Content lies at the heart of almost every digital marketing strategy.
You need to consistently produce high-quality content that attracts, engages, educates, and guides your readers to take the desired action. Like booking a demo or scheduling a call.
To help you achieve your content marketing goals, we’ve put together a list of the 10 best content writing services.
But before we dive in, let’s start with the basics.
What Are Content Writing Services?
Companies use content writing services to outsource their content writing efforts.
These services include a wide range of content types. Like blog posts, email newsletters, website content, ebooks, and white papers.
The primary goal of these services is to produce high-quality and engaging content that helps companies achieve their marketing goals.
There are two kinds of businesses that offer content writing services:
- Content writing agencies: Businesses that have teams of professionals (including writers) with diverse sets of skills. An example: Beam Content, a B2B content marketing agency, has a team of researchers, strategists, writers, and editors who work together to produce high-quality content for their clients.
- Content writers: Individual professionals who offer their content writing services independently. An example: Melissa King is a freelance B2B SaaS content writer who has worked with some of industry’s biggest names. Like Zapier and WordPress.
Whether it’s an agency or a freelance content writer, it’s important to note that providers often specialize in specific industries and/or content formats.
For instance, some content writing agencies or freelance writers specialize in ebooks and white papers. If you need help with email newsletters, they might not be the right fit.
It’s important to first understand what your specific content needs are. Then look for content writing services that align with those needs.
Why Content Writing Services?
Here are a three reasons you should invest in professional content writing services:
1. You Can Produce Quality Content at Scale
Working with companies or solopreneurs that offer content writing services can help you accelerate your content production.
Suppose you want to publish 30 long-form blog posts on your website each month. This can be hard to achieve when relying solely on an in-house team of one or two content writers.
Here’s why:
Many companies don’t understand the role of quality content in a buyer’s journey. And the amount of time, effort, and research that’s required to produce high-quality content.
Due to this lack of understanding, they hire one or two full-time writers and expect them to churn out a huge volume of content each month.
The end result?
The content provided by the in-house writers is rushed, lacks depth, and doesn’t resonate with the target audience. Because they didn’t have enough time to devote to each piece.
Investing in reliable, top-tier content writing services can help you achieve a higher publishing frequency, while also making sure that the content meets your quality standards. Basically, more hands make lighter work.
2. You Eliminate the Need to Onboard Full-Time Writers
Hiring a full-time writer is a huge commitment. And it’s expensive.
Plan for an annual salary anywhere between $40,000 and $100,000 each year in the U.S. Throw additional costs into the mix. Like time spent hiring and training, office space and equipment, and benefits and perks.
Many companies are not ready to make this commitment. Especially the ones without a well-established content marketing engine in place.
For such companies, investing in content writing services can be a smart alternative.
You also have the flexibility to scale up or down. Or even pause content production if plans change.
Suppose your company is cutting down costs and has slashed your content writing budget from $5,000 to $1,000 per month. In that case, you can just reduce the amount of content you commission from the writing services.
Imagine if that happened with full-time writers on board. Now you’re looking at layoffs. Severance pay, potential legal fees associated with employment termination, and the impact on employee morale and company reputation can all create further costs.
3. You Can Produce Different Forms of Content Effortlessly
Finding an in-house writer who excels in a large array of content formats isn’t impossible. But it’s tough.
Some writers hold expertise in long-form blog posts. Some are well-known for their white paper writing. Then there are writers who are best suited for email newsletters and social media.
While you can ask your in-house writer to adapt to unfamiliar formats, they may not be able to offer the same quality that more specialized writers can.
Investing in content writing services solves this challenge.
Many content writing agencies have a diverse team of writers, each specializing in a few different content formats. On the other hand, if you’re more comfortable working with freelance writers, you have the advantage of handpicking individuals who are experts in exactly the formats you need.
Outsourcing your content production offers a lot of benefits. However, it’s important to carefully evaluate companies and solopreneurs that offer these services. Let’s review what to look for in a content writing service.
What to Look For in a Content Writing Service
Whether you’re looking to work with a content writing agency or freelance writers, evaluate them based on:
Content Quality
High-quality content can help you build trust and long-lasting relationships with your target audience. And encourage them to take some kind of desired action.
Conversely, low-quality content can push potential customers away. And may even damage your brand’s reputation.
