More and more companies are beginning to realize the importance of content and guest posting when it comes to ranking well on a Google SERP, so naturally jobs for writers follow. Last week I wrote an article giving tips to companies trying to create and manage a content team. It can be particularly tricky to make this happen when your company has several different clients and you want to offer content services to all of those clients (this is most typical for a company specializing in SEO or any type of online marketing). In the past the answer was outsourcing this work, but as we move forward we’re seeing that companies want to bring this in-house.
Now ideally you would want to assign one writer to each of your clients, but this isn’t always possible if you have a meager budget. You’re going to want to hire one writer to work with several different clients. This then begs the question: How should a writer manage several different clients; especially if the clients are a part of different industries?
Why Guest Content for Clients Needs the Help of Individual Writers
There are a few different ways that your company can manage writers and content. If you’re simply looking to get content placed onto your client’s website, usually hiring writers and giving them “orders” works quite well. You can have the account manage of that client figure out what content is needed, and then put it out as an “order” for any given writer. With this strategy, no writer is in charge of a particular client.
When it comes to writing guest content, however, I’ve found that it works best to have one writer in charge of a few different clients. There are a few reasons why this often makes the most sense:
- Pitching and Relationships. Guest blogging is all about going out and finding new websites where you can pitch an article. Once you find something good, you want to maintain that relationship in the hopes of earning future posts on that site. This isn’t easy to do when it comes to authoritative, industry-leading sites. Having one writer maintain that relationship helps keep guest blogging easy and gives writers something more to do than just write (as a side note: from personal experience I’d say this is important for productivity).
- Organization. I always recommend Google docs when it comes to organizing a content strategy. This allows people to see and make changes in real-time. You can share the document with the manager of the account so that he/she is kept in the loop, but more than anything it’s a great way for writers to stay organized themselves. Have different tabs for different clients, and you can be sure to know what you’ve written and the status of all of those articles.
- Expertise. Giving writers a select group of clients to write for helps him/her develop an expertise (more about this in the last section).
- Number of Articles. The sheer number of guest contributions you will need will require a great deal of organization, so it helps to keep writers in the loop by letting him/her manage his/her own contacts and articles. In general, a full-time writer should be able to get around 30 articles live each month (potentially a few less to start).
- Topic Creativity. You never quite know what topic will work before finding a site to post your future article. You will want to see the site first and potentially talk with the editor before you begin writing. This takes quite a bit of time, so putting it into the hands of an account manager can often be too much and cause communication issues.
Having your own set of writers in-house should help give you more control over the types of content being published (so prioritizing your biggest clients here works well). What content a writer publishes as guest content can play a huge role in that company’s reputation, so it’s important to stay on top of the quality.
Hiring Writers to Help Offer Content to Different Clients
The biggest problem when it comes to hiring writers is hiring a writer who is versatile enough to write about many different subject matters. You may have a client in the health industry who needs content for a website, and then you may have a client in the retail industry who needs content for guest posting.
What many companies try to do is hire a writer with an expertise in a particular industry. This certainly works best, so if you can lump some of your clients into a few different related categories you will find yourself with very qualified writers. If not, don’t sweat it. Hire a writer who really understands writing and being creative. SEO and the idea behind guest blogging is something that can be learned. A good writer should be able to produce some great guest articles (and you’ll likely see these articles get more and more advanced as time continues).
What is your process when it comes to hiring writers for several different clients? How do you make sure everything stays organized? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
