How to Hire and Manage Freelance Writers and Marketing Professionals

Source: Neil Patel

So you’ve decided to step up your content marketing game and bring in some marketing professionals.

Congrats! This is a big step, and it can end up making a massive difference in both the quality and the quantity of the content you produce.

Which will be great, considering how important content marketing is these days.

One quick look at the graph below from MarketingProfs shows that blogs are anticipated to be one of the biggest content marketing tactics of this year.

Of course, being the savvy business owner you are, you’re aware that this process isn’t without its potential hurdles.

Making sure that you hire the right people is hard enough. How do you figure out how to manage those writers once you’ve brought them onto the team?

Let’s just say that things can get messy really quickly.

Fortunately, that’s where I come in.

I’ve put together this checklist to make this is as easy as possible for you.

As usual, you can click on any of the topics below and check out a specific section if it interests you.

But I strongly suggest that you read this particular article all the way through.

The entire point is that you understand how to hire and manage these writers, and I’d hate for you to leave with an incomplete understanding of the topic.

3 steps for the hiring process

1. Intention is everything

Every time I start talking about the importance of establishing goals before you dive into the digital media marketing world, I worry that people aren’t taking it seriously.

Let me be clear. I’m not telling you to set goals because it’s a convenient first step.

I’m bringing this up because going into this process blind is arguably one of the worst things you could do.

Especially when you’re about to hire someone, taking the time to step back from everything and determine exactly what you want can save you a world of hurt in the future.

Your intention won’t just determine what type of person you hire. It’ll also determine whether or not that person will successfully accomplish the goals you need them to.

In this plan, there are going to be a few key issues you’ll want to address.

Why don’t we start with the basics?

What kind of content will you be making? Determine whether it’s educational, inspirational, entertaining, or some mixture of all three.

It really doesn’t matter, as long as you have it well defined long before you interview your first potential candidate.

If you’re really struggling, here are some of the most popular tactics used, courtesy of MarketingProfs.

Next, let’s look at what their schedule will be. Will they be creating an original piece of content once a week?

Once a day?

Again, take a second to decide what you’d consider being a healthy content output.

But don’t stop there!

How much will you be offering as compensation for the writers?

How often do you plan to pay them?

When do you want them handing in work?

These are just some of the questions that you should answer long before you conduct your first interview.

Remember that even if you’re planning on working with professionals, your intention for both the role and the person who fills it will dictate just how successful this entire process is.

2. Where to hunt for talent

Okay, so at this point, you’ve established a series of goals that you expect your writers to crush once you hire them.

So far, so good, right?

This next step is pretty simple, actually. There’s one minor hurdle, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Now that you’re ready to hire someone, it’s time to start scouting the talent and figure out who’s ready to be on your team.

But before we can get there, we have to go through hundreds, if not thousands, of writers.

Where should you go hunting for talent?

My first suggestion is always to speak with friends, family, and colleagues.

It might sound a bit cliche, but there are plenty of people in your immediate network who know someone who’d be interested.

Beyond that, reach out to other businesses that have featured writers you’ve enjoyed.

A great example of this? The Huffington Post. Not only do they have plenty of talented writers, but each article also gives you the chance to connect directly with the authors.

You could also scan your favorite sites and reach out to the writers directly, with Medium being a great example.

It might not seem like much, but you’d be amazed at what kind of people you can find with just a degree of separation.

Of course, you can reach out to companies that exist to provide you with the right tools for the job.

These agencies can do just about anything you need them to.

Maybe you want to start with just a few jobs, just to make sure things are a good fit. You can use a service like Creative Circle.

Services like these are typically used to give people smaller gigs.

But let’s say you wanted to skip the process of hiring individuals altogether!

In that case, you can reach out to businesses like BlogMutt for all your business blogging needs.

There are plenty of perks to working with an agency, as long as you pick the right one.

Another great way to find potential writers? LinkedIn! That’s where many marketing professionals are likely to be.

If you really want to, you can use Craigslist. Just get ready for a massive amount of applicants where a large portion of them aren’t even familiar with your industry.

Which brings me to that hurdle I was talking about earlier.

You’re going to get plenty of people to apply for your position. It’s not that hard to find people.

You know what is hard? Finding the right people.

3. Preparing for and executing the interview

You’ve done all your research, you’ve got yourself a few hundred applicants, and you’re getting…

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