To make matters more complicated, this can change by the day. On a recent episode of The Long Game, David<\/a>, Alex<\/a>, and I<\/a> put our heads together to talk through what logistics go into the optimum hiring strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the purposes of this discussion, David, Alex, and I used the following definitions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When considering who to hire, there is no one-size-fits-all approach<\/em>. Let me clarify this from the start\u2014individual company needs vary widely. While some things can never be outsourced efficiently, other things can be farmed out with ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Referencing one benefit of hiring an agency, Alex said, \u201cIf I don’t have that skill set<\/a> and I don’t know how to hire for it, I’m either going to have to learn and spend a lot of time with trial and error, or I can bring somebody in or a team of people in and they can get us off the ground, and we can also learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, you want to select the right person or solution who will help supercharge your content and get the results that you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a former freelance writer, I know the perspective of an independent contractor<\/a> firsthand; I\u2019ve been there. Now, as seasoned agency owners and professionals, Alex, David, and I have hired our fair share of freelance contributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re considering whether or not to hire freelancers<\/a> yourself, here are some things we\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most freelancers are typically far removed from an intimate understanding of a company and its products, goals, and target audience. This means they are best suited to projects with clear, finite instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my opinion, freelance writers are the boots-on-the-ground execution. Sure, there are freelance individuals that will develop strategy in addition to executing that strategy. But my experience has shown me that most freelance writers do their best work with a very detailed brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was freelance writing, I recall instances when clients would ask me to provide topics or create style guides\u2014with little or no context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This didn\u2019t serve those organizations well (nor was it a good use of their budget) because I had limited knowledge of their product, the goals of their blogs, and what they wanted readers to do. There are so many fundamental questions to answer before freelance writers can do their best work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When looking for assistance with high-level strategy, you\u2019re better off seeking out an agency or a freelance professional who is explicitly focused on strategy or the other niche services that you are interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex noted that certain tasks, like link-building or \u201cdigital PR,\u201d are well-suited to expert freelancers<\/a> who are embedded in existing professional networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe stuff you want to outsource is the stuff you can’t do very well. It would take a long time to learn, or it would be expensive to do so, or you don’t want to do,\u201d Alex said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the case of link-building, assign the difficult task to a freelance SEO consultant or similar individual who is skilled in that area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey’re going to have a lot of the connections. It’s kind of like public relations, right?\u201d Alex said. \u201cYou hire a PR firm because they know everybody in media, and they can immediately just go and say, hey New York Times, I’ve got this story, and pitch them that right away. You’re kind of buying the network and the connections. So I would say a function like that I want to outsource almost all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just because a freelancer isn\u2019t an in-house employee doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t vet them in a similar fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David shared, \u201cIf a company decides to hire a freelancer<\/a>, they should vet that freelancer the same way they vet an in-house hire. Maybe not like 10 interviews, but have the first call with them, do like a test project, and pay them for it. The key is to see what you’re going to get before you commit to a long-term relationship,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David recommends getting a true feel for a potential freelancer\u2019s skills and personality before agreeing to a hefty commitment. Yes, you can of course \u201cfire\u201d or discontinue working with a freelancer at any time. But it\u2019s a productive use of both your time and theirs to make an effort upfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if a freelancer comes recommended<\/a> or has an impressive portfolio of work, you want to see how they perform for your company in a real-world scenario. This is a good case for conducting a test project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, read our guide to finding, vetting, and onboarding freelancers.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you skip this step, you have only yourself to blame. \u201cIf that’s not something you’re looking for, and you can get a shitty piece of content, it’s kind of on the person hiring to avoid that situation,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you ready for an agency?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer may be yes\u2014if you have significant funds to spend and have your positioning secured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a company doesn\u2019t have the core, fundamental pieces of strategy in place, they simply aren\u2019t prepared to conduct any sort of professional content work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they’ve raised capital or if they have $2-5 million+ ARR, then they’re in a good situation to at least choose between an agency and an in-house team. If they’re early stage and they don’t have any blog posts written, they haven’t figured out their positioning, they’re constantly changing their value proposition on their homepage\u2014they shouldn’t hire an agency,\u201d said Alex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we get prospects like this that slip through our initial lead qualification stage, the team doesn\u2019t pull any punches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the case that we do schedule a call, I almost always tell them, \u2018Look, you need to do this. If you want to do content, test the waters on your own. Try some articles, see if you get traction. But you’re not ready for an agency yet,\u2019\u201d Alex said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019re ready to commit to an agency, don\u2019t let potential agency partners rush the matchmaking process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like with any relationship, David says you should go into an agency relationship fully informed and on your own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think if a company really wants to vet an agency, as much as that agency salesperson wants to move you through the process, they\u2019ll be OK if you slow it down and take it at your own pace,\u201d he said. \u201cLet them know, \u2018Hey, we want to make sure you’re the right fit for us, and we’re the right fit for you.