If your business is producing any amount of content, that content has to be first-rate. Exceptional content drives website traffic and increases lead conversions, resulting in improved sales. Low-quality or forgettable content won’t have the same captivating effect on potential customers – representing a wasted opportunity to grab their attention. According to a study on online purchasing, the average consumer spends 19 seconds deciding whether to make a purchase.
Producing top-quality content is a multistep process, and hiring a freelance proofreader is the essential finishing touch to ensure that your business’s content leaves a lasting impression on your target audience.
Here’s everything this guide will cover about how freelance proofreading works for businesses:
- Why Does Your Business Need a Freelance Proofreader?
- How to Find a Freelance Proofreader
- What to Look for in a Freelancer
- What to Expect
- Help Refine Your Customer Communication
- A Freelance Proofreader Saves You Time
- A Freelance Proofreading Team Is On Call for Your Business
1. Why Does Your Business Need a Freelance Proofreader?
Every time you publish written content – on your website or via email – you’re speaking to potential customers. If your communication is inconsistent, poorly written, or riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, what’s the message you’re projecting? The last thing you want is to appear disorganized or give the impression that you don’t care about your image. And while increasing content creation is a valuable marketing plan, that content must be polished and highly professional to get the results you want.
High-quality content is worth the investment, especially if your goal is to grow your business. If you’re relying only on yourself or your team to proofread your company’s content across all channels, you’re probably not presenting the best possible version of your company to potential customers.
2. How to Find a Freelance Proofreader
Once you’ve decided that your business needs a freelance proofreader, where should you look to hire one? If you search for freelance proofreaders in an online marketplace, you will see hundreds of options from all over the world. While you can alter your search parameters by rating, cost, and specialization to narrow down the choices, it’s not always easy to find a candidate who suits your needs. It’s also usually your responsibility to reach out to these potential candidates to receive their fee quote and proposal.
If this method seems time-consuming and overwhelming, consider working with a freelance proofreading agency. Typically, you’ll have one main point of contact who will help address your concerns and will train a team of proofreaders in the use of your brand voice and style. This approach ensures that you’ll be working with first-rate freelancers who are available whenever you need them.
3. What to Look for in a Freelancer
What should you look for when hiring a freelance proofreader? Unless your business is in a highly technical field, it’s usually not necessary to work with a proofreader who has industry-specific knowledge. However, you should ensure that you communicate clear expectations regarding the scope of the work and the guidelines to be followed.
In addition, you should inform freelance candidates about how much work they can expect and what the typical turnaround times are. Every freelancer has a different sense of what constitutes a tight deadline; therefore, it’s a good idea to ensure that you’re on the same page so your content is released on schedule. With a freelance proofreading agency, you can typically have a faster turnaround time because you’re likely to be working with a team of freelancers based in a variety of time zones.
4. What to Expect
Although an essential part of a freelance proofreader’s job is to ensure that marketing copy and other content is error-free, they do more than correct the misuse of they’re, their, and there. Good proofreaders have an expert eye for detail and will critically assess your content for consistency, tone of voice, and search engine optimization, delivering a final product that meets your expectations. By hiring a freelance proofreader and taking proofreading responsibilities off your plate, you can focus on generating a high volume of quality content and reaching a wide range of potential customers.
In a global economy, the marketing possibilities are endless. And since there can be subtle differences among the various English dialects, professionals experienced in these differences can ensure that your content appeals to a larger prospective audience. This is why some companies prefer a team of freelance proofreaders from all over the world: to always ensure the language and colloquialisms match the dialect of the intended audience, thereby opening a broad range of marketing possibilities.
5. Help Refine Your Customer Communication
When potential customers open an email or visit your website, they should know what to expect. Memorable content that increases conversions and speaks to your target audience should reflect your overall brand voice – no matter who writes that content. After you hire a freelance proofreader, it’s essential to provide them with your company’s related style guides or examples of previous published content.
One of the benefits of working with a proofreading agency is that it is more likely to have the capacity to help you develop a style guide if you don’t already have one. Style guides are a valuable resource to which your team can refer to ensure the tone, style, and voice of your content are consistent across all lines of communication, from blog posts to product descriptions.
6. A Freelance Proofreader Saves You Time
Hiring a freelance proofreader ensures that your business can produce a high volume of first-rate content without a full-time professional proofreader on staff. A freelance proofreader works either per project or hourly, meaning they’re available for a specific project when you need them.
Outsourcing your proofreading services to a freelance proofreader or a proofreading company maximizes the benefits of a full-time staff member. This means the proofreader can do anything from ensuring SEO keywords are used effectively to offering feedback on writing style and tone of voice – whatever helps you maintain a competitive edge.
7. A Freelance Proofreading Team Is On Call for Your Business
With a freelance proofreader, you get:
- Highly accurate and consistent content
- Content that is free of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes
- Fast turnaround times
- The freedom to focus on other valuable tasks
- A distinct competitive advantage
A freelance proofreader reduces your team’s workload, allowing the team to focus on scaling content creation. If you use a freelancer for your business, you won’t need to conduct a costly and time-consuming hiring process as you would to find a full-time employee.
To Summarize
Working with a team of freelance proofreaders rather than hiring individual freelancers case by case eliminates the need to screen and manage candidates. Proofed is your editorial desk, giving you access to a fully managed team of expert editors ready to make your content stand out from the crowd.
If you’re ready to discover the value that a team of freelance proofreaders can bring to your business, check out Proofed’s business services and schedule a call today.
