4 ways marketing teams benefit from freelance communications support
Marketing teams are incredibly busy.
Writing blog posts, creating email campaigns, designing content downloads, pitching stories, creating plans and building budgets…
The list of projects and responsibilities for marketing teams is so long it’s worth having its own blog post. (But I’ll save that idea for the future.)
If you’re a marketing leader, you’re well aware of all of the competing priorities and never-ending to-do lists you manage every day.
And on many days, you find yourself choosing between the top priority of the day or the new requests that seem to continuously flow in from different partners and leaders within your organization — leaving you crunched for time and feeling spread thin, and likely feeling like you’re not giving your team the time or support they deserve.
While seasoned marketing communications professionals know busy times of the year tend to ebb and flow, it’s also important to remember that new requests (and saying “yes” often) can quickly pile up and create a backlog for your team. This is also is a quick way to pave a path to burnout for your writers and designers.
In the past decade of my communications career, I have worked on marketing teams that have found a way to balance and maintain realistic workloads. I have also been on the flip side working in environments where the continuous flow of work doesn’t stop at 5 p.m. or when the weekend rolls around.
However, for the marketing teams that seemed to maintain better balance, the important quality they shared was they didn’t hesitate to bring on additional support to add bandwidth quickly to relieve their teams of additional stress. This support was added by hiring a freelance communications professional.
If your team is overwhelmed with projects or you need additional support but don’t have the budget for a full-time hire, here are four ways your marketing team benefits from hiring a freelance communications professional:
1. Onboarding is fast.
Freelance communications professionals are quickly onboarded because they are experts at adopting voices of companies and are fast learners — making it easy for you to assign them projects as soon as they start. They also bring the strategy know-how while also having exceptional writing and editing skills so you don’t have to worry about training them or teaching them technical skills.
2. You get an expert writer and editor.
As a marketing leader, there’s likely a hard skill like campaign management or writing that led you to the leadership role you’re in today.
However, it’s likely now you don’t have time to write as much as you used to, or you simply don’t have time to review every piece of content your team produces.
Freelance communications professionals are expert writers and editors bringing knowledge of AP Style and an eye for detail that puts you at ease as a marketing leader because you can now spend less time worrying about words and more time focused on strategy.
Plus, if writing isn’t your strength, you now have an expert writer to support you and serve as a writing coach for your team.
3. You feel confident work is getting done.
Freelance communications professionals are here to make your job easier. They are pros at communicating clear expectations on what they’ll deliver for your team and managing deadlines — so you aren’t left guessing about when projects will be submitted.
But remember freelancers are humans, too. Freelancers go on vacations and get sick (or simply need a mental health day). However, freelance communications professionals are proactive and are committed to communicating with their clients the moment they think a deadline may need to be adjusted before it’s too late and the deadline passes by.
4. You gain a valuable thought partner.
Do you ever find yourself wishing you had another strategist who could provide you with input on a project or get a second opinion on a headline?
Freelance communications professionals are excellent thought partners because they bring experience in every step of communications from strategy and planning to execution and reporting. They also bring experience working across industries and organizational structures, which gives them exposure to a wide variety of topics, issues and campaigns. This experience is valuable for you as a marketing leader because you can tap into the freelancer’s prior experiences and apply their expertise to your own strategy and planning.
Make it the year you hire a freelance communications professional
The way we work and the way marketing leaders build their teams is evolving, and it’s never been more important for marketing teams to have strategic communicators on their teams to navigate all of the changes to come.
A recent Axios article shared 71% of in-house marketers and 68% of agencies are hiring freelancers to fill content needs. The article also shared insights from marketing communications leaders on the need for freelancers, including:
“We want strategic doers,” says Hadley Wilkins, Atomic's vice president of communications. “Somebody who understands the bigger picture, can be a thought partner and ask the hard questions, but can also tell a story and get people to care, because at the early stage, your story is all you have.”
If you’re looking at your marketing strategy and see areas where you need support, it’s the perfect time to hire a freelancer communications professional for your team who can provide support for new projects and campaigns.
As you’re researching freelancers, I’d love to talk to you more to share how I can support your team with communications services.
