 In my first article, I provided some ideas for finding the perfect creative freelancer for your project. Now that you’ve found them, let’s look at how to get the best results with the least stress.
Tell them about your business In order to match your brand and tone, the freelancer needs to know what you do, how you position your company, and what your key messages are. A quick overview of your business, and any significant changes that the current project is part of, will help your freelancer set the right tone with their work. Some things to provide (if you have them) include:
Tell them about your project Gather all of the relevant information about the project before your freelancer starts, and either have a quick meeting to go through it or let the freelancer read it through and ask questions. Be sure to include all of these details (if they aren’t already in the agreement your freelancer signed):
Tell them what you want Be clear about the style, tone, messaging, and other details of what you want them to create. Creative freelancers are not mind readers, so the more clearly you can express what you’re hoping for, the better the results will be. Many companies give a freelancer little guidance and then get annoyed that the product is “not what they pictured.” Share your mental picture so that the freelancer doesn’t have to guess what it is. Share examples from within your company of materials that reflect the tone and/or look you’re after. But if you’re trying to break away from old habits, look for examples from other companies that your freelancer should use for inspiration. Tell them what you think Agree with your freelancer on various stages where you will get together (virtually or in person) to review the work so far. There’s no need to constantly check in, but don’t wait until the final due date to see how things are looking. If something is worrying you about the first draft you see, tell them what it is. You should address any issues and decide on a path forward together as early as possible. This will save you both time and money. It’s important to be clear about what you like and what you don’t like rather than leaving the freelancer to guess. If someone higher up in the organization needs to sign off on the project, see if you can get their approval of the freelancer’s creative concept early on. Some executives want to see only the final product, but this can lead to a total loss if they don’t approve it. Tell them how they did When the project is complete, let the freelancer know if they met your expectations, or better yet, exceeded them. If they did a great job, offer to provide a testimonial or review—these are worth a lot to freelancers. Often a one-time project is the starting point for a productive long-term relationship. Once you’ve found a freelancer who delivers what you need, it saves a lot of time and stress to book the same person for future projects. It means that you won’t need to search for another great freelancer and invest time in getting them up to speed about your business. Freelancers also love repeat business. It helps to stabilize their income and reduce the amount of time they spend on unpaid marketing tasks. If their first project with you is a positive experience, they will prioritize your business in the future. It’s a win-win when a company and a freelancer work together productively for great results.
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 In this article, I’ll discuss how to find qualified and dependable freelance help for your marketing and communications projects. In my second article, I’ll discuss how to work effectively with those freelancers to get the best possible results with the least stress.
Why use freelancers? More and more, in-house teams are looking for outside specialists to take on projects they don’t have the time or expertise for. Anything from a social media campaign to a total rebrand can be outsourced, or contractors can work in tandem with your in-house team to accelerate your schedule. Many creative professionals offering their services on contract have years (or decades) of experience. Some have moved away from staff roles to give them more flexibility. Others have decided to explore their entrepreneurial side or follow their passion. Being self-employed is not a sign that someone is unemployable or hard to work with—in fact, working on contract requires great people skills and a strong work ethic. Self-employment is a career path that a growing number of creative professionals are choosing. The good news for you is that you can pick and choose the perfect creative specialist for every project, rather than trying to hire someone full-time who can do a bit of everything. This approach will give you better results, more flexibility, and lower costs than adding another staff member. Where can you find great freelancers? Referrals: The best source of freelancers is always direct referrals or “word of mouth.” Ask your colleagues and business network whether they’ve worked with anyone who has the skills you’re after. A first-hand recommendation gives you the chance to ask questions about what the person did and what they were like to work with, even before you decide whether to contact them. Directories: If you can’t find a referral, many professional associations for different types of creative work have online directories.* Their members can create a listing that describes their services and areas of expertise. If someone joins a professional association, they consider the field to be their career, not just a way to make a few bucks on the side. The people listed in these targeted directories are much more likely to be pros than the ones you’ll find on general freelancing websites like Upwork or Fivrr. Agencies: There are also employment agencies that specialize in creative contractors.** They have pre-screened everyone on their roster, so you know you’ll get someone qualified. This saves you the trouble of meeting several prospective freelancers and checking their histories, portfolios, and references. The downside is that you’ll be paying a premium price compared to hiring directly, since the agency will add their percentage to the freelancer’s rate. "You can hire someone with exactly the skills you need for exactly as long as you need them." How do you choose the right freelancer? The best thing about bringing in freelance help is that you can hire someone with exactly the skills you need for exactly as long as you need them. Want a new logo? Hire a graphic designer. Need to improve your website stats? Bring in an SEO specialist. Got a blog that’s languishing? Put a content writer on a monthly retainer to keep the posts rolling in. The first step is to define in detail what you want a freelancer to do. Be as precise as possible. Here are some of the details to decide before your search:
