Originally published May 29, 2020 , updated on September 5, 2024

All businesses, particularly those which operate on an online platform, produce some kind of content. When content production isn’t your game; who do you get to write it?

The choice between content agency and freelancer can seem incredibly daunting. With an almost infinite number of companies and writers to choose from, how do you see the wood for the trees? The right solution for you is context-specific and depends largely on your business, management style, and budget.

Here are some of the key factors you should consider before choosing a partner to generate content for your business.

1. To Hire the Lone Wolf to Write or the Pack?

When you hire a content agency, you are hiring a team of individuals who have experience in generating relevant, good quality content in a wide variety of fields. When you hire a freelancer, you are hiring one individual. Although that individual may be experienced, you are still hiring one lone wolf. The freelancer becomes author, editor, and project manager all rolled into one person. Essentially this means that there are limited quality control and support systems in place to ensure that your content is of high quality and delivered in a timeous fashion.

2. Time?

The freelancing community has grown exponentially, with millions of people available for hire who can write for you. The benefit of using a content agency as compared to a freelancer is that the talent hunt is done for you. As a business, you may not have time to sift through millions of CVs and writing samples. This process of finding a freelancer is time and labour intensive, however, it does have the added benefit of finding a writer with expertise well-suited to your field. Generally, content agencies will have a variety of different writers, each with their own unique skill set, thus allowing them to pick the best team to suit your needs.

3. Reliability

Hiring a freelancer to write can be a risky business. The reason is that only one individual is producing content for an unknown number of clients. There is no way of knowing that your project is on top of their to-do list. Additionally, if there is an issue with the freelancer, finding a replacement can be difficult. When dealing with a content agency, there is a team dedicated to your project to ensure the continuity and success of the work. Furthermore, a content agency is likely to have a list of clients for whom they do work, thus allowing you to see their online content in action. It may be more difficult to source reliable references and samples from one individual.

4. The Project Manager

Perhaps the biggest benefit of a reputable content agency is that there is a project manager in charge of your portfolio. This person is tasked with client communication and ensuring the content is delivered according to the brief and deadlines you provide. This saves the client from having to coordinate the efforts of more than one freelancer. The benefit of working with the writer directly is that you get to be a part of the creative process. However, a good project manager is able to include in the parts of the process that you want to be apart of and deal with the parts that you would ignore.

5. Cost of a ‘Write’ Partner

On the surface, a freelancer seems cheaper. That’s because they are able to bill per hour or per word, due to not their not needing to pay for overheads or a team. Alarm bells should go off if the price seems too good to be true. In most situations, you get what you pay for and a low rate may result in low quality. On the other hand, you may land up having several hidden expenses associated with the management of the content. A content agency, however, offers an all-inclusive package eliminating last minute hidden costs.

If you feel a content agency is the ‘write’ choice for your company, Goodman Lantern offers a wide range of professional writing services to suit any business.

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