Do you know what type of people do it all themselves in life?
Only one kind.
People who can’t afford to pay someone else to do it for them.
I used to know a 70 year old woman who did her own car oil change. When I asked her why in the world would she be doing her own oil change, she said to me that she wasn’t going to pay someone for something she could do herself.
I think that in her case there were both money and greed involved. Greed being that you do have the money, but think that you don’t.
What about you?
Do you need a content manager, but can’t afford it, or are you just pushing it back while knowing that you need someone to create and manage valuable content to improve your online presence?
If you own a business, even a small one that generates no more than $80.000- $100,000 a year, trying to take care of your business while writing, editing, publishing and marketing your content on your own, you’re making a huge mistake.
Now, would I try to do anything on my site that I know I can pay someone else to do it much better than I could ever do? Of course not.
Hiring a specialist for what you can’t do, don’t like to do, or don’t have the time to do is the way to go. And once you’ve done it, you’ll be so glad you did, wondering why you waited so long in the first place.
What is Content Marketing?
Now you might still be new to this content marketing thing, and wondering what it is and what it all means to start with. If you want to know more about content marketing, I suggest that you read of my last post which explains it all.
In the meantime, in short, content marketing includes:
- Blog posts
- Online articles
- Press releases
- White Papers
- eBooks
- Books
- Reports
- Online Brochures
- Case Studies
- Sales Pages
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Written Interviews
- Online Radio Interviews
- Webinars
- Scripts…
Once you’ve done any of those, you will also need to promote it through social media which is a form of content marketing as well.
As your business grows online, you most likely will touch each one of these forms of content marketing.
However, I doubt that you’ll be able to do it all by yourself.
Why?
Because if you want to do it well, it’s going to take some of your precious time. Time that you probably would rather spend running other important things of your business. Things that really need your involvement.
How Much Time does it Take to Create Content?
I’m no expert in all types of content that I’ve listed above, but let’s take the ones that I know pretty well here.
Here is an average time frame that it will take you to create the following content…
Blog post – 3-15 hours, depending on your ability to write and how deep you want your post to be.
Press release – 3-5 hours.
White paper – 20-40 hours.
Report – 30-72 hours.
eBook – 3-6 weeks.
Book – 3- months to a year (depending on length, how many overall edits, line edits, reviews, and other proof readings you want to do).
Sales Page – 2-4 weeks.
Case Study – 30-75 hours.
Email Marketing Campaign – 48-72 hours
Video – 2-8 hours (depending on what type videos you want to make).
Blog comments – 4-15 hours a week (depending on how much you want to do).
Social Media posts/comments – 2-5 hours a week or more.
As you can see, it takes time to create quality content, even if you are fast doing it. Those are average time frames that can easily extent to more hours of work.
And while you don’t have to create a piece of content every day, you may need to create them on a regular basis, specifically in the case of the blog post, which I would advise you to create once a week.
But your work doesn’t even end there.
Once you’ve spent hours and hours on creating your piece, then you need to promote i through social media.
Frankly, it may take even more time to promote your content then it did to create it. This is especially true for blog posts and videos. And if you don’t take the time (or hire someone to do it for you) promoting your content, you would have worked for nothing.
No matter how good your content is, it is of no use if no one knows about it.
Blue and White Collar Industries can Benefit from Content Marketing
There isn’t any doubt left that both blue and white collar industries can both benefit from content marketing.
4 years ago I had a local landscaper who approached me to help him create a website and content for their website that we promoted locally.
More and more large corporations have now a blog attached to their website, because they understand that a static website is no longer sufficient to attract clients or customers.
More and more companies create entertaining videos and podcasts to promote their business as well.
Many companies have come to understand that by creating a white paper, a report or even an eBook they can set themselves apart from the competition and open the gates for more business opportunities.
The good news is that while those companies are always looking to hire younger people to manage them, those young folks understand even more than the older generation about the importance of content marketing.
It is Time to Enter our Information Age
If you are still wasting your time and money in dubious advertisement techniques, or if you are still scratching your head wondering why your competitors seem to be doing much better than you, it’s time to wake up and enter our information age.
Our information age is content marketing in all its many forms.
