The following post comes to us from Jamie McBrien who has over 25 years of experience in organizational transformation, shared services, and outsourcing. Keep reading to learn from Jamie the pros and cons of taking the leap to outsource your brand’s content.
The marketing world is fast transitioning into the digital sphere and content creation. In the past, companies considered content marketing as non-essential or extra resources they could implement if needed. Fast-forward to today, and content marketing has become a significant part of the overall marketing strategy.
Content may just be the future of marketing, and companies realize they need to invest in this practice or get left behind. Content creation is the heart of content marketing and includes content production for social media and other digital mediums.
However, creating quality and engaging content takes time. Outsourcing can help you be more efficient with content creation and save your company time and money without sacrificing quality. Establishing outsourcing partnerships is an option to fast-track your company’s transition into the world of content marketing.
You might be wondering, “what exactly are the benefits and risks of outsourcing content creation?” That’s precisely the question we seek to answer.
Benefits of Outsourcing Content Creation
- Talent in diversity
Securing the best talents is crucial for content creation. Outsourcing provides a company with a larger talent pool of highly-skilled individuals to fit a specific need. Having outsourced workers who have an abundance of knowledge working for different niches can benefit the process of your content creation. Meanwhile, new employees mean fresh and diverse insights.
Every individual has their point of view; having both fresh and experienced eyes offers you options you may never have considered. Having outsourced employees can energize the thought process of your content creation, especially if you are stuck on a project. Third-party, high-quality talents can provide insight and advice to expedite your process with different methods.
- Flexibility
You can keep tabs on your in-house writers’ output and efficiency. However, it also means you are limited to those writers who may or may not have a particular specialty. A business constantly evolves, and if your company decides to take a different trajectory, your current writers may not easily adjust or have trouble adjusting to a sudden change.
This is where outsourcing comes in. Outsourcing provides the flexibility to hire talents with different content expertise to take on projects in-house writers otherwise cannot or do not have time for. Companies can utilize outsourced industry experts to avoid spreading their in-house team too thin and keep ideas fresh.
The beauty of outsourcing is that you can transition to another outsourced content writer if the production rate and quality are dipping. This allows your company to optimize its content strategy for the best possible results. Also, keep in mind that there are still other talents necessary for content production—editors, graphic designers, and videographers are just some of them.
- Division of work
Your in-house writers can only do so much, especially if you want to scale content. Outsourcing your content creation provides your company with a workforce solely dedicated to their given tasks. Delegating work your in-house team is not capable of doing allows them to work on the content they need to focus on.
No longer will your company struggle to assign projects to content creators who are not knowledgeable about or capable of tackling a topic. You can offload a specific task to a worker most capable of doing the best work.
The ability to divide work properly can result in faster and more efficient content production. Outsourced workers not only provide you with quality content promptly, but they can also help you meet your goals faster due to the increased productivity and output of content.
- More cost-effective in the long run
Scaling your content efforts means inflating your budget, and outsourcing is a more cost-effective method than hiring full-time content creators. As the possibility of your company expanding requires more talents, the need for more human resources gets costly.
Hiring content creators on a per-project basis allows you to distribute funds and resources to endeavors associated with growing your company. Due to the nature of their employment, you do not have to worry about government-mandated employee benefits.
You also don’t have to spend on a workspace, maintenance, supplies, and electricity bill. Outsourcing is a way to pay for content creation without the restraints of paying a full-time salary.
Risks of Outsourcing Content
As proven, there are several benefits to outsourcing content creation. However, not all industries can use this practice, as there are still risks involved if your company decides to receive content externally. These are just some of the factors you need to consider before outsourcing.
- Communication
Issues may arise concerning communication if you decide to outsource content creation. Outsourced workers may not fully know your company’s vision since they are not acclimated to your business culture. This situation can result in the output being less than satisfactory since the content producers only follow the guidelines you have provided them.
Time zone and cultural differences may also be the root of communication issues with your third-party service providers. You and your partner must find common ground if you want to pursue outsourcing.
- Client privacy
Sharing of sensitive client information is frowned upon for obvious reasons. Big enterprises keep company info because they don’t want the competition to know what they got in store. If you are collaborating with a company that shares information on a need-to-know basis, outsourcing might not be for you.
Content creation relies heavily on data and collaterals. Outsourcing can jeopardize your relationship with your client if you happen to share anything you should not have with your provider. And since materials are transmitted online, there’s always the risk of cyberattacks that can expose your clients’ info.
- Industry familiarity
Careful consideration is essential in acquiring the services of an excellent outsourced worker. Outsourcing has an abundance of industry experts companies seek. However, merely hiring a highly-skilled worker is not enough to produce quality work, primarily if you deal with a particular niche that requires industry-specific knowledge.
If outsourced help does indeed do their research, it will still most likely take time to get familiar with your industry niche, which is counter-intuitive to the reason you outsourced in the first place.
Doing What’s Best for Your Business
We have identified the benefit of outsourcing and precisely how it can help your company. Outsourcing is a heavily-favored option due to the opportunity to incorporate new points of view and different perspectives that can help optimize your company practices.
It also offers flexibility for faster and more effective content creation. With outsourcing, you can divide work equally among full-time employees and outsourced workers, resulting in better output. Most importantly, it’s a cost-effective method for businesses to get an additional workforce, allowing them to allocate funds towards company growth.
It is known that risks come with benefits, and outsourcing is not any different. Before outsourcing, you should be familiar with the risks you might encounter. Make sure that your outsourced workers are familiar with your industry or niche. Work on your differences to prevent communication issues. Know if there is a possibility of client privacy issues arising from the outsourcing partnership.
Outsourcing can be the best option for your company. However, always remember to weigh the benefits and risks to develop the most efficient option for your business.
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About the Author: Jamie McBrien co-founded optiBPO in 2008 and has over 25 years of experience in organizational transformation, shared services, and outsourcing. He has worked with over 100 companies in the past 5 years to offshore a range of business operations to the Philippines. Jamie has a strong track record of building high-performing outsourced teams.
