Many companies are now relying on freelance writing services to fulfill their content requirements. It helps them cut the costs of hiring permanent writers and get high-quality content in return without having to hire writers for the long term.
Throughout my experience of running an SEO agency, I have had the experience of working with several freelance writers. Managing these writers is no joke. It required a complete dedication and use of creative solutions to manage these professionals.
In this article, I am going to help you manage your freelance writers effectively. So, let’s dive in.
What Does It Mean By “Managing Freelance Writers”?
Before we begin discussing the methods and techniques you need to follow, let’s understand what managing freelance writers actually means.
Each company or individual brand has a unique identity. It builds and implements a content marketing strategy that completely reflects this unique identity. Everyone in the company is aware of this identity and tries to keep up with it while handling their tasks.
However, the freelance writers that you hire are completely unaware of this identity. So, managing these writers means you need to make sure their work is aligned with the company’s requirements.
It also involves making sure the writers submit quality work on time and are always working in collaboration with other teams of the company, such as the SEO wing.
Why Does Managing Freelance Writers Matter?
Managing freelance writers matters a lot when it comes to getting quality results on time. There are many other benefits that come out of managing these professionals the right way.
I have discussed them in detail below:
Maintained Brand Consistency
When it comes to succeeding in the digital world, having a maintained brand consistency matters. It shows clients that you stand for a vision that ultimately improves brand recognition. Managing writers helps with this consistency.
You constantly keep an eye on their work and make sure it is according to the vision as well as the standards of the company. As a result, you maintain a consistent content voice, which is useful for building trust.
Better Content Quality
Brand consistency isn’t the only outcome of managing freelance writers. It also helps you get the best quality content from writers. Each writing service has a specific style of working. It may or may not be aligned with your own quality standards.
When you manage the writers as well as their work, you actually analyze and monitor the content quality they are generating.
By giving them proper working guidelines, you get high quality content in return that can impact the audience and help your website rank higher in search engine results.
Meeting The Deadlines
As a business expert, you know the value of publishing content consistently on time. It means the writers have to meet the deadlines and provide content on time. Managing these teams can help with it.
Proper management makes sure that the writers are working on assigned projects properly and that there are no expected delays. Management helps you plan ahead and assign tasks on time.
This all helps with avoiding last minute delays and makes sure that the whole content strategy is being implemented in a near-ideal way.
Streamlined Finances
Handling freelance writers doesn’t only mean getting the best outcome of their efforts. It also means taking care of these teams. Making timely payments is one of the biggest and most important points here.
Management involves paying writers on time, which helps them stay satisfied and streamlines your finances at the same time. It also builds a good relationship with these professionals and guarantees a smooth work in the future.
How To Manage Freelance Writers Effectively?
When it comes to managing freelance writers effectively, multiple factors are involved in the process. I’ll discuss some important points that will help you manage the team of remote writers with complete clarity and control. Here are the details of these points:
1 – Have A Proper Onboarding Process
The best management process is the one that starts at the beginning. The same goes for managing freelance writers. You need to create a proper onboarding process to streamline their entry into the office workflow.
During this process, you prepare the workers’ mindsets and expose them to the vision as well as the policies of your company. It helps with building a foundation of work standards, and the further management procedure becomes a lot easier to perform.
How Is It Done?
- Provide a well-designed welcome kit that contains all the relevant documentation of the company’s ideals and rules.
- Clearly explain your expectations from the writer teams and the type of work you want to receive.
- Assign a starting task and analyze it to provide guidelines before the actual work begins.
- Give managed access to all the company’s resources.
2 – Share Clear Content Guidelines
The writers aren’t going to provide you with high-quality content unless they know what type of work you prefer. That’s why it is important to create and share clear content guidelines with these professionals.
Sharing guidelines makes sure that you don’t have to explain things again and again, and the work keeps on going in a well-managed way. The required quality depends on your company’s needs and requirements.
However, you just need to make sure that this quality is described to the writers in a clear and managed way.
How Is It Done?
- Define the tone and voice you want to incorporate within the content.
- Provide guidelines about the content formatting so that time isn’t wasted on editing.
- Clearly define the SEO content strategy so that the generated content is search engine friendly.
- Make sure that the guidelines reach each and every member of the writing team.
3 – Establish a Proper Communication System
Communication is the key when it comes to managing a workforce team, and freelance writers aren’t an exception. You need to build a proper system through which the freelance team and your management can communicate easily.
When both parties are able to contact each other easily, the whole working procedure becomes streamlined. Writers can ask questions and update about tasks at any time they want to. Similarly, the management can contact the writers and inquire about the ongoing projects easily.
This all will result in better collaboration and decent management of the freelance writing projects.
A Note From The Pros: The best way to create a proper communication channel in this regard is by using technology tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
How Is It Done?
- Pick a user-friendly and fast communication tool.
- Provide clear yet well-managed access to the tool to all the writers in the team.
- Set rules and regulations for group chats.
- Try implementing the file-sharing system within the tool to streamline the workflow.
4 – Create A Working Schedule
Creating a work schedule is, perhaps, one of the most effective ways to manage a team of freelance writers. In fact, it is the only way to make sure that projects are completed within the set deadlines.
A working schedule helps writers understand when they need to work and how much they are going to work on a certain project. It also helps with setting clear expectations while making sure that the employees aren’t overworked.
Besides that, a proper work schedule helps with monitoring work progress in an efficient way.
How Is It Done?
- Create a proper daily and weekly work timetable.
- Include weekly and monthly goals in the schedule.
- Try to avoid making the schedule too rigid.
- Keep on monitoring the progress and adjust the schedule accordingly.
A Note From The Pros: Make sure to add buffer time in the schedule in order to handle unexpected details easily.
5 – Have A Writers’ Database
Last but not least, you need to have a proper writers’ database in order to manage freelance writers in an effective way. This technique is extremely important for people who are working with multiple freelance writer teams.
This database includes all the relevant and useful information about the writers. This information includes things like:
- Skills
- Experience
- Payment rates
- Availability
- Contact information
With this database, you won’t have to worry about tracking down important details whenever you need a writer. You can use this database to quickly get in touch with the team and have them start working on a project.
How Is It Done?
- You can use online tools to keep the information about writers organized.
- Create a custom platform to handle team data in case you hire large teams.
- Create proper categories of information to make finding the data an easy process.
- Update the database regularly in order to add or remove the latest writer information.
A Note From The Pros: Use a color or tag system so that you can quickly identify writers and find the relevant data easily.
Final Thoughts
Bringing it all together, managing freelance writers effectively can be tough for many people. These writers work on a contract basis, meaning most of them will be unaware of your company’s quality standards.
They will also be unaware of the working schedule as well as the communication systems you use in the company. So, it is important to start the management process right from the onboarding step.
Provide a proper communication system and create an effective schedule. Following such steps will help you with managing the teams perfectly and get the most out of their skills.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the role of a freelance writer?
The main role of a freelance writer is to create high-quality content for your company. The writer isn’t bound to you for the long term and will usually work on a contract basis.
What is freelance management?
Freelance management means overseeing the team of freelance workers that you have hired. In case of freelance writers, it means creating a proper work schedule as well as a communication system for them.
It also involves providing clear content guidelines for a well-managed workflow.
What does a freelance manager do?
There are different duties that a freelance manager focuses on. They include hiring, coordination, and performance management of freelance workers.
Managers also help with creating and assigning projects to different team members.
How Does Creating A Schedule Help With Work Management?
Creating a proper schedule helps a lot with work management. It helps with creating proper working hours as well as weekly and monthly deadlines.
It also helps get work done within deadlines and avoid last-minute details.