One things that some people haven’t gotten still is that your potential customer doesn’t care about your stuff, they care about what your stuff can do for them.
This is why content, and content marketing is becoming so popular. Because you can use it to show your market what you can do for them.
How are you going to show that you care with a commercial or an ad? That’s not impossible, but that’s certainly limited.
However, with content marketing, sky is the limit about how you are going to use your imagination and knowledge to educate and interest your market, so that in turn they will be drawn to your product or service.
Spend Less Time on your Physical Location and more Time on your Online Presence
Nowadays, even if you are a brick and mortar company, it’s a good idea to spend less time and money on the physical look of your business, and more on how it looks online.
Now I didn’t say that while you have a wonderful looking website with terrify content you can have a crappy place of business.
But what I’m saying here is that you are not selling your place of business, and people wouldn’t even judge you on that, but based on the fact that they would truly know what you are about based on your content marketing.
Think about it! Having a pretty place will tell more about you than what you do for your customers. That’s why it’s not as important as what you do online for your potential customer.
Recently I got a customer here in France (where I am at the moment). They rent summer houses in beautiful sunny south western France, and while they need to have attractive and efficient facilities to rent, guess where they clients come from?
They come from all over the world, starting in Europe, but also the US and even Australia and New Zealand.
So, I’m sure you’ve guessed that while they still need to take care of the physical facilities (the summer houses), they need to make sure their stuff look great online as well.
They hired me because not only I can write in French, but I can write in English and that’s what they needed, someone who can write in English. Plus they also noticed by all the pictures that I have posted out there, that I have a thing with photographs, so I make sure I take beautiful photographs on the houses, and gardens.
All that I do for them is making sure they look good online with the written and image content that they put out there.
No matter how the literal places look, their clients make reservations based on their presence on the web.
It’s very important for their business.
It’s invaluable.
They have zero client that they meet face to face.
All transactions are made weeks to months in advance, based on how good they look and sound through a computer screen. And I’m the one taking care of that for this French client right now.
Is your Product too Boring to Blog about it?
Some business owners will argue that their product is too boring to blog about it, and especially blog about it every week.
But is that true?
I bet that no matter what business you’re in, whether it’s selling accounting services to renting summer houses, you can find tons of books about it.
Now if you can say that is not the case for your business, please, let me know in your comment below.
But I’m pretty sure that you won’t, because no matter what business you’re in, there are pages and pages that have been written about what you do and what you sell.
Since that’s the case, there is no reason what-so-ever, to believe that you can’t blog about it, write eBooks about it, make videos about it or create email marketing based on it.
Now that I’ve just destroyed your favorite argument, what other excuse do you have for not taking advantage of this incredibly powerful vehicle, also called content marketing?
If you think that you would like to give a shot at content marketing to promote your business, contact me now, and we can discuss what your options are.
If not, you can always leave your comments or questions below.
Hi Sylviane,
Good to be back after my break 🙂
You are so right about all that you wrote – it does make sense to hire people who specialize in their craft, instead of spending hours in trying to make things work for you.
Yes, it does take hours to create content, though it differs from person to person. Some posts and cases would take even a day or two, depending on the research required, while others end within a few hours. But it surely isn’t an easy job!
Congrats on your client from France – nothing can be better than to combine work with pleasure, isn’t it?
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
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Hi Harleena,
Nice to see you back. Long time no see 🙂
Indeed, the hours that I put out there are based on the time that it takes me “on average” they are not set in stone and it all depends on many factors. But at least they can show the reader that it takes serious TIME.
Yes, even though I’ve been traveling since May, I kept working, that’s the goal. I’m so very excited to work for some French folks. Never even thought of it. Great law of attraction 🙂
See you around at your blog soon. Promise 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
Definitely a thought provoking article…
As you know, I consult with a lot of offline businesses who want an online experience with their prospects, customers and partners.
It’s a totally different mindset than those of us who are online a lot. Just introducing basic concepts can leave their mind spinning in circles.
Just a few weeks ago I spoke to a group of highly successful start-up entrepreneurs with businesses making $15 – $50 million per year in annual revenue. These are very smart business owners and entrepreneurs.
They were highly intimidated at what you and I would see as basic digital marketing 101.
