How To Find and Hire Talented Blog Writers- Building an all-star blogging team is pivotal for producing high-quality content that drives business growth. Whether you seek prolific writers versed in specific topics and voice or jack-of-all-trades wordsmiths, implementing a rigorous recruitment process ensures you find candidates with the perfect blend of skills and reliability. However, finding writers with the ideal blend of skills and reliability can be challenging. By implementing a rigorous recruitment and hiring process, you can assemble a “dream team” of prolific bloggers tailored to your needs.
Here is a detailed guide on how to find and hire talented blog writers:
Specify Writer Needs: How To Find and Hire Talented Blog Writers
First, detail exactly what types of writers you require by outlining:
– Niche experience (finance, marketing, healthcare, etc.)
– Content types and formats
– Tones (conversational, academic, humor, etc.)
– Required content volume or delivery cadence
– Key markets and languages needed
– Previous blogging samples
This role clarity allows tailored targeting of suitable candidates.
Promote Open Positions: How To Find and Hire Talented Blog Writers
Spread the word on open writing positions through:
– Your website careers page and social media channels
– Freelance sites like Flexjobs, SolidGigs
– Job boards like ProBlogger, Writers Weekly
– LinkedIn (great for attracting professionals)
– Relevant niche forums or groups
– Academic creative writing programs
Consider developing a small paid test assignment to assess candidates upfront.
Facilitate Simple Applications
Streamline applicant tracking with an online form requesting:
– Bio summarizing experience
– Links to published samples showcasing versatility
– Key niche and content areas of expertise/interest
– Preferred tone and styles
– Self-rating of abilities across research, drafting, editing, fact-checking, referencing, keyword targeting, etc.
– Rate requirements and schedule availability
Allow file uploads for CV/resumes and short writing tests.
Assess Applicant Writing Chops
Thoroughly review writing samples and test assignments (if applicable) yourself or use a structured rubric across factors like:
– Topic relevance to needs
– Compliance with formatting guidelines
– Tone match to brand voice
– Evidence of needed research breadth/depth
– Accuracy and credibly referenced facts
– Quality of concept, angle and structure
– Outline inclusion and clear key points
– Sentence flow, transitions, variation
– Strong hook, closer, supportive multimedia
– Strength of call-to-action
Rank submissions to identify top tier candidates for interviews.
Interview Finalist Bloggers
Gauge work ethic, capabilities and culture-fit through 45-60 minute video chats focused on:
– Career goals, niche interests and content philosophy
– Discussing portfolio samples
– Poses scenario-based creative challenges
– Confirming process expectations around drafts, edits, approvals, etc.
– Defining typical deliverables for project types
– Describing management/feedback preferences
– Testing relevant software proficiency
– Establishing rate frameworks and timelines
Trust instinctive gut reactions to perceived arrogance, disengagement or ambiguity that may undermine collaboration.
Onboard and Incentivize Top Talent
Ensure selected writers get fully equipped for success through:
– Detailed creative briefs outlining content policies, protocols, legal, style guides
– Access to knowledge repositories like content grids, editorial calendars, multi-author style guides
– Introductions to internal stakeholders, external experts
– Technology training (CMS, collaboration platforms, etc.)
– Establishing regular one-on-one feedback meetings
– Agreeing short, mid and long-term goal frameworks with financial growth incentives
Invest dedicatedly in your blogging team’s skills, happiness and career advancement to build an enduring writers’ room set up for ongoing excellence.
Need personalized help filling your content talent gaps? Reach out anytime to discuss flexible partnership options tailored around your brand’s unique needs.
The Benefits of Hiring Content Writers
In today’s online business landscape, high-quality, well-researched content is invaluable for attracting customers, building credibility, and driving revenue growth. Yet producing sufficient high-caliber written content can be enormously taxing on time and resources for organizations and entrepreneurs. Hiring dedicated content development professionals pays dividends across all major marketing metrics from organic visibility to conversion rates when executed strategically.
Save Time with Specialized Skills
Time spent researching topics, structuring narratives, compiling sources, wordsmithing punchy copy, promoting new articles and analyzing performance is time taken away from directly servicing customers or developing new offerings.
Content writers possess specialized expertise around optimizing ideation processes, knowledge accumulation, writing efficiencies and working with complex content management systems that business owners typically lack, allowing them to research and produce polished posts much faster.
Gain Access to Niche Expertise
While entrepreneurs may deeply understand intricacies of their products, few have the journalistic-level insight into their industry’s evolution, emerging trends, competitor landscape, customer pain points and user search patterns that full-time content marketers develop over years of focus.
Staff and freelance writers dedicate themselves exclusively to absorbing knowledge across spheres of interest, cultivating broad networks of niche experts, and aggregating market insights needed to craft compelling narratives. Their domain experience lenses shape which facets are most intriguing or beneficial for target audiences.
Improve Search Visibility Dramatically
Beyond dashing off quick social media posts, company staffers rarely have sufficient available hours or SEO training to optimize blogs and articles around ranking factors like backlink cultivation from authoritative sites, fine-tuning meta titles and descriptions for click-through-rates, interlinking internal resources to boost dwell time, mapping related keywords to intent, structuring content hierarchy, and so on.
Meanwhile writers adeptly benchmark models that search algorithms rank highly, analyze analytics to identify customer question patterns, and test presentation formats determined by traffic source and intent data to drive visibility. The result is comingled natural and branded search impressions at scale and reduced dependency on paid ads.
Convert and Retain Site Visitors Better
Business experts often lack the creative writing techniques honed through journalism degrees, blogging apprenticeships and CRO-driven drafting which transform even complex topics into compelling narratives with mass appeal. Consequently internally-written blogs fail to adequately entrance and educate visitors at each stage from attention-grabbing headlines to elucidating analysis to actionable takeaways.
In contrast, writers gain reader investment by artfully blending data, expert perspectives, anecdotes, controversial angles, cliffhangers, multimedia and calls-to-action optimized to motivate next step behaviors from downloads to form fills according to marketing objectives.
Align Undivided Focus to Content Marketing Strategy
For bootstrapped startups and busy SMBs, content creation easily falls to the bottom of crowded priority lists after temporarily urgent customer requests, product development fires and operational issues despite nominal understanding of its long term revenue impacts. Tactical business heads rarely map out comprehensive taxonomies, detail supporting topics, define messaging pillars and tone standards or sketch calendars dictating themed releases in advance.
Meanwhile dedicated scribes methodically craft editorial plans across quarters based on buyer journeys. They plan complementary pieces filling gaps in addressable keywords, aging evergreen performs, emerging platform habits and commercial seasonal opportunities anchored around funnels and calendars endorsed by marketing and agency allies.
Want help unlocking the business benefits of outsourced blogging? Our talented writing team awaits your vision. Just start a conversation around aligning proven content solutions to your unique goals by contacting us today for a free consultation.
Also Read: Content Writing Tips for Beginners in 2024: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Compelling Content