How to Find a Really Good Marketing Writer

“I once hired an outside writer to write a white paper and ended up rewriting the entire thing myself. How do I find someone that does what they say?”

Marketing vice presidents, directors and managers ask me this question all the time. These professionals are more overworked than ever. One marketing director recently complained about working until 4 a.m. on three occasions over the past two weeks. With budgets loosening somewhat, many are eager to outsource some of their writing workload. But often, they’re afraid to do so because they’ve had a bad experience in the past and ended up having to rewrite the white paper or brochure themselves. “Why should I pay someone if I end up doing all the work myself?” they wonder.

Yet at some point, the deadline will be so tight or other projects so pressing that you have little choice but to outsource. How can you be sure that the project is done right?

Here are some tips for choosing a writer who can keep projects on track while minimizing your time investment:

Be clear on your goals

Some companies take an “I’ll know it when I see it approach” when they commission marketing communications materials. This is the number one cause of project failure. Before you even think about hiring a writer, establish your communications objectives for the particular marketing communications piece. By knowing what type of piece you want to create and what you want to say, you’ll have a better idea of which writer to choose for the job. Before starting a project, define:

·     The type of piece you need (white paper, brochure, thought-leadership article).

·     The stage of the sales cycle it’s for (early-stage education, research stage, options exploration).

·     The audience. Be as specific and narrow as possible: “IT staff at pharmaceutical companies” is a better target audience than “operations, marketing, merchandising and distribution at apparel and grocery retailers.”

·     The one key message you want people to remember as a result of reading the piece.

·     The three to five key supporting messages and their proof points.

·     What you want readers to do as a result of reading this piece.  

Ask about the writer’s experience and writing samples

Most clients do a good job of asking about the writer’s experience. After all, it’s better to get someone with relevant experience. For example, B2B writing is much different than targeting consumers.  

However, while it’s true that a general marketing writer will have a difficult time picking up the nuances of technology, a marketing writer with long experience in technology should have no problem learning about a new technology. Someone who’s written about ERP software can easily learn about time-keeping software; someone with knowledge of triple-play technology can get up-to-speed quickly on wireless.

For example, technology writers typically have enough background in a wide range of technology-related topics to know what they don’t know, what questions to ask and how to do the research and interview the experts to get the answers. In addition, they are, in a sense, your audience; they know a great deal about technology, but they’re not experts in your technology, so they can look at your content with fresh eyes.

It’s more important to review the writing samples to see if you like the level and style of the writing. Also, most good writers should at least have references on LinkedIn or others that are available to contact.

Do a gut check

Just as important as experience is the writer’s attitude and independence. Does he or she expect all of the background information to come from you? You may end up spending more time than you’d like getting the writer up to speed. A good writer with a strong work ethic and research skills will be able to take the top-level messages from you and get up-to-speed quickly by reviewing the extensive resources that are available on the web to fill in the rest without taking up more of your valuable time than necessary. For questions specifically about new product messaging/capabilities/positioning, the writer should review existing materials and be able to zero in on specific follow-up questions.

Establish intermediate deliverables

Some clients think that the first deliverable should be the first draft. But when you see a draft, it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees. Reviewers can easily get bogged down in word choice and don’t see that the messages aren’t quite right. The result is endless review cycles that sap everyone’s time. To improve the efficiency of the process, ask for an outline before the first draft. This way, you review the structure of the piece and the messaging before getting hung up on word choice.

Despite justifiable reservations over hiring a writing consultant, you can find one that will deliver content that meets your high quality standards. Once you’ve found a writer you can trust, you’ll have a resource on hand that you can turn to whenever you're pressed to complete a demanding writing project on a tight deadline.   

What have your experiences been hiring external writing resources?

Comments

[Neil Rhein]

As someone who specializes in writing for financial services companies, I am sometimes amazed by marketing folks who seem to have no idea of what they want to communicate. Someone higher up on the ladder says "we need a white paper on ABC" and off they go. So my advice to clients is to really take the time necessary to think about what you want to accomplish and how to best communicate that message. No more "ready, fire, aim." It saves them (and me) a lot of headaches.

[Randy Kemp]

I really enjoyed this article. It's very relevant to what I do.
Randy Kemp

[Cheryl Goldberg]

Neil, that's so true. It's so important to get people to define what they want to do upfront.

Randy, thanks for your comment.