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Whether you're just starting out or looking for methods to expand your blog, one of the best ways to up your game is by creating a content-writing team. In this post, we'll unpack the five steps needed to build a successful team of content writers for your brand.
Have you ever wondered how some businesses manage to consistently produce amazing content, without fail? Well, there's a good chance they have a secret weapon: a team of writers working in tandem to create the content that is driving their brand's success!
While it may seem like an impossible feat to build your own team of content creators, it's actually easier than you think. In today's post, we will explore the 5-step process for building your own world-class content writing team—without breaking the bank.
First Things First: Why Do You Need a Writing Team?
If your company is using content marketing to reach new customers, it can be a struggle to juggle all the responsibilities of creating and distributing content. You might be doing most of this work yourself, or you might be sharing it with a few other people on your team. Either way, one thing is clear: it's not enough.
The fact is that most businesses are losing out on opportunities to grow because they aren't leveraging the power of content marketing. And that's because they don't have enough people working on their marketing efforts.
But after reading this post, things are going to change! You're going to learn why you need a team of content writers, how this will help your business grow exponentially, and how we can help you get there faster than ever before. Let's get started!
Step 1: Preparing to Build a Remote Writing Team
Building a team of writers is pointless unless you have a strategy for how to use them. To avoid wasting time and money, take the following steps before launching your outsourcing operation:
Define what success means for your content efforts. Research and analyze the interests, needs, and behaviors of your target audience—this information will help you determine which type of content to produce (and how much).
Create guidelines that establish the writing style, tone of voice, and grammatical standards to be used for all future content. This will ensure a consistent voice and tone, which is critical for maintaining your brand identity.
Identify all kinds of content (blog posts, infographics, how-to guides) that might fit into your strategy. Remember: no one type of content will appeal to everyone; if you've done an effective job analyzing your target audience and what interests them, then this should be relatively easy.
Design templates for each type of content you publish (e.g., blog posts, email newsletters, press releases). This will ensure that your content looks and feels uniform across all channels—helping streamline the publishing process so you can focus more time on creating great material rather than spending hours editing it.
Create a workflow document that clearly defines each team member's role in the writing process. Dividing a process into smaller, more manageable parts helps to identify the stages of development for each piece of content—which will be beneficial when it comes time to assign deadlines and hold people accountable.
Remember that it's not enough to simply hire writers and tell them what to do. You have to set clear expectations, create an environment where everyone can succeed, and make sure that your team members are working together effectively.
Step 2: Developing Your Team's Roles
To avoid chaos in the content marketing process, it's critical to define roles for your team. Below are the primary positions that a content writing team should include:
Content Operations Director: supports writers, creates and maintains process documents with the aid of other team members (such as the CEO or business owner), assigns tasks to people in a project workflow, and receives completed work.
Content Creator: creates and writes articles, blog posts, or other content based upon your company's documents and marketing strategy. This role will also pitch new ideas for future content that align with the goals of your business.
Proofreader: checks the accuracy of a document and often is involved with formatting content for publication. A good proofreader can catch any errors that might distract or upset your audience—making a polished final product is crucial to maintaining credibility as well as keeping people engaged.
Copy Editor: responsible for further line editing tasks and managing the final step in the production cycle before an article goes live. Although not always necessary, a professional editor will ensure that your content is of the highest quality.
As your business grows, it might make sense to hire some supporting roles. For instance, a Team Leader who manages a small group of writers and communicates with the operations director—or perhaps a Human Resources Manager who takes the lead in training new employees on brand standards.
Step 3: Forming Processes and Training Programs
When it comes to training, a successful program is one that's clear and easy for your writers to follow. Below are some examples of the documentation your team should have handy:
Topic Research Procedure: provides your writers with a clear outline of how to conduct topic research for each piece of content. This document includes the tools and steps involved in finding and evaluating sources, as well as any limitations on where you can find information related to your clients' needs. This is also where you can explain best practices when it comes to researching topics that may be perceived as controversial or sensitive by your audience (for example, an article about gun control).
Project Mgmt. Workflow: equips your writers with a clear workflow for managing projects from start to finish. This includes the steps involved in creating new content, assigning it to team members, reviewing drafts and final articles for quality, scheduling publication dates, promoting your content on social media, and measuring its impact.
