How to Maintain Brand Voice When Outsourcing Content
Content marketers preach the importance of maintaining a consistent brand voice in every piece of content produced. A well-defined brand voice fosters trust and strengthens connections with your ideal customer. Do it well, and your target audience can recognize your content whether it appears on social media or a billboard in Times Square.
Achieving this kind of consistency is challenging – but not impossible – when you outsource your content creation and strategy to marketing agencies or freelancers. There’s no need to worry about diluting your brand voice if you implement a structured approach for outside partners to follow.
Step 1: Develop Clear Brand Guidelines
Developing clear brand guidelines is the first step to helping an outside partner nail your brand voice in every piece of content produced. Your brand voice is the cornerstone of your communication strategy, shaping how customers perceive and relate to you.
Here’s how you do it.
Define your brand voice. Don’t simply say you want to sound fun and informative. Give examples of ideal content so there’s no confusion among your outsourced content partners. Providing content from other brands that mimic your desired tone gives your external content providers a starting point.
Develop key messaging points. Clearly state your brand’s core values and mission statement. Share any taglines, slogans, or other key phrases that you’ve consistently used with your products or services.
Provide a style guide. Every brand should have a style guide for internal and external content creators and strategists to follow. Include information such as grammar, punctuation preferences, and key phrases to use across all platforms. Specify formatting guidelines that include heading styles, bullet points, and paragraph length. Don’t forget to include guidance on visual branding elements like color schemes, fonts, image styles, and logos.
Use persona profiles. Create detailed profiles of your ideal customer, including demographics, preferences, pain points, and solutions. Explain how the brand voice addresses each persona.
Create a feedback loop. Even an in-house content marketing team can miss the mark on brand voice. Implement a robust review process where internal teams evaluate the content and provide specific guidance on any changes needed before final approval.
Step 2: Select the Right Outsourcing Partner
Outsourced content marketing is ideal for small businesses and startups with limited budgets. They can gain access to experienced marketing professionals for a fraction of the cost of an in-house team.
Selecting the right outsourcing partner is important for getting high-quality content that maintains your brand voice. The right agency or freelancer will understand your brand’s tone, style, and messaging, and effectively communicate it across multiple platforms.
Here’s how you know you’ve found the right content marketing professional to help.
Evaluate experience and expertise
The most important aspect of choosing an outsourced content marketing professional is experience and expertise. You can get a sense of someone’s skill level by examining their portfolio and case studies. Both give you an inside look into their capabilities and creativity.
Ask for examples that align with your brand’s voice and style to ensure a good fit. Analyze the diversity and overall quality of their work, noting how they approach different content types and platforms. Case studies offer insights into their strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
While not required, it’s helpful to choose an outsourced partner with industry familiarity. Understanding industry-specific terminology, trends, and audience preferences is crucial for creating high-performing content that resonates.
Conduct thorough interviews
Never hire an outsourced content marketing professional without sitting down with them to communicate your expectations and goals. Ask specific questions about how they would approach your content strategy to ensure alignment with your brand voice.
Offer to assess their skills with a paid sample project to gain firsthand insights into how well they can translate your brand voice into content and their responsiveness to feedback and revisions.
Check references and reviews
Reach out to previous clients to gather feedback on their experiences with the agency or freelancer. Ask about the quality of the content produced, the partner’s responsiveness, and their ability to follow brand guidelines.
Speaking with past clients provides valuable insights into the partner’s professionalism, reliability, and overall performance. Client testimonials and references can reveal important aspects of the working relationship that may not be apparent from portfolios and interviews.
Step 3: Foster Open Communication
Effective communication is the backbone of a successful partnership with an outsourcing agency or freelancer. Establishing a protocol for regularly touching base reduces the risk of misunderstandings and ensures consistent maintenance of your brand voice across all content channels.
Fostering open communication creates an environment conducive to clarity, efficiency, and high-quality content production. The following are key strategies for achieving it.
Establish regular check-ins
You wouldn’t expect an in-house team to work on projects without feedback from leadership and other critical players. Don’t leave an outsourced content marketing professional hanging if they have questions or require additional information or clarification to finish a project.
Scheduling frequent meetings to discuss ongoing projects, provide feedback, and review progress. These meetings can be weekly or monthly depending on the project’s complexity and your needs. Meetings don’t have to be in person. You can use collaboration tools like Slack or Google Workspace to facilitate continuous communication and feedback. Regular updates keep everyone on the same page and allow for timely adjustments to the content strategy.
Create a detailed briefing process
A detailed project brief sets clear expectations and guidelines. Provide comprehensive briefs that outline the project’s objectives, target audience, key messages, and desired outcomes. Include specific instructions on tone, style, and any other relevant details to help your outsourcing partner understand your requirements fully.
Share examples of content that you like and that exemplifies your desired tone and approach. Your outsourcing partner can use them as inspiration to replicate the style and quality you expect.
Step 4: Implement a Robust Review Process
Setting up a systemic approach to reviewing and providing feedback on content catches discrepancies in brand voice early, allowing for adjustments before publication. Part of the review process requires availability. Don’t leave your outsourcing partner hanging when they request feedback or reviews of project materials.
Follow these steps to establish an effective review process that produces quality content and keeps your outsourcing partner productive.
Set up multiple review stages
Most content marketing professionals will solicit early feedback on a project, especially if it’s the first time they’ve worked with your brand. It allows them to adjust brand voice, tone, or style before they become too heavily invested in the task.
For established outsourcing relationships, start with an internal team assigned to review initial project drafts. This allows team members most familiar with brand voice and messaging to identify any inconsistencies or deviations from the guidelines early in the process.
Provide the review team with content checklists they can use to systematically verify every element aligns with the established standards.
Offer specific, actionable suggestions
After the initial review, provide detailed feedback to your outsourcing partner, highlighting areas that need improvement. Be specific with your suggestions. Instead of saying “It’s too formal,” give specific reasons and tips for making it more conversational.
Actionable feedback gives the outsourcing partner concrete steps to follow, making it easier to align their revisions with your expectations. The clearer you are about what needs adjusting, the fewer additional revisions (which makes everyone happier).
Don’t lose your brand voice
Outsourcing content marketing can be a highly effective strategy for businesses looking to scale their marketing efforts, tap into specialized expertise, and focus on core activities. However, outsourcing content marketing doesn’t mean you must sacrifice your brand voice.
Careful planning and strategic execution preserve your brand voice by providing a detailed road map for external content creators. Clear guidelines form the foundation that helps external partners understand and replicate your brand voice accurately.