Sign in to view more insights
Get insights to quickly find providers that fit your needs, view mutual connections, and contact them directly Sign in
Tips for Finding the Best Professional Blog Writers for All Industries
Blogs provide businesses a great opportunity to communicate their value to their customers and to develop credibility within their respective industry.. Finding the right blog writer for your business will ultimately come down to multiple factors that are specific to your business, but there are some general tips to be aware of when vetting candidates for your blog writer position.
3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Searching for a Professional Blog Writer
There are several things to keep in mind when deciding how your business wants to pursue blog writing services. For some businesses, working with a reliable freelancer might be an effective way to find someone to get out your story without having to commit to a full-time role. For others, hiring a dedicated in-house blog writer helps to ensure that the person in charge of their blog sits within their larger organization. Regardless of which path you choose, here are some recommendations to consider when finding your blog writer.
1. What Does Your Business Offer for Potential Customers?
Ultimately, this question boils down to your brand’s basic identity and how your business can solve the needs of your ideal customer. After determining what your brand’s value is, ask yourself how a blog on your website can help to get your brand’s value across to your audience. Once these items are figured out, your business can begin to decide on what your blog’s strategy will be.
As you begin to iron out your blog’s content strategy, you will need to determine what a potential blog writer will need to possess in order to effectively communicate your brand’s value on your blog. Determine if your blog will need someone that can be truly an expert in your business and industry or if you are looking for a writer with their own respective skills regardless of industry.
2. How Much is Your Company Willing to Invest in Your Blog?
The cost of developing a blog on your website is typically different compared to other forms of digital marketing. Paid digital media, such as pay per click, display media, and paid social media typically require a budget that changes throughout the year based on initiatives or seasonal trends. However, the cost of developing blog content ultimately comes down to how much money you spend on the person that is creating your blog’s content.
As your business begins to decide on how you want to approach your blog, you must have a budget in mind for how much this role will cost for your company. Since blog writing is organic media and the budget does not typically change throughout the year, the cost of your blog will ultimately come down to the cost of your writer.
When evaluating the budget for your blog, determine if it makes sense to hire someone in a full-time, salaried position for the role of blog writer or if you would prefer to allocate your budget on a freelancer that you can specify a number of hours and rate for. There is no right answer for a full-time versus freelance blog writer - it ultimately comes down to what your budget is for your overall blog initiatives.
3. What Will Your Blog Post Creation Process Look Like?
A typical blog post creation process typically looks like:
Ideation and the development of the post’s topic
Research is performed to understand the topic and your blog’s existing positioning
The blog content is written and reviewed internally
Blog post is launched and made available for users
Content is updated on an ongoing basis
However, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work for every business. For your business to understand what your process will look like, understand how many stakeholders will be involved in the post’s creation. If the blog post content can be handled solely through the blog writer, the process will be more streamlined. However, if you require multiple stakeholders to have a say throughout the creation process, your blog’s creation process will require more details and defined goals.
Recommendations on Finding the Right Blog Writer for Your Specific Industry
As part of your process for hiring a professional blog writer, try to consider your niche and what kind of content your audience is looking for. There are certainly overarching and general best practices for developing any type of blog content, but businesses often find success in their blogs when they develop content with your specific industry in mind.
Below are some callouts on how to approach finding a blog writer for several specific industries.
Retail Blog Writers
Retail brands that operate in these districts are trying to maximize their brand’s visibility to attract potential customers and ultimately help their business’ bottom line. As retail businesses set up shop, there are several things that they should be mindful of when trying to attract customers:
Is your retail business trying to capitalize on popular tourist attractions or are you trying to be found in more residential neighborhoods?
Are you a national chain or are you a local small business that only operates specific areas?
Are you trying to attract more native customers or are you trying to attract more transient visitors, such as students at some of the many nearby universities?
Understanding how your business is positioned within the retail market will help to determine how you will approach your blog. Retail blog writers should be mindful of the above areas when planning out content for their blog. For example:
If your retail business is aiming to attract tourist, provide as much upfront and decision making content in your blog content, so that these tourists can plan out their stops at your store when developing their trip itinerary
If your retail business is a chain that is looking to expand, develop content for your blog that helps to show your success in other markets, but that you care about the local trends and needs of your local customers.
Financial Services Blog Writers
FInancial services is a competitive and fast growing industry. Many financial companies should put focus into their company blog in order to develop credibility. When finding the right blog writing professional for your financial services company, consider the following:
Does the professional blog writer possess the necessary knowledge of your specific financial industry and if not, can your company provide them access to resources that can help to inform them?
Do they have any examples of previous blog posts that provide financial content that has performed well within search engines?
What is the financial knowledge level of your ideal customer that may be reading your blog content and what are their typical needs?
Are they writing about topics that can possibly negatively impact the finance of their readers?
Are you writing about financial topics that are consistent throughout the year or are you writing about specific financial trends at a given time?
It is highly recommended to ask these questions when developing your blog strategy and finding the right professional blog writer for your financial services business. Financial content is often sensitive due to its potential impact on readers, so your blog writer should be aware of these considerations.
IT Blog Writers
Information Technology (IT) is a particular area of interest to many different audiences. IT encompasses a large number of specific areas, so there is no such thing as a universal approach to creating content for information technology blogs. Nonetheless, information technology companies should keep the following in mind when evaluating candidates for an open IT blog writer role:
Ask if the candidate has any experience in technical writing and if they are able to translate complex topics into easily digestible content.
Is your blog meant to promote your IT products or to establish thought leadership within your specific area? Ensure that the candidate can create both promotional and informational content.
Determine if you will need the blog writer to create more long form content that gets into very specific technical details or if they need to create content that is more general in nature.
Final Thoughts on Hiring a Blog Writer
Businesses find themselves in a hyper competitive market for many industries and are constantly trying to attract high quality workforce talent against their competitors. When looking to hire a professional blog writer, take a look at some of the other blog writer roles available to understand how you can stand out against these companies to attract some top talent.