At this point, there aren’t many people who don’t know the power blogging can have to benefit small businesses.

A blog is a powerful, inexpensive form of advertising that your customers will seek out and read intentionally. You could spend thousands of dollars sneaking it into their magazines while customers try hard to ignore you, or you could craft it properly and stick it online where your customers will line up to get more.

That choice isn’t hard, so this isn’t an article about whether a blog would benefit your small business or not. Instead, it’s about who should write your business blog. There are four primary options:

You could write all of the articles yourself, your existing employees could write the articles, you could contract a freelance blogger to write the articles, or your could hire a blogger as an employee.

A business blog is a marketing asset like a billboard, storefront or company vehicle. Choosing the best option for creating and maintaining it can mean the difference between a business blog that makes you world famous and one that’s a public embarrassment.

So I’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each option, then briefly explain what situations that option should be used in.

 

Writing the Articles Yourself

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Taking time out of your day to write articles is going to mean there’s something else that you don’t get time for. Even so, early on or in hard times your marketing budget could probably be kept in a change jar on the night stand. A blog can be an extremely effective means by which to do your marketing, and doing it yourself might minimize expenses.

Pros

No one knows your business like you do. While many writers will research your business in detail before they start blogging on your behalf, they still won’t see your business exactly the same way that you do.

You can put as much or as little work into your articles as you’d like to.

Cons

Your time is valuable. Writing the articles yourself seems like it means not having to pay any cash out. Time is money though.

You’re probably not an experienced writer or blogger. Your articles are going to contain mistakes you can’t see, or don’t understand yet. Those mistakes will reflect poorly on you and your business.

Running a small business is hard. It places large demands on your time and energy. If you attempt to write the articles yourself, you’ll probably end up only posting once in a blue moon. This is going to severely cripple your blog’s performance both with readers and search engines. That’s going to push your customers to the competition who have more up to date blogs.

When is this your best option?

If your small business is operating on a shoe string budget early on, writing the articles yourself might be your best option. Especially if your business has down time to work in,  so that writing it doesn’t interfere with your other duties.

 

Having Your Employees Write the Articles

If your company has employees, you may ask some of them to help with the blog. If you can find four of them willing to write one short article a month, you’ll be able to supply your blog with an article a week without over taxing any one person’s time.

Pros

This can provide a variety of viewpoints and writing styles to your articles.

It allows customers and community members to feel like they’re getting to know the faces of the business by reading the articles.

You’re already paying your employees. You won’t usually have to put out more money to contract or hire a new worker specifically to write articles for your blog, since the employees are already on the payroll.

Cons

Your employees may not be the writing type. Writing is a skill, and writers are usually paid more than minimum wage for a reason. The articles your employees write may not be very high quality, since you didn’t choose your staff based on their writing abilities. In a small business, finding a few people who can write articles you’d want representing your business would be luck more than anything.

The time they spend writing articles is time they’re not spending on whatever you hired them for.

When is this your best option?

If you don’t possess the time or skill to write articles for your company blog, but your budget is too tight to pay a freelancer or hire someone new then this may be your best option.  Of course, for some companies it’s not going to be an option at all.

Remember that if your employees are always overworked, asking them to start writing articles for the company blog isn’t the best idea. What’s more some employees may have specific contracts that prohibit that kind of activity.

 

Contracting a Freelance Blogger

Hiring a freelance blogger brings the talent of a writer to your business blog without having to pay a full time writer or deal with another employee.

Pros

You don’t have to write the articles yourself. Your time is money. If your time is worth $40 an hour, and you can hire a freelance blogger for the equivalent of about $25/hour, then you’ve actually saved $15/hour on those articles.

The freelancer is probably a better writer than you and your employees. He knows how to write posts that are going to be useful and attractive to readers, and this skill will reflect well on your business.

A freelance blogger will know how to generate articles that are search engine optimized. This draws in more visitors to your business blog, and translates to more leads and more money for your business.

You can hire the freelance blogger for as many or as few posts per month as you’d like, and the services you receive are the services you pay for. You don’t need to add the freelancer to your healthcare plan or process a new employee’s paperwork.

Cons

You’ve got to come up with money to pay your freelance blogger.

When is this your best option?

A freelance blogger will usually be your best option. This is because of the large middle ground between a company so small that they’ve got to do the writing themselves and one so large they need a full time writer. Companies in this middle ground are going to find contracting a freelance blogger a great use of their marketing budget.

 

Hiring a Blogger

If your small business is getting bigger, it might suit you to hire a full time writer. Blogging may not be their only duty, but it would be one of their duties.

Pros

Professional writing quality for your business blog. The consistency and quality will make your blog much more popular.

As an employee, the blogger will get to know your business a little better than research would allow. They’ll get to know the personality of the people and the place better.

Cons

Hiring a full time writer can be expensive. You’ll need to have a lot of work for them for this to be worth it.

You’ll have to file another employee’s paperwork, and deal with the liability and risk that comes with having another employee.

 

Conclusion

So is a freelance blogger right for your small business blog? Probably.

There are some small businesses that wouldn’t find contracting a freelance blogger a good investment. Those without the money to afford them, or those with so much writing work to do that they need to hire a full time writer. The majority of small businesses are going to be somewhere in the middle though, and they’re in a position to get the most out of a freelance business blogger.