The Ultimate Guide to Content Writing Services that Drive Results

Despite the turbulence of AI, SGE, and the rise of other forms of marketing, content is still – and will likely always be – king. For over three decades, content writing services have been a top investment for marketing departments. From capturing new leads to improving a brand’s visibility, it’s not hard to see why this strategy has stuck around for so long.

According to recent data published by Statista, content marketing services boast a revenue of nearly $100 billion, with an expected figure of $107.5 billion by 2026. This is hardly surprising considering 6/10 content marketing teams expect to increase their writing budget in the next 12 months.

Source: Graph to show the total revenue in USD billions of content marketing services.

But where does this budget go, and how are marketing teams creating content that drives revenue to their businesses? In this article, we’ll explore everything you need to know about content writing services that drive results, touching on leading formats, writing strategies, and outlining my proven method for writing content that drives ROI.

What Are Content Writing Services?

Content writing services are any form of writing that businesses post online in order to engage their audience, reach new customers, and build their digital presence. Content writing can come in many forms, spanning from online articles and social media posts to white papers and website copy. 

For the majority of businesses, content writing is handled by a mixture of internal and external writers. Internally, marketing teams will develop content ideas, shape content marketing campaigns, and outline a customer journey that customers will move through. Businesses might then bring in external help from freelance content writers or marketing agencies to bring those campaigns to fruition.

Different sectors will specialize in distinct content, with certain industries favoring slightly different content writing areas. For example, a SaaS content writing campaign may focus on thought leadership and white papers, while a digital marketing company may instead choose to produce lots of top-of-the-funnel articles for their site.

Why Content Writing Matters for Business Growth

Content writing has remained a central pillar of digital marketing, as it has, year upon year, delivered an impressive ROI, driven consumer awareness, and helped to build up company credibility. 

There are a range of reasons why content writing matters for business growth:

• Improves SEO and Website Ranking: Content writing services can improve your natural presence on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), improving your rank and bringing in more organic clicks. When delivered in tandem with link building and other content marketing strategies, you can sail up the SERP rankings and hit that top spot.

• Builds Brand Authority: If your business is always one of the top results when someone Googles a question related to your industry, you look like seasoned veterans. If you have an article for every topic in your field, people will begin to associate your brand with the gold standard for your field. There’s a reason top contenders in every field cultivate an active, insightful, and expansive blog.

• Enhances Lead Generation: Ranking well on Google and other SERPs boosts the likelihood of a customer clicking on your website. Investing in content writing is a fantastic strategy to bring organic traffic to your website and enhance your lead generation.

• Improves Audience Trust: If a customer arrives on a website and finds it completely devoid of content, they’re more likely to have suspicions about the validity of that website. If your website is filled with useful, insightful, and well-written digital content, you’re instantly showing your audience that you’re reputable and trustworthy. 

While these are the most prominent reasons that content writing matters for business growth, there are a number of other reasons that businesses keep investing. Below, you’ll find the top 11 reasons that companies invest in content writing services:

Source: SurveyMonkey data of the most important objectives of content marketing strategy.

What to Look for in a Quality Content Writing Service

If your internal marketing team needs a little extra support, then you’re likely to search for a freelance B2B content writer to help you fill the gaps. Thanks to modern freelancer job pages like Upwork, you’ve got more choice than ever before. That said, not all writers can produce the same content. Quality, depth of research, and authenticity can all vary greatly. 

With that in mind, whether you’re working with an external agency or a freelancer, here’s what to look for in a quality content writing service:

• Expertise: The vast majority of content writing services specialize in a narrow range of topic areas. For example, you might work with a tech content writer that has experience with cloud services, blockchain, and cybersecurity. That person likely isn’t the best fit if you’re looking to develop a cooking and recipe-sharing site. Make sure you find a writer with the exact expertise that you need.

• SEO Knowledge: Search Engine Optimization isn’t just a nice additional skill to have; it’s an essential part of effective digital content writing that every writer should know. When scoping out potential writers, make sure they’re up to speed on modern SEO practices, including SGE and how it informs ranking strategies.

