5 Tips for Outsourcing Blog Content Creation

It should come as no surprise that one of the cornerstones of search engine optimization services includes regularly scheduled blog content. In 2020, content is still king—but, not just any content. Articles that you decide to feature on your website must be timely, relevant, well-written and must offer value through your unique perspective. The following five tips have been crafted based on our own real-world experience creating content for clients from a wide range of industries.

Use a Content Creation Process

Without proper attention to the content creation process, a natural disconnect can occur between a niche company and an outsourced content creation team. So, when looking for content creation services, developing a well-defined procedure for selecting topics, guiding the information about those topics, writing and reviewing the articles before they’re published are critical to the successful partnership.

Tip #1: Selecting the Topic

When partnering with an SEO expert, you are able to obtain topics via keyword research that you may not have realized your competitors are using. These topics can be provided to you and include metrics like keyword search volume, difficulty to rank and competitor usage. However, there can also be a mutual responsibility for selecting topics that includes industry-focused subjects and current events. Our process includes the following steps for topic selection:

1. Our team provides a template that includes 1-3 potential topics based on keyword research.
2. The client selects one of the topics or provides their own.
3. The client includes 3-5 bullet points to be used as sections of the article.
4. The client adds any additional information that may be unique to their perspective.
5. The client provides 1-2 quotes to be referenced within the article.

These 5 steps are all part of a templated email process that allows input from our team and the client. This allows us to start on the same page immediately before any content is ever written. It also helps avoid any critical errors or omissions by standardizing the input process.

Tip #2: Writing the Content

Similarly to topic selection, the actual writing of the content should follow a standardized procedure. Before writing any content, the client should provide any pertinent background information about their business, industry, tone or brand messaging that will be applicable to all content created. For example, the following notes from the client may help to ensure consistent, high-quality writing:

1. Business—make sure our team understands your business type and the services offered.
2. Industry—provide examples of competitors and any topics or verbiage to avoid.
3. Tone—indicate whether readers expect blog articles to be serious, educational, fun, etc.
4. Brand Messaging—outline key differentiators for your company and services.

The notes made above should be evergreen and include only those guidelines that will not frequently change. It is important to keep these notes accessible each time a new piece of content is created. Then, this background information can be combined with the notes from the topic selection to properly guide the article content.

Tip #3: Reviewing the Content

Once our content team is satisfied with the rough draft of the article, we then submit it back to the client for a final review. If the previous steps have been followed correctly, this should not require much time or effort from the client. In some cases, there may be additional requests from our team if a unique perspective is required to tie the article together. However, in most cases this step takes little more time than just reading the article itself.

Generally, the client will respond via email confirming that the content in the article is approved to be published. In the case that additional content or a small tweak is requested, the client would do so at this point.

Tip #4: Publishing the Content

Topic selection, article writing, and content review are the bulk of this process. However, attention to detail in the publishing of the content is critical as well. The following items are standardized by our team for each individual client based on the existing website design:

1. Headline and featured images.
2. Titles, colors and fonts.
3. Meta information and schema markup.
4. Publication dates (based on schedule).
5. Internal linking to other pages on the website.

After the webpage has been created, we schedule the post for distribution to the blog page and RSS feed if applicable. Once the article is published, one last email is sent to the client from our team indicating the topic, permalink, and date published for the client’s final review.

Tip #5: Sharing the Content

The live publication of the content to your own website must be done before it can be shared across additional channels. So, it is highly recommended that the blog post link has been manually checked before sharing. The following places are a great start to sharing your new content:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn
4. Instagram
5. Newsletter

If you have multiple social media accounts or have access to social media influencers, then it may also be a good idea to post the content on multiple accounts. Additionally, you can leverage any partnerships you may have to share your content via their email lists.

Having written thousands of articles for ourselves and our clients, we understand the importance of using a systematic approach to content creation that includes both our team as well as our clients. If you’ve had difficulty finding time to write regular content for your website or have had difficulty finding writers with the capabilities required for high-quality content in your niche area, then this process will help alleviate those problems. If you have further questions regarding the outsourcing of content creation, please don’t hesitate to contact SunCity Advising today.