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Do Not Hire An Automotive Content Writer Until You Read This

NOTE: We know our headline is over the top. But stick with us – we might be able to save you some time and money.

Let’s talk about why companies hire automotive content writers:

  1. They’re engaged in content marketing in-house, and they need a writer who knows about cars
  2. They want to start blogging but don’t have a specific plan or strategy
  3. They need basic automotive content (part descriptions, car reviews, car news, and so on)

If you’re thinking about hiring a writer for one of these three reasons, this article is for you.
Do not hire an auto writer until you read this article.

Reason #1 – We’re Doing Content Marketing and We Need A Writer

This is the best reason to hire an automotive content writer. Content is a strategy, and investing in a writer to join your staff is one of the best ways to increase your odds of success.

Of course, content marketing is hard. Hiring a writer – and then paying this writer to help you implement your marketing strategy – can be very costly. What’s worse is that writing great content isn’t enough. You’ve also got to have good tactics and systems for promoting your content, from media outreach to content advertising.

If you’re hiring a writer to help you implement your content marketing strategy:

  1. Make sure the writer is very active on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Instagram. Ideally, they’ve got fans/followers and good contacts with other auto writers. But at a minimum, your writer should know how these social networks function and use them regularly. That way, they can help promote the content they create.
  2. Beware auto writers who only have journalism experience. Professional auto journalists often fall into a rut of reviewing cars, commenting on the industry, and rewriting press releases. A few years of this experience looks impressive on a resume, but often leads to mediocre content as far as promoting your business is concerned.
  3. Offer the best candidates either a) flexibility, b) excellent pay, or c) both. Automotive writers who understand how to create interesting content have lots of career options. If you’re going to keep them, you need to offer good pay and flexibility.

Remember: Content marketing success is about quality and promotion. If you hire a writer that doesn’t know how to promote their content, success will be hard to find.

Reason #2 – We’re Going To Blog and We Need Someone To Do It

Blogging is good, but blogging isn’t a strategy by itself. Hiring an automotive writer to tackle a blog without a content strategy in place is a bad plan. Generally speaking, blogging without a strategy goes like this:

  1. You give your new writer some very vague instructions, like “blog about 4x4s” or “blog like Company X”, and they do their best to deliver the content they think you want rather than the content you need.
  2. The blog posts won’t attract many visitors or generate much revenue, and pressure will increase on the writer to “do a better job.”
  3. After 6-18 months of blogging without results, blogging will stop.

Basically, we’re saying that you shouldn’t hire a writer if you don’t have a content strategy. We’ve tackled the basics of auto part content marketing in this post, but that’s just the beginning. A good strategy requires you to take an analysis of your niche and to gain an understanding of your long-term goals and experience.

Reason #3 – We Need Someone To Write General Automotive Content Like Part Descriptions, Car Reviews, etc.

This is a fine reason to hire a writer. Auto parts ecommerce sites, for example, often find that creating their own custom part descriptions boosts search traffic and website revenue. Auto dealers and lead aggregators, in a similar fashion, often find that writing their own vehicle reviews helps with search traffic and lead gen.

Our only advice here is to consider hiring a general copywriter rather than an auto writer. While an experienced auto writer would no doubt be valuable for this type of work, it might be overkill. A general copywriter can be coached by someone in the industry who knows about cars (or parts or whatever), research what they need to know and do a fine job.

Why Are You Against Hiring Automotive Writers?

We’re not. A good automotive writer is a valuable asset for any company. Our only goal at Spork is to help companies in our industry sell more parts.

In that vein, hiring a specialized writer without a plan is a mistake. So is hiring a specialized writer when a general writer will do. The purpose of this post is to make sure no one makes these mistakes.

Good luck!

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Auto parts in the cardbox. Automotive basket shop. Auto parts store.