• Portfolio: A portfolio of previous content in a particular subject area niche is always a good sign. While many writers work under NDAs, they should have a few articles they can share with you to give you an idea of what you can expect when working with them.

• Testimonials: A few solid testimonials from previous clients are always a good sign. Social proof, in whatever context it may be, shows businesses that a writer has had positive workplace relationships previously and has carried products to completion.

If you want to know more about how someone works, the prices they charge, or their upcoming schedule, it’s harmless to shoot over an email inquiry. It’s always better to do your due diligence and find an excellent content writer instead of settling for less. It also greatly streamlines the process of hiring a content writer if you know more about them!

The Role of SEO Content Writing Services

The vast majority of web content writing services aim to help businesses rank well online. In order to hit that first page of Google and other SERPs, it’s vital that writers include search engine optimization as a core part of their writing strategy.

SEO content writing services help improve content by:

• Ensuring it ranks well on SERPs: SEO enables SERPs to better catalog and recommend content.

• Maintain readability and clarity: SEO content writing helps to ensure content appeals to both human readers and search engines.

• Structuring content effectively: An effective SEO content plan can provide a streamlined content structure to improve writing and coherence on the page.

• Promotes good on-page SEO: SEO content writing involves on-page optimization, which is a major part of enhancing rankability and readability.

There are even more benefits to SEO content writing than I’ve listed here, but this gives you an idea just how important a command of SEO is for digital writers.

How to Brief Your Freelance Content Writer

If you’ve taken the leap and are beginning to work with a freelance content writer, you might be wondering what you need to deliver. After all, they’re going to spearhead the actual writing process. To ensure things run as smoothly as possible, you should deliver a succinct brief of what you’re expecting.

Here is what you should include on a freelance content writer brief:

• Page Purpose and Strategy: What is the purpose of this content? Is it top-of-the-funnel content that aims to generate awareness or is it bottom-of-the-funnel marketing that aims to convert? 

• Important Links and Context: Are there any internal resources that the writer needs to complete this work? Maybe your company has a tone of voice document or some specific writing guidance to share.

• Audience: What audience is the writer aiming to connect with? Are these your loyal and seasoned customers or people just hearing about your company for the first time?

• Tone of Voice: Professional, down-to-earth, comic—the tone of voice of content writing can vary enormously. Make sure to brief your freelance writer on how you want them to sound (examples are always welcome).

• Target Word Count: Is there a specific word count or range that you had in mind for this piece?

• Primary Keyword(s): Include the main keyword that your article aims to rank for.

• Secondary Long-tails: Are there any related keywords that the writer should include in the article? Remember, we’re long past keyword stuffing, so including specific number counts for each search term is a little outdated.

• Competitor Links: Do you have any competitor links that the writer should read through before writing? It’s a good idea to look at what’s ranking so they have a better idea of how to write a successful article and what to include that your competitors left out.

This is an absolute minimum. A more extensive content writer brief could also include title suggestions, an outline of the H2s and H3s in an article, and any other notes to the writer. Of course, every company is different, so you might want to include different fields when delivering a brief to your writers.

If your business needs a little extra help, I’ve written out a guide on how to write a content brief for your freelance content writer, which includes a full template you can copy.

What Are the Types of Content Writing Services?

Businesses deploy online content for a range of purposes, spanning from improving business authority to engaging new customers and even converting existing ones. Companies use different types of content writing for distinct reasons.

Here are the 15 types of content writing services that your business is likely to come across:

1. Blogs and Article Writing

2. Website Copy

3. Landing Pages

4. Product Descriptions

5. Social Media Writing

6. Community Building Writing

7. Email Marketing Support

8. Newsletters

9. Press Releases

10. Video Scripts

11. Thought Leadership

12. Guest Posts

13. Case studies

14. White papers

15. Ghostwriting

These freelance writer services can also heavily change depending on the industry you work in. For example, a tech company is more likely to need content writing support with technical white papers, while an HR company might mainly be looking for articles for their site.

Let’s break down all of these in a little more detail.

