No, You Should NOT Outsource Your Copy... Maybe?
Yep, you read that right.
I, the Director of Creative Services for a copywriting service, am telling you NOT to outsource your copy.
…maybe.
I’ve been a salaried in-house staff writer, a full-time writer for an agency, managed a team of writers, AND done a lot of other jobs in the creative services and marketing spaces.
If you’re not sure if outsourcing creative work is for you, I’m here to help you decide!
Let’s dive into the pros, cons, and differences between four popular ways to source your creative needs: Staffing, Retainer, Project-Based and Flat-Fee.
A quick housekeeping note: This applies to ALL types of creatives (video producers & editors, graphic designers, writers, etc) but for ease of reading, I’m going to use writers as an example throughout.
Hiring Full-Time Staff
In-house creatives are perfect for you if you have a steady, predictable stream of work and can easily accommodate sick days and vacations.
Hiring full-time staff can sound really affordable versus outsourcing, but don’t forget to add in the cost of onboarding and training, benefits, payroll taxes, admin costs, equipment, office space, etc. Plus, if that employee isn’t a great hire OR your business demand suddenly drops, you’re spending without getting the full return.
The Pros:
Brand & Industry Knowledge: The writer gets to really know your brand voice and the product or industry you operate in as well. This makes it easier and easier for them to write copy that’s both accurate and compelling. If you’re in a highly-regulated or scrutinized industry and frequently have lots of small redlines from your legal team, this is a HUGE factor in favor of hiring staff.
Casual Project Management or Creative Request Process: Now there’s no guarantee that having an in-house writer will allow you to have a more casual process, but it’s certainly an option if it works for your company. With an in-house writer, it’s your prerogative if you want to shift priorities, cancel projects, suddenly launch new ones, or change direction mid-project.
Collaborative Iteration: No caps, no problems. You can see what the writer delivers and try a new angle on it, time after time. All the edits and adjustments your heart desires. The only limitations are your internal deadlines and other project loads.
The Cons:
Hidden Costs: The operational costs of hiring staff are significant, often 20% or more of their annual salaries.
Slow Bloat: It’s really easy to get casual with managing projects, deliverables, and timelines when there’s always someone available to do the work.
Manic Panic: The other side of that same coin is that it’s tempting to keep shifting priorities and project loads and standards when you have a staff writer. While it’s nice that you’re able to turn on a dime when needed, doing it too often will actually derail a creative’s productivity.
Outsourcing With a Retainer Model
Outsourcing to a third-party (independent freelancer, agency, or service) via a retainer model is great for businesses with steady demand, and who can afford to “lose” time that they don’t use.
Much like hiring staff, if you don’t have a project to fill the queue, you don’t get that time back for future projects.
The Pros:
Brand & Industry Knowledge: Much like hiring a staffer, you do get to work with the same writer or team over and over again, so you get the benefit of building that brand and industry knowledge together.
Dedicated Support: Most retainer-based agencies will assign you a dedicated account manager who is available and on-call for help and support. Sure, you’re spending on it, but it’s great for clients who don’t have the in-house bandwidth to keep track of the details of your project load, statuses, action items, etc.
The Cons:
Opportunity Costs: Each revision or evolution comes with an opportunity cost. You receive the benefit of collaborative iteration, but you’re whittling away at the opportunity to work on other projects with that financial allotment.
Use it or Lose it: You’ve got to stay on top of your project management to ensure you’re not paying people to sit around waiting for you to send instructions or feedback.
Project-Based Outsourcing
Outsourcing to a freelancer or agency on a per-project basis is a good fit when you know what you want, can focus on the project needs for a short burst of time, and can clearly explain the project scope (this is sometimes harder than it sounds).
Think about building a home: you wouldn’t hire a full-time home builder forever. You’d hire them for a specific project with a specific budget and guidelines. When the project is closed, so is your relationship. You wouldn’t call them in three years to fix handyman-level issues that have popped up.
The Pros:
Specialized Capabilities: Project-based outsourcing is a great way to add very specific capabilities without a long-term commitment.
Predictable Budgeting: Before starting the project, you’ll agree on the scope, the fixed costs, and any reimbursement or additional costs that may be added to the product.
Agreed Standards for Completion: What does a good finished product look like? What’s the turnaround time? This should be agreed on, in writing, so you’re only paying for something you can actually use.
The Cons:
Timeliness: While you should have your project on time, per-project delivery has the most unpredictable timing. That’s because you’re outsourcing to someone who isn’t just working for you, and they don’t have a long-term relationship to protect. Life happens, and it might affect your project.
“That’s Out of Scope:” While the agreed standards you put in place at the beginning of the project protect you, they can also come back to bite. If you’re not crystal clear on what you’re looking for and what the standards are, it’s possible you’ll find that revision requests are “out of scope” - meaning that they will cost you (in time and actual additional payment.) When you work on a per-project basis, you can’t assume that your collaborator knows what you know…you have to spell it out. And changing the goalposts mid-game? That’s an expensive move.
Flat-Fee Outsourcing
That’s what we do here at Ad Zombies! Think of it like the IKEA of creative outsourcing: you pick what you need, give enough information for the team to do their job, and there’s likely some assembly required when you get the product back home.
Say you’re using Ad Zombies for a Facebook Ad with Video. We deliver the video and the copy, but we don’t set it up in Facebook Ads Manager or make recommendations about the audience, spend, etc.
The Pros:
Affordable, Transparent Pricing: You’ll know what it costs and there are no surprise bills at the end of the project. Nice, isn’t it?
Fewer Conversations, More Results: Flat-fee systems are ALL about efficiency. The product is affordable because there’s no charging by the hour (which is usually the quarter-hour, which even a single minute or touch will be rounded up to, yikes!). That means that 99 times in 100, you can send off a request, forget about it until you get it back, and then execute. No missed emails, no kick-off zoom calls, etc.
Scalable: When you’re working with a single in-house writer or small team, you can easily overload them when a big wave of business crashes through your business. Just like you could furnish an entire apartment building without putting a dent in IKEA’s inventory, flat-fee service houses can usually meet surge demands without blinking an eye. They’re designed that way!
The Cons:
No Dedicated Team Members: To ensure demand is met in a timely manner, you’ll almost never be guaranteed to have a dedicated creative (or small team of them). So, you may miss out on that shared learning around brand voice and industry guidelines. (However, sometimes you can request the same writer if your timeline is a bit more flexible)
You Can’t Change the Goalposts: Because a flat-fee business works on efficiency (and creatives are usually paid a flat fee for completing a specific project), changes to the scope of the project just won’t work in a flat-fee environment.
You Need to Know What You Want: “I want to try something…I don’t know…different” isn’t a recipe for a good result at a flat-fee agency. Creatives are generally looking at every request as a new project request and likely won’t have an idea of what you’ve done previously. This just means you need to give specific directions that someone new to your company can follow.
So, should you outsource your next creative project? If so, how?
Well, that’s for you to answer but I hope this has helped make the decision a little bit easier! If you’re interested in learning more about Flat-Fee Outsourcing with Ad Zombies, check this out.