When is it time to hire a professional writer?
Well now, coming to you as a freelance writer, it’s very tempting to say “right away”, and to point you in the direction of my contact details.
But I’ll level with you; you actually might be doing just fine without a seasoned writer. You’re cracking on with your website content, your clients are enraptured by your newsletters, and you never miss a deadline when it comes to that all-important blog.
Down the line, though, working with a professional writer might be the right solution for you, and there are a few signs to look out for that suggest it’s time. If you’re struggling to get traffic to your website, retain clients, find the opportunity to write, or come up with top-quality content yourself, a dedicated freelance writer can help you out.
So, when exactly should you call on a trusted content whizz? Let’s find out.
It’s time to hire a professional writer, when…
1. Your website is a ghost town
There’s a slight breeze, but the road ahead is empty. Occasionally, a tumbleweed drifts past.
What’s going on here? You have a website, but traffic heading its way is non-existent – or you’re getting traffic to your website, but you want to attract more and you want to attract the right kind. Tumbleweeds don’t count.
Now, there could be a few things at play here, and it’s worth digging into your website stats to find out more.
Internet users might not be discovering your website in the first place. In this case, you’ll want to explore something called search engine optimisation (SEO). When your website is optimised for search engines such as Google, it makes it more likely to rank higher on the search engine results page – and therefore to be clicked on.
This sometimes comes down to techy backend fixes, like updating broken links or not having indexed your pages correctly. But it’s often to do with your website content itself.
Google likes certain things more than others when it comes to written content. It likes to find answers to commonly searched queries with the utmost ease. It likes structure. And it prioritises content that’s getting shared by others, because that suggests the page is interesting and helpful. Ultimately, that means written content that’s readable and entertaining for your audience will rake in more hits in the long run.
So, to roll out the welcome wagon and increase footfall to your website, you’re going to need to create written content optimised for search engines – and lots of it, because the other thing Google loves is constant updates to prove you’re active and relevant.
In short, Google makes the demands around this town, and if you could do with a helping hand to keep the sheriff happy, I know just the writer who’s up for the job (admittedly, she doesn’t look very tough in her photo, but looks can be deceiving).
One last thing that I mentioned earlier. You might be attracting traffic to your website, but if it’s not the right kind of traffic, you won’t be lassoing in any clients (have I taken the Wild West thing too far yet?).
A professional content writer can help you gear your words towards your target audience, making sure you show up in the search results of the people who matter most. Full-time writers have years of experience tailoring tone of voice, sprinkling in relevant keywords, and brainstorming engaging, topical blog posts your clients will want to read.
2. Your clients are fickle friends
So, you’re attracting clients… then never seeing them again.
Customers show up and buy your goods once, but they don’t come back for more – even though you know for a fact you delivered great service and a five-star product. Where’s the rhyme or reason?!
There’s both rhyme and reason here.
You could give your clients everything they need, but if you don’t stay at the front of their minds, they won’t necessarily think of you next time they need those things again. They might just go to the most convenient place. They might shop around. They might wonder what all the fuss is about with your biggest rival who keeps posting cool videos on TikTok.
This is where a professional writer can up your game.
With their help, you can stay on your clients’ radars by putting out extra content that’ll get you seen and remembered.
Newsletters are a popular way of connecting with previous customers, reminding them how you gave them a great time when they came to you before – or just sharing updates and information to keep you fresh in their minds.
Another classic way to retain clients is to establish a presence on social media. A short, snappy post every few days will make customers feel like they’re now part of your gang. You don’t have to post overtly salesy content either – in fact, it’s often best if you don’t. It’s a chance to develop your brand identity and make you more memorable in the long run.
Professional writers know how to get to the crux of the issue when it comes to newsletters and socials. They’ll pull your audience in with crafty words and build your digital presence in an organic, meaningful way.
3. You’ve not posted on your blog for months
Okay, so maybe you know all this. You already have an Instagram account and you set up a blog ages ago.
You just don’t have time to keep it up.
This is such a common theme for busy business owners. There’s so much else going on and, somehow, keeping up with your digital content production never seems to take priority.
The truth is, content creation has long-term benefits, whereas meeting client deadlines, or getting everyone paid on time, or planning for that product launch that’s looming over you… it’s pressing stuff that needs sorting out right now.
But when you neglect your blog, socials, or website content, you lose out on bigger things down the line, ticking away in the background over time.
It’s one of the main reasons businesses hire freelance writers – to crack on with the writing tasks you don’t have the chance to get on top of, even though you know how important they are.
As well as building your reputation, brand identity, and following, it also has the added benefit of destroying the nagging guilt of not having posted in a long time. And that’s nice too.
4. You find yourself saying, “ah, it’ll do”
I know, I know; we all learnt to write at school. We sat on plastic chairs and rickety tables and practised our best handwriting, copying down notes about paragraphs, personification, and powers-of-three (and, apparently, alliteration).
But there’s a lot more to successful content writing than simply being able to write – or even being able to write well. Professional writers know about target audiences and branding. They know about keywords and search engine optimisation. And they definitely have a few tricks up their sleeves to grab your audience’s attention – and keep it.
The thing is, a freelance writer will dedicate themselves to the task of creating on-point content for you, without getting distracted by the long list of completely different activities you have on your to-do list.
A writer gets into the writing headspace first thing in the morning, and stays in that creative zone until the job’s done.
So, rather than putting content out into the big wide world that’s “good enough”, your helpful freelancer will write something that works hard for you and has an impact in the long term – because that’s what we do all day, every day.
And there you have it.
Hire a freelance writer when website traffic is low, client retention is down, you're running out of time, or you're not giving your content the attention it deserves.
Noticed any of the above?
It’s probably time to contact a professional writer for a chat…
