Maybe you need assistance with content marketing, social media management, building a better sales funnel, or another crucial marketing or sales project, but none of your current employees have the skills or capacity to tackle these tasks at the moment. Hiring a freelancer could be the perfect solution! Here’s how to determine if you should work with an agency or freelance professional, find the right specialists for your needs, and navigate the hiring process, courtesy of Madeinoz.
Consider Working With an Agency
Sometimes, an individual freelancer won’t be able to handle every task involved with a specific project. Instead, you might need to turn to an agency to manage larger campaigns and strategies. For instance, if you’ve over thought about outsourcing SEO services to an agency, this is a viable option that can make a big difference. By working with an agency that specialises in this area, you can invest in targeted keyword research, in-depth content that addresses your customers’ pain points, and on-page SEO optimization. An agency can help you update key on-page elements like internal links, headings, and meta tags, which will boost your site’s search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your business.
Hiring Freelancers vs. Full-Time Employees
When is it worth hiring a freelancer over a new employee? It’s worth assessing the upsides and downsides of both options. CoverWallet states that hiring freelancers costs less because you don’t need to offer benefits and reduces the risks that come with hiring the wrong long-term employee. However, keep in mind that freelancers may not always have the availability that you want, and it will be tougher to integrate them into your company culture.
Determine Your Specific Needs
In order to create a freelance job listing to share online, you’ll need to figure out exactly which tasks the freelancer will have to perform, as well as the specific skills they’ll need to bring to the table. A job description for a freelance SEO specialist will look quite different from a description for a freelance sales strategist! RecruiteeBlog also recommends including the project start and end dates, expected deliverables and turnaround times, and your budget.
Know What to Look For
Shortly after you post a job listing, you’ll probably receive emails from freelancers, along with links to their portfolios and samples of their work. How can you tell which freelancers are truly prepared for the job? Go over their portfolios in detail with a results-oriented mindset. Freelancers in the sales and marketing space should be able to easily display metrics and KPIs that illustrate the results they’ve achieved for previous clients. Furthermore, you might be able to look up customer testimonials to see if their past clients were happy with their work.
Manage the Hiring Process
You’ve pored over prospective freelancers’ portfolios, and now, you want to conduct follow-up interviews with a few candidates and make a final hiring decision. Remember, you’ll need to be prepared to answer questions about contract terms and pay rates. Once you’ve chosen the right freelancer to hire, you’ll have to finalise the arrangement with a legal contract that locks in their pay rate and other project terms. You will also need to onboard them to any project management platforms that your team uses.
If this is your first foray into hiring freelancers, you might be nervous about exploring this option for your next project. But freelancers can be a boon to your business, especially if you have a small team! With these tips, you can explore the benefits of working with an SEO agency, evaluate potential freelance hires, and bring the right contractors on board.
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Article written by Emma Croft <emma@getgardening.info>
