You are looking to hire a content writer for your business blog. Someone who can deliver great content and remain on budget. The problem is that you don’t feel like it should cost you the earth to do so.

I get it - budgets matter.

So does your return on investment (ROI); that’s why I want to make my impassioned pitch for you to reconsider how you pay your content writer.

High-quality content can benefit your business growth and success because it is a marketing tool that works on autopilot to drive traffic to your site and highlight your expertise.

Here’s how blog posts achieve that

• Good blog posts attract new audiences by leveraging search - Most people using search engines today want to solve a problem. They are looking for the how, why, where, when, and what. In fact, they search this way so often that Google invented dedicated search engine query pages (SERPs) to answer specific questions.

• Good blog posts also increase your Domain Authority - Providing helpful content to its users matters to Google, so they rank web pages based on what they feel will provide the best solution to a user’s problem. With top positions gaining more traction, how your domain authority helps your content compete against the competition matters because it’s the difference between getting that click-through and not.

• Great blog posts nurture audiences through their pain points and down the marketing funnel - The difference between good content that draws people in and great content is that great content is targeted directly at your buyer personas (your customers). It is worded explicitly with a deep understanding of how your ideal customer thinks and behaves. Guiding them to a logical and intuitive next step (a call to action)

• They are also shareable - meaning your audience spreads your work far and wide with their peers. Higher-quality backlinks from outside sources further your reach and improve your search rankings.

Sophie needs blog content, but she has a tight budget, so her freelance engagement process starts from the mindset of what she will pay instead of what she wants to get out of the process. Yet she would like to increase her new website traffic by 1,000 views per month.

She finds Eric on a freelance website, and he has some “ok” writing examples; even better is that he charges £0.02 per word, so for a thousand words, she’ll pay just £20.

“Great”, thinks Sophie, “I can get loads of content out of this for my blog.”

Eric starts work.

Now, remember here that the average blog post takes 2.5 hours to create, which includes

• keyword research (because you want to rank with your posts, right?!)

• metadata creation

• topic and industry research (because Eric doesn’t have background knowledge)

• and incorporates tone of voice understanding.

Knowing this, or not, at best, Sophie proposes to pay Eric £8 per hour, below UK minimum wage for one thousand words.

I can tell you what will happen here; Eric will pump out Sophie’s content in an hour, handing in a surface-glossed and word-packed piece.

Eric isn’t too worried about the tone of voice and calls to action. He isn’t too bothered by the idea of plagiarism either and doesn’t feel motivated to provide her with content that outshines the competition; he’ll just rewrite something he found online. After all, he’s making £20 per post if he can write a thousand words.

Of course, I must add a caveat here for those writers who charge too small a price but really want to provide great content. They want to serve you well, creating beautiful articles, but to work at a wage just above the minimum per hour; they aren’t going to spend enough time on your work. They can’t.

Let’s go back to Eric.

If Eric isn’t a skilled content writer (and why would he be at £20 per for 2.5 hours of work), he also won’t have considered SEO.

Sophie needs amendments, but Eric wants to charge her for these, but concerned about the budget; Sophie posts the content on her website, and it underperforms. Even at £20 per blog post, this isn't sustainable marketing.

Now yes, Sophie could hire an overseas content writer, but typically (and I know because I’ve rewritten them), resulting posts don’t fit a UK audience.

In a different scenario Sophie, our passionate business owner, decides that paying a content writer for the project might be a better fit. Here’s what happens in that situation.

Sophie reaches out to Sara (OMG, that’s me, “Hi Mum!”), who charges £130 for a 500-word blog post with complete SEO, metadata and social snippets.

Sara gets the same brief, but interestingly she starts by asking questions.

• “Who is your target customer?”

• “Who are your competitors?”

• “Do you have any preferred sources for stats and industry insights?”

• “Do you have a tone of voice document?”

• “Do you have a primary keyword in mind?”

What she comes back with is vastly different; it feels professionally written.

Here’s why.

I cost my content writing services based on all the criteria that a great article deserves, and that’s;

• Time on research

• Time on story flow by developing actionable and helpful information

• Time on user experience (UX) - how the user moves through this piece and from it to the next using a primed call to action (because you want potential customers to stay on-site, right?!)

• Time on internal linking so that if buyers aren’t ready to move down the marketing funnel, they at least stay on-site reading more information, learning to trust your authority.

• Time on a limited number of amendments (because things need editing occasionally, right?!)

The ROI is measurably different here because Sophie will likely see something that performs well in search, meeting her goals quicker and resonates with her audience.

Day rates and retainers are alternative ways to pay content writers, meaning that you have them available for blog posts and other copywriting. This can be a great option for businesses that can’t afford to have someone in-house.

I offer both options and find that most organisations I work with prefer the flexibility this gives them.

It’s also great for me because I know that at some point, you will need a blog audit to improve your SEO and content efforts; this allows me to do that for you.

Concentrating on a goal-oriented mindset over a budget-first view makes you much more likely to see a return on investment. 

Believe me; your customers will thank you for it. Why? Because they can see how helpful and knowledgeable you are before buying, which makes their decision-making process much more confident.

Moreover, you extend your reach, helping and influencing more people through thoughtful content creation. Becoming a known quantity in your industry also brings with it many more opportunities.

Are you tired of underperforming blog content? Contact me today by filling in the project form below.