With the increasing involvement of brands in executing content marketing strategies, freelance writers have become an indispensable part of the digital world.
Small businesses and startups often outsource content requirements to freelancer writers on a contract basis, which helps them cut down on overhead costs and get quality work done.
However, managing a team of writers can get challenging. Managing deadlines, editing the content, and ensuring the work done is of quality can become overwhelming.
But, with the right strategies, you can overcome all of this. In this article, we’re going to do a rundown on some managing tips to help you run a freelance writing team without getting stressed.
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Content management takes a lot of planning. If you want your content marketing strategy to bring the results you desire, the quality of content needs to be top-notch. You can hire the best freelance writers, but it won’t make a difference if you can’t manage them efficiently.
Here are seven tips to manage a team of freelance writers.
Be it blogs, eBooks, infographics, emails, or ads — your brand needs to have a consistent writing style. Any discrepancy can confuse the customer’s perception of your brand.
While working with multiple writers, you must create a common style guide that everyone can refer to and follow. This should include basic information about your brand and what needs to be kept in mind while creating content. Here are some pointers to include in your style guide:
These can be general guidelines for content, or you can create separate guidelines for different content formats.
Not every freelancer will know what you expect from them because different clients have different requirements. You need to be transparent with yours to avoid any misunderstandings and save time.
Here are some things you may want to set straight from the beginning, as part of a new hire checklist:
Don’t just tell them your expectations — encourage questions and listen to them as well. The clearer you are with your communication, the better they will work with you.
A freelancer-client relationship is a strategic one, so make sure you’re working ‘with’ each other to develop the best results.
While you’re communicating and clearing out expectations, be open to suggestions. You never know, a freelancer may have better alternatives for working efficiently because they’ve worked with other brands and clients.
This should ideally happen before giving them the first assignment to set the right tone for working together and start on the same page.
Having a workflow that works for you and your brand is one of the most useful things you can do for your content marketing efforts. Once you set a system in place, you can put your workflow on auto-pilot and make sure things happen on time by creating a timeline.
Before you assign tasks to your writers, create a fail-proof content strategy framework that won’t fall apart even if the submissions are a few days late or the work doesn’t go according to the plan.
An article may need revisions, a freelancer may have an emergency, or you may have to attend to another important task. This is why it’s important to keep some buffer time. The best way to do that is by creating a workflow.
Here are some best practices for creating one with your writers:
The idea of a workflow is to ensure things happen smoothly and you’re not running behind on deadlines. It also gives the freelancers a process to follow, ensuring no essential steps get missed out.
In some cases, you might also consider hiring a Virtual Assistant to help manage your workflow and communication with freelance writers. A VA can handle tasks like scheduling calls, distributing content calendars, and fielding basic questions, freeing you up to focus on bigger-picture content strategy and feedback.
Project management is one of the biggest challenges of managing a freelance writing team. If you can manage that with the right set of digital tools, the process will get quite efficient for both you and the writers.
Using agile project management tools can help streamline processes, assign tasks, track progress, and collaborate easily. Here are some tools you can use to work with your freelance writing team:
Investing in these basic tools can help you organize your workflow much better and make it a smooth process. Apart from these, consider investing in writing tools like Grammarly for proofreading.
In managing a remote team, establishing a robust workflow and utilizing digital tools are paramount for efficiency. However, the key to successful project management lies not just in tools but in having a team. A dedicated development team ensures that projects are handled with consistent expertise and focus, leading to higher productivity and better results.
If you want to collaborate and produce beneficial results, you need to communicate regularly. Nurturing a client-freelancer relationship is essential to build trust because the more openly you share, the better time you’ll have working with each other. Also, you and a freelancer may have different locations and time zones, respectively, so you must clearly understand the difference in work asynchronously vs synchronously.
So, schedule time to check in with your freelance writers regularly. Here are some best practices to do this:
To streamline your communication and foster a more efficient collaboration with freelance writers, consider incorporating a top employee scheduling tool into your workflow. Utilizing such a tool allows you to seamlessly coordinate and schedule regular check-ins, whether they be weekly or bi-weekly Zoom calls, providing a structured platform for connecting with your remote team. In addition to these scheduled meetings, leverage the tool to share ongoing feedback and educational resources, enhancing the overall communication experience.
By implementing this top employee scheduling tool, you not only ensure timely and productive interactions but also create a conducive environment for open dialogue, allowing you to address any challenges and offer constructive suggestions for improvement. Communication remains paramount, and the integration of innovative tools can significantly contribute to building trust and strengthening the bond between you and your freelance writers, regardless of different locations and time zones.
Providing unfiltered feedback is important to set a benchmark for quality and push your writing team to do better.
If you follow a certain process for editing, let the writers know about the approach. This is important because if you edit the article and it has many changes compared to the original one, the writer may feel bad about it. So, ensure you’re communicating your editing process beforehand for transparency.
Similarly, follow a process for giving feedback to your writers. Maintain a healthy balance where you point out the good parts and those which could use improvement. This way, they will feel appreciated and take note of essential pointers from the next time. Moreover, due to powerful note-taking tools out there, the process of taking notes is much easier now than ever.
Remember to provide ongoing feedback. This will ensure that they’re implementing changes on the go to provide you with a better piece of content.
At last, it’s important to appreciate your writers and acknowledge their work. Provide incentives or bonuses to the top performer of the month to motivate others to work harder and award the deserving one.
By doing this, you put the writers in a position of appreciation where they know what they should keep doing and where they need to improve. Once you create a rewarding working culture, writers will work harder to receive that special mention and bonus. To further enhance this culture of recognition, consider using TravelPerk’s travel management software to organize a team-building trip or an awards ceremony, giving your top performing writers a memorable experience they’ll cherish.
It’s a great way to show that you value your writers and award excellence.
Content marketing stands at the center of the digital playfield in 2021. Thus, there’s a high demand for freelance writers to provide quality content that can align with the brand’s goals and speak directly to their audience.
Hiring freelance writers is one thing, but managing a team of diverse writers requires effective strategies. To maximize the productivity of your writers and push them to produce better results, you should automate management. Create a strategy using these tips, which works for both, you and the freelancers and helps structure processes better.
These best practices will help you ace your management skills and set your freelancing team in the right direction to create impactful content- the greatest return on investment you can get.