The demand for quality content has greatly increased over the years. Any person or company that intends to stay in the game, and maybe even top the charts, need to constantly create and dish out content in an attractive manner that appeals to the masses.
Keeping up with this demand can be quite tasking and is almost impossible to perform alone. Fortunately, there are a lot of creative and talented people and agencies one can outsource their content writing too. The question is who would do a better job and is more reliable? Freelance Content Writers or Professional Agencies?
While each group has its Pros and Cons, this article discusses 5 reasons to avoid freelance content writers and hire professional agencies instead.
- Tedious Vetting Process
A great deal of time and attention is required in choosing the most qualified freelance writer. Thousands of people (at least) join the freelance writing train every day, each trying to impress potential clients with their profiles and portfolios. It is difficult to make a decision, especially in a world where it is common for people to over-promise and under-deliver. The thought of going through this process alone is highly discouraging.
Although the vetting process also applies to agencies, it is a hundred times less stressful and time-consuming – as they already have a network of tested freelance writers under them. Professional agencies take on the selection process for you. All you have to do is state your requirements and expected results.
- Low Reliability
Freelance writers are often contacted and hired by many clients at the same time. They rarely decline these job offers because they need the money and, oftentimes, underestimate the tasks or overestimate their abilities. These writers end up juggling multiple projects and clients. In order to keep up with the deadlines – if possible at all – the projects are rushed, and therefore result in, more often than not, substandard work. Besides the work overload, freelance writers can also quit and drop a project in the case of emergencies or better paying and more pressing projects, leaving the client stranded and having to start the vetting process all over again.
Professional agencies, on the other hand, have access to several content writers, working as a team. There is absolutely no need to worry about your project being dropped or poorly done. In case of emergencies or the unavailability of one writer, another is immediately put in charge of the work.
- Low Project Capacity
A freelance writer, no matter how good he or she is, is still just one person. There is a limit to how much work they can do and how fast they can deliver. In the event where your efforts and investment in content marketing begins to pay off and also demand more – pushing you to also increase the rate of content production – a freelance writer will likely not be able to match your growth rate or scale alongside you. One could decide to simply hire more freelance writers, however, this would involve starting the selection process over again. Apart from that, there is the issue of managing these freelancers writers who have different schedules and probably different time zones.
Professional agencies are designed with the intention of accommodating several clients and their projects. This means they employ several writers with different skill sets and varying expertise. Based on your request, a single writer or a team of writers may be assigned to your project. Agencies have structured processes that prove efficient in meeting whatever demands the client has, including scaling up.
- Plagiarism Issues
When you outsource your content writing, you expect to get a creative and original material in line with the presented topic or task. The Internet is an ocean full of content and has information on almost anything you can think of, and if not? Then information on something pretty closely related. With access to such information, it is common for people to simply copy and paste and share that content with the world. The problem is publishing that content – without citing or properly referencing it – under your own name or company’s, thus, taking credit for another person’s work. This is plagiarism. For the lazy, uncreative, pressed-for-time writer, this is a simple fix but could mean a world of trouble for the client.
Agencies, being a professional body, value their reputation and avoid things that would tarnish it. This is why content writing agencies not only hire writers, but also editors, and employ several grammar tools and plagiarism checkers. You can rest assured that you’ll be receiving authentic and quality work.
- Short-term Relationship
If you intend on taking on more projects in the future, it is important and highly recommended that you hire someone you can trust and rely on. Freelance writers work based on their own schedule and at their set price – which they reserve to right to change at any time. The writer whom you hired once and loved their work might be unavailable subsequently or might charge more for your work. It would be a shame if your audience enjoyed the previous content, engaged with it positively, and demanded more of the same, only for the mind behind it to disappear or be unavailable.
This is something you won’t have to worry about with agencies. Since agencies manage writers and sometimes team them up, they are able to learn from each other and understand the style of writing you prefer. Most times, a write-up is worked on and reviewed by several people in the agency to ensure only the best quality is delivered. It doesn’t matter if one member of the team is unavailable – not that you would even notice.
Building a healthy and profitable long-term relationship is easier and much less of a risk with professional content writing agencies – an organized team of skilled writers and editors dedicated to you, round-the-clock – rather than a single freelance writer or a handful of them.
Conclusion
Content creation is a delicate and important task that could greatly affect the success of a business or the impact of an individual. It would be wise to entrust this responsibility to a well-known, fully equipped and responsible party.