Reasons to Outsource Content Marketing Strategy

At greatcontent, it’s no secret that we want businesses to trust our team with their content-writing projects. But that’s not all we can offer: much more than the content marketplace we started out as in 2011, today, greatcontent can support companies and digital marketers not just in content creation but also in the wider fields of content marketing strategy and editorial planning.

The way you present yourself online is important, and no company wants to risk diluting their message or compromising their brand image; however, if you choose the right outsourcing partner for your editorial planning, there’s really very little to fear – and this could be the most viable or effective way to significantly boost your site’s leads and visibility with minimal time or HR investment. So, do read on…

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Why you should outsource your content planning

1. Turn great ideas into long-term strategies

Outsourcing your content strategy will enable you to take advantage of specialist editorial planning services. This, in turn, will allow you to transform a cluster of great blog ideas into an effective, coordinated, planned campaign with measurable results.

Editorial planners can help you develop the kind of blog content which connects with customers. Whether you sell vitamin supplements or drone camera work, it’s possible to make huge gains by running regular and engaging content, but not all companies know how to do so. That’s where these planning services can really help.

2. Outsourcing frees up valuable time (without compromising on quality)

When you run a business, time is a precious commodity. Many business owners, therefore, fail to allocate enough time to creating and managing their content strategies. Sometimes, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to write the blogs you need… let alone conceptualise them, fine-tune them for SEO, and draw up an effective publishing schedule.

We know that longer, richer, better-researched content trumps rushed blogs which sacrifice quality to meet deadlines. In fact, it’s now common knowledge that long-form content tends to rank much higher in search results than shorter alternatives.

But writing long-form content is challenging and time-consuming – especially if you are distracted by daily management tasks. Content marketing strategy outsourcing solves that problem by letting dedicated writers focus all of their attention on each project.

3. Content marketing strategy outsourcing brings in expertise where it’s needed

Content creation isn’t as simple as writing fluent, enjoyable blogs or articles – if only that were the case.

In reality, content creators need to factor in their knowledge of keyword frequency and SEO ranking systems as well as their understanding of issues like how often you should blog for SEO. Content writing companies who offer editorial planning services will specialise in these kinds of expertise – and use them to maximise their clients’ content’s reach.

And they can often do so better than their clients. According to Provoke Insights, 42% of companies report that they lack the resources and skills to create and publish effective content (and those are only the respondents who are honest about their capabilities). So: external help matters.

4. Specialist writers can bring your ideas to their full potential

Not all digital marketers are professional writers. By that, we don’t mean that they can’t turn a phrase or write persuasive – even beautiful – blog content which excites customers.

No, the thing about professional writers is that they are devoted to content writing and the world of online content. They mix literary skill with knowledge of SEO. They learn online research skills, network with the best in their field, and hone their craft to deliver whatever clients demand.

And that can make a huge difference. It doesn’t matter how well you write; if your mind is on fiscal reporting, marketing, or staff management, you will never develop the kind of laser-like abilities that dedicated, professional content writers possess – and when you outsource content, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

5. Helps you match (and beat) the competition

When you outsource content creation and strategy, you’ll almost certainly realise financial savings just from the more efficient use of your staff. But that’s not all.

More importantly, you’ll be keeping pace with key competitors in your sector. As the Content Marketing Institute found in its 2018 report, around 56% of American companies outsource content creation tasks (and other estimates vary from 50% to as much as 70%).

The same source greatly emphasises the importance of having a content strategy; it states that within a group of companies who did not have a content plan (including the content concepts and themes, publishing schedule, etc.), 67% of the reasons for this were related to the in-house teams being too small, and 44% of the reasons were related to the companies not having enough time to invest in content strategising – outsourcing editorial planning could have helped on both counts! So, you can get ahead of those who are not taking advantage of external editorial planning services.

Who can benefit from outsourcing editorial planning tasks?

To summarise, if you need high-quality, affordable, SEO-savvy content created and published regularly and/or in a steady rhythm, outsourcing content planning is definitely a good option. In fact, for many businesses, it could be the only realistic way to run lead- and visibility-boosting blogs effectively.

When you work with editorial planning specialists, the task of setting up regular, engaging posts becomes much simpler. The companies offering these services, (including greatcontent) can handle everything from the actual conceptualisation of the blog (or article, or newsletter) series to the scheduling of post publications, multilingual copywriting, SEO analytics, and more.

You can usually decide how much control to retain over the subject of content while letting trained experts do the rest. And at all stages, your point of contact at your chosen partner agency will keep you informed regarding the content creation process and amendments to the plan (e.g., maybe a spontaneous post relating to a surprise current event may be a good idea).

Editorial planning delivers the functionality of a content strategy or communications team without the expense of employing in-house staff. So it’s not a surprise to see more companies reaching out for external assistance in this area.