The more you know about what you need, the easier it will be to determine whether you’ve found the right contractor. When you look into candidates who have been recommended, or seem like a possible match from directories or agencies, get a feel for their work by looking at their:
When you contact the freelancer, ask for relevant samples of their work. Once you explain your project, they should be able to point you to examples of the kind of look/tone/style you would get from them. When you find someone who seems like a good match, you can move forward with negotiations. How should you contract and pay freelancers? You should always use a written agreement with your freelancers that includes the following details:
Your company may have a standard contractor agreement. Often, these are designed by lawyers for full-time contract work carried out at your premises, and they contain clauses that are not appropriate for a freelancer working from their home. If your HR or legal department says you must use it anyway, try to be flexible about clauses that can be struck out because they do not apply in this situation—for example, a requirement for workplace liability insurance. Finding the best freelancer for the job, and communicating your needs and expectations up front, will give you a great start to your project. To keep things running smoothly throughout the project and get the best results, be sure to read the second post on this topic: Working with Creative Freelancers: Part 2—Getting the best results. *Canadian associations include: Canadian Freelance Guild Editors Canada Association of Registered Graphic Designers **Creative agencies operating in Canada include: Creative Circle Creative Niche Vitamin T  What does your business sell? Professional services? Products? Technology solutions? Nope! Whatever business you’re in, you only succeed if you sell trust first.
Sound weird? It used to be that you could place a few ads in the media telling people how great your product or service was and they would take you at your word. That is no longer true. These days, a brand’s reputation and messaging need to withstand much more scrutiny. If you aren’t trusted, your product—no matter how great—won’t sell. Trust is earned, not given With the rise of spammers, scammers, and misleading offers, it’s no surprise that people are reluctant to give companies the benefit of the doubt. In today’s marketplace, trust needs to be earned. If your terms of use, product descriptions, contracts, or website are hard to understand or overly complicated, people will tend to assume that you’re hiding something. Having clear information, policies, and agreements builds trust because it helps people understand what you’re offering, what it will cost, and what will happen if something goes wrong. Here are some things to keep in mind to make sure your business is earning trust. "You build trust by acting in a way that demonstrates the values you claim to represent." It’s about authenticity Yes, it’s a bit of a buzzword, but authenticity is just another way to say trust. When people feel like you’re being truthful with them, they’re more likely to pay attention to what you say. That means telling your story with character and integrity. For example, if a company presents itself as a champion of the environment but then gets charged with violating pollution laws, it will lose its authenticity and the public’s trust. Basically, you build trust by acting in a way that demonstrates the values you claim to represent—by being authentic. It’s a conversation Marketing is no longer a simple matter of broadcasting your message to your target audience. It’s now a two-way street, where customers feel that companies should listen and respond to their opinions and concerns. Social media has made this interaction a must. Any company that pushes out messages without responding to comments quickly loses the trust of its audience. Companies that ignore complaints made in public will soon find themselves facing a lot of accusations. Hoping that tough questions go away is no longer an option. On the other hand, starting a conversation can build a lot of trust: treat your customers well, and they will tell the world about it. Testimonials and reviews are some of your best opportunities to let people know how your product works in the real world. And because they don’t come from the company itself, they are easier to trust. It’s planned Building trust starts at the top, right in the C-suite. Operating with integrity, deciding on the business’s values, and offering a product you stand behind is the backbone that your strategy will be built on. When it comes to public perception, though, most of your efforts will go into communications and marketing. Here are some ways you can use your communications strategy to build public trust in your business:
If you could use some help presenting your business to the public to build trust, let’s connect and see if I can help.  When I tell someone about the books I’ve written, there’s a good chance they’ll say, “I really want to write a book!” My response is generally, “No you don’t. You want to have written a book.”
