How To Choose A Recruitment Content Writer To Partner With For Your Agency

Last year, so many people predicted that Gemini Advanced and Chat-GPT would replace content writers. Recruitment agencies began to pump out AI generated content by the bucket loads, splashing it all over LinkedIn, their websites and social channels. Then, within a few short months we all realised that the content being pumped out was pretty dire, it didn’t flow, it stuttered and you could tell it was written by someone or something that understood how to write but just couldn’t do it as well as we could. 

Google's March Core Update

Recently Google released and finished rolling out their March Core update for their search algorithm and a lot of websites have been penalised because they’re full of AI generated content. It turns out Google doesn’t like AI generated content and it’s showing this by removing pages and even whole websites from search listings. 

Quality Content

So will we now see a return to quality content being written by humans who are good at writing? Hopefully so. If you’re looking for a recruitment content writer for your agency whether that’s writing web copy, long form blog posts, job adverts, industry reports or social media content then we’ve got you covered on what you should consider before picking a recruitment content writer to partner with. If you can afford it then I would recommend hiring a professional writer to take care of all of this for you. It’s a time saver for you, allowing you to focus your time on more profitable activities and the quality of content will be far superior when compared to what you can do. 

Freelance Or Marketing Agency?

One quick point I’d like to make is that you’ll need to make a decision on whether you work directly with a freelance content writer or with a marketing agency. Although a marketing agency will be more expensive, they will however likely offer other services (social media management, SEO services, etc.) on top of the content writer, which you may find beneficial. Also a marketing agency will always cover your workload throughout the year, as opposed to a freelancer who will likely be on holiday for at least 25 days of the year. A marketing agency may be able to offer a selection of writers too, who each have their own specialisms and niches, which could prove to be useful. And a lot of recruitment marketing agencies are going to have strong relationships with recruitment industry event organisers and recruitment industry news sites, potentially getting you discounted rates or free PR. 

Freelance Or Full-Time Staff Member?

Next is do you want to work with an external freelancer / recruitment marketing agency or would it be worthwhile investing in hiring someone on a full time basis? You could probably hire a reasonable recruitment writer for around £24,000-£30,000 per annum. If you find yourself spending more than this or close to this with your external freelancer or recruitment marketing agency then it might be worth bringing it in-house. If you have an in-house writer then they’re likely to understand your brand better and will subsequently write better content for you. But at the same time it’s an extra person to manage plus all the other associated costs of having another member of staff. 

Where To Find A Content Writer?

Now we’ve got all of that sorted, where do we actually find your recruitment content writer? Well you’re all recruiters so it should be pretty damn easy! You’ve got a variety of options. You can check out our blog post on the best recruitment copywriters out there. Or you could just use Google. Or have a look at recruitment blogs you enjoy and see if you can headhunt their writer. For example I have a close competitor and they have a blog and a writer who I think writes great content, well researched, full of keywords, insightful and a diverse range of content that I rarely see elsewhere and I’ll be reaching out to them in the coming months! I’d probably give LinkedIn a go too - apparently it’s a pretty good tool for finding talent. Put a post up on LinkedIn and you’ll probably get a deluge of interested parties. Also it’s always worth asking for referrals so ask peers for any recommendations. 

Writing Experience

Experience matters. Personally I like people who bridge industries so for example a web designer / developer who used to work in recruitment (like myself) or of course a copywriter who may have worked in recruitment previously but at the very least used to work in-house for recruitment agencies or a recruitment marketing agency. You’re going to need to select someone that knows the recruitment industry and ideally has experience writing about your niche too, whether that’s tech, pharma, aerospace, finance or whatever it may be.  

Platform & Content Specialists

Also not all writers will be suitable for all platforms, channels and content forms. There are a lot of recruitment content writers out there who just focus on job advert & role description writing or some that just specialise in long form report writing or some that just work on blog posts. Work out what you need from them. Is it blog writing? Social media posts? Research reports? Website copy? Ad copy? 

Conclusion

In conclusion this is fundamentally going to come down to three main decision makers... 

Firstly, do you like them as a person? Can you see yourself working with them on a regular basis? Are you going to be able to make small chat with them and meet up occasionally for a beer at industry events or at Christmas? 

Secondly, do you like their writing? Is their style of writing going to suit your brand personality? 

Thirdly, are their prices reasonable for the services they offer?