What Is Freelance Technical Writing and Why Do You Need It?
Four out of five consumers use search engines to find information on businesses and companies in their local area. When conducting these online searches, these consumers are looking for answers to specific questions.
And as a business they’re interested in, you have to clearly and concisely present the answers.
From discovering a product or service that’s right for their needs, to engaging with a brand that resonates with their goals and desires, freelance technical writing, one of the top forms of online marketing, is essential to help your customers find you (and vice versa).
But how can you use freelance technical writing to your advantage? And what does this entail?
At the center of any marketing strategy is solid writing. Freelance technical writing includes creating branded content, copy for social media and blog posts, and targeted ads to boost your business reach, among other strategies.
If you’re looking to increase your business’ visibility and engagement online (as well as in-person), you need to increase your technical writing skills or hire a freelance technical writer.
Here is everything you need to know about technical writing and why it’s important.
What Is Freelance Technical Writing?
Technical writing is writing that helps to explain technical or specialized topics in ways that everyday consumers can understand. This is often instructions or ways to use something (ex: information on a specific product or service).
Technical writing isn’t just instruction manuals, though. This genre also includes things like informational blog posts, guides, educational blurbs, courses, and even handbooks.
Although this type of writing sounds like it only applies to IT, software, or computer companies, it can also apply to universities, financial companies, government agencies, medical practices, industrial or commercial manufacturers, etc.
Why Hire a Freelancer Over a Full-Time Writer?
Although there’s a definite draw to hiring a full-time writer, sometimes this can be costly. You might only need writing for certain things, for example, blog posts. If there are only specific areas that a writer could benefit, it might not make sense to hire a full-time person. Depending on your budget, it may not even be feasible.
Freelancer writers are people you can hire on a contract or as-needed basis. If your goal is to have a person to help with blog posts, social media ads, etc. your company could benefit from a contracted person over a full-time employee.
Over the years freelancing has increased greatly. More and more people are turning to this profession—even full-time! And today, finding a writer is easier than ever.
Depending on what you’re looking for, how much content you’d want your freelance writer to create, and how much you’re willing to spend, there are different rates. Here is a list of different pricing for freelancers, based on word count. Using this pricing list is one of the easiest, smartest, and most affordable ways to reach strong freelance content writers.
Tips to Finding (and Creating) Strong Technical Writing
Whether you’re looking to start creating your own written content for your business or hire a freelancer, here are some tips you need to consider.
The best technical writing should be the following:
1. Well prepared and easily understood. When you first meet with the freelance technical writer you’re looking to hire, he or she should be prepared with samples of his or her writing, research (when applicable), goals for the piece(s), and any supporting documents.
Depending on the agreement between you and the writer, you should give him or her a brief on the topic and set up a contract including timeline, revisions, and other expectations. From there, the writer should create work that is well prepared and easily understood by you (the client) as well as the common reader (the customer).
2. Written to and focused on the reader. The best freelance technical writing should be focused on a particular audience. For someone building a business, this target audience is the potential customer. Any content created should answer the customer’s potential questions, as well as be in terms that he/she can understand.
3. Structured and organized. Any content created for your company should be structured in a way that’s both clear and concise. If the writer is creating a list, for example, then that needs to be organized by bullet points or numbers. You can also incorporate relevant visuals to balance the text and spark visual interest for the reader.
How Does Technical Writing Benefit Your Business?
Technical writing is what bridges the gap between the language of your industry and the understanding of the readers, consumers, and potential customers of your business.
When someone searches your product/service/company online, you want them to discover content that’s easy to understand, readable, and engaging. That’s why you hire a technical writer.
First and foremost, technical writing can help to establish your online brand. When you boost your writing, you’re naturally boosting your credibility. People will not only understand what you’re trying to tell them, but with a solid voice sharing information, they’re also more likely to trust your company. This can lead to potential sales.
Strong writing also boosts your engagement. People are commenting, sharing, and tagging content that’s relevant to them. Although you might not always have high shares on every social media post, strong writing helps to reach those potential customers in the first place, and this will only help to boost your brand.
Technical writing also helps to increase your Google rank. When your freelance writer creates a post, he or she will use relevant keywords. These keywords will help boost your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which will help your business to appear higher on Google searches.
With a higher rank, you’ll be discovered by more people. As this increases, so does your site’s reach, as well as the conversion between views and purchases.
Where Can You Find the Best Freelance Writers?
Finding the right freelance writer for your content or business may seem daunting at first, but it all starts by knowing what you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to spend.
First, create an action plan. This will include what you specifically want your writers to create content-wise. This should include not only potential ideas and topics, but also a loose timeline of when you’d like the information to be shared.
It’s helpful to include things like events and important dates in this plan so that you can potentially work around these larger scale dates and use your content to drive interest to those specific events.
You’ll also want to think about your expectations. Do you want a certain number of words? How many revisions? Is there a certain time you want the pieces to be sent, or a means in which they’re delivered?
Knowing the answers before you contact a freelance writer can help you both see if it’s a good fit.
You’ll want to keep budget in mind, too. There are different writing packages based on your needs. If you’re looking for basic content, for example, it will be cheaper than a specialized or ‘Elite’ writing packages.
When you feel confident and ready to start searching, here’s where you can sign up for a free account and start looking for the freelance writer that’s right for you and your business goals.
Start Strengthening Your Business Right Now
Written content is one of the strongest and most organic means of driving traffic to your business.
In terms of online visibility, what your customers search in their browsers, computers, and smartphones is the written content you’ve created or hired someone to create. It has to be strong.
Hiring someone with experience in freelance technical writing is the smartest and most cost-efficient ways to do that.
A freelance technical writer is someone who can take your business ideas, goals, and information, and create something user-friendly and readable. This is essential to growing your business, reaching your target customers, and hopefully turning views to sales!
By boosting the writing on your web pages, social media, sites, blogs, etc. you can make the difference for your business’ future, as well as the trust and engagement of your customers.
For other ideas on how to start your company’s blog, what to write about, and to even sharpen your personal writing skills by taking an online writing course, click here.