If you’re searching for content writers–whether you need blog posts, press releases, web pages, or other copy written–you have a very important question to answer. Should you hire a writer or team of writers to work internally for your business? Or should you insource?
First, let’s discuss “what is insourcing?” Unlike outsourcing, which is obtaining personnel from an outside (oftentimes foreign) source, insourcing refers to using an external company’s staff to complete a task.
So which is better: insourcing or hiring in-house writers? Both options have their own challenges and benefits. An in-house team requires a wealth of invested time, energy, and resources, while you may wonder how you can trust that insourced writers will produce the highest quality of content.
Read on for a comprehensive look at the benefits of insourcing a team of writers versus hiring in-house writers for your business.
Money, Money, Money: How Much Do Writers Cost?
How much should you plan to spend on content creation? Understandably, there is quite the difference between hiring one or more in-house writers and insourcing your writing needs to a content creation company.
The Cost of Hiring an In-House Writer
According to LinkedIn, to hire one in-house writer, a business will spend, on average, over $82,000.
This figure takes into account the average hiring cost, salary, benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead associated with hiring just one writer to work in-house for your company.
The Cost of Hiring In-House Writers
The Cost of Insourcing Your Content Needs
With SteadyContent, the cost of a 500-word blog post is $61.87.
If you’re a small- to medium-sized company, you likely average 30 blog posts per month–one per day, which means you’ll be spending approximately $1,856 monthly for content creation. This equates to $22,273 annually, which leads to an unheard-of savings of over $60,000
If you’re a larger organization, you likely require a good deal more posts per month. For the sake of comparison, let’s say you need 150 blog posts monthly.
This would require you to hire two in-house writers, which would cost over $165,000 per year. At SteadyContent’s rate, you’d spend $111,360 annually for these articles. This is a savings of over $50,000!
The math does the work for you: you’ll save money by insourcing your content creation needs with SteadyContent.
But what about the qualitative costs associated with hiring in-house writers versus insourcing?
What Kind of Qualitative Investment Are You Looking At?
Qualitative Costs Required for Hiring In-House Writers
Time and Money
The math does the work for you: you’ll save money by insourcing your content creation needs with SteadyContent.
But what about the qualitative costs associated with hiring in-house writers versus insourcing?
Fixed Staff
Recruiting writers for your business requires time and money as well as a manager to oversee content creation and strategy.
Volume Commitment
Having an in-house writers means you consistently have to provide work for that writer. Otherwise, you’re paying an employee for, essentially, nothing.
Qualitative Costs Required for Hiring Insourced Writers
Time
It will likely take some time for SteadyContent to fully understand your brand, services or products, content strategy, and clientele. However, you’ll have to invest that same time into training a new in-house writer.
Less Control
When you insource, you automatically lose a bit of the control that you would otherwise have by using in-house writers. But SteadyContent puts much of that control back in your hands by allowing you to:
- Approve or disapprove content titles and keywords
- Request content revisions if you’re not 100% happy
- Alter your campaign requirements and writing instructions at any time
Other Advantages to Take Into Consideration
Benefits of Opting for In-House Writers
More Control
Hiring an in-house writing team gives you all the control–over strategies, processes, and who actually does the writing. On the flipside, with this control comes the stress of planning these strategies, overseeing these processes, and managing these writers.
Benefits of Opting for Insourced Writers
Access to Thought Leaders and Industry Experts
SteadyContent works with hundreds of writers and editors who have expertise in a multitude of industries and fields. By insourcing with SteadyContent, you have access to this pool of thought leaders who are well informed about and well versed in your field.
Ability to Easily Upsize
If you suddenly need to increase your content production, you don’t have to worry about searching for writing candidates to work within your company. Instead, you are already in touch with enough writers who can take on the extra work and produce high-quality content geared toward your customers–and written in a tone and style that fits your brand.
Increased Volume
According to LinkedIn, the average writer can produce one piece of content in approximately two hours. This means one in-house writer can create 87 articles monthly. On the other hand, SteadyContent, who has over 200 writers acquainted with their system, can create up to 17,400 articles each month!
Title and Keyword Research
At SteadyContent, we do the SEO research for you. This means we research the most searched-for keywords and then use these words and phrases to create compelling titles that readers will be drawn to. This equates to less work for you.
The Verdict
The conclusion is clear: insourcing writers has more advantages than hiring a team of in-house writers, both quantitatively and qualitatively. See the below chart, which represents our findings:
What are you waiting for? Contact SteadyContent to discuss your content creation needs today.
