Freelance Copywriters vs On-Staff Copywriters
Is it more profitable to hire a full-time staff copywriter or a freelancer? Considering the fact that I am a former VP of Marketing and a current freelance copywriter, I feel obligated to confess my biases. However, my biases are not wholly unfounded! While it is convenient to have a capable and easily accessible writer just down the hall from you, many good reasons remain to hire a freelance writer to meet your content requirements.
Following are three good reasons to choose freelance over on-staff writers.
UN-BIASED PERSPECTIVE
Face it. Your on-staff copywriter LIVES with your product day in and day out! They hear only the company's perspective on the value of your product. They are pretty familiar with the features of the product. They can name the benefits of the product… verbatim! But how well can your on-staff writer see your product from the prospect's perspective? Can your staff writer recognize the prospect's pain points? Does your writer look at your product the same way as a prospective client who has to invest his hard-earned money in it? Often, staff writers are so preoccupied with the product's design, uniqueness, and ingenuity that they fail to properly position the product as a solution to your prospective client's needs and desires. A fresh, outside perspective can do wonders for your messaging!
REAL COSTS
You might have looked into hiring a freelance writer in the past and found that for the same output, a freelance writer would cost you the same or even a little more than an on-staff writer. This is, in fact, NOT the case when you consider what that on-staff writer is actually costing you.
A full-time employee does not just cost you their salary. You have to add to their salary your share of their FICA tax, their state or federal (unemployment) tax, worker's compensation tax, and any 401k insurance or other benefits you may offer through your company. In a blog post on the U.S. Small Business Association website, Barbara Weltman, an attorney and advocate for small business, states that, as a rule of thumb, the REAL cost of an average employee is between 1.25 and 1.4 times their salary (How Much Does an Employee Cost You? by Barbara Weltman on August 22, 2019). This means that your $55,000 a year on-staff copywriter actually costs you between $68,750 and $77,000 a year. You can easily get the same output from a freelance copywriter for MUCH less money.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
Most freelance copywriters charge by the word or by the project. Some will charge a retainer, but only for a pre-determined output level. So, with a freelance copywriter, you only pay for what you receive. There are no holidays, no sick days, and no vacations. You require specific output, and you pay ONLY for that output. The freelance model is the most efficient use of labor, time, and budgeting! This model ties all aspects of your content production into one tidy and efficient little basket you can reach down into and retrieve output as needed.
IN CONCLUSION
You may have a large company and appreciate the exclusivity of having your very own on-staff copywriter close at hand. Still, as you've seen above, there are definite advantages to outsourcing your content production. So if you are ready to give the budget-friendly flexibility and nimbleness of hiring a freelancer a try… WE KNOW A GUY!
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