Let me get a couple things out of the way right out of the gate…
Well, this article isn’t going to try to convince you that spending money equals saving money, but we think that saving time certainly does. We also aren’t going to try to motivate you to take a bargain basement approach to content (not that all $5 content is necessarily low quality, of course). What I really want you to take away from this is that when you factor in money and time, the more you can outsource in your business, the better off you’re going to be.
The reason for this is simple: If you’re spending all of your time creating and distributing content, when are you actually doing your job? How are you managing to take care of your customers and clients? As the saying goes, time is money. Free up time, and you free up money. That’s the first half. The second half is all about making that time saved work for you and making your outsourcing efforts profitable from the get-go. Let’s look at the first half of the equation first.
Outsourcing and Time Management
Did you know that in most businesses, only a very small percentage of the work that is typically done in-house is work that actually needs to be done in-house? There is so much that can be outsourced that if we stopped and took the time to really assess how we run things, it would become readily apparent that precious little of what we do during our day has to be done by us. As someone whose entire business revolves around content creation, I can tell you that this is probably never truer than it is with all aspects of your content strategy.
Doing It Right
“But I’m not comfortable trusting strangers with my business. An outsider doesn’t know it like I do.”
You know what? You’re right. No one knows your business or your customers like you do. This is why I always recommend several things when it comes to outsourcing. For starters, you need to find individuals or teams that you can develop a relationship with and educate about your business. It’s an initial investment of time that will reap huge long-term rewards.
Find a copywriting company, a graphic design company, a video production team, a social media management team, or any combination of these that can fit into your budget. In some cases, you can find some or all of these in the same place. Do your research on them before hiring, then take the time to train them. What you get out of that is a network of mobile offices all working together to build your content empire behind the scenes and one that produces content on a much more regular and consistent schedule than you ever would on your own.
Clear Returns on Investment
So how does that translate into saving money? It will cost quite a bit to hire all those outside hands.
Here’s the thing about that: When you outsource to a company or team, you get to hire them on a contractor basis. You pay them a fixed rate, and they distribute the funds appropriately on their end – no additional payroll, no additional benefits, just the convenience of having a satellite team keeping your content fresh…
…and fresh content is a real moneymaker.
As we’ve discussed in the past, the more consistent you are with your content and the more original content you put out there, the more likely your audience is to pay attention to you long term. They are also far more likely to like and share your content on social media, which amounts to free advertising and opportunities to grow your customer base. As your customer base grows, you’re going to need more time to devote to it, and now the process comes full circle: Spend some money to free up some time, and when you need that time to deal with your rapidly growing business, you have it! It’s a clear recipe for saving as well as earning.
Knowing What to Outsource
It will probably come as no surprise that I would say to start with copywriting, but I also think that’s a bit too broad. In my opinion, you should start by finding a writer or agency that can produce good emails and get yourself in front of your customers on a regular basis.
When your email marketing strategy is in place, get some good writers to maintain your blog and develop good content for social media that fits each individual channel. An agency comes in handy here since they typically have teams of writers and you only have to train one team to deliver content across all relevant channels.
From there, hire a social media manager to make sure your content is getting seen. Then, look into other avenues, like graphic design, custom photography, and video production. Put the money into these things as you can afford them, and before too long you will find that much, if not all, of your online marketing is being done for you and the cost is being more than offset by the positive returns you’ll see on the investment.