Content is king! For many businesses, however, content is either something that languishes on the bottom of to-do lists or the source of giant headaches. They don’t know what content to produce, how to publish it and where to maximise their business reach.
Or worse, they don’t even know or think that content is one of the most useful tools to reach a business’s objectives and a solid content management strategy means growth for the business both financially and in terms of brand visibility and authority.
Is your business one of those?
One of the easiest ways to combat this content woe is through outsourcing parts or all of your content management to a business who specialises in content. If you’re a small business, especially, there are three main levels of content management outsourcing you need to think about:
Virtual Assistants, Content Managers and Content Strategists.
Knowing the major differences between these three levels of content management outsourcing will help you choose the right level of commitment and service for your business. It will also assist in the selection of the business you want to outsource this element of your brand to.
Virtual Assistance has been around for longer than most people know.
VAs often specialise in the types of businesses they predominantly deal with or the type of administrative tasks they take on.
Some VAs will do your virtual reception. Others will do your document control. They can also do your books or customer bookings etc. Even a combination of general office tasks.
Virtual Assistants also often offer social media management services and blog maintenance.
They will administer your platforms for you while you provide all the content. VAs will schedule your posts for you social media, format and post your blogs to your website, upload your content to publish on the www.
This is where your involvement is the highest level. You come up with content ideas, you write or record the content. Your VA will publish it for you according to your instructions on the where, when and how.
This is also the lowest in cost.
In Australia, on average, you can expect to pay $25-$35 per hour typically for such services if you engage a VA for this type content management. Virtual Assistants also offer packages on this type of content handling, depending on the number of posts handled per week or per month for example.
Content Managers have more involvement in the process. The expectations of them are to perform some tasks independently and have a more hands on and advisory approach to managing your content.
They will participate in the creation of your posts for social media by repurposing your content to suit other platforms. You, as a business owner, who is outsourcing to a content manager will spend less time on creating content and more time on growing your business.
Content Managers will take more initiative in working independently. They will rely less on content created by the business owner they are working with. A level of trust required by the business is higher. The Content Manager will be entrusted with replicating the voice of the business in their chosen online communications platforms.
Working with a Content Manager will mean that the content management process is driven less from the business’s side and more from the Content Manager’s side.
Your content manager will make suggestions on what content to publish, where and when to complement the business objectives and help drive customer engagement according to that.
You might expect to pay between $30-$45 per hour for a Content Manager if you outsource this. Many will also have weekly or monthly packages to suit most business needs.
Content Strategist is when your business is involved the least in the management process. You create core content for your business but your strategist will be managing your what, where and how.
Your Content Strategist will have created a long term plan according to your business goals. That strategy will reflect where you want your business to be in, say, the next 6 or 12 months. Taking into consideration things like, product launches, events, desired financial growth and the customer engagement that is to go with it to achieve that growth.
Your Content Strategist will be analysing your social media and website statistics to determine the best use of your content. What content to put out, when, to whom, in what form and to what platform to publish it to.
Content Strategists will make many of the content related decisions and the level of trust required by the business is the highest. This is handing a big part of your business over to an outsourced platform.
It will free up the most amount of time in your own business. As a result you can do the things necessary to grow your brand and expand your business.
A relationship such as this can be extremely rewarding when working well. I have seen some amazing collaborations from people whose businesses complemented eachother in this kind of relationship.
Most Content Strategists I have seen don’t have hourly rates but offer tailor made packages to their clients. Prices may be based on many aspects of content management and strategy according to the clients’ needs.
When you’re looking at your business growth strategy and objectives for the next 12 months, consider outsourcing your content handling. It will take a considerable amount of work and stress off your plate, whatever level of content management you choose.
Want to see if outsourcing your content management is for you? Need help wrapping your head around how content can help you drive your business objectives? Let’s have a chat!
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