People always default back to their comfort zones when they are overwhelmed or intimidated; even successful people.
I will earn much of the business that was in that room on that day, but it will be a very hard sell for them to agree to put a greater emphasis in the online world than offline. All strategies are dependent upon knowing your business, audience and how and where to message to them.
No two are the same, that’s why I love what I do!!!!
I have learned over the years that different businesses and industries work in very different ways; and they network and attract audiences differently.
One of my best friends only networks and he as 7 businesses that combined generate over $100 million per year. He would not be persuaded to come online with the type of business he runs.
I say all that just to point out that I believe you are right and I love your message. Sometimes that is just what someone needs to motivate them!
Great post Sylviane!!!!
Have a great week.
~ Don Purdum
Don Purdum invites you to read..Why I’m Simplifying the Presentation of My Message
Hi Don,
Yes, there’s no doubt that still lots and lots of businesses have not approached content marketing online yet. However, unless they are doing great and don’t need anymore business, I would encourage them all to try it.
You right, it’s hard to get out of your comfort zone and it’s obvious that for many, content marketing/online marketing is not their comfort zone, at least not yet.
Thank you for your input and have a great day!
I agree and in fact I have been managing content for several organizations for years. It is also a nice model for freelance work.
On the topic of boring posts, you are right, there are not businesses that are too boring to blog about. You will have different targets. You likely won’t get millions of views explaining some arcane tax topic, but those that want that information will find you and pay attention (assuming you market it well and write posts that do a good job of conveying the topic in a compelling way for the audience).
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Hey Sylviane,
As far as time is concerned, hiring a content manager will benefit those of us that don’t have a lot of time to focus on our content as much as we like. Especially if our content is “just average” and have a lack of a little flavor to spruce it up a bit. For me there have been days that I have fell behind, but I make sure that I email my list something valuable that can help them in the long run whether it be an older evergreen post or some type of training. But when it all comes down to it, hiring a content manager is a time saver so that we can focus on other things within our business.
Thanks for sharing and congratulation on your French client! Have a great week!
Hi Sherman,
For sure a content manager might not be the best option for a true blogger, but for businesses which don’t even know much about content creation and content marketing it’s really something they should consider.
I know what you mean, it’s so easy to fall behind at times.
Thank you for coming by, and sharing your insights.
Hi Sylviane,
When you count all the time it takes for an on line presence, many people do need to open their purse and pay for a content manager. Especially offline businesses. But even online, there are people working full time and try so hard to get their business off the ground. Time is money and if they would hire someone to help, they will see that their part time business online will be booming.
As you know, I work with David full time online. There is so much to do in one day, it’s crazy. We have to keep our time management well and stick to the blueprint of our business. But, if I didn’t have David working with me, I would have to hire someone.
If one wants to get a serious business off the ground, they do have to hire others.
Congratulations on your customer in France.
-Donna
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Hi Donna,
Yes, we are busy aren’t we? My days are going so fast, I don’t know where the day went most of the time, being so busy with my business and other things I’ve got to do. If we don’t stick to a schedule it’s so easy to let things skip by.
Time is money and those who don’t feel they can do a good job with their content marketing, or simply don’t have any time at all for it, should definitely hire a content manager.
Thank you for coming and sharing, Donna.
Hey Sylviane,
As far as writing good contents for our blogs is concerned, hiring a good content manager is a welcome development for everyone who have a lot of time to research and focus on writing quality content.
I thank you so much for sharing this, and congratulation on your French client!
Hi Emebu,
Thanks for your input and have a great day!
Hey Sylviane,
Dang, I’m exhausted just reading down that list of all the different types of content a company could possibly have. I guess I’m glad I’m as small as I am.
By the way, I can totally sympathize with that 70 year old lady who changes her own oil. I used to do that myself but it was only because I was taught how to do it, it didn’t take me 10 minutes total and it saved me about $20 a pop. Now this was a long time ago before they went to metric tools and made things much more difficult for us all. You couldn’t catch me doing that today! LOL!!!
I do believe though if you’re a business that has the funds yet you don’t have either the time or the expertise for generating content then you should hire it out. Why try to do something yourself when you can afford to hire someone to do all that work for you and probably get much better results so much faster although we both know we’re not talking overnight results.