So, while evaluating content writing services, look for those with a proven track record of producing high-quality content.
You can do this by reviewing their portfolio thoroughly and reading client testimonials.
Semrush Content Writing Managers Ana Camarena and Vlado Palvik emphasized the importance of quality content:
“We’re looking for perfectionists who are committed to producing top-notch content. We want to work with professionals who understand the topic thoroughly and are willing to offer alternative approaches when necessary.
Our selection process includes a rigorous trial assignment, and we rate their work on different aspects. This helps us compare them fairly.
Budget considerations are important, but we place a higher value on quality. Receiving an excellent first draft often equates to less editing and better performance in the long run.”
You should also evaluate their past work to see if it:
- Directly addresses the needs, interests, and pain points of the target audience
- Has a strong opening that immediately catches readers’ attention
- Keeps the target audience engaged
- Provides valuable information to the readers
- Follows the search engine optimization (SEO) best practices
- Encourages readers to take action
You can even go the extra mile by reaching out to some of the writer or agency’s previous clients directly for feedback.
Past Work Performance
Evaluate their past work based on how well it has performed or is currently performing. And whether it has helped their clients achieve their content marketing goals. For example, by increasing their organic search traffic, the number of leads generated, and/or getting new signups.
A good way to evaluate the performance of their blog posts is by using the Domain Overview tool.
Just enter the URL of a blog post they’ve written, and click “Search.”
Select “Exact URL” from the drop-down menu, as highlighted in the screenshot below. This will help you see specific metrics for that particular blog post.
Keep an eye on these metrics:
- Organic search traffic: The number of visits the blog post received from search engines
- Backlinks: The number of times other websites have linked to the blog post
- Top organic keywords: The keywords for which the blog post is ranking well in search engine results
- Organic traffic growth: The change in organic traffic over time
Evaluate several blog posts they’ve produced using the Domain Overview tool. Click the “Compare domains” tab to see statistics side by side.
For other content formats, different metrics need to be tracked. Read our comprehensive guide on the content marketing metrics for more.
Reliability
Avoid collaborating with companies or solopreneurs that consistently miss deadlines, are difficult to communicate with, and make the collaboration process more difficult than it should be.
Ask yourself:
Do you really want to work with someone who consistently misses their deadlines by 10 days? Or takes five days to respond every time you reach out to them?
There may be instances that justify occasional delays, slower responses, or poor collaboration. But if your content partner constantly misses deadlines, takes forever to respond, and makes collaboration difficult, you’re probably better off with another partner.
While evaluating content writing services, ask for references. Scope out their LinkedIn recommendations. Or reach out directly to their past clients to inquire how reliable they found the agency or freelancer to be.
Add-On Services
Content writing is just one aspect of content marketing.
To make sure your content drives the desired results, you need to:
- Build a powerful content marketing strategy
- Optimize your content for search engines
- Get high-quality backlinks
- Distribute this content in ways that it reaches your target audience
It’s worth considering content writing services that also offer a range of add-ons. Like content strategy development, content management, SEO, link building, content distribution, and promotion.
Many content writing agencies, especially, offer these kinds of add-on services. They may be less commonly available when working with freelance writers.
Cost
While evaluating content writing services, cost is an important consideration.
Prices can vary widely, depending on the quality of the service, content format, and the experience level of the professional(s) involved.
There’s no set standard for pricing in the content writing industry. For instance, content writers charge anywhere between $150 and $2,500 per long-form blog post.
It can be tempting to choose the budget-friendliest option every time. But remember: The cheapest option may not always be the best in terms of quality and effectiveness.
The same applies if you’re considering the most expensive options. For instance, a freelance writer who charges $2,500 a post might not actually deliver better quality than a writer who charges $1,000.
To find the best fit for your business:
- Analyze your monthly content requirements
- Set a fixed monthly budget you can invest in content writing
- Then, look for content writing services that can deliver the desired quality within your budget
Content Writers vs. Agencies: Which Should You Choose?
There is no objective wrong answer. But one answer will work better for some companies than for others.
