4 questions to ask before your tech company starts looking for a content writer

Your tech company has decided that it needs to invest in content marketing. Maybe you’ve got an editorial calendar and a full content team already. Maybe you’ve got nothing, but you know that content marketing is the best, least expensive form of marketing your company can invest in, and you’re panicking, thinking “oh god, we should have started blogging yesterday.” In any case, you need content writers, and you need them now.

You’re about to head over to LinkedIn to post an opening, but I’m going to stop you right there. Do you know what you’re looking for? Do you know who you’re looking for? As a tech firm, you’ve got pretty specific content needs, and there is a sea of freelance writers out there. Once you post that you’re looking for a writer, a ton of them will respond.

It shouldn’t be overwhelming to find content writers. Before you do anything at all, ask yourself these questions to make sure you drill down and hire the copywriter who is right for your company. In fact, after answering these questions, you may not need to take out an ad at all, because you’ll know exactly who you’re looking for, and you’ll be able to find them yourself. No LinkedIn post needed.

Here are the questions you’ll want to ask:

  1. What’s the tone of your existing content?
  2. What’s your existing marketing team like?
  3. Who is your audience?
  4. How much onboarding are you willing to do?

Let’s get into it.

1. What’s the tone of your existing content?

A company’s blog usually has a particular tone. Some tech companies’ blogs are super-informal, almost like personal blogs. Some read like news releases. Some are reports about new features. Some are slick operations that read like long-form magazine journalism. How does yours read?

Look for content writers whose work matches the tone you want for your website and check out their portfolios for samples of their writing. (While you can find these on Contently or Skyword, or even on LinkedIn, a Google search will turn up individual freelancers’ sites and portfolios as well.)

If you want an informal blog, look for pieces with a conversational tone, and maybe hit up bloggers who have been blogging personally. Interested in a press release ambiance? Look for someone with a background in PR. If you want a blog that feels more like a trade magazine, find a writer with a journalism background. In fact, you may even want to hit up the writers of your favorite trade magazine. Chances are, those writers also work as content and copywriters in your industry.

2. What is your existing marketing team like? 

Your marketing team may be a one person operation. (Or even a no-person operation, if you’re the founder of a start-up.) Or you might be the head of a well-oiled content marketing machine, just looking to fill out your stable of writers.

If you’ve got a small operation and need someone to handle all the content marketing, you’ll need someone who has the availability to write a lot. You may expect your freelancer to find images for blog posts, handle SEO, schedule social media posts, take on copywriting duties, and help with content strategy. If that sounds like what you’re looking for, be up-front about what you’re looking for. That’s a lot of work, and freelancers will want to know what they’re applying for before — not after — they’re contracted to work with you.

If you’re looking to slot a new writer into a pre-existing team, think about the culture of your team. What sort of writer do you want to join your existing freelancers on your marketing department’s Slack? Do you want someone who has worked successfully with a team before, or are you going for a certain type of personality?

How do you verify any of this? LinkedIn. Look for writers with the experience you want, but also see if they have testimonials. Those testimonials will help you evaluate the writer: do they communicate well? Do they meet deadlines? Play well with others? You can also get an idea of a writer’s personality from their social media presence — check Twitter to see if their personality matches your company culture.

You’ll also want to look at content writers’ specialities, of course.

3. Who are you selling to? 

If you’ve got a marketing team, chances are they’ve already built customer personas — a fictional person who embodies your ideal customer. Even if you don’t have personae created, chances are you know who you’re selling to.

Your ideal customer will help you choose your ideal writer. If you’re selling to extremely technical people, like developers, you’ll need someone who speaks their language. If you’re selling to attorneys, you want a writer with a firm grounding in the law. Not only will this help your writer understand your subject material and the pain points of your clients, it will also make your content relatable to your clients.

4. How much onboarding are you willing to do? 

There are a lot of great content writers out there, but not all of them understand technology, and while some of them can be brought up to speed quickly, there is likely to be a learning curve for every writer.

It will be somewhat less steep for someone who has been writing about tech for a long time, or for someone who has worked in tech themselves. Or you may want to hire a writer who has worked in your field. A writer who was a teacher will understand the pain points addressed by your edtech, for example. A writer who worked as a sales rep will understand why the features of your CRM are vital to sales teams. A writer who worked in a doctor’s office will get why your healthtech is so important.

That said, you may end up having to pay a little more for a writer with a lot of experience in a particular industry.

Still looking for a writer? 

I’m a tech writer with journalism experience. I’ve written about edtech in higher ed, and I’ve taught using technology at the college level. I’ve written about development, business processes, and blockchain — and in my personal life — I’m a writer who has been hanging around with developers for most of my adult  life. So, if you’re looking for someone who can translate tech to English, or for someone to write about educational technology, I might be your ideal writer.

If that’s what you’re looking for, contact me and let’s talk about your company’s content.

(And if I’m not, that’s cool. You have some ideas of where to start looking for content writers now.)

