If you found this article, you probably already know that content production is one of the most crucial pillars of a marketing strategy—and it’s also the Achilles’ heel for a significant portion of small, medium, and large companies.
This is because there are various stages around content production that brands need to pay attention to, such as:
- Building a relevant and recurring strategy;
- Mapping out content;
- Providing a variety of content at all stages of the funnel;
- Allocating resources (team, time, and investment) between strategic tasks, such as SEO planning, and tactical tasks, like content production itself;
- Maintaining quality while producing at scale;
- Analyzing and optimizing for continuous growth.
We’ve previously shared here at Rock Content how we’ve chosen to keep our in-house team focused on strategic tasks while outsourcing content production to freelancers (and we’ve explained how we execute this in practice).
Indeed, opting for freelance writing and content services can be an incredibly efficient solution for scaling your content production across various formats, without sacrificing quality and while keeping a keen eye on results.
However, for this to work, certain details must be taken into account—both when determining if this option makes sense for your company and in understanding which platform would be the best fit for you.
Content Marketing: Potential and Current Challenges
In broad terms, content marketing aims to attract, engage, and convert customers through the creation of relevant content in various formats.
According to the 2023 State of Marketing Report, 29% of marketing teams use blog posts and optimized websites to attract and convert leads. Out of this percentage, 88% plan to increase or maintain their investment in 2023.
And a content marketing strategy is not solely composed of written content for blogs and websites. The same report highlights one of the main trends for the year: the creation of short videos for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
We might be biased in saying this, but a strategy for sustainable and continual long-term marketing growth is hardly effective without content.
However, like anything within marketing, such potential comes with its challenges.
For instance, Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool to enhance productivity and creativity, but it has limitations that will always depend on the human touch.
Another constant challenge for brands is operating with an often-reduced marketing team, requiring them to make even more accurate decisions to optimize work, scale production, and maximize results.
At this point, utilizing a marketplace for freelance writing and content services can indeed be an excellent solution.
What is a freelance writing and content services marketplace?
When we discuss a freelance content marketplace, the initial thought that comes to mind is a space to discover professionals who are prepared to tackle various projects.
And, in brief, yes, that’s correct. But is it solely that?
A freelance content marketplace is a platform where you can find a variety of professionals: blog writing services, designers, strategists, editors, and translators, for instance.
However, beyond the pool of talent, a robust content platform also offers tools to optimize and streamline the end-to-end process.
The chosen content marketplace should, at the very least, ensure that:
- You have access to a network of talents prepared to deliver quality content based on your needs and market niche;
- Tools that facilitate the request and management of your projects;
- Easy alignment between parties for content that fulfills expectations and remains within the planned scope;
- Integration possibilities that centralize content production operations.
For search engines to recognize your site as an authority in your industry, it’s crucial to combine quality with a quantity of relevant content within your calendar and planning.
On this matter, the content marketplace contributes value to any marketing team, regardless of its size and complexity, to guarantee that content maintains the required relevance, consistency, and strategy.
“Alright, I understand that employing freelance writing services is logical for my business. But how do I select the best content marketplace from the available options in the market?”
Perhaps this is your current question, and it’s a justifiable query.
There are several key points to consider when selecting your content marketplace.
How to choose the best content marketplace for freelance writing and content services?
The ideal content marketplace is the one that meets most of your company’s content needs.
There are several in the market: WriterAccess, Workana, Verblio, Clearvoice, etc.
I’ve selected some of the key features here for you to consider when making your choice:
1. Selection of talent and assurance of a specialized and qualified pool
The first key benefit of a content solution that you need to look for is the talent selection process.
It’s crucial to ensure that the available talents are specialized and experienced in content creation and strategies.
The freelance content marketplace gains extra points if it can assist you in filtering the talent pool by specialty (such as SEO knowledge, for example), and market niche—after all, depending on the niche, a generic writer might not be as effective—and ratings, for instance.
Try to understand how the selection process for these talents works, and if there’s any profile assessment and experience evaluation.
Attempt to avoid platforms where anyone interested can easily register and become a writer or designer. Ideally, the content marketplace should provide you with confidence and assurance to work with selected professionals who are prepared to produce high-quality content.
For example, at WriterAccess, there is a dedicated team that evaluates all the profiles applying to the platform.
This team reviews resumes and experiences, selects qualified professionals, and is responsible for monitoring and managing the available pool for professional development, ensuring content that matches what the client is seeking and expecting.
2. Diversity in the talent pool
When discussing diversity in the talent pool, we are addressing two points.
Firstly, it relates to various roles gathered in a single place. Platforms with writers, designers, editors… all concentrated within one solution.
Secondly, it pertains to talents within the same field, possessing varying levels of technical expertise and specific knowledge across different sectors and content formats.