Blogs and Article Writing

There’s a reason that Wix predicts there are over 600 million active blogs in the world. Blog and article writing is one of the most effective content writing services, and one that every single successful business engages in. From increasing your website traffic by 55% on average to leading to 126% higher growth, blogging helps supercharge your website.

Blog and article writing typically follows a set content plan. Businesses will produce SEO content marketing plans that include a range of keywords they would like to rank for. Working with SEO freelance writer services to design and then launch this campaign, writers will work through these articles, producing content that then goes live on their website.

Articles are a staple of the content writing world and one of the most important to understand.

Source: 2025 Marketing Data on Blogging Traffic Increases.

Website Copy

Website copy, or copywriting, is a more refined, targeted type of content writing that includes writing for websites, homepages, and product pages. You might only have 15 words on your homepage—how will your brand stand out to your audience? 

If article writing involves producing thousands upon thousands of words, copywriting is producing highly refined, concise, and impactful sentences. You want to make your point in as few words as possible, with puns, punchy phrases, and powerful language coming to the forefront.

Website copywriting refers to any writing that will go directly on your public-facing pages. Think about your homepage, about us, and contact page—all of which should send the right image to your customers. 

Here’s a fantastic homepage of a company I’ve worked with in the past.

Source: Homepage for LeaveDates.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are singular digital pages that rank for specific keywords. Typically, these pages aim to make users perform a certain action. For example, you could have a landing page that brings people to your site to sign up for a newsletter, download your PDF resources, start a product demonstration, or even buy a product. 

Just like with copywriting, this is a succinct content writing service that could only include a handful of words per page. You want to make your point as quickly and effectively as possible when writing a landing page.

That said, landing pages also need to be highly optimized for SEO, as you’ll want to create a continuous stream of organic traffic to the page. 

Traffic is one part of a landing page, conversion is the other.

Product Descriptions

If you’ve ever bought something online, then chances are you’ve read your fair share of product descriptions. Product description content writing is another form of copywriting where you craft a short description of what a product is, what it could be used for, and include any useful specifications that a user is going to want to know. 

Especially in B2C environments, like eCommerce stores, writing product descriptions is essential. 

Social Media Writing

There are over 6 billion active users on social media. That’s a whole lot of eyes that could be seeing your products, solutions, and marketing campaigns. Social media content writing is another leading form of marketing, as it helps generate clicks from bustling sites like Facebook, Twitter (X), Reddit, Quora, and more. 

Many users come into contact with hundreds of social media content marketing posts every single day without even realizing it. Whenever you see a product or post from a brand online, you’re seeing something that’s been carefully planned, crafted, and published.

The best social media writing will help:

• Generate awareness for your product.

• Increase visibility for your brand.

• Gather clicks and generate new leads for your company.

With how popular social media is, especially with Millennials and Gen Z, this form of freelance content writing service isn’t going anywhere.

Source: Total number of social media users from 2017 to 2028.

Community Building Writing

Community building writing is a strategy in which writers engage with customers through platforms like Reddit or Telegram to answer community questions, respond to ideas, and share project progress. This form of writing helps create transparency, foster a sense of customer inclusion, and build a strong audience foundation. 

Writing for a community can involve responding to customer feedback in a public way, writing updates so that everyone knows what your team is actively working on, or simply engaging with your community to strengthen ties. 

One area where community building is especially important is in fields where trust tends to be limited, like in blockchain or DeFi projects. A blockchain content writer will understand the importance of creating a community around a project, as this is one of the leading strategies for boosting visibility and building audience trust.

Email Marketing Support

There’s a famous statistic in content marketing that’s been making its rounds for the past decade with slight variation each year. It goes: every $1 spent on email marketing produced a $36 ROI. Over the past few years, I’ve seen this statistic dip as low as $32 and come in as high as $45. The important thing is – email marketing is incredibly profitable for your business.

Due to its profitability, email marketing writing services are extremely popular, with businesses all over the world looking for content writers to streamline their email chain creation. One reason why email marketing is so effective is that you can create an email campaign about essentially anything:

• Traffic generation campaigns

• Awareness campaigns

• Lead nurturing campaigns

• Revenue generation campaigns

• And so on!

