Freelance writer, agency, or hired writer?

The benefits of hiring a writing agency

Somewhere in the middle, is the option of hiring a business writing agency.  Companies such as Write2Market hire a variety of expert freelancer writers and editors, train them in the agency’s standard process, manage them on client projects, and provide them with a steady stream of projects that suit their skills.

The agency environment allows writers to hone their abilities in a peer environmental benefit that hones the agency writer, and one that the lone freelance writer or employee has to make do without. Writers with agencies also tend to have access to education, software, and research databases that are less available to (or affordable for) freelance writers.

Clients of a writing agency are exploiting the bulk purchase advantage or economies of scale–a company that needs four white papers a year can’t afford to hire an expert white paper writer to sit on the bench the rest of the year, but through a writing agency, even a company that creates only one white paper a year can have a writer that specializes in effective white papers. Hire a writing agency if:

• You need a senior professional writer, but don’t find it cost effective to employee one of these professionals (who often command six figure salaries).
• You’ve got more work than one person can do, but not so much work that you want to hire three or four types of writers (i.e.,direct marketing writer, a public relations writer, a technical writer)
• You have a significant number of content development and copywriting projects
• You don’t want to manage the writer directly–you’d prefer a level of consultation and project management to ensure excellent work from your writing team
• You want to empower a “brand voice” across all types of content for your company
• You don’t want to train the writer–you want an established professional
• You want the advantages of a long-term, recurring relationship, a group of writers that can grow with you
• You don’t want the overhead, expense, training, and hassle of hiring more creative staff

Hiring an agency

In these situations, hiring a writing agency makes sense because you’ll enjoy the benefits of:

• A dedicated team composed of writers that meet your particular needs
• A project manager who educates and enforces your brand with the  copywriters on your team
• A long-term relationship with a professional services firm that caters to you, and sees to your needs despite any turnover in your writing team
• Cost effective rates that come from “consolidating” writing specialties
• Tactical as well as strategic support for your business writing efforts (i.e., if you need to get a particular message out, a writing agency can often advise you on how and what makes most sense in addition to doing the copywriting)

If you feel a writing agency could be a cost-effective solution for your content development needs, contact Write2Market today. We’re looking forward to offering you our trademark deliverable–writing that gets results.