Here’s a table illustrating the differences between working with content writers vs. agencies:
| Aspect | Content Writers | Content Writing Agencies |
| Time and Resources Spent | You’ll spend more time and resources finding, hiring, managing, training, communicating with, and providing guidance to freelance writers. An ideal approach is to build an in-house content marketing team and then onboard freelance writers as content partners. | Agencies will likely save you time and resources. That’s because they usually have a team of writers, along with project managers who oversee the project from start to finish. You don’t need to build a dedicated in-house content marketing team. You can just assign someone to oversee the collaboration with the agency and ensure that the content aligns with your brand guidelines and goals. |
| Control | Offers more control over the overall content creation process. You choose writers to work with. You have a direct line of communication with the writers. You provide all the guidance and feedback they’ll need to produce high-quality content. | Doesn’t offer as much direct control over the content creation process. Typically, you communicate with project managers and content leads rather than directly with the writers themselves. Often, you can’t provide direct feedback or guidance, but more a general overview or reaction. If you’re not well aligned with the agency content team, this can result in quality issues. |
| Expertise and Specialization | Allows for selective hiring based on specific expertise or niche specialization. But it takes a little more legwork to find each person individually. | Typically, agencies have a team of writers already who hold expertise across different industries and content formats. |
Top 10 Content Writing Services to Consider in 2024
Here are some of the best content writing services you can use in 2024.
1. Superpath
Superpath is a leading Slack community for content marketers and writers. It had more than 15,000 active members as of the time of publication.
Businesses of all sizes use Superpath to find content writing services.
There are two ways to hire content writing services on Superpath:
Post Your Request in the #freelance-gigs Channel
Head over to their #freelance-gigs channel.
Find the Airtable URL in the channel's description.
Click on the link and fill out the submission form.
After filling the form, your request will automatically be posted on their #freelance-gigs channel. Like this:
You can also post your request directly. However, it’s not the recommended approach.
Post Your Request Using Their Job Board
This is a paid option.
To post a freelance job listing, you need to pay a flat fee of $99.
Once you submit your request, it’ll appear on Superpath’s Job Board.
Your request will also be cross-posted in Superpath’s #job-listings channel.
And in their weekly roundup:
Superpath is a goldmine for companies looking to outsource their content production. You can find a lot of talented writers and agencies that offer content writing services here.
Aside from content writing, you can also find talented professionals who can help you with other aspects of content marketing like SEO, content audits, content strategy, and more.
2. Upwork
Upwork is a freelance marketplace that connects companies with individual professionals and agencies from all across the globe.
According to the most recent data, more than 18 million professionals offer their services on Upwork.
You can use Upwork to hire individual professionals and agencies with specific skill sets. Like graphic designers, content writers, and product managers.
There are three ways to hire content writing services on Upwork:
Post a Job
Sign up as a client and post a job listing.
Once published, freelancers and agencies who find your project relevant to their skills will send you proposals.
These proposals typically include an introduction, an overview of their experience, a proposed approach to your project, and their pricing.
You can review these proposals and reach out to the ones you find promising.
To attract the best content writers and agencies, make your job description as detailed as possible. Verify your payment method and make sure to mention a budget range.
You can also browse provider profiles and invite specific freelancers or agencies to apply to your job if you find they align well with your needs.
Find Them Directly
This approach involves using Upwork’s search functionality to search for freelancers or agencies directly.
Just enter the service you want to hire and select “Talent” from the drop-down menu. Like this:
Next, manually vet the resulting freelancers and agencies based on your specific requirements. You can use filters to narrow your search. Like hourly rate, talent type (freelancers, agencies or both), and location.
Once you identify the best fit(s), you can directly message or even hire them.
Use Upwork’s Project Catalog Feature
This feature lets you find writers/agencies that can start working on your project almost immediately.
Just enter the service you’re looking to hire and select “Projects” from the drop-down menu. Like this:
You’ll see a list of pre-defined projects offered by freelancers and agencies.
Each project in the catalog includes a fixed price (for different tiers) and a detailed description of what the service includes.
3. Peak Freelance Community
Peak Freelance is a Slack community of 1,000+ writers and agency professionals from across the globe. It’s a place where some of the most talented freelance writers ask questions, help each other, and discuss all-things-content.
There are two ways to find content writing services on Peak Freelance:
Post Your Request in the #jobs channel
Just head over to their #jobs channel and post your request.
Post Your Request Using Their Job Board
Just like Superpath, Peak Freelance also has their own Job Board.
To post a freelance job listing, you need to choose from one of their paid plans.