According to HubSpot, the leading reason that businesses use email marketing is to enhance customer loyalty and boost retention. That said, several other foundational motives follow closely in its lead:

Source: HubSpot Top Business Objectives for Email Marketing Strategies.

Newsletters

Newsletters have become increasingly popular with consumers, especially since platforms like Substack hit the market back in 2017. Newsletters often revolve around one singular content pillar, like tech news, tips from experts in a certain field, or even personal takes on recent political data. Each week, a company sends out their newsletter, giving their audience a rundown on everything that has happened in their sector since the last edition.

Producing newsletters is now a central content writing service that many freelance writers help with. For writers with a background in research or academia, these weekly spaces are a fantastic way to gather and share information with a large email list of interested individuals.

For businesses, newsletters are a fantastic way of showing that you’re at the forefront of your industry while also building brand visibility and authority with your customers over time. 

Press Releases

Press releases are short 200-500 word articles that companies send out to news websites in their niche. A press release content writing service manages these pieces of PR, crafting succinct releases that detail what is being announced, why it’s important, and any industry impact this news will have.

Press release content writing services are fast-paced and often require a quick turnaround. Often, journalists will write stories based on the details in a press release, meaning these are vital to ensuring your brand hits the headlines as soon as it drops a new product or solution.

Video Scripts

Global spending on video marketing has steadily increased over the past few years. Especially during and after the pandemic, video marketing really came to center stage, with brands around the world looking to capture a slice of the attention platforms like TikTok can bring. In 2025, spending on video content writing services is up by 8.4%, soaring above $200 billion.

With the rise of the short-form video field, the video scriptwriting content writing service was born. From producing scripts for advertisements to producing scripts for user-generated content videos, writers in this segment can expect high demand for shorter video script projects.

Thought Leadership

Thought leadership is original content that delves into a new idea, trend, or perspective in a certain field. The purpose of thought leadership is to present something truly unique, often framing the author of the post as an original thinker in that industry. Thought leadership is one of the most heavily ghostwritten content writing services.

While thought leadership used to be mainly housed on websites like Forbes and other leaders in each sector, there’s been a recent spike in LinkedIn thought leadership. This is where C-suite executives hire ghostwriters to write thought leadership that they post on their LinkedIn page.

Thought leadership helps to present a company as an expert and leader in the field, inspire conversation in an industry, and (with the right ideas) can radically boost brand visibility. 

Guest Posts

Guest posts are a subsection of article writing services where businesses will create content to post on other websites. Winning guest post spots is a part of an effective link-building strategy, as by posting on someone else’s site, you can embed a link that directs users back to your site. These links act as an affirmation of authenticity for SERPs, helping you to enhance your domain rating and move up the results pages.

There are entire news websites dedicated entirely to guest posting. Often, content marketing agencies will create profiles on all the major sites, allowing them to distribute links to their client across a range of well-respected websites. There are even subsections of websites, like Forbes Council, where high-profile sites like Forbes allow companies to post to their site, giving them a backlink in return for content. 

Source: The description section of a Forbes Council post, including a backlink to the poster’s website.

Case studies

Case studies are a leading method of demonstrating the results of your product or solution, demonstrating with empirical evidence and quantitative data that you’re able to bring customers something impressive. Case study writing is heavily research-oriented and involves several standard sections that a writer needs to move through. These span from an executive summary across findings and toward a conclusion.

There are several sectors where case studies are a central part of the product offering. SaaS content writers, for example, will likely understand how to create an effective case study that shows a product in its best light. Even the largest companies in the world regularly publish case studies on how they can help customers, how effective their previous campaigns were, and what quantitative impact they made with their solution.

Source: Uber Case Study on Coke Marketing Performance During FIFA Women’s World Cup. 

White papers

A white paper is a long-form report that delves into a problem, analyzes it, and proposes a well-researched solution. Typically, companies will create white papers around their own products or solutions, outlining the exact problem they solve and how that helps their customers. White papers are extremely research-heavy and can reach upward of 50 pages.

Depending on the specific field that a white paper writer is working in, they may have to engage with technical research methods like data analysis. A white paper acts as a persuasive piece of writing that establishes a solution or idea as the best possible option for that respective problem.

