Since you’re reading this blog you have probably considered starting your own company business blog.
For many businesses, blogging has proven to be a great way to increase sales leads. For this reason and a few related reasons, a business blog makes sense to at least explore for most companies.
One of the considerations, though, with a blog is who will be responsible for creating the blog content. It’s an important question and the answer is often difficult because it takes considerable effort, research and time to create a blog that is going to succeed.
Looking back at the 2012 Digital Content Marketing Survey, 17% of online marketers will outsource their blogging in the next 12 months. This is up 1% from last year. I won’t call that a growing trend just yet, but the question becomes – should you outsource or look for in-house blogging resources?
Business Blogging: Outsourcing vs. In-House
Some businesses are starting to invest in internal bloggers and writers. Depending on your company, you may already have copywriters in-house working on a variety of copy needs such as catalog copy, email copy, etc. These folks have training in writing and might have an interest in working on a company blog. Another place to look for writers is in the marketing department, but really there are resources just about anywhere in a company. If there are no resources in your company or if you want to bring in more experienced bloggers to at least assist with strategy then outsourcing is a good fit.
Outsourcing
Pros
If blogging is new to your company then you have two choices. Both can work. The first option is to bring in an outside resource to maintain and write your blog posts. This person would become the main voice of your blog. You can leave them alone and have them create posts on a regular basis. This is one of the biggest advantages of outsourcing. You can count on the person to publish regularly, which is one of the biggest struggles with maintaining a blog in-house. Another benefit of bringing in an outsourced person or company is their existing experience. The outsourced person, especially if your company is new to blogging, will have experience optimizing your posts for people, social, and search engines. They will also have experience with research, which will be key for learning your specific business and industry.
Cons
The first thing you’ll realize when outsourcing blogging is the price. You have to pay for quality and quality is something you want with your business blog. Another item to consider is that you and your staff will not be gaining any experience with blogging if you full outsource the blogging strategy. You could work with a company or blogger that is willing to share their tactics with you. Since you’re in charge of your own business you can always still look to publish your own posts along with the outsourced person. Most companies and freelancers will offer feedback on your posts as well. With outsourcing, you also run the risk of hiring a firm that will not deliver regular content. This is one of the most important aspects of blogging and if your partner is struggling to provide content to meet your schedule then things could get expensive and results will not be there.
In-House
Pros
The people closest to your business, your employees should have the benefit of great industry knowledge. These are the folks really best suited to write blog posts for your company and for your target customers. With even a little bit of training in copywriting, your employees could do a great job of creating a blogging voice for your company that attracts readers, turns them into subscribers, and eventually converts them to paying customers. You can also control the amount of time your employees contribute to the blog. You can structure their pay accordingly and work closely with them, probably in the same office, on the blogging strategy and evolution. This intimate relationship can not only help the blog succeed, but can help you, the business owner, understand more about the blogging strategy, which could lead to more involvement in the blog from more people in your organization.
Cons
The biggest issue with in-house bloggers is their (assumed) lack of blogging knowledge. Fish around a little in your organization because you might find some people that already have blogs of their own. This would be great and you could really tap into their passion and make it valuable for your business blogging efforts. Something related to this issue is the lack of drive or focus to maintain a blogging schedule. You could make sure that blogging is a required part of a job, but if blogging is new to your company this could be difficult.
Making Your Decision
The decision is yours. You’ll have to determine your situation and see if you can blog with in-house resources or will require outside help. There is also the option of using a hybrid solution. This is common with other business service partnerships and should be no different with blogging.
Assess your company’s situation. Hopefully the above information will help you make your decision.