Our guide to finding the perfect content supplier for you

Great quality content makes a good website great, and it’s a significant consideration when you’re building your presence online. However, when you head to the search engines and try to find a great content writing supplier, you’ll be overwhelmed with choice and it can be difficult to know where to start narrowing down your options.

At Marketing Supermarket we’ve got you covered. As marketing experts ourselves, we know the value of great quality copy on your website, and also on your social media. Everybody’s content goals are different, but yours could be:

• To help explain complicated ideas more clearly
• To grab attention
• To encourage more visitors to take action
• To reinforce your SEO and/or Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) strategy
• To solve your audience’s problems
• To develop materials for content marketing i.e. newsletters, email copy.

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What is content writing?

A content writer develops engaging and informative content for your website or social media, aiming to educate and entertain, first and foremost. They’ll also be experienced in good SEO practice and be able to naturally incorporate target keywords and internal links into your content.

Good content writing is always written for humans first, but a great content writer always keeps the search engines in the back of their mind as they write. They know that the search engines reward what is known as EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness). That means staying on topic, demonstrating knowledge, always providing content that is helpful and relevant, and – of course – making sure it’s free of typos and grammatical errors.

You may be wondering whether you need a content writer or a copywriter for your needs, and this very much depends on what you want to achieve. If your main aim is to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, build relationships with your target audience and populate your website with interesting and engaging web copy and blogs, then a content writer is your best choice. If you’re more focused on building sales and leads, then you’ll need a copywriter. Most experienced content writing suppliers will offer a combination of copywriting and content writing.

What should a content writing supplier do for you?

A good content writer will take the pain out of content creation for you, and depending on their skillset they may also be able to offer content strategy, too. (Content strategy is the way you generate content topic ideas and design and deliver your content, using scheduling tools and a content calendar to keep things on track.)

By taking a full brief from you, they’ll be able to translate what you want to say into digestible, interesting content that people are more likely to understand and engage with.

Content writing extends far beyond web copy and blogs – it also includes content marketing (for things like newsletters, email marketing campaigns and much more). So make sure the content writer you choose is experienced in the areas that are most important to you before committing to them.

What makes a good content writing supplier?

Much of the skill of a good content writer is in the way they take their brief from you. They’ll want to fully understand what you need your content to do before putting pen to paper. When it comes to great content, Return on Investment (ROI) should build slowly and steadily and, with a consistent approach, over a few months you should see your engagement metrics rise, with visitors staying on your site for longer.

With the advent of AI copy being so freely available, good content writers know that to deliver value they have to offer something not just better, but different. Their skills in communication and human connection should set them apart.

Good quality content writers are skilled in research and know the value of taking the time to really dig into a subject so that they can write authoritatively about it. You’ll find that some content writing suppliers specialise in a particular niche or industry – for example, fintech or SaaS – while others are more generalist.

And finally, it should go without saying that their grammar and spelling must be impeccable, and they should be good at planning their time so that no deadline is ever missed.

How do content writing suppliers price, and what factors affect this?

There are a few ways that content writers fix their fees, the main ones being:

• Price by project – where they’ll establish the brief and give a full project price.
• Retainer – where they offer a monthly deal if your content needs are ongoing.
• Price by word – where they give you a price for, say, 400 words of copy.
• Price by hour – they’ll calculate how long the work will take them, and price accordingly.

They may ask for 50% deposit or even payment upfront for larger projects. Remember that the actual writing only makes up part of the time they will spend on your content; there will also be time factored in for research, interviews, amends, proofreading and more.

Of course, it is highly likely that the content they write for you needs your input, comments and amends for further shaping and tailoring before it can be used. This is an essential part of the process, and it is fairly standard for up to two rounds of reasonable amends to be included in the price they quote you.

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What’s the difference between using a freelance content writer and a content writing agency?

A freelance content writer will generally be the cheaper option, and they may be more flexible on price depending on their pipeline. They may be limited by their skillset; because copywriting and content writing covers so many areas, across so many industries, you’ll need to find one that ‘speaks your language’.

A content writing agency will have more in-house expertise across different industries, and while you’ll pay more for this, many bigger brands find that the additional experience and capacity are worth investing in.

Whoever you choose, bear in mind that if multiple writers (including yourself) are writing content for your brand, then you’ll need to ensure a degree of consistency in tone. This should be set out clearly in every brief.

Marketing Supermarket’s top tips for finding the perfect content writing supplier for you

• Know what you’re looking for

  What do you want your content to do for you?

• Check out their website

  There’s no better way to vet a content writing supplier than to have a look at their website and social media channels.

• Find out their industry specialisms

  You’ll want to know that your content writer has previous knowledge of your industry so they can write authoritatively.

• Social proof

  Ask for case studies and check out their reviews. Take a look at the different types of content they produce, e.g. web copy, blogs, newsletters, social media posts etc.

• Supporting skills

  Ask them what additional skills they have, i.e. proofreading, editing, SEO expertise, content marketing, content strategy etc. A good content writer is far more than just a good writer.

Why use Marketing Supermarket to help you choose your content writing supplier?

At Marketing Supermarket, we know marketing inside out, so we developed an online tool that speeds up the process of finding digital marketing suppliers.

Use our completely free and super-easy tool to find and compare content writing experts, and check out our guide on how to compare content writing suppliers to help you with your decision.

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