no long-term value. Be specific. Tell them if you don’t like a certain phrase or paragraph. Tell them if you need them to add more details about your business. In other words: help them give you great content.

7. Be Realistic

Yes, content marketing works. But not overnight.

People like Neil Patel are great examples of how you can literally build a business on nothing other than exceptional content.

But, again, it takes time.

Never work with blog writers that tell you they can help you break the Internet and become a superstar with a single piece of writing. They are either lying or they just stated working in this field and still believe this. Neither of these options are good for your business. Because that never happens.

Well, unless you’re already a superstar (think Lady Gaga) level and people are already waiting for your blog anxiously.

I’m going to take a leap and assume you are not Lady Gaga. In which case, you will have to be realistic and accept that blogging takes around one year (six months if you’re in a very small niche with few competitors) to work.

And by work I mean bring in leads, clients and cash – in this order.

Want to work with blog writers that always create copy with your ROI in mind? You have come to the right place!

At Idunn, we don’t care about vanity metrics and bringing you tons of irrelevant traffic. We care about bringing you the right traffic. The kind that supports your business objectives and brings you new clients.