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One of the biggest challenges B2B tech marketers face is time. There aren’t nearly enough hours in the day to complete the many tasks that comprise a holistic content marketing strategy. The most time-consuming task also happens to be the most important: writing quality content.

Content is the heart of a content marketing strategy. Without quality content, all of your other efforts are moot. That’s where outsourcing comes in. Outsourcing your content writing needs to an agency staffed by a team of veteran contractors can save you time, money, and effort.

Perform a quick search on any job board and you'll quickly see that content writers are in high demand. However, most companies are looking to hire a full-time, on-site content writer. And the majority of those are looking for a writer with little or no experience, possibly to keep payroll down. But hiring a full-time employee can take weeks, if not months. And training a writer in the B2B tech space can take even longer.

When tech marketers outsource their content writing needs, they get the benefit of skipping a lot of the training that’s required to get a new writer up to speed. CyberEdge consultants have a solid foundation of tech knowledge and often times only need to understand a client's competitive differentiators and value props. For example, we often work with cloud services providers, so we’re familiar with the benefits of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. There's no need to go over the business model and the financial advantages of moving IT assets to the cloud.

The right content marketing agency can serve as your one-stop-shop for all your content needs. Agency contractors have experience writing a wide variety of content types. We understand the difference between writing a press release on a new product release and a blog post on the same topic. It's unlikely you'll present a writer with anything truly new, but if you do, the agency can connect you with the best writer for the job.

Outsourcing your content to an agency eliminates the need to undergo time-consuming onboarding processes. As a result, your content marketing projects can get off the ground faster. This is especially true if you rely on the same writer for subsequent projects. The writer will come to better understand your business and solutions and deliver increasing value over time—without costing you a full-time salary.

Agency writers also tend to produce deliverables faster than in-house writers. The typical full-time employee may have any number of responsibilities in addition to producing actual content. These responsibilities may include building and executing a content strategy, collaborating with stakeholders and subject matter experts, and monitoring content performance—to name just a few. Shifting from a tactical or strategic mode of working to a creative mode can be difficult, especially in a fast-paced environment. Writing a 1,200-word white paper becomes a monumental task among various other demands on the writer’s time.

As a contractor with CyberEdge, I have the luxury of wearing my writer's cap the majority of my day. Even if I'm not actively writing, the mental processes required to do so are still engaged because I use them more often, and that offers a number of benefits:

• I can switch between modes more easily, which means I'm more productive.
• The act of writing requires less effort—and it shows in the quality of writing I deliver.
• The creative processes that drive the act of writing translate well to strategy and content development. I can more easily identify out-of-the-box content opportunities.

Finally, an experienced contract writer has exposure to other marketing teams, technologies, businesses, and projects. While professional writers adhere to NDAs, they also provide valuable insights on branding, content strategy, and content marketing that you wouldn't get from a full-time writer operating only in your organization. You get the fresh perspective of an "outsider" while working with someone who understands your business goals and has a vested interest in your success.

In summary

The benefits of outsourcing your content writing to an agency versus hiring a full-time writer include:

• Significantly reduced hiring time
• Significantly reduced training time
• Faster project kick-offs
• Faster turnaround times
• Access to more experience for less than the cost of a full-time employee
• Access to fresh, creative insights

For more information about CyberEdge's content creation services, click here.