\u2019 Don’t follow their sales process. You direct how you want to vet them,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, feel free to request that the agency contact meet with multiple members of your team, and get them to chat through more than just a blanket promise that everything will be smooth sailing once you sign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The right agency partner will appreciate your thoroughness as it makes their jobs easier in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon’t just jump into it because the agency promises that they’ll make it smooth and turnkey. I think any agency that sells on simplicity is probably brushing over a lot of the details because I would not tell any client that the work we do together is going to be easy. There’s going to be some bumps in the road, and we’re going to figure it out together,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why we call them agency partners.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While you don\u2019t need to immediately commit years to an agency, we recommend giving an appropriate amount of time for the strategy to take shape and the relationship to blossom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David shared, \u201cI don’t think anyone wants to sign a year-long commitment to someone that they’ve spoken to a handful of times. But you could do three months to start to better understand how the agency works and how you work together. Then you could decide. Avoid committing to month-to-month; coming from an agency perspective, it doesn’t give us the peace of mind that you’re committed to doing something long term,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to build a truly effective partnership, you need to consider the long game<\/a>. Content strategy can take months or years to develop, so it follows that you can\u2019t be looking for a silver bullet solution. You have to give your agency team adequate time for discovery and implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf that expectation is set upfront, you’re doing much more than a month or two months of work. You’re thinking like six months to a year down the line of how this all works together. If both agency and company can get on the same page about how that approach is being taken, it would probably lead to more beneficial relationships,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, it\u2019s time to consider when to bring a bonafide team member on board in the form of a new W2 hire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Omniscient, we believe the long game often means using outsourcing options<\/a> as a stepping stone until you have the time, workload, and resources to justify a new in-house staff member. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If that is the case, leveraging an employee experience app<\/a> can be an invaluable tool when bringing in-house hires on board since it provides a central place where employees can find HR-related information and resources, which makes things a lot easier for the new employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more complex your industry is, the better off you\u2019ll be when it comes to nurturing in-house talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my opinion, the differentiator between in-house and outsourcing comes down to the complexity of the industry and the product. Super technical products deserve a long-term relationship with content strategists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a freelancer or agency\u2014I\u2019ve been both\u2014it\u2019s hard to have a short term (like six weeks) window to come in, get to know the product really well, and develop a whole content strategy or team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a highly technical product or service, you have a few options here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even some of our own clients have transitioned to hiring a full-time role because they think that was the best long-term play. I agree\u2014depending on the complexity of your product, this can be the best use of your budget and energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David agreed that sometimes a progression from one type of assistance to another makes the most logical sense. In his mind, a young company can benefit greatly from hiring an agency that can help solidify the strategy, then slowly take the reins over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, imagine a company is trying to get SEO-optimized content off the ground. They already have a marketing team that\u2019s focused on demand generation, but they don\u2019t have a team focused on creating new, original content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt makes sense to hire an agency and hand that off to a team you trust. Then, over time, you can start shifting some of that responsibility in-house, where you might establish some bandwidth with an employee,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, an in-house employee might start to own the strategy creation piece, completing it on their own, hiring a couple of freelancers directly, or even bringing on in-house writers to create content under his or her direction\u2014ultimately replacing the more expensive agency relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the best long-term solution and most cost-effective. This happened with one of our clients. In fact, this is probably the best way for us to seamlessly off-board a client\u2014to set them up for long-term success,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the above examples and advice allude, thinking about moving work in-house is a valuable end goal in many cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A valid question to ask in every hiring scenario therefore becomes: Why can\u2019t we do this in-house?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Depending on the answer, your capabilities, and even the HRIS software<\/a> you\u2019re using, you can hire accordingly and make a plan of attack for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome say they don’t have time to manage the team, or they don\u2019t have the budget to hire someone full-time to write that much content. But, let’s say they had the money\u2014they just don’t have the bandwidth and they don’t have headcount. Then hire an agency<\/strong>,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, if an agency or freelancers can help as stepping stones on the way to success, that\u2019s great. A good agency will understand that businesses evolve, and that a company gaining the ability to hire in-house is a mark of success that should be celebrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDefining freelancer, agency, and in-house employee<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Hiring Freelancers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
1. Freelancers thrive on concrete assignments, not strategy.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Outsource complex and time-consuming tasks.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. Vet freelancers thoroughly.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hiring agencies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Dial in your core strategy.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Find your perfect agency match.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. Give your agency a decent runway.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hiring in-house<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Technical products deserve in-house expertise. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
2. Consider moving from agency to freelancer to in-house.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. In-house is the end goal.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Investing in the best<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Hiring](\"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Freelancer-writer-onboarding-1024x535.png\")
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