It’s completely true, and when you start to market your business and website online, you soon discover that it involves a lot of writing. The same applies to offline marketing. Many of the most effective and popular forms of online marketing even involve creating content every day or week on an ongoing basis.
Here’s just a few such activities, all of which involve writing content:
- Blog posts – like this!
- Articles.
- White papers.
- Email messages.
- Copy writing (sales copy etc.).
- Scripts for audio or video.
In fact, when promoting your business there are only a few activities that don’t involve writing content to one degree or another.
But what if it’s not your strong point? Does trying to write effectively feel like going back to school? You would be forgiven for asking …
To Promote My Business Effectively, Don’t I Need To Be A Gifted And Prolific Writer?
Of course, the answer has got to be no you don’t. Think about the successful business people you know – I’d be willing to bet the vast majority of them have very little writing talent whatsoever.
So what do they do?
Focus on what they do best… and hire in talent for everything else.
The good news for you is, in the Internet age, it’s 100x easier now to find and hire that talent than it was just a decade or so ago.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the proliferation of outsourcing – it’s now a central activity for most businesses, whether new or more established.
As a business owner, you probably already outsource at least some of your work to others who specialize in that particular area. For example, you might have an assistant who does your customer service or other administrative tasks. You may also have a web designer who designs and updates your website.
Guess what …
You can outsource your writing too!
In outsourcing your content creation, you are simply hiring a professional to take care of all or some of your writing, whether that’s writing blog posts, other content for your website, articles for other sites, newsletters, ebooks, press releases… or any other purpose online or offline.
With most types of marketing involving writing to one degree or another, you can simply hire talented, educated professionals to create all that content for you (and all that professionally-created content reflects positively back on your business).
It could also be argued that outsourcing content creation pays for itself – with most forms of written content sticking around the web for a very long time, and therefore potentially attracting new leads to your business for an equally long time, how many new leads (and therefore new sales) for your business would it take to for you to see a positive return on your investment?
The truth is, new visitors who reach your site via quality content are far more likely to do things like opt-in to your list or purchase from you, than if they had arrived after clicking through from an ad.
The reason is simple… they probably didn’t feel like they were being sold to (which creates instant resistance to your message), and by the time they do start looking at your more sales-oriented materials, they are already warmed up to you, your business, and what you stand for.
It could be argued that investing in quality content is one of the best investments you can make in your business.
It’s long-term too… while advertising only tends to stick around for as long as you’re willing to pay for it, content continues to repay you for far, far longer.
Of course, you don’t have to outsource it… if you love to write and if you have extra time on your hands, then by all means create your own content.
But let’s face it… that’s not most of us…
Outsourcing your written content is now a mainstream business activity… and that’s because it’s profitable and repays dividends to your business over time. Here are five main reasons you might outsource your content creation, rather than struggle to produce all that content yourself:
1 – Maybe writing is just not your thing.
Not everyone is a natural writer. Many very intelligent and successful people struggle to write a simple article or blog post. I’ve worked in the content creation and syndication business for many years, and I have met doctors, lawyers, teachers, and successful business people who had trouble writing. It’s perfectly normal… you’re not alone!
Sure, you could spend your time struggling over an article for a week or more and then get it published online somewhere… but someone who is a natural writer has a much easier time producing content, usually comes up with a better finished product, and your time is usually better spent elsewhere.
2 – English is not your first language.
The ability to communicate in multiple languages is an accomplishment to be proud of.
However, speaking a language and having an ability to write effectively in that language are two very different things.
People who are reading content online are very savvy about whether content is written by someone who has a command of the English language or not. The tiniest things can give you away (verb tenses, unusual word choices, cultural expressions, etc).
If you’re not a natural English speaker and your own English is not totally spot on, but you want to produce content written in English, it makes a lot of sense to outsource the writing to someone who is a professional writer in English. Poorly written content (even if you don’t realize it’s poorly written) can do more damage to your business than good, and ruin your credibility.
3 – You’d rather spend your time concentrating on doing what you do best in your business.
Many people (probably, most people) struggle with grammar and spelling. I’ve heard that the genius Albert Einstein was a terrible speller and readily admitted that. As we know, Einstein was gifted in other areas where he chose to concentrate his attention. You may be in the same situation.
Instead of concentrating his efforts on doing spelling drills, Einstein simply accepted the fact that spelling was not his strong point, and he wisely invested his time where he excelled.
4 – You can’t do it all.
Maybe you’re a fine writer, but you’re an even better business coach or accountant or dentist – or whatever your business is. You only have so much energy and time. A key business growth mantra is to concentrate your energy on the areas of your business that only you can do, and let other people take care of everything else, such as writing, for you.
5 – You need to produce quality content on a consistent basis.
Blog posts, free reprint articles, newsletters – all of these marketing tools are dependent on new content being created on a consistent basis. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from years of working in the content creation and syndication field, it’s that the ability to write is not the only obstacle people face – it’s also the ability to produce that content on a consistent basis.
They start off with the greatest of intentions… but soon business (and life) takes over, and their best laid plans end up in disarray.
It gets far easier when you pass that responsibility on to someone else. Outsourcing your content creation is not only a wise business move, but it’s a huge stress reliever. You pass on your requirements, and they write it for you. You’re then free to use your time doing something else that you’d either prefer or need to do.
Consistency of content creation will give you better results with your marketing efforts, because you appear far more credible. People who read your articles, blog posts, website and other online material will get used to hearing from you, you’ll build effective relationships with them, and draw increasing numbers of visitors and leads to your business… and that’s how sales are made.
Perhaps you have other reasons that mean outsourcing your writing makes sense to you – let me know!