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The myth of the perfect blog post

I want you to imagine the perfect blog post.

It’s got an informative, yet clever headline that drags in readers, and a click-compelling image that’s legal for you to use.
The first line hooks your reader right away.
The second paragraph hits your audience smack in the pain point, and moves on from there into a body filled with action items and takeaways so clear, they end up in a Google featured snippet.
It’s about 1,500 words.
There are keywords, but not TOO many keywords.
It’s broken up into shorter chunks with clear subheads that keep the reader moving through the content.
It ends with a call to action that will compel your readers to do something: comment, enter your sales funnel, download something… and they do.

My god. It’s beautiful.

What I’ve just described isn’t the reality of most blog posts. It’s a myth writers are chasing, a target we’re trying to hit. And although this shimmering mirage of a perfect blog post provides writers with a goal, it has its drawbacks as well. For one thing, it’s a moving target.

The components of a “perfect post” are constantly in flux — a few years ago, the optimal length for a business blog post was between 500-700 words. Now, depending on who you ask, it’s 1,600 words, or close to 3,000.

Also, Google is constantly changing as well, so different types of content do better or worse depending on those algorithms, and that’s something we have no control over.

But here’s my big beef with the idea of a “perfect blog post” — it intimidates business owners and entrepreneurs who write their own blogs. I am a professional content writer. I write other people’s blog posts for a living, so it’s my job to try to hit the perfect blog post target. But there are plenty of business owners and entrepreneurs out there who enjoy writing their own business blogs, and this idea of having to write a perfect blog post that’s going to bring in the right leads instantly shouldn’t be stifling them.

Those folks — the people who love writing about their businesses so much that they do it regularly —  are their own brand of unicorn.

The blogging business owner

The business owner that likes to blog is not nearly as common an animal as you’d think. But they are the perfect blogger, no matter what their writing skills are like. Here’s why:

  • They love what they do, and they are eager to write about it.
  • They know their products and services better than anyone else
  • They know the problems their customers need to solve and write about them easily
  • They can answer questions and comments without having to look anything up
  • They like writing about their business so much they do it regularly; blogging is not a chore for them

That last one is important. Consistency is the most important ingredient of any blog. If you’re stressing out about making sure your blog posts are perfect, your consistency will end up suffering when blogging becomes a task you have to do.

Of course you should be striving for good, solid blog posts every time you sit down to write, but not killing yourself to create a unicorn twice a week.

The important thing is not that you create a perfect blog post, it’s that you create a sustainable blogging habit. Optimal blog post lengths and Google’s algorithms change, but you’ve got to keep blogging regularly, and it shouldn’t suck for you to do that. You should be able to enjoy it.

That said, a post filled with typos will damage your credibility

Entrepreneurs who blog may possess the secret sauce: passion and a love of writing, but a successful business blog also needs a little something else.

Depending on who’s writing, that need could be structural or grammatical. The thoughts might not fit together well, there might be typos, or a post may ramble a little too much, not doing service to the business. All of those are pretty common mistakes, and totally fine on a personal blog. But they’re not what readers expect to see on a business blog.

Professional blogs are just that: professional. You don’t want typos turning away any grammatically-minded prospective customers. But that definitely doesn’t mean worrying over your posts or outsourcing your blog to a writer. All it means is that you need a little help before you hit Publish.

Get yourself a reader

The biggest favor you can do for yourself, if you are a business owner who blogs, is this: get yourself a reader.

This could be someone you know and trust, like an employee or friend, who looks over your posts before they go live. Or you could do what I do, read your post aloud to someone before you publish. This helps me slow down and actually see the words I’ve written.

You can also hire an editor.

A word about editors

There’s a lot of concern among new writers about editors. Writers often fear working with an editor who will criticize them and make them feel bad about their work, or rewrite everything, or hijack a blog post and make it theirs.

As someone who has worked in journalism for 17 years, and worked with a lot of editors, let me tell you: a good editor sees what you’re trying to do and helps you do it. They don’t change the point you’re trying to make; they help you sharpen it. They clean up your grammar so your voice can shine.

Working with a good editor is like working with one of the Dancing With The Stars house dancers: it doesn’t matter if you don’t know all the steps, the professional’s job is to make you look good.

Editing is so important that editors who write work with other editors. One of my favorite clients employs an editor who is a delight to work with. Sometimes, I’m too close to a project. She is able to step back and see the post as a whole. Then she makes a few changes and the whole piece sings. And I can relax, knowing my piece is in good hands.

Hiring an editor is an investment in your business, but if working with an editor isn’t your style, you can still learn how to build a better blog post.

I am teaching a live, free Build A Better Blog post course this week (May 16, 17 and 18) in The Content Clubhouse Facebook Group, offering live videos and answering questions from you about how you can improve your blog posts. And if you come across this post after the 18th, no worries. The videos will still be there.If you are ready to hire an editor, though, I am accepting editing clients this month. I edit blog posts, and this month only, I am running a sale.

So forget that unicorn. Just be the best blogger you can be.

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