If you don’t have someone driving your content marketing strategy, then you’re missing out on all the SEO, social media, and email marketing opportunities to grow your business — all of which are built upon good content.
So, when should you hire a content marketer? Ideally, right out of the gate.
The trouble is, finding a top notch content marketer is tough. Loads of people can write well, but finding someone who truly understands the ins and outs of content marketing and how to lean into your specific business goals and target audience demographics is no small feat.
So if you haven’t invested in content marketing yet, or you’re not sure if what your content team is currently doing is working, bringing in an expert content marketer is one of the best things you can do for your business.
Given all the noise online, you need the very best for the job. That’s why MarketerHire puts all our freelance content marketing consultants through rigorous vetting.
Here’s the process we recommend, and that all of our content marketers and copywriters go through:
- Collect writing samples: After a candidate applies to our network and we vet their experience, we request several writing samples. We want to see how they write, how they leverage data in their storytelling and how they use visuals to amplify their point.
- Assign a writing exercise: It’s great to look at past pieces, but you’re not just looking at that marketer’s work — an editor likely played a role, too. Seeing how a content marketer takes a topic and runs with it is a fantastic way to assess their (and only their) talents. Especially if your company has a certain tone or messaging guidelines, you want to make sure your content marketer can hone in on it.
- Understand their content management skills: You might’ve established they’re a good writer, but you still need to assess their ability to build and execute content marketing strategies, manage multiple projects, and ensure consistent quality. We dig into these nitty gritty details.
- Dot your i’s and cross your t’s: To make sure they’re truly a good fit with the chops to execute, ask about how they think about the pros and cons of different types of content. It’s also worth asking how they conduct user research, brainstorm content ideas, promote content across social media channels, and leverage analytics, to ensure they understand the entire content marketing process.