I was recently asked to write a proposal for a freelance b2b blogging project. The prospect is an I.T. networking corporation, and they already have a blog with some excellent marketing content.

So, Why the Need For a Freelancer?

Well, they’re growing very quickly and their marketing department is probably overworked (sounds familar?)

Add in the hassles of managing the content-creation efforts of employee-bloggers who are also executives, and I think this is what’s driving the requirement for a freelancer.

Many readers will be aware that regular, quality blogging takes both time and energy - attributes that senior staff often have little to spare for ‘secondary’ projects such as blogging.

True, it’s possible to have a ‘cheap’ freelancer cobble together several hundred words of corporate ‘gobbledegook’ and pass that off as a ‘blog post.’

Ghostwritten B2B Blogs - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

The problem with this approach is that few online readers, even your most ardent fans, will come back for repetitive helpings of dullness. (Bland is the new boring in the blogosphere.)

Effective ‘ghost blogging’ in an executive’s voice requires research into how that person communicates in both professional and personal capacities. (Here’s where a recorded chat with the executive can be very helpful.)

Even so, it can still take a number of posts before the freelancer’s content is worthy of being called a ‘ghostwritten post’ - and this is why I usually turn down most requests to write individual posts. The ROI isn’t there to justify the background research required.

Think ‘Win-Win’ Freelance Content Marketing

The exceptions are where the project scope widens to include case studies, white papers and eventually a longer term arrangement (think, ‘retainer’). The payoffs for the client can be substantial in that they have a freelance resource already ‘trained’ in their products, services and marketing messages.

I welcome enquiries from IT networking companies worldwide who are interested in the benefits and payoffs to be gained from a regular freelance content marketing arrangement.

Author: Mark McClure - A freelance b2b case study and white paper writer to the computer networking industry. Based in Tokyo, Japan. Mark McClure Google + Profile About Mark