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HOW TO KNOW IF YOU NEED A CREATIVE WRITER IN YOUR TEAM

If you want well-written, engaging, entertaining and highly-shareable blog posts, articles, reports, ebooks or white papers, you need a creative writer.

SAVE UP TO 70% PER MONTH BY HIRING A C9 STAFF CREATIVE WRITER

C9 Staff deploys globally distributed teams of remote professionals across 35 international labor markets. Please fill out the information below to schedule a free introductory call with one of our account executives to learn more about our global staffing services.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

What is a Creative Writer?

CHAPTER 2

Why is a Creative Writer Important?

CHAPTER 3

Important Skills and Traits of Creative Writers

CHAPTER 4

Where to Find Creative Writers

CHAPTER 5

Hiring Considerations

CHAPTER 6

C9 Staff Creative Writers

What is a Creative Writer?

Engagement is a big part of any marketing campaign. And whether you like it or not, sitting on top of the list of engagement tools you can use is written content. Even video requires written content in the form of the script. And if you want your written content to generate maximum engagement, it needs to be written impeccably.

Creative writing is the art of expressing ideas and thoughts in an imaginative way through written text. When writing an article about a tourist destination, it’s not enough to say, “This place is very beautiful. You should come see it.” The reader must experience the place in the way you describe it. “The fading sunlight peeks here and there through the canopy above the tree-lined streets carpeted in gold, brown and red leaves. The late afternoon air is resplendent with the scents of autumn. It’s a scene straight out of Dickens. All it needs is you to complete it.

A creative writer differs from a technical writer inasmuch as the latter writes mainly to inform and educate, whereas the former writes to engage and entertain. In marketing, if you’d have to choose between the two, you’re better off with a creative writer. A copywriter may be able to do what a creative writer does. However, a copywriter’s tendency to “sell” may get in the way of engagement. It should be said, though, that the ability to wear these different hats effectively, makes remote Filipino creative writers quite popular with global clients.

What is C9 Staff?
Our End-to-End Staffing Solution

Why is a Creative Writer Important?

A creative writer comes in handy when it comes to creating lead magnets for marketing campaigns. Everything from content emails, blog articles and free reports to video scripts and even video animations, all pull value from effective creative writing.

A creative writer has the power to catch the audience’s attention, keep it and influence behavior. The key here is entertainment. A creative writer can mask education and sales behind a fun and engaging writing style. And he can do this while building a positive image and positioning you as an authority in your market.

Perhaps the most important advantage of a creative writer is the ability to generate “free marketing”. When a piece of content is written in such a way that it connects to the audience in an intimate manner, your audience themselves will share your content to others. Then those who receive it will share it again, thereby creating an exponential marketing blast. This is the secret behind viral marketing. And it all stems from effective creative writing.

Important Skills and Traits of Creative Writers

A creative writer needs superb research skills. Like most writing professions, a big percentage of his time is spent doing research and learning everything he can about his subject. This allows him to see it in different angles and decide which one has that X-factor he can use for optimum engagement.
Needless to say, a creative writer’s literary chops need to be exceptional. He needs a wide vocabulary that he can adapt to his audience. He must be able to find ways to describe something intangible in a sensory level. He must be able to find ways to describe something normal and make it sound extraordinary.

Familiarity with wordpress and similar content publishing platforms is an essential technical requirement for creative writers nowadays. Knowledge of graphic design is not necessary but is helpful. This is especially true when it comes to the proper planning of text breaks, image insertions and content layouting.

Where To Find Creative Writers

Creative writers can be considered a marketer’s secret weapon. No matter how seemingly normal or mundane a product or offer is, in the hands of a creative writer, it can transform into something exciting. A kitchen knife becomes the indispensable tool of the world’s greatest chefs. An insurance policy becomes an important legacy. A fab diet becomes a ticket to finding love and lasting happiness.

When looking to hire a creative writer, the first thing you need to do is decide whether you want to hire a local or a remote one.

The advantages of hiring locally include:

  • Ease of access and the ability to work with you personally – it’s always easier to work with someone face to face.

