Freelance Program Creation

overview of responsibilities

As an internet marketing company, Spectrum’s main focus is lead generation and exposure for its 100+ home remodeling clients. Based on each client’s needs, the team accomplishes this by building completely customized websites, writing keyword-focused web page content, and regularly syndicating blogs, email blasts, and other marketing collateral.

Because it’s a small company, I was able to “wear a lot of hats” during my time there. I began as a copywriter and wrote client websites that typically ranged from 60-100+ pages, created weekly blog posts, wrote internal communications on behalf of the company and CEO, and helped the design and production teams craft UI/UX copy for our software platforms and tools.

Additionally, I helped scout and vet potential copywriters, conducted interviews, edited applicants’ writing tests, and collaborated with the CEO and VP to help decide who would get an offer.

Within 90 days, I was promoted to Marketing Manager. In this new role, I maintained my copywriter responsibilities and took on additional tasks. I helped train new copywriters, worked with the analytics team to create and execute social media marketing campaigns, and ultimately established an entire freelancing team from scratch--here’s how I did it.

freelance program creation process

1. Project Outline
To begin, I came up with a core list of what we would need as a team. How many more team members? How many assignments per week? What budget did we have? Where would we source writers from? After finalizing all the essential details, I moved on to the specifics of what we were looking for.

2. Standards
After nearly a year at the company, I knew exactly what type of writing our clients were looking for. To create uniformity for the (soon-to-be) new freelance writers, I put into writing the explicit expectations for each assignment they would be given: word counts, notes about style and tone, linking, keywords, and format guidelines, and best practices.

3. Processes
Now that I had the outlines and expectations mapped out, I could get into the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day processes. I crafted canned responses (CRs) that I would use for general introduction emails, job postings, instructional documents to send to writers, and other processes that would be repeated on a regular basis.

4. Hiring
Using an online platform to help facilitate hiring and payments, I sought out potential new writers every week. I reached out to individual writers who looked particularly promising and also posted the job description on online boards. It was my job to keep up with applications, administer our company’s writing test, and turn down applicants when appropriate.

5. Training
Once I had a few new writers on board and ready to work, I was in charge of delegating work, managing writer deadlines, and ensuring that all work was up to our quality standards. Apart from the training documents I sent to new writers, I also managed any questions they had along the way and provided feedback as they got used to our processes and expectations.

6. Management
I went over every piece of content that was submitted and had the sometimes uncomfortable job of dismissing freelancers who were unreliable or submitted work that was unacceptable for our clients. After a few weeks, I was able to substantially refine my processes and management became easier and more streamlined.

impact

When all was said and done, we had gotten great responses from the job ads and individual proposals, so I ended up managing a team of 10-15 writers at any given time. It was a lot of work, but I was proud to have come up with a solution to a key pain point for Spectrum. In addition to saving significant costs (by not having to hire more full time employees), the freelancer program provided a source of fresh, high-quality content that our growing client base desperately needed.