Great share and I do hope more people and companies will put this into consideration moving forward. They’ll greatly benefit from it for sure.
~Adrienne
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Hi Adrienne,
Actually, even though you feel that you’re small you could easily us all those content marketing tools, and you are already using a good number of them.
Of course, I didn’t write this post for the small blogger that is still trying to make ends meet, but for anyone having a business that’s bringing well enough money to make room for a content manager, and help their business grow even more.
Thank you for coming. Really appreciate your visit and comment as always.
Hi Sylviane,
It’s good to be here again after such a long time…how are you?
Reading through this entry, I smiled – broadly. It reminded me of the days I used to imagine I could do all. Guess what happened?
1. No time for my self or family.
2. Frequent headaches especially when I met a brick wall.
3. Crappy results.
4. And a ton of other negative outcomes I would rather not bother remembering.
Then, like a thunderbolt, it struck me: “OUTSOURCE ALL THAT YOU CANNOT BE BEST IN THE WORLD AT”.
Actually, I read that somewhere and immediately, I took the lesson to heart. Hence, I only focus on what I can be the very best in the world at – and simply outsource the rest.
Funny, I get more rest and time now – no headaches and actually do enjoy my work now and passionately look forward to it. All these were a mirage when I was busy getting things outside down 🙂
I sincerely wonder how long it will take the world to understand this simple fact/reality.
Do make the day great, Sylviane. If I need to accomplish anything I’m not best in the world at (and you offer the service), I’ll be knocking at your door with all my might 🙂
Always,
Akaahan Terungwa
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Welcome back Akaahan,
Indeed, at some point we can only burn out if we try to do it all ourselves. I know that has happened to me in the past, and it’s not a nice feeling.
I’m happy to know that you have learned to outsource the work that doesn’t need your specific own doing.
Thank you for sharing this, and have a great day ahead!
Hi Sylviane
The variety of online contents is sufficient to tell its power and the most amazing aspect is their easy creation and so easy communicating to those who need them. One simply has to follow a few basic rules to serve both search engines and people to get wider readership.
You are right that people either do most of the chores to save money or they have greed to not spend and try DIY in every kind of chore. But ultimately they can’t do well and most of the time stumble steeply.
Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful post on why one should hire a content manager to create professionally awesome contents and get more success.
Have a great rest of the week
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Hi Mi and nice to see you here today.
I have to say that you are very optimistic when you say that all content creation is “easy” to do, but I’m sure it is for you.
Thanks for your input, and have a great day!
Hi Sylviane,
You are so right, sometimes if not most times, we want to do as much as we can in our Online Business, but truthfully, you just offered the best advice on this post.
Hire specialists to help you out, they’ll do it better and you’d have time to focus on your strengths.
I’m so glad I read this post, you killed it with this post Sylviane.
Thanks for sharing this awesomeness.
Cheers
Dan
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Hi Dan,
Indeed, no can can do it all, and especially what we’re not specialist at doing. I’m glad you appreciated this post and thank you for coming.
Hi Sylviane,
Lots to think about here. In the end It’s about finding the courage and the point of interest in your product or service from your readers viewpoint, don’t you think?
If you know what your readers, or clients, want to know, or want out of your service, blog, product, etc. then you can use this as a starting point.
You can learn ways to write interesting posts about anything. If you’re willing to believe that you can and that your target market will accept it. The important question to ask is: Is you target market online? If they are, then content marketing will work. If they don’t read blogs, it won’t. You’ll have to find how best to reach them and use that.
Time is an ongoing problem for bloggers. A good way to manage it is to look at what you want to achieve. Then look at where you are now. Look at these two different places and decide how you will go from where you are now to where you want to be: what do you need to do, know and have to get you there?
Focus only on those things. Leave out anything that won’t get you where you want to be. Concentrate on those things. Then, as you progress, you will know if you can do it all yourself, or whether you need, or want, to delegate.
Your point about the more wealthy you are, the more you’re willing to delegate is an interesting one, Sylviane. It’s so true. Wealth buys Time. And yet so many people want to make money so they buy more stuff to occupy themselves (and they call it Leisure).