Style Guide: contains all the rules for writing in your organization. A style guide should include procedures for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, grammar, and formatting. You may also use it to highlight any exceptions to these rules. For example, if you have a company rule against using first-person pronouns (I, me, or my), then this would be included in the style guide.
CTA Strategy: describes how your brand will create and position calls to action—phrases or sentences that encourage readers to take action. For example, "Get your free report now" or "Download our ebook today!" You can also use CTAs in the body of an article to encourage readers to comment on the content, share it with others, and subscribe.
On-page Optimization Checklist: refers to the various elements of your content that can be optimized for search engines. This includes your title tags, meta descriptions, keyword density, and more. By using a checklist, your team can ensure they've correctly optimized all of these items.
To be successful, your training documentation must be detailed and informative. It should include a variety of examples, be easy to read and understand, and show step-by-step instructions on how to complete tasks. The better your training documentation is, the more likely your team will be able to successfully implement the strategies and tactics you outline.
Step 4: Sourcing Quality Writers
Once you have completed your training documentation, it's time to interview writers and begin assembling your content team. When looking for quality writers, here are some places to consider:
freelancer sites such as Fiverr or Upwork
job boards such as ProBlogger
existing publications (for subject matter experts)
Before posting a job listing, you should understand what to look for in an applicant. Here are some of the characteristics that hiring managers should keep in mind:
proven ability to achieve goals in a deadline-driven environment
proficient understanding of grammar and spelling
experience with content marketing
It's important to put new hires through a probation period of at least 90 days, during which time you can determine whether or not they have the skills and aptitude necessary for long-term success.
Step 5: Putting It All Together for the Win
With your workflows and writers in place (and trained), it's time to put your content strategy into action. To effectively monitor and measure your content marketing efforts, set up two key systems: a calendar for scheduling new posts, and an analytics program to track results.
Content Calendar Mgmt.
Armed with your content calendar, you can determine the right amount of time needed to produce each piece of content. When you have a team of writers, they will need to know when they're expected to deliver their assignments, so that they have enough time to research and write them.
The first step to creating a content calendar is to develop a list of topics you want to cover. Here's a list of brand-building topic ideas that will help get you started:
What's happening in your industry?
What topics are being discussed by influencers?
What questions do your readers have that you can help answer?
What frustrations do your customers have that you can solve?
What types of content do your competitors produce?
What do you want your brand to be known for?
Having an editorial calendar that spans at least three months in advance is an excellent way to ensure that you have enough content scheduled for your website, blog, and social media channels. It also allows you to think about your work in terms of campaigns rather than just one-off posts. A little forethought goes a long way when planning for events and promotions that require more lead time—such as an online webinar or product launch.
Tracking KPIs
Once you've constructed your content calendar, you can assess the impact of your efforts by measuring key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help you confidently assess whether or not your content is hitting the mark and being shared widely across social media. You'll also be able to see which pieces of content are performing better than others so you can leverage them for future projects. Here is a list of content marketing metrics you should track weekly:
Reach: How many people saw your content?
Engagement: How much interaction did you get from your content?
Bounce Rate: How many people left after viewing just one page of your content?
Conversion: How many people did your content convert into a sale or lead?
Loyalty: How much loyalty did your content inspire in the form of return readers?
ROI: What exactly was the return on investment from your content?
The best way to measure all these is by using Google Analytics, which will allow you to view how many people saw each piece of content, where they came from, what time of day they visited it, and much more. This data can be utilized in conjunction with social media analytics tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to track the total reach and engagement of your posts over time.
Ready to Build Your Dream Team of Content Writers?
We know what you're thinking: "How am I going to find the time and money to hire a team of writers?" Well, we've got news for you. With ReadyWriters, you don't have to worry about either one!
We're here to help small businesses grow by providing them with quality content at an affordable price. Your time is precious, and we want to ensure that every dollar you spend on content is well-spent. That's why we've built a system that allows us to provide you with high-quality content at a low cost. And if you choose to become a client of ours, we'll take care of everything else—including finding your writers!
ReadyWriters is your one-stop shop for building a talented team of content creators. From account managers to content strategists and skilled writers, we provide the expertise needed to succeed at creating impactful content—all under one roof.
Ready to transform your business into a content powerhouse? Contact us today, and let's get started!