Outsourcing your content creation efforts saves you the valuable time and effort of creating new content. If you’ve been searching for writers or content creation agencies to hire, you’ve probably come across white-label content marketing as a service option.
But exactly what is white-label content marketing? And how does it differ from standard content creation?
What is White-Label Content Marketing?
White-label content marketing is a type of service that allows your business to use content from a third-party company and distribute it on your website or other channels. It’s an effective way to attract new leads, generate sales, and develop relationships with new customers who view the content.
But how does that differ from your standard content marketing? The difference is in the contract.
With many types of content marketing, you hire a writer, publish the content under their name, and they might stick around to respond to comments for some time afterward.
White-label content marketing is slightly different. Rather than publish under their name, you can publish under your own name (or under one of your employees’ names).
The main appeal of white-label content marketing is that it allows you to build up expertise, authority, and trust (assuming the content is good) among your audience and your industry.
And if you’re already an established expert, it means you don’t have to do all the writing. We get it—writing isn’t everyone’s thing!
Now, let’s talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of content marketing.
Advantages of White-Label Content
1. Content With a Brand
Using the name of your business or brand as a platform for content means you’re taking full ownership over the content and its creation.
The content on your website, social media channels, and other platforms will be associated with your brand and can be tailored to match your brand’s voice, tone, personality, and style. The advantage is that now you have complete control over the messaging.
Ideally, you’ll have a style guide to share with your writers and editors so that all your content is consistent with your brand’s style and voice. Otherwise, you have content with inconsistent style, tone, and maybe even grammar.
2. Trust and Credibility
Your audience will start to identify you as an expert because of the value you’re providing for them.
Content with your name on it will increase trust, credibility, and authority among your audience, which means they’ll be more likely to read it or share it with their network. This leads to more referrals to your business!
3. SEO Benefits
The more content you publish, and the better it is, the more traffic you’ll get from search engines. And if your content is great and gets shared around, then it will keep on driving traffic for months or years to come.
Not familiar with SEO? Check out this post on some of the benefits of having a strong search presence.
4. Reach a New Audience
If you have a specific target audience that’s not yet aware of your existence, this type of content can be an effective way to reach them. This can lead to an increase in sales and revenue for your business.
You’ll find that the more you consistently publish great content, the more potential customers start to come out of the woodwork. (Sometimes, you’ll even attract new and unexpected segments that still align with your brand.)
5. Create Buzz
Using a third-party content creation service can create buzz around you or your business, creating interest in your business and generating a lot of new leads.
Content gives people something to share. How many articles do you see on your social media feed from the blogs of businesses you follow? Or, how many articles do you see friends share from their favorite brands?
Just like with any other marketing channel, you want to constantly be building your presence and developing new audiences. Once they see and hear about you, they’ll start to build up their trust in your product. This leads to greater brand awareness and goodwill.
6. Build Relationships With Your Customers
It’s always a good thing when your customers are aware of what you do. Having them as social media followers and fans of your blog will help to build up trust in your brand.
If they see your name attached to a piece of content, it can help them feel like they know you or that they’ve heard of you before. It’s simple psychology, but when consumers are exposed to the name of a company and the message behind it, they develop trust in that company.
Disadvantages of White-Label Content Marketing
1. It Takes Time to Get to Know the Company or Brand
Content marketing is a long-term game.
When your audience sees your name attached to content, they will make assumptions about who you are, what you do, and how you conduct business.
But if they don’t know anything about you other than what you write in your content, it can be difficult for them to trust that you know what you’re talking about. Or worse—your audience might question whether or not you’re a real expert in the field.
This is why it’s important to make the decision to build up your credibility by referencing other industry experts or hiring a well-known writer to post on your blog. In the meantime, you can build up the credibility of your in-house writers (or whoever’s name you’re publishing content under).
2. You Have Less Control Over the Writing Process
Like with outsourcing any sort of marketing, there can be a lot of trial and error.
When you’re using a third-party service, you’re giving up some of your control over the content creation process. You’ll want to make sure that the company you’re working with will be able to produce content that’s on par with your brand standards.
And if you’re working with larger writing agencies, it’s not always easy to know what you’re getting.
Not all writers work well with style guides or they might lack the knowledge to write on a certain topic. This is especially typical of content mills and other sites that have thousands of different writers.
3. Not All Content is Equal
If you decide to use a white-label service, check out their writer’s profiles and portfolios to see what kind of content they’ve created before. Be wary if you don’t have a way to view up-to-date portfolios or examples from current writers.
A single writer can’t specialize in every niche. (Research only gets you so far!)
Every writer has their own set of skills and expertise, so it’s important to find someone familiar with your niche or industry.
4. You Might Get Caught in the Numbers Game
It’s easy to want to kick back and watch the articles roll in, especially if you’re site is moving up the search rankings.
But when it comes to content creation, more isn’t always better. And with any third-party service, you’ll want to make sure that you’re not just getting numbers. It’s better to publish one great piece of content per week than to crank out sub-par content daily.
Make sure that your writers are creating quality content and can adhere to a style guide. It’s important that you know that your articles are approved by a human editor (sorry, Grammarly) before they get published.
You’ll see better long-term results if you make sure all your content is up to par. Make sure the content flows well, makes sense, delivers valuable information, and aligns with your brand’s standards. (Grammar checking is just the beginning!)
5. It Can Be Pricey
For the most part, writers tend to incorporate white-label content creation into their prices. However, some companies want their contract to stay between the company and the writer.
If writers can’t use the content for their portfolio (or even disclose to potential clients that they worked with you), the rates can go up. Writers thrive on a steady portfolio, so they need to charge more if they’re losing out on proof of their work.
For agencies, this typically isn’t an issue. For freelancers who don’t have the steady flow of customers that agencies do, it’s not uncommon for rates to be double than if you were to give them a byline.
However, you can usually keep rates reasonable by either letting them include the pieces they write in their portfolio or sign off on a PDF that they can show future clients.
Ready to Get Started?
If you’re ready to start publishing content and building your brand’s reputation, learn more about our content creation process and what to expect when you work with us. We’re happy to answer any questions you might have about putting together a plan for your content!
