We're a small, technical, professional services firm. Over the years we've experimented with email marketing -- both to existing customers and prospects -- with decent results. However, as with all small business marketing efforts, since we don't have a staffer dedicated to marketing, after some weeks or months of giving it the Old College Try, the person in charge gets busy with other stuff (usually implementing technical projects or pursuing prospects, maybe as a result of the email marketing efforts), and the campaign goes dark until sales slow again. Our challenges to outsourcing content generation have been: 1. The author needs to understand the business audience and the technical subject matter 2. The owner of our firm is a former professional author and is thus extraordinarily picky about content aesthetics like voice, tone, syntax, etc. but he doesn't have time to micromanage every content posting (ok, ok, it's me) Do you have suggestions about where we can find a cost-effective author, and how to manage this person, and the campaigns, to minimize my involvement and visceral need to rewrite every piece?!? Thanks!
Sounds like you've got a number of wrenches in your gears: your boss's desire for creative/stylistic control, budgeting, project management, and bandwidth.
I've been a professional copywriter for about ten years now, so here's the first thing I'd say: if you're trying to find cheap talent AND meet your owner's standards AND hire only one person, then you've got a long road ahead of you.
I'd recommend hiring two different people for two phases: 1) raw content production (the most time-consuming part); and 2) editing, polishing, establishing brand voice.
You simply don't need top-tier talent to write your first drafts. I could help you find a good enough writer on Upwork.com who would charge $10-20/hour.
Where you want the heavy-hitter (who will be more expensive and will be worth it) is with the second phase, especially if you foresee needing the owner's greenlight before emails go out the door. Paying a premium to hire a pro will actually save you time and money in the end because s/he will be more likely to nail the first revision and will thus make fewer demands on the owner's bandwidth. Thus, you'll finish the emails faster and get them out into the wild faster where they will begin to create engagement and generate revenues faster.
That's another angle: how much is inconsistent email marketing costing the company right now? Thousands of dollars?
Here are the steps I'd recommend:
1. Brainstorm the various email drip campaigns.
2. Hire good enough talent to write the first drafts.
3. Bring in the expensive pro to polish them up.
4. Pay a virtual assistant to load up all of the drip campaigns.
5. Press play.
Happy to discuss in more depth on a call! I love this stuff.
Cheers,
Austin
Answered 9 years ago
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