4. Content by Peak
Content by Peak is a boutique B2B content marketing agency run by Michael Keenan, the cofounder at Peak Freelance. As a freelance writer, Michael has worked with leading SaaS companies like Shopify, Descript, ManyChat, and HelpScout.
Content by Peak offers the following services: content strategy, production, and refreshing.
They don’t have a concrete pricing in place, but they mention that their pricing starts at $5,000/month on their Contact Us page.
5. Fiverr
Fiverr is another freelance marketplace. More than 4.3 million active buyers use it each year.
You can use Fiverr to hire individual professionals and agencies who offer a wide range of services.
Fiverr operates just like Upwork’s Project Catalog. The platform lets you find professionals who can start working on your project almost immediately.
Just search for the type of service you want.
You’ll get a list of pre-defined gigs (projects) related to that service. Explore them to find the best fit for you.
You can use filters to narrow your search. Like seller details, budget, or delivery time.
Every gig on Fiverr includes pricing (for different tiers) and a detailed description of what the service includes. Along with additional information related to the service being offered.
Once you find the best professionals for your business, you can either purchase their pre-defined gig or reach out to them directly to discuss custom requirements.
6. ProBlogger
ProBlogger’s Job Board attracts thousands of freelance writers each month.
It’s an online service used by companies to find writers and agencies.
Standard job listings start at $80.
You can also opt for Employer Membership packages to get additional discounts.
Once you sign up, submit a request. Add information to it like job type (contract, freelance, full-time, part-time), job title, category, and description.
Once live, your listing will look like this:
7. Verblio
Verblio is popular among companies with smaller content production budgets.
They have an extensive network of over 3,000 freelance writers and editors along with dedicated project managers to help you produce content effortlessly.
You can order different forms of content like website copy, blog posts, white papers, and press releases.
Verblio offer two pricing tiers:
- AI+ human content ($0.06 per word + $49.50 monthly fee): Created by writers using their internal AI tools
- Human content ($0.16 per word): 100% created by writers
If you plan to produce more than 50 articles a month on a regular basis, Verblio also offers a 100% managed services tier. It comes with a dedicated project manager and customized workflows built specifically for you.
8. Beam Content
Beam Content is a content marketing agency for B2B SaaS companies. They have worked with some of the best B2B SaaS companies in their respective industries. Like Outreach, Dooly, Groundswell, and MessageBird.
Brooklin Nash, Beam Content cofounder, brings more than a decade of experience to the table. He’s well-known and popular among companies for writing content that drives actual conversations.
Beam Content can help you with different aspects of content marketing—from content ideation to writing to repurposing and distribution. They hold expertise in building results-driven content engines from scratch.
Their pricing depends on your specific requirements. But on their website, they mention that their minimum monthly rate is $7,500.
9. HawkSEM
HawkSEM is a full-fledged digital marketing agency well-known for producing high-quality content for clients.
They specialize in different forms of content like website copy, blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and press releases.
HawkSEM has worked with brands like Microsoft, Verizon, and DirectTV.
Aside from content writing, HawkSEM also offers a wide range of content marketing services like content strategy, distribution, SEO, and content editing.
HawkSEM doesn’t have public fixed pricing.They offer a free consultation where you can discuss your specific requirements. And based on that, they’ll give you a quote.
10. Pepper Content
Pepper Content is an AI-powered content marketing platform that offers a dedicated marketplace for companies to connect with writers.
Businesses of all sizes work with Pepper Content. Some of their customers include Amazon Pay, Adani, and RVshare.
Their talent marketplace comprises over 100,000 writers who have gone through a rigorous vetting process. These freelancers specialize in different forms of content like blog posts, social media, product descriptions, and more.
The company leverages its AI technology to match businesses with the most suitable writers based on the project's requirements and the writer's expertise.
Pepper Content also provides businesses with project management capabilities to work with freelance writers. This includes tracking their progress, sharing files, and managing workflows.
You can also directly communicate with these writers to discuss project details and provide feedback.
Empower Your Content Team to Produce High-Quality Content
Whether you work with an agency or an individual writer, empower them to deliver top-notch content using Semrush’s rich suite of content marketing tools:
- Topic Research: Generate ideas for engaging content
- SEO Content Template: Generate actionable briefs for SEO-friendly content
- SEO Writing Assistant: Optimize your content for SEO and engagement, once it’s delivered