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Paying for good writing will increase your leads and revenue. Don’t cheap out at that white paper price tag.

• Good writing doesn’t make you look like jerk.
• Good writing gets you positive attention (refer to #1.)
• Good writing generates leads.
• Good writing bring in highly qualified leads.
• Good writing satisfies modern searches with keyword-rich content.
• Good writing attracts buyers at early stages of the buying cycle.

A good freelancer is worth their salt and their investment. If you pay a writer a mere $5K, $7K or $10K to write a white paper, and that white paper generates 100 leads, just 5 of whom buy an entry-level $30K system — how much is that $5K-$10K in light of that $300K? It’s nothing.

Key Takeaway: Don’t cheap out when hiring your freelancer. It’s simply not worth it.

Is your relationship with your freelance writer built on trust?

I don’t mean to sound like a marriage manual here. But the more trust in a relationship, the more win-win it is for all concerned. The freelance writer/client relationship is no different.

Is Your Writer Trustworthy?

A trustworthy writer does things like this:

• She meets her deadlines. A good writer will tell you what a reasonable deadline is or may charge you for a rush. Either way, she’ll honor a mutual agreement.
• If there’s a problem she will let you know and tell you how she’ll fix it.
• If the writing isn’t up to your standards she’ll fix that too. Revisions within the original scope should be included in the contract. Outside of the original scope needs re-negotiation.
• She observes NDAs — no exceptions. She can write for competitive clients because she won’t break your confidence. Ever.
• If she can’t do something she’ll tell you, and give you suggestions on how to get it done another way.
• She’s easy to work with without being passive aggressive about it.

Are You?

It not just the writer who must be trustworthy to make this relationship work. It’s the client too.

• Do you pay on time? Stretching out a 30-day invoice to 90 because you can is, frankly, BS. When your favorite writer gets really busy, who do you think she’ll dump first?
• Do you give her time with the subject matter experts she needs for your piece? This can be an issue in a startup where the SMEs are also the founding executives. But in that case, they’re probably having trouble with marketing anyway and should suck it up. They need to be available for questions.
• Do you expect her to read your mind? The International Brainwave hasn’t been invented yet.
• Can you get your hands on the resources she needs? You should know what resources you have on hand anyway — “leverage” is your friend.
• Do you communicate without yelling and screaming about it? Most business people are really very cool, but the 5% who aren’t will find that their reputation precedes them. Don’t let this be you.
• If you are not fully satisfied, do you disappear? Don’t be afraid to tell your writer that you did not get what you expected. It’s the writer’s job to get it right — assuming you communicated the deliverable in the first place, of course.

Key Takeaway: A mutually beneficial relationship — i.e., one that makes you both good money — depends on your mutual trust level. The higher the better (and the higher the profit).

SolarWinds is an IT management company. It uploaded one of the best videos ever about giant email fails. Funny stuff — we’ve all been there.

 

 

 

You can work with B2B writers in one of three ways: hire a staff writer, work on a project basis with a freelance writer, or retain a freelance writer. Let’s look at these choices.

Hire an In-House Writer
If you need to produce a lot of content fast then an in-house writer will probably be your best choice. This writer will be able to produce quickly, have efficient access to SMEs, and can probably fill in on some content initiatives such as keyword enrichment and channel distribution.

The employee will cost you a great deal more than you will spend on freelancers, but will be worth it if you take enough advantages of their skills. And if you generate a LOT of content a year, you will end up spending less than on a freelancer.

Your challenge will be to find someone who is an experienced marketing writer, who wants to work directly for a vendor instead of an agency, and who wants to work in-house instead of on their own — especially if you insist on them working on-site.

Hire a Freelancer on a Project Basis
The next possibility is hiring a freelance writer on a project basis. Personal recommendations are the best way to go, and check out the writer’s portfolio and testimonials.

Please do not try going to the Elances of the world. It’s a free country but if you do, you will not find a B2B technology writer worth their salt, or worth your time and money.
Good freelancers do book up quickly but if the two of you can work out schedules and budget, you should have a success on your hands. Many vendors and freelancers work together for months or even years.

Retain a Freelancer
This deal is popular with freelancers because it gives them an expectation of income for as long as the retention offer lasts. It’s popular with vendors because it gives them a certain number of hours or project credits, and retention clients get their work bumped to the front of the line.

The disadvantage is that you will need to be able to distribute the content. When you are not used to getting a steady stream of content, you may not be used to regularly placing it. An option is adding to the retention contract so your writer will place it, assuming they know media channels. You will also need to use the hours and credits that you are paying for (use it or lose it applies here).

GE is the Big Gorilla of Content Marketing. They have a big team, a lot of money AND they do it right. (Huge teams and big money do not automatically succeed.)

They recently did a B2B marketing outreach by inviting GE evangelists and influencers to fun tours of their R&D facilities. They encourage attendees to take pictures and share them with their followers using #GEInstaWalk.  The GE team hand-picked the site for their visuals.

They’d Have to Kill Me

A few years ago I was part of an analyst tour group who was invited to tour Iron Mountain’s ultra-secure underground data center in Western Pennsylvania. The security director was ex-FBI, these guys were not fooling around. When I asked the tour leader if this was one of the safe spots for the President in case of attack, he essentially said that if he told me he’d have to kill me. All right then.

Fascinating tour though. This was one place where we were not allowed to take pictures although you can see some here. And no, they won’t have to kill me if you follow the link.

Action Step

You don’t have to be GE or Iron Mountain to make this work for you. I remember a Spectra Logic tour to their manufacturing facility. Really interesting stuff that had nothing to do with the fact that they served us champagne. I would have been happy to take pictures and share via hashtags if any of us had thought of it. Consider the same (plus or minus the champagne) for your key customers and influencers.