  • Less cultural and social adjustment needed you’re most probably living in the same city as your creative writer so you’re in the same time zone, speak the same language and share the same culture. This makes work so much smoother.

  • Better team-building opportunities being in the same place physically creates plenty of opportunity to train, collaborate, build rapport, and get feedback.

On the other hand, hiring local talent can have the following disadvantages:

  • Specific skill sets can be harder to find if you’re limited to a particular geographical area, finding a rockstar creative writer will be challenging. 

  • Overhead expenses if you hire locally, you’ll be obligated to keep an office which means you have to pay rent, pay for supplies, pay for electricity and other utilities. If you already have an office, you’ll have to provide your new hire with a work space which translates to the same thing – increased overhead.

If you decide to hire a remote worker, you need to decide if you’re hiring a project-based creative writer or a full-time one. In any case,

here are the advantages of hiring remotely

  • Access to a global pool of talents you’re not limited to who’s available in your city and what they know. Hiring remotely gives you access to talented creative writer from different countries who may even charge relatively smaller fees than local recruits. This is true to both project-based freelancers and full-timers.

  • Little to no overhead most remote workers work from home so you don’t need to worry about providing them with work spaces. This is especially true for project-based freelancers. However, for full-time employees, you may be required to subsidize their internet connection, computer equipment etc. But these costs are still far less compared to local overhead expenses. 

  • Less contractual obligation you can hire creative writers on a per-project basis. If you like their work, continue to give them projects to work on. If you don’t, just don’t give them any more tasks to perform and that’s that.

On the other hand,

here are the disadvantages of hiring remote workers:

  • Trial and error you can’t really gauge the level of expertise, experience and even work ethic of the remote worker until you take a leap of faith and hire them. The good news is, if you don’t like their performance on the first project, you can just part ways right then and there.

  • Time constraints if you hire a remote creative writer, particularly a freelancer, you need to understand right off the bat that you’re probably sharing him with several other clients (some paying more than you). That means your project is at the mercy of the freelancer’s workload. This may not be the case, though, with a full-time remote copywriter.

That being said, here are a few places where you can find creative writers online. Note that in some of these websites, you’ll have the option to hire either locally or remotely. It’s all up to you, your needs and your budget:

Upwork (local and remote) – geared more towards the US market. You can post a creative writer job, and available contractors can start lining up to apply. All you’d need to do is choose the best candidate. This is a good place to look for either part-timers or full-time creative writers.

Fiverr (remote and local) – contractors already post their services and their fees upfront. However, there’s still room for negotiation once you’ve touched base with a contractor. This is your best choice for one-off projects.

People Per Hour (remote and local) – geared more towards the European market. Just like Upwork, you post a job and contractors will apply. You can choose the best candidate and go from there. This is also a good place to look for either part-timers or full-time creative writers.

C9 Staff (remote) – specializes in providing remote staffing services from the Philippines. It is considered a concierge service where you don’t simply hire remote Filipino creative writers (or any other kind of remote worker for that matter), you hire a creative writer with an entire management service behind him to keep him accountable and always on his toes. This is ideal for people looking to hire the best and expecting to get the best while keeping costs relatively competitive.

Hiring Considerations

When looking to hire a creative writer, whether it be local or remote, there are a few important considerations you have to keep in mind.

What kind of creative writer project are you working on? Are you looking for someone to write blog posts, articles, white papers, ebooks, flyers, press releases, video scripts or all of the above?

Next, what level of experience or proficiency would you like your creative writer to have? Would you be okay with a mid-level creative writer or are you looking for a senior level one? Are you looking to hire for a one-off project or are there multiple assignments in your pipeline?

Finally, how much do you have to spend? Are you ready to spend good money on a senior-level creative writer or is your budget pointing towards a mid-level one?

Why C9 Staff Creative Writers Rock

Here at C9 Staff, we have remote Filipino creative writers in all levels of proficiency. Whether you need a mid-level (with 1-3 years experience) or a senior level writer (with 4 years experience or more), we have one that fits your needs.