Given our hyper-connected world and the Internet of Things, running a business now is no small feat. Our current digital age requires a considerable amount of writing and constant curation of content to survive.

For starters, there’s your website. Weekly newsletter. Daily social media posts. And of course, how can we ever forget your advertisements. Some of us even have pretty ambitious plans: On top of everything else, we want to practice active blogging which entails inbound marketing, organic search and online traffic.

One of the most challenging parts of the business is hiring the right people who can exponentially grow your business. Well, my friend, who’s going to do all of that?

Why Hiring a Content Writer is a Good Move

Creating top-notch, attention-grabbing and in trend article is crucial. By offering useful information to your readers, it shows them the value of your business, and in turn, converts them into loyal customers.

Compelling content is also the key to getting quality links back to your site. To quote ‘The Sales Acceleration Formula’ by HubSpot Advisor, Mark Roberge, “If lots of people follow you and lots of people share your content across social media channels, Google figures there is a good chance you are a thought leader on a given topic and ranks you prominently in the search engine results for that topic.” [M. Roberge. (2015). The Sales Acceleration. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.]

In a nutshell, excellent and exciting content can potentially catapult your business to the top of search engine rankings organically — although a steep climb but possible.

Not to mention, the pros of having an inventory of such content is that it stays with you. If you want to be known as a thought leader in your field, you need to earn it. Curating such content that reflects your area of expertise can help get your name out there and get your company recognised.

Writing is Hard

It’s fascinating how content writers are typically undervalued — even though we’re the ones who produce the content everyone eventually reads or sees.

“A Game Programmer? Cool, you must know lots of coding languages!”

“Wow, if you’re a Sales Lead, it must mean you bring in substantial revenue for the company!” (kudos to you if that’s you!)

Anyone who has worked on a team of writers can resonate and will know I’m not exaggerating. People tend to have that misconception that content writers have it easy because technically everybody can write.

Hence, with that mindset, most of us take it upon ourselves to churn out “good” content.

Let’s be honest: Have you ever been faced with a situation where you write, delete and re-write? You try to come up with amazing sentences and fancy adjectives but only to be faced with a writer’s block? Or worse, be caught using the same word repeatedly?

If you are continually facing such situations, it’s high time you face the truth — you need professional help.

Adding to that, topics don’t fall from the sky. You have to think them up and mull them over. Take writing blog posts for example: According to Orbit Media Studios’ 3rd Annual Survey of Bloggers in 2018, the time invested per blog post (800-1000 words) has risen 44% in the past five years. Currently, the average blog post takes 3.5 hours to craft, edit and publish.

Doing that on your own every week means 14 hours of your time is gone every month. That’s time that could be spent making connections, building customer relationship and social media engagement.

Everybody can write, but not everybody can write well.

Where to Find Your Missing Piece(s)

It’s pretty evident all signs are pointing you towards hiring a content writer. But where do you start? How do you comb through the sea of prospective writers and snap up the good ones before time runs out?

Sometimes what you’re looking for is right under your nose, and you don’t even know it.

Take Wantedly for example: Recently, we rolled out a new feature on our platform where users can publish their very own feed articles. Within a week, we’ve seen a creative intern’s thoughts on Dolce and Gabbana’s crisis with China, a marketing manager’s take on brand management and many more. We never knew we had that many passionate vocalists writers in the Wantedly Community!

One of the best ways you can go about hiring such talent is to reach out to a writer on a blog/feed you admire. Even if the content writer isn’t quite available now, they can probably refer and recommend you to the next best person in line.

Freelance writers are great alternatives too — although their writing rates are significantly higher. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t discount them as engaging a skilled freelance writer will help optimise your website, advertisements and further strengthen your brand. Just remember, your content is your pitch, and a good pitch stands out from the crowd.

You Snooze, You Lose

The hiring scene is moving faster than ever, and employers cannot afford to dilly dally. Many business owners and managers like yourself today are on a mission to grow their companies as swiftly as possible and are willing to do whatever it takes.

Just like the book from Jim Collins “Good To Great”, with the right people on the right seats of the bus, your business will eventually drive its way towards success.

Time waits for no man. Need help forming your dream bus team? We’re right around the corner.