The title of a private case study I wrote for international tech titan Revenera.

Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is a bonus content writing service here, because all of the above categories can be ghostwritten. Ghostwriting means that the author of the article, social media post, white paper, or whatever content form they work in doesn’t receive credit for the post. This form of digital writing is often attributed to someone else or simply written under the name of the company that’s paying for the writing.

After a decade of experience as a ghostwriter, I can safely say that the general public would be shocked to find out just how much content is ghostwritten. When you read an article from a CEO that’s published online, you’re likely reading a ghostwriter’s content. When you read a written digital interview, there’s no guarantee that the interviewee ever actually wrote those responses.

Ghostwriting is essential to the digital content writing ecosystem, as the vast majority of companies want full ownership of their content. 

What Part of the Customer Journey Do These Content Writing Services Support?

While each of these content writing services is important in its own regard, they don’t all come at the same stage of the customer journey. The customer journey is their movement across different stages of contact with your business, starting out as unaware of your company and moving through the journey all the way to a loyal customer.

Before becoming a customer, each user moves through several stages of understanding, each of which defines their relationship to your company differently. Different forms of content work best in each of these stages:

• ToFu Content: Top-of-the-Funnel Content.

• MoFu Content: Middle-of-the-Funnel Content.

• BoFu Content: Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content

Let’s break down which content writing services shine in each of these areas.

Source: The three content funnel stages and popular content forms in each.

What Is ToFu Content?

Top-of-the-funnel content is aimed at customers that are completely unaware of your business and are only just coming into contact with your company. ToFu content is often broad, educational, and aimed at introducing your company in a positive light. At this stage of the content funnel, you’re not trying to sell your customers anything. On the contrary, this stage is all about building up awareness and trust with your potential future customers.

The ToFu stage is defined by awareness and attraction and uses the following content writing services:

• Blogs and article writing: Creating SEO-focused articles to rank on SERPs and capture clicks from new customers.

• Social media posts: Encountering new potential customers by going viral or by getting your posts seen by people around the world.

• Thought leadership: Your insightful ideas could be the first point of contact a new customer has with your business.

• Guest posts: Guest posts are tofu content, as they help broaden your presence online, increasing your visibility and brand recognition.

• Video posts: Video scripts, like those that become TikTok videos or product explainers, can be a great way of making contact with new customers.

• Press releases: Press releases help put your brand’s name in front of regular news readers. Over time, this can transform into familiarity and help attract customers deeper into the content funnel.

For freelance content writers, the ability to tailor content to ensure it fulfills the purpose of ToFu content is an essential skill.

What is MoFu Content?

Middle-of-the-Funnel content is aimed at nurturing customers that are already familiar with your brand, helping to build their trust in your company and push them towards a sale. This stage is important, as it transforms people who are aware of your business into those that are much more likely to make a purchase.

The MoFu stage is defined by consideration and nurturing and uses the following content writing services:

• Email marketing support: Reaching out to customers that have interacted with your website can bring your name back into their mind.

• Newsletters: Regularly contacting your audience builds familiarity and enhances your brand visibility.

• Blogs and articles: Certain blogs, like those that explore your products and how they can benefit customers, can be powerful MoFu content.

• White papers: Research-focused long-form white papers can show interested customers why they should consider buying from your company over competitors.

• Community building writing: Community building, like writing a newsletter, can help strengthen your relationship with customers, enhancing their likelihood of converting in the future.

While often overlooked, MoFu content is a vital part of the customer content funnel.

What is BoFu Content?

Bottom-of-the-Funnel content is aimed at bringing customers over the finish line. BoFu content seeks to make potential customers convert into actual customers, streamlining the final decision-making process. BoFu is vital in the content writing funnel, as it is where the ROI of the entire content marketing process is unlocked.

The BoFu stage is defined by conversion and decision-making and uses the following content writing services:

• Product demonstration: Product demos that show how to use your product and how it directly benefits your customers are fantastic BoFu content.

• Landing pages: Conversion-optimized landing pages can help persuade an interested customer into making a purchase.

