You’ve probably heard it so much that you just roll your eyes: Content is king. Hence, the explosion of blogs, brand journalism sites, and social media from healthcare organizations.
Now, here’s the question: Who’s going to create all of this content?
Most healthcare organizations don’t have the resources to hire a team dedicated exclusively to creating web content—even though managing a blog, brand journalism site, or social media is a full-time job in a very competitive space.
What Sets Each Apart?
So, if you’re going to allocate your healthcare organization’s resources judiciously, which is more worthwhile—solid writers or solid editors?
This is an important question to answer, because we’ve seen many healthcare organizations trying to decide if the writing should come from:
- Interns: But getting a good one can be hit or miss.
- Freelancers: Good writers, but they’re so darn expensive.
- Staff: But when do they have the time?
- Clinicians: Good luck. Read the post on the potential challenges of asking clinicians to write content.
And The Winner Is?
Both the content writer and the content editor are key roles, but here’s our verdict:
Invest in solid writing.
Here’s why:
Keeping up with a blog or brand journalism site demands a very streamlined workflow. Deadlines are short. And just when you’ve met one, here comes another. A poor writer will throw incredible kinks in your content marketing workflow.
Ideally, the writer’s skills with research, reporting, and narration are strong enough to produce a blog post or feature article that only requires one go-round of revisions, if that. Then, it can sail through the approval process, and on to design and publication.
But if the writing takes two or three editing passes before it’s in good shape, you’ll spend time working on one piece of content when a good writer could have cranked out three. Or, some editors will get frustrated and just rewrite the content. Then, you’ll start wondering why the writer is there to begin with.
Also, if the writing is bad because of poor research or interviewing, you could put your healthcare organization’s credibility at stake.
A strong writer can compensate for a not-so-strong editor. But a poor writer will drive a strong editor nuts while messing up your workflow. Save your team the stress. Invest in solid writing.
