In the age of content marketing, securing a high-quality copywriter for your business is not just important but is, in fact, essential.  Often, your content, including adverts and social media, is the first introduction to your business for a potential customer – so you need to make sure that you’re getting it right!

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Many businesses prioritise their copywriting by hiring full-time personnel.  Although this will, of course, afford you ‘copywriting on tap’, it’s not the most cost-effective way of getting the job done.  Figures show that a full-time writer is likely to end up costing you big bucks – to the tune of $65,000 (including taxes and insurance as well as sundry costs) per annum; which works out to $31.25 per hour.  Bearing in mind the fact that your copywriter won’t be working full tilt all day, every day, you’re essentially throwing money away.  

What’s the alternative?

Hiring a freelance copywriter on an ad-hoc basis is a much more cost-effective way of getting hold of the content that you need.  You can find high-quality writers on freelance sites such as Crowd Content or People Per Hour and grab yourself a much better deal.  On average, a freelancer will charge around 12 cents per word – equating to an annual total of just $28,800 per year – a massive cost saving of $36,200 in comparison to your full-time staff member.  Let’s take a further look at this comparison: 

Based on a writer working 48 weeks of the year, writing an average of 1000 words per day, you’ll be paying as follows:

Freelancers – The Facts

Cost-saving is, of course, a really good reason for switching to a freelancer but, it’s by no means the only one.  Hiring a freelance content writer is a great solution for several reasons, including:

All in the timing – If you have an in-house writer, there’s a good chance that he or she is shared between departments.  Although this makes economic sense, it may mean that you need to ‘join the queue’ when you need work done.  In contrast, with a freelancer, you can often be clutching your content within a few hours – day or night.

Expertise – Using freelance writers gives you access to a huge amount of knowledge and expertise as you’re able to simply choose one with the required knowledge – knowledge that an in-house writer is unlikely to have. 

Authority – Following on from expertise, it goes without saying that putting out content written by somebody who knows their onions will help you to gain authority for your brand. 

Quality – Hiring freelance writers gives you the flexibility of choosing the right person for the job – at the right price.  This means that, if you don’t need a huge amount of expertise for a certain piece, you can enjoy cost savings as you’re able to choose a cheaper freelancer. 

Tapping into the tech – Freelance sites often offer their members some great online tools and tricks to help them make the most of their work – a benefit which is, of course, passed on to you as the client. 

Flexible Friends – 93% of freelancers say that they choose this way of working as they value freedom and flexibility.  For you, this means that, as long as you don’t need somebody to be sitting in your office, you can get great quality writing delivered without having to find space for the writer – or pay for sundries such as drinks and equipment. 

Securing high-quality content for your business is, without a doubt, an investment – but it needn’t be an expensive one.  By building relationships with a few freelance writers you are, essentially, creating your bank of writing employees – without the costs associated with a full-time member of staff.