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Hi Sylvianne,
I don’t think a lot of business owners realize how important content marketing is, as well as social media marketing. And some don’t have the time or the know how to do so. If they would just reach out to people like you, they could see how their life could be made easier.
Passing this along.
Brenda
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Hi Brenda, and thank you for sharing my post.
Yes, when it comes to business owners, not just bloggers, many of them (most of them)are still novice when it comes to content marketing. We’re here to educate them.
Thanks for coming by and you have great week.
Hi Sylviane,
I think I’m going to need to start sharing this post with my clients… LOL.
It surprises me how many people still don’t understand the value in creating targeted, engaging, and high quality content.
Great summary you’ve provided here.
Have an awesome week ahead!
Brent
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Hi Brent,
Glad you enjoyed the post. I know there’s still people that don’t understand the value of targeted and engaging content, but we’re hear to educate them.
Thanks for coming, and have a great week ahead!
~Sylviane
Hey Sylviane,
Really great post here. Interestingly enough I made the change to focus on content marketing as well for my business.
I think that you’re absolutely right. If you’re a business and you’re trying to do all of the content marketing yourself, you’re taking away precious time to do what you’re good at.
I learned this lesson when I would try to create ebook covers because sure I could do it but I also didn’t want to pay. I smartened up when I realized it was taking me 5 times longer that it would an expert.
So now I do what I’m good at and leave anything else for those that specialize in it.
Really Great post here.
– Andrew
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Hi,
it is a very good suggestion i think its is very necessary to hire a content manager because the content manager give its full time to one field and there foe the for the content manager does the work very good thank you for sharing such a informative article it is very useful
Thanks
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Hi Bukge and welcome to my blog.
I’m glad you enjoyed this post and thanks for coming.
Great post indeed!!I am really glad to read such post .Your post is purely eye catching and wonderful to read .It is knowledgeable and shareable post .A big thanks for this post keep going and share wonderful post like this .
Hi Jerry,
Really appreciate the compliments. Thank you so much and hope to see you around soon.
~Sylviane
Great Post!! I must agree, that content manager is must for us, if we are really serious about our work, we can not handle everything, but when it comes to blog commenting, I would like to do it myself, because only me can help myself build good relationships via blog commenting.
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Hi Atinder,
Oh, yes, I agree, blog commenting is a whole different thing, it would be weird to pay someone to comment in your name. However, I know that some people are doing it.
Sorry for the late reply, been very busy.
Have a great day!
~Sylviane
Thanks so much for this article. I have recently started working as a content manager and, not being a very organized person, the Typical Weekly Duties of a Content Manager part is really helpful! This will help me schedule my weekly activities! I’ll let you know how it goes.
Keep up the good work!
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Thanks for putting things in the proper perspective Sylviane!
The way you laid things out, it makes it a whole easier to see
and appreciate, just how much time and effort is really involved in
the various projects.
It’s really an eyeopener! But then, like you pointed out, you’ve also
got to be extremely proactive, after you create your
various forms of content!
Great points and thanks for sharing them!
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Hi Mark,
I’m glad you appreciated this information. Sorry for the late reply, but many thanks for your comment.
~Sylviane
Hi Sylviane,
I am new to this and I have noted all the points mentioned above and have bookmarked it for future reference when I need to hire a Content Manager.
I thank you so much for sharing this awesome post 🙂 Have a great day!!
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Hi Gurunath,
I’m so glad you found my blog and bookmarked it. Sure thing. Anytime you need a content manager, let me know.
Take care,
~Sylviane
Hey,
Thanks for sharing such a definitive guide.
We really should hire content writers else we can’t really manage more than 3 blogs by ourselves.
Thanks once again,
Piyush
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Hi Sylviane,
I have gone through this article. It shows how much important is content for a site and also for increasing the traffic. As you mentioned it better to have a good content manager who will provide a quality content.
And One help Is it possible to suggest some good content manager if you know for our reference.
Thankyou
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Hi Aravinth,
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks.
Nice article.Love to read.If somebody cant do his work alone well then he must go for another choice.Thanks a lot.
Yes, indeed. Thanks for the feedback.