You can’t launch a digital marketing campaign without written words: ad copy, landing pages, websites, social posts, blogs, nurture emails, sales decks, case studies.
But writing effective content is time-consuming. Few B2B marketing and business leaders have time to do it well while managing other responsibilities.
Which means if you aren’t hiring a content writer right now, you’re setting back your marketing success. It’s not a “tomorrow problem.” It’s something you need to address today.
Why hiring a content writer should be a top B2B marketing priority
The average B2B buyer consumes 3-5 pieces of content before making a purchase (DemandGen & ON24). Here is some research to show why:
- 90% of B2B buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on purchasing decisions
- 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information from a series of articles versus an advertisement
- 62% of B2B buyers say a web search was one of the first three resources they use to learn about a solution
- B2B buyers are 57-70% finished with their buying research before contacting sales
Marketers and salespeople are already dealing with enough friction in their GTM efforts. Written content can reduce that friction in four ways.
Grow audience trust
The average B2B buyer sees dozens, if not hundreds, of marketing messages on a daily basis. It’s exhausting. So how do you convince buyers to give you the time of day?
According to Forbes, the top reason businesses buy from other businesses is trust. Put your expertise, personality, and track record out there for all to see. Lead with value. The more B2B buyers trust you, the more likely they’ll engage.
Build brand awareness
B2B sales aren’t short-term, impulse-based decisions. They take months, sometimes years, to materialize. Few B2B decision makers are ready to make a decision at the first touch.
Key to B2B marketing and sales success isn’t generating immediate leads or sales from your content. It’s answering the following question: When a prospect is ready to buy your product, who’s the first person they’ll call?
That’s one reason why content marketing delivers a higher ROI than paid ad campaigns. Ads only work so long as you keep pouring money into them. With content, you pay once, and it continually delivers business value.
Target multiple stakeholders
Despite what your investors, founders, or most engaged customers may tell you, not every lead will see your product and think “Wow, we need that yesterday!” Some will, and make for great, low-friction customers.
But most leads are harder to persuade, especially since most B2B buying units average 10 people. And not all these stakeholders will be persuaded by the same metrics, customer stories, and value props.
So it’s important to diversify your marketing campaigns and develop different types of content. Not only will stakeholders visiting your website see content that resonates, but your salespeople can leverage it to reduce friction and drive more deals.
Educate buyers
High-quality, thought provoking content can increase your credibility, elevate your brand, and educate buyers. Now ask a salesperson: all other things being equal, would those outcomes make it easier or harder to sell?
I promise you: 100% of salespeople would rather have those three things. Which means, by extension, 100% of salespeople would rather have high-quality marketing content on your website than not.
In short, hiring a content writer isn’t a “tomorrow problem.” If you want to make more sales tomorrow, next week, next month and quarter, you need to hire a content writer today.
How to identify quality work when hiring a content writer
Identifying the urgent need for website content and hiring a content writer who can execute it are two different exercises. So once you’ve decided to move forward, how do you evaluate the content and copywriters that come across your desk?
Sample work
The proof is in the pudding. When hiring a content writer, look at samples of previous work, especially if they have samples from within your industry. You should look for:
- Ability to write substantive, 301-level content
- Writing from a particular point of view, not just rehashing what’s currently ranking on Google
- Varying voice and tone to demonstrate adaptability
- If possible, a bench of samples from a single client to demonstrate a long-term partnership
See a cross-industry sampling of Fearless Content Group’s writing here.
Personal brand
Most content writers actively promote themselves. So if they have a personal brand, take a look. Not only will this give you an idea of their personality, but also how they think about writing, marketing, sales, and business in general. Look for:
- Branded content that meets your threshold of quality (even if the specific voice or tone doesn’t align with your brand)
- Content that makes you think or teaches you something you didn’t already know
- Alignment between how the writer approaches business and your own approach
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Industry & niche expertise
No one wants to read generic content. Even before the advent of AI-generated content at scale (which Google is now penalizing), thin content had saturated the market. Now, people want content that speaks directly to their needs—which requires content writers to not only know industries, but specific personas.
There are two ways to go about finding someone to write for your niche:
- Find a good writer with experience in your niche. Niche expertise shortens the onboarding process and accelerates output, even if the overall quality is good but not great.
- Find a great writer with experience in many niches. It’s easier to bring an excellent writer up to speed on your niche than to teach someone who knows your niche how to write. In this case, hire for adaptability, curiosity, and work ethic.