For most people, the glossy book with their name on the cover is what they picture. The hours and hours of work that go into planning, writing, and rewriting their book don’t sound as appealing. Who has that kind of time? Refining your concept, fleshing it out, organizing things into a structure that makes sense to readers, expressing your ideas in a way everyone can understand, and on and on—writing a book is a huge undertaking when you are already busy with your career and life. It’s not something you can just “squeeze in” when you have a moment. Still, you'd like to have written that book you have in the back of your mind. So how do you make it happen? Call in an expert: a ghostwriter. You already have a job, and it isn’t writing books You’re an expert in your own field and you have great ideas and knowledge that you want to share. People write books with a lot of goals in mind. Some common ones are:
To accomplish any of these goals, your book has to be well thought out and powerfully written. It’s a skill set that you may not have, but your book can still be a success! Call in an expert You have knowledge stuck inside your head that can help others. You just need to connect them to your knowledge and inspire them to take action. So how do you create a book that does that? All great leaders know when to call in an expert to get a specific job done right. When it comes to your book, that expert is likely a ghostwriter. A great ghostwriter help can release your book from the back of your mind into the world. A ghostwriter works closely with you to take your ideas and knowledge and translate them onto the page at a professional level. It’s still your book, filled with your wisdom and personality. You’ll work as a team to ensure that you are proud to have your name on the cover, and readers will get everything from the book that you hoped for. How does ghostwriting work? First, you need to find a ghostwriter who is a good match for you and your book. Before hiring anyone, be sure to read samples of their writing. They may not be able to share ghostwriting they’ve done for others (since many people don’t want anyone to know they didn’t write their book or article themselves) but they should have a portfolio of work they can share. Ask yourself:
Your ghostwriter does not need to be an expert in your field. You provide the expertise, and they translate it for your book’s target audience. In fact, it’s often helpful if your ghostwriter is not a subject-matter expert, since it will help them to see things from the reader’s perspective. When the final draft is done, you can publish the book in your name, and you will own the copyright. Your ghostwriter will happily fade into the background. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment The lonely corners of Amazon are filled with poorly written, self-published books that have sold fewer than 50 copies. Millions of these are published every year. Their authors' dreams are dashed and those many hours of writing and rewriting are wasted. To reach your readers and make your book a success, approach it with the same careful planning and investment that you put into the rest of your work. You want that book with your name on the cover to be something you’re proud of. If you’re ready to make your book a reality, I can help. Contact me to talk about ghostwriting.  Plain language is an approach to communications that focuses on making information easy to read, understand, and use. Adopting plain language in your business may sound like a lot of work, but the returns are often far beyond anything the business imagined. Here are some areas where using plain language can help your business’s bottom line.
1. Product information: How easy is it to do business with you? Your website should be so clear that potential customers understand what you offer, how much it costs, and how to purchase it, without needing to search for information. This requires a combination of strong, clear writing and intuitive design—both parts of plain language. Once someone clicks away from your website, you’ve likely lost the sale. 2. Contracts and agreements: Contracts have a longstanding reputation for being impossible to understand without the help of a lawyer. They don’t need to be this way! A plain language contract lets everyone understand what they’re being asked to agree to. It inspires confidence and trust in your business, because clients won’t worry that you’re trying to trick them. Royal Insurance of Canada had a 38% increase in sales when plain language was used in their homeowners’ insurance policies. –Northwest Territories Literary Council 3. Customer inquiries and complaints: If your website, agreements, and marketing materials are clear and easy to navigate, customers and potential customers will find the information they need on their own. This saves your staff countless hours of answering email and phone inquiries and being asked the same questions again and again. Also, making your policies clear to begin with (instead of burying them in legalese fine print) means that people understand what they’re getting. This will reduce the number of complaints, returns, and requests for refunds. 4. Forms: If you collect information using forms (for subscriptions or registrations, for example), they should be clear and easy to fill out correctly. This will cut way back on the number of mistakes in them and the need to follow up one-by-one to get the information you need. Alberta Agriculture used plain language to revise their forms and found that "with 1,034,530 forms processed a year, and savings in staff time of at least 10 minutes per form … the annual saving to the government is an astounding $3,472,014.” 5. Staff communications: How much time do your employees spend reading poorly written, unclear, or unnecessarily long emails, reports, updates, and procedures? How complicated is the process of booking vacation time, filling in insurance claims, or submitting their hours worked? Plain language can reduce the amount of unproductive time that staff spend on internal tasks, and also improve morale by making it easier for them to do what they were hired to do. Starting with one or two key documents or communications tools can put your business on the path to less wasted time, more sales, and a stronger bottom line. Get in touch with me to discuss where to begin. |
AuthorMichelle Waitzman, plain language specialist, shares her tips and perspectives on clear, powerful communication. Archives
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