3 Tips for Hiring a New Copywriter for Your Blog
The most successful blogs display a unique style while managing to provide both informative and interesting content. Indeed, considering that virtually all companies keep some form of blog these days and that there are tens of thousands of active blogs on the internet, the best way to stand out from the crowd is through quality writing. And, of course, that means that business leaders must make sure to only hire the best copywriters to work on their blogging staff. To that end, today we’ll share three tips that will help you navigate the hiring process with ease and maintain –– or even enhance –– the high standards of your blog.
Consider Experience Carefully
Typically, business leaders prefer to hire experienced candidates to fill important positions on their team. This makes sense on a number of levels. However, it can sometimes be difficult to accurately judge a blogger’s “experience level.” For instance, some professional bloggers may have years of experience in a given field but have only recently started writing for a living. On the other hand, some professional writers may have tons of previous writing credits, even though they’ve never written anything in your specific field before. So decide early on in the hiring process whether you value insider knowledge or writing skills more. Note, there is no universal “right answer” to this question.
Give them a Test
Rarely are business leaders able to see how a candidate would perform under pressure before they start a job. With copywriters, though, it’s entirely possible for companies to give prospective candidates a writing test during one of their interviews to gauge their raw writing, blogging, and retention abilities. To do this, you can simply provide your potential new copywriter with a prompt for a blog title and see how they handle the work. For example, a medical company looking for a blogger may ask a new writer to research a common FAQ like, “can bunions be reversed?” Remember, the process is just as important as the finished product.
Look for the Right Fit
A great writer does not always make a great blogger. That might sound odd, but it’s true. Bloggers need to be flexible. They have to hit deadlines, work within certain word-restraints, and –– most of all –– they have to be willing to work with others. Writing might be a solitary activity, but blogging requires regular collaboration. Yes, bloggers need to be able to produce quality content, but any good hire should also be able to work with your current team to learn new things and to solve common problems. At the end of the day, you can always teach someone new writing or technical skills, but you can’t change their personality or their work ethic –– so keep that in mind moving forward.