Both of these are legitimate, cost-effective options. The differentiator in your decision making will be your expectations for writing quality, and whether you have the time to bring a writer up to speed.
See a full list of the industries and markets we specialize in here.
Turnaround time
In digital marketing, time is of the essence. Waiting over two weeks for a single blog post doesn’t work. But neither should you expect an article to be turned around in 24 hours—that means the writer is rushing their work, the quality suffers, and it likely won’t drive the outcome you’re looking for.
A good average turnaround time for a blog post is between 3-7 days, depending on how much research is involved and whether a subject matter expert (SME) interview is necessary.
Most writers—including us at Fearless—plan out monthly blog cadences, where we interview SMEs once per month, then execute four blog posts over the course of that month.
Referrals, testimonials, & case studies
Validation is important, whether for your own peace of mind or to convince your stakeholders to hire a content writer. Referrals from trusted sources are always ideal, but most content writers will add their own testimonials and case studies to provide social proof of their work.
Always keep in mind that, just as with references in the hiring process, writers only put their best foot forward. It’s more important to weigh the writer’s samples and work quality vs. the connections they may have.
Visit our homepage for some testimonials from our clients.
Personality alignment
Although it may seem trivial, hiring a content writer is a partnership, which means you need to look not just at the objective metrics, but subjective. Is the content writer someone whose personality integrates well with your team or culture?
- Would I enjoy working with this person for months or years?
- Can we have a conversation without pulling teeth (in either direction)?
- Are they able to take one thing I say and run with it?
- Are they learning, growing, and deepening their knowledge of my business and industry?
A relationship with a writer is a true partnership, a collaboration. If you can’t work with them, you won’t see the outcomes you’re looking for.
How much does hiring a content writer cost?
When hiring a content writer, remember this operative principle: you get what you pay for.
If you’ve ever hired someone from a copymill or Fiverr or Upwork, you know what I mean. Often you’ll outsource your content or copy to one of those firms, then find the results to be lacking (that’s putting it nicely).
In fact, I landed one of my long-term clients because they had outsourced a whitepaper on Upwork, hated the results, and hired us to rewrite the whole piece from scratch.
The point is: if you want premium content, you have to pay premium prices. Here’s a range of pricing expectations for common types of marketing content.
Blog post writing
I’ve seen content writers ranging from $0.10/word to $1.00/word for blog posts and article writing. Generally speaking, the rate a blog writer charges is directly proportional to their experience in the field.
As such, you can expect a range much like the following for a standard, 1,000-word blog post:
Low-end: $100-300
Mid-range: $300-700
High-end: $700-1000
Email copywriting
Although the average high-converting email is only between 50-200 words, every one of those words counts. Which means your copywriter will spend more time and effort crafting each word.
What’s more, the more you invest in quality email copy, the higher the conversion rate, which increases its value and ROI. Here’s the range I’ve seen among varying proficiency levels.
Low-end: $25-50
Mid-range: $50-150
High-end: $150-300
Digital ad copywriting
Digital ads are a high-value copywriting tactic, and doing it yourself is risky, considering the number of dollars you’re spending on your campaign. Here’s a sample range for a set of four ads:
Low-end: $150-300
Mid-range: $300-500
High-end: $500+
Social media copywriting
Social media isn’t something you hand off to an intern. It can be a powerful revenue generator for your business—if you invest in quality content that people in your industry actually want to read. Here’s about what it costs for a high quality social media post:
Low-end: $25-50
Mid-range: $50-150
High-end: $150-300
Case study content writing
Case studies, although often shorter than a blog post, run at a higher rate for two reasons. First, they provide bottom-of-funnel value and more tangibly move leads through the sales funnel. Second, they require an extensive amount of research to get right. Here’s the range of prices for case study writing.
Low-end: $300-600
Mid-range: $600-1000
High-end: $1000-2000
White paper content writing
White papers are perhaps the most difficult type of written content to price out. The main reason is that different projects require differing levels of expertise. However, here’s what you can generally expect:
Low-end: $500-1,000
Mid-range: $1,000-5,000
High-end: $5,000+
Hiring a content writer: you can’t afford to wait
The fact of the matter is: your competitors are putting out content. They’re ranking on Google, equipping their sales team with resources, and building online audiences.
And they’re going to keep doing this while you wait to decide whether hiring a content writer is worth the investment.
Rather than wring your hands, take action. Get in touch with Fearless Content Group, and we’ll help you reduce sales friction, grow your audience, and maximize your content ROI.