• Product descriptions: Product descriptions, when optimized for conversion, can help persuade customers and show exactly why they should buy your product.

• Case studies: Case studies with evidence-backed facts exemplify the benefits you can bring to customers and show how you’ve succeeded in the past.

While BoFu content writing is the end of the content funnel, there are several post-purchase forms of writing which customers should engage in.

How to Choose Freelance Writer Services

With millions of potential freelancers and 10s of different freelance marketplaces, it can be challenging to know where to begin. Here’s a quick guide on how to choose freelance writer services and where to find the best writers.

Here are the most common ways that businesses get in contact with top freelancers:

• Upwork: Upwork is the largest freelance services marketplace on the web, connecting millions of workers with businesses looking for an extra hand. I even started out on Upwork back in 2016 – how time flies! 

• Fiverr: Fiverr is another popular freelance services marketplace that has potential workers across every field, from writing and translation to video and animation.

• Personal websites: If you’re reading this, you’re already a step ahead! The vast majority of top freelancers will have a personal website where you can read more about their writing industries and writing services while also checking out previous writing samples.

An important step when contacting a freelancer via any of these platforms is to vet them and their work. It’s a great sign if your freelancer has written testimonials from previous clients, years of experience, and lots of portfolio examples for the industry that you want to work with them in.

My Proven Content Writing Service Strategy

Content writing services that convert don’t come easy. Creating effective content that is both readable for humans and pleasing to the SERP overlords is a skill, but one that can definitely be developed over time.

Here is a brief overview of my proven content writing service strategy that I’ve used to:

• Increase website traffic by 600% in 6 months.

• Transform the inbound marketing of a business from 5 leads/month to over 500.

• Rank in the top 3 on Google for 100s of keywords.

Let’s break down the fundamentals.

Keyword Planning

Keyword research and SEO are fundamental in content writing and content marketing strategy. While keyword stuffing is ineffective, it’s still important to include keywords in all written content. 

When a search engine indexes a page, it uses a machine to read the content, H2s, and H3s. Based on the keywords in the H1, H2s, H3s, and body, search engines develop a rough idea of what the page does, what information it gives, and what it could offer to people searching online. 

By developing a keyword strategy for a piece of content, you ensure you rank for the right keywords. For example, if there’s a particular keyword you want to rank for, you can target that and longtails around it to enhance the likelihood of ranking for that term. 

That said, not all search terms are equal. Some keywords have higher difficulty, making it more challenging to rank. Others have much more traffic, so balancing difficulty against volume becomes an important equilibrium.

Here are a few central tools you can use for keyword research and planning:

• SEMrush: My preferred SEO tool of choice, SEMrush is a great all-rounder for developing a keyword strategy and investigating KD/volume and other important SEO metrics.

• Ahrefs: Another industry standard, Ahrefs is virtually the same as SEMrush but offers a number of unique tools that make it a favorite among many SEO strategists.

• Google Keyword Planner: A free SEO tool that’s great for beginners or those looking for some general ideas about SEO strategy.

While not an exhaustive list, using these tools is a great place to begin. I always start with SEO research, making a list of central keywords, and outlining the SEO strategy for a freelance SEO campaign I’m running.

Source: SEMRUSH Keyword Insight.

Company Research

Another important aspect of delivering effective content writing services is that you should be aware of what a company’s competitors are doing. Conducting SEO research on your target company is one thing, but you can enrich that data with competitor analysis. 

Competitor analysis involves discovering what keywords your competitors rank for, which search terms bring them the most traffic, and identifying gaps in their content strategy. By developing this understanding, you can better position your content in the industry you’re working in.

The best freelance SEO content writing services will be able to leverage this information to outrank competitors and even divert traffic away from their pages and back toward your target company.

There’s a reason that 90% of Fortune 500 businesses already use competitor insight analysis! 

Drafting

After conducting extensive SEO and competitor research, you’ll have a good understanding of what content writing services are going to be most effective for the company you’re working with. Most of the time, businesses will need help with ToFu content, which aims to build awareness and capture the attention of new customers.

At this stage, it’s time to hit the page. Your first draft should center around one keyword while also branching into covering related topics defined in your long-tail research. The total word count of the piece will vary depending on its purpose and the scope of the keyword you address.

