One of my primary justifications for going to law school back in the day was that I was told there would be no math. I can’t do math. Get me much beyond 2 + 2 = 5 and the smoke starts rising from the circuits in my flummoxed brain. I also couldn’t draw a stick figure if you spotted me the arms and the legs. That’s why I have an accountant do my taxes. I get my daughter to calculate the tip at restaurants. I rely on the brilliance and talents of web designers and graphic designers for their visual artistry.
If you’re a business leader, I can make some educated guesses about you. You wouldn’t hesitate to outsource your accounting or design needs, or your IT, payroll or shipping needs, for that matter. Yet, when it comes to content marketing, it feels more personal. You may have some trepidation about having someone write for you, especially if the words were to have your name attached to them.
Writing is a skill and an art
As with any skill or art, some folks simply have more of an aptitude for crafting content. As Steve Martin once noted,
“Some people have a way with words. Other people … not have way.”
Your vision. Your words.
You may have a crystal-clear vision you want to convey. You know exactly what points you want to make and the tone in which you want to make them. You still may not have way though – or at least not as much way as someone who writes for a living. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer or that hiring someone to write for you is an admission of a shortcoming. It isn’t cheating either; no more so than having your accountant crunch numbers. It’s a matter of efficiency, execution and effectiveness.
How to have way
With dozens of other duties, you don’t have the time to produce content. Content writers not only have the time, but they also want to spend it developing effective content.
That time includes:
- Learning about your business.
- Listening carefully and actively to you so they can describe in your own voice what you want the world to hear.
- Producing copy that captures the tone and substance you envision.
Your writer will use a variety of skills to create content that packs the strongest punch. Editors will further hone and maximize the power of the words that appear under your company’s banner.
Once, after I had delivered a draft piece of content, a client paid me a humbling compliment that captured the benefit of hiring a content writer:
“This sounds exactly like how I would have said it, except much, much better.”
