How You Know if a Content Writer Is Worth the Investment, Part 2

When you hire a professional content writer, you should feel confident that this person’s writing ability is above average.

Duh.

But when it comes to your marketing content, talent alone isn’t worth the investment.

Beautiful written content won’t make money unless a lot of heavy lifting happens before the content writer sits down to write.

In Part 1 of this post, I began to discuss some of the things that make a content writer worth the investment.

Here are a few more things that should tell you the content writer is worth the investment.

The content writer tells you what your content should say.

If a content writer asks you what you want to say in your marketing content, that’s a bad sign.

A good content writer will ask you about your business goals, target audience, company values, business processes and what makes you unique. Like I said in Part 1 , a content writer needs to have a journalist’s mentality.

A good content writer will also research your industry and competition and look for opportunities to convey competitive advantages in your content.

Based on this information, a content writer worth the investment will tell you what your content should say.

Imagine if you went to the doctor with a sore back and the doctor said, “How would you like me to make that pain go away?”

You hire a content writer to not just write content, but also to shape the message and direction.

The content writer will tell you when your bad idea is bad.

Contrary to popular belief, the customer is not always right.

Nothing infuriates me more than a service provider or salesperson who does nothing but nod and agree with everything the client says.

You shouldn’t hire a content writer to be a cheerleader, pat you on the back or feed your ego.

That’s what mothers are for.

If your existing content sucks or your idea for fixing that content is bad, you need to know. A content writer should challenge you to think differently or educate you about what makes marketing content effective.

Some content writers are afraid to say your idea is bad because they’re afraid of making you mad or hurting your feelings, they’re afraid of being fired, or they believe in the antiquated notion that the customer is always right.

Or they forgot that their first priority is to help you make money.

A content writer who moves forward with a bad idea – without doing everything possible to take the content in a different direction – is knowingly throwing your money away.

The content writer explains why.

Your content writer shouldn’t stop at telling you what your content should say or that your idea is bad.

“Because I said so” and “just trust me” aren’t good reasons.

A content writer worth the investment should be able to make a compelling case about why they’re doing things a certain way. In many cases, this argument is backed up by hard data, case studies or past experience.

Be wary of those who claim to be outside-the-box thinkers and try to blow you away with cutting edge ideas that nobody else is using. That’s usually code for “we don’t know if this will work, so you’ll be our guinea pig.”

More often than not, the best approach to marketing content is rooted in common sense and follows the most basic marketing principles. A good content writer should be able to make that case.

What do you look for in a content writer or service provider? What makes you turn and run in the other direction?