Infographic: How Brands Can Build the Perfect Freelance Team

Today, just about every brand wants to create content. A great publication can impact everything from sales to recruiting to corporate communications. But building that publication comes with two huge challenges: time and money. The cost of hiring and maintaining a full-time editorial staff adds up, and relying on just a few people to cover a wide range of topics is both risky and inefficient.

“We didn’t want to actually create a newsroom inside the company, because it wasn’t feasible, and it wasn’t the right approach,” Marco Bardazzi, executive VP for communications at Eni explained a few years ago. “We wanted to have people around the world working with us and to have a pool of talent that was much bigger than what we could build in-house.”

[Full disclosure: Eni is a Contently client]

However, there is an effective solution for this problem: freelancers. Companies cut back on costs with the freelance model because instead of hiring a handful of generalists with limited experience, they gain access to dozens of diverse creatives who have dedicated their careers to specialized storytelling. But how do brands find the right freelancers for their marketing needs?

There are typically three reasons why these companies request talent:

1. They need to scale their content production with more high-quality contributors

2. They want to cover a new topic that requires niche expertise

3. They have a unique project that has to be turned around quickly

At Contently, we’ve refined a talent selection process that includes technology and human oversight. Our talent team uses TalentMatch, an algorithm, which filters and recommends contributors based on expertise, reputation, and tone. The team then vets the contributors and trains them to better understand how to work with brands.

To illustrate how we work with brands to build a freelance team, we also created an infographic that breaks down each step in the process. Check out the infographic below, and click here to learn more about how Contently works.