In the market, we can find tools focused solely on one type of talent (for instance, exclusively for designers or writers) and tools that offer diverse talents within a single location.
Platforms with a broader talent base further simplify and centralize content production, as they can cater to various needs, from articles to ebooks, animations, illustrations, editing, and numerous other formats, all in one place, optimizing your time devoted to content creation and management.
Look for tools with extensive talent bases featuring highly specialized professionals for delivering rich content, as well as others with more general knowledge for less in-depth content (without compromising quality).
In essence, content for all stages of the funnel.
Tip: At WriterAccess, you can find writers, designers, editors, strategists, and translators with varying expertise and experiences across diverse sectors and content formats to elevate your strategy. Plus, you can test the platform for free for 14 days.
3. Tools to facilitate and streamline your content requests and management
One of the major concerns in the realm of writing services and content marketplaces revolves around aligning with the talent assigned to your project.
To tackle this, platforms offer an array of tools aimed at ensuring transparent and noise-free communication, spanning from comprehensive briefing tools to direct contact options with the talent.
This significantly eases the process of ensuring that the final outcome of the requested work aligns with expectations, or even surpasses the company’s anticipations.
I’ll illustrate this using WriterAccess as an example:
When you request content within the platform, you’re required to complete a form that furnishes the necessary guidance for the talent to understand the project—its nature, the company’s identity, the targeted persona, and the keywords to explore.
Here, I’d like to emphasize two key points:
If, for any reason, you lack clarity about your persona or need assistance generating content ideas, WriterAccess integrates specific AI tools for persona creation and content strategies.
Another significant advantage of the platform is the capacity to save briefing templates. In simpler terms, you don’t have to complete the entire form every time you request new content; you can simply store the information you wish to replicate within your template.
Lastly, WriterAccess also breaks down the optimal content length and establishes a schedule in alignment with the client’s calendar, allowing for continuous contact with the talent throughout the process.
4. Content production management tools
In addition to the content request interface of the chosen marketplace, another crucial aspect that you should assess is the tools for managing your requests and materials.
The more intuitive the platform is, with a clear dashboard for your requests and ease of tracking, approving, requesting edits, and managing demands, the better.
You need to be able to easily and efficiently track each step of the creation process for every project to ensure deadlines are met, alignment with the initial briefing, and delivery of content with the expected quality.
5. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence to optimize content production
I couldn’t skip it. One of the most significant trends in marketing nowadays is artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT has become popular as a tool to assist in generating texts, emails, and content in general. Indeed, AI has the power to commoditize simple content, often of lower quality.
Read also: How the Rock Content team uses Artificial Intelligence
At the same time, AI possesses the incredible ability to streamline processes and enhance the potential of content when combined with human creativity.
This is where content marketplaces can contribute (and greatly!) by leveraging Artificial Intelligence.
For instance, it can assist in optimizing processes such as content mapping, topic definition, and persona creation… all based on real data from your business, generating new content opportunities specifically for you.
In summary, the use of Artificial Intelligence enhances content platforms by making the process more efficient without compromising the creation of original, humanized content.
WriterAccess has been one of the major pioneers in implementing AI on their platform, enabling features such as:
- Persona definition
- Content mapping based on segment, competitors, domain, and each user’s persona
- Weekly topic suggestions based on your previous content and more
- Detection of AI usage in content writing to ensure content is created by talents.
By utilizing these tools, your process becomes even faster and more comprehensive, enhancing the capabilities of your content marketing strategy.
Explore all the AI tools offered by WriterAccess.
6. Diverse Integration Possibilities
Lastly, one of the major differentiators of the content platforms we find in the market is the array of integration possibilities that each one offers.
Integrations with SEO tools, marketing automation, social media, data analysis… the broader the spectrum of integrations with tools you already use in your marketing team, the better.
Integration possibilities further centralize the entire content creation operation in a single location, making the process even more efficient and comprehensive.
In other words, within a single platform, you can discover talents, request content, manage content creation, and then direct it to the appropriate communication channel or export it in the best format while tracking its outcomes.
WriterAccess offers integrations with platforms like WordPress, LinkedIn, HubSpot, SEMRush, and various other options and possibilities, enabling you to consolidate all your content creation efforts in one place.
Explore all the integrations offered by WriterAccess here.
Conclusion
Freelance writing services and content marketplaces can provide the ideal solution for optimized, efficient, scalable, and high-quality content creation.
It’s essential to know how to choose the best platform for your business.
Therefore, assess the key points that meet your demands — from the diversity of the talent pool and their qualifications to integration possibilities that will enhance your process.
If you’re uncertain about which platform delivers what you’re seeking, familiarize yourself with each of them. Take advantage of trial periods, explore the talent pools, and evaluate usability and tools to integrate the best fit into your marketing strategy!
Final tip: WriterAccess allows you to test the platform for 14 days for free. To learn more, simply click here.
