People often throw around the buzz words “managed service” and “marketplace”. But what are the key traits that define both options? And what do they mean?

As you evaluate and optimize your marketing stack – or the marketing platforms used for different aspects of your marketing programs, considerations should be made around the type of investment and partnership you need.

Content marketing as an industry has grown exponentially and there are different types of vendors and partnerships available.

Content marketing marketplaces – quick on boarding with a lot of work up front

Pros of working with a market place:

• Easy to get started: Marketplaces make it easy to get started, offer ultimate flexibility with pricing, but require you to do most of the work. What do I mean by this?
• Low commitment: With a marketplace, you can easily order one blog at a time or start with one project rather than making any long term commitment.

Cons of working with a market place:

• You need to find and vet the writers yourself: Think about how long it takes to find a new employee and go through the interview process. Even after all the interviewing, that employee might not be able to deliver. Recruiting and sorting through writer resumes is more time consuming than most people realize and you might end up falling for common freelance writer traps. These freelance writer traps include ghosting, plagiarism, and poor turnaround time.
• Additional services won’t be included. For example, any editing, SEO optimization account management, support, and more will be an additional fee. You also won’t be able to have consistency with your voice or your writing team. Expertise can be questionable as many times writers do not go through a stringent vetting process.
• Can’t access the best writers: The best writers are in high demand and prefer to work with long standing partners than hunt for one assignment at a time. If you are only committing to one article, you’ll only have the chance to work with writers who are willing to succumb to learning a brand new company’s voice and style preferences.
• No guarantee on the writing quality: There is typically a limit on the amount of revisions that you can order and if you are disappointed in the writing, it is typically money down the drain.

Content marketing managed services – better quality, more time saved and a longer partnership commitment

Pros of working with a managed service:

• All inclusive service: In regards to content marketing specifically, our managed content marketing service includes SEO optimization, unlimited revisions, editing, plagiarism screening, use of the platform, and an account manager who is available by phone and email. You aren’t charged for each individual aspect, which actually saves you more money than if you were to work with a market place who structures their pricing based on each element of the content development process.
• Humans are there to support you every step of the way. Your account managers proactively manage your account.
• Consistent team of writers who have real world experience: Your writing team is consistent and includes writers who have real world experience in your industry. The idea with a managed service is that you will save more time and the quality is much higher.
• Set a schedule designed for long term content marketing results: We set up your partnership at the beginning so that you don’t have to do the heavy lifting. Once we lock in your nuances, it is easy to scale content marketing without sacrificing quality.
• Commitment to quality: We stand by the content we provide by offering unlimited revisions, editing every piece of content to save you time in the long run, and making sure that the writing is geared towards your reader.

Cons of working with a managed service:

• Both parties need skin in the game to get started: Because of the initial investment up front to establish a positive long term partnership, both parties need to invest in the partnership. From the client perspective, that means that they pay for the initial start up and commit to a kick off call and review of the content. From the content writing service, this means that they put in the resources to truly optimize and lock in the goals up front.
• First piece of content can take approximately 2 weeks for delivery: The initial onboarding includes a kick off call, writer team optimization and editorial calendar development. After the kick off call it is typically around 2 weeks until you get your hands on the first article. It is a little slower than a market place, however, in the long run, you save all the time it would take to go from vendor to vendor, restarting the process over and over again. With Tempesta Media, your onboarding has a valuable impact on the long term nature of the partnership.

Find a blog writing service that works for your needs

There are many different considerations that come into play, but ultimately, each business has goals they are trying to achieve. If you are extremely limited on budget and are willing to sacrifice quality, a market place might be a good option.

If you are ready to truly invest in your content marketing program, learn more about Tempesta Media’s managed service content solution.