Depending on the freelance content writer you work with, the exact details of the drafting stage will vary. There are SEO tools you can use at this stage to help you, like SurferSEO which helps determine the exact keyword density of terms you should use in each article.

Source: SurferSEO content score on an article I worked on in 2025.

Delivery and Refinement

After writing your first draft, it’s a good idea to leave it a few days before coming back to it. When you return, you’ll have fresh eyes to refine your content into its best possible version. Once you think your writing is as good as it can be and does the best job possible of achieving its SEO intention, it’s time to pass it off to the client.

The number of rounds of revisions will depend heavily on the writer, the client, and the contract they have between them. As an example, I always provide 1-2 rounds of edits on all the content I write, as this allows businesses to ensure the content is as close to their style, voice, and vision as possible.

At this stage, you’ll go back and forth with the company you work for to refine the content, improving what’s on the page until you’re ready to hit publish.

Freelance Content Writer vs Content Writing Agency vs AI

When looking for online B2B content writing services, you have three choices. You can partner with a freelance content writer, you can look for a larger content writing agency, or you can turn to an AI writing tool.

Let’s break down the pros and cons of each of these.

Drawbacks and benefits of working with a freelance content writer

Working with a quality freelance content writer is a flexible, lower-cost, and reliable method of producing digital content. You can find expert freelance writers in any niche imaginable, making this a great choice for businesses that are ready to expand their digital presence with content marketing.

Here are some of the pros and cons of working with a freelance content writer:

Pros of working with a freelance content writer:

• A cost-effective choice.

• Access to highly specialized skills and seasoned experts in their fields.

• Faster turnaround times and fresh perspectives.

Cons of using a freelance content writing service:

• You may require multiple freelancers depending on the size of your project.

• You might need to vet a reliable worker before starting the project.

• Your company may need a clear vision of the project you want to produce.

Of course, with the right freelance content writing service, you’ll be able to remedy these cons fairly easily and find a reliable worker for continual work. For example, I’ve been working with some of the same companies for nearly 5 years now – it doesn’t get much more reliable than that!

Drawbacks and benefits of working with a content writing agency

A content writing agency is a highly scalable option when a business needs to produce a large quantity of digital work. Content writing agencies either have in-house writers or hire their own freelance content writers to complete large content marketing projects.

Here are some of the pros and cons of working with a content writing agency:

Pros of a content writing agency:

• Can include an extensive SEO strategy.

• Extremely scalable content writing for large projects.

• Access to a diverse range of knowledge.

Cons of a content writing agency:

• Content agencies often charge higher rates.

• Content agencies often expect long-term contracts.

• Negotiations with an agency can take more time.

While there are benefits of working with a content writing agency, you can often find the same benefits for a cheaper rate with a freelance content writer. Additionally, some content writing agencies reject any proposals that involve ghostwriting, as they want their brand attached to any campaigns they run.

Drawbacks and benefits of working with AI

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. However, that doesn’t mean it’s always the best option. Especially in the realm of SEO, you want to publish content that actually engages your audience and adds something to the conversation. With that in mind, an AI tool that is built to produce the most average work possible (by surmising thousands of other articles) isn’t always the right choice.

Here are the pros and cons of working with an AI writer.

Pros of AI writing:

• Cheap to produce.

• Fast to produce.

• Can offer ideas to writers that lack creativity.

Cons of AI writing:

• Extremely generic content.

• Concerns with plagiarism and quality.

• Lack of broader vision in creating pieces that fit into a long-term SEO strategy.

If you want to mass-produce content and don’t have any worries about its quality, then AI could be a good option for you. However, I’d strongly recommend having a qualified content writer and SEO strategist oversee this process to refine any outputs and conduct quality assessments.

Based on recent data from the State of Freelance Writing Report 2025, 28% of freelance writers don’t use AI at all, while 17.8% use it regularly, typically for tasks like content brief generation or SEO research. This emphasises the point that AI remains a tool, not a replacement, in most professional writing workflows.

How Much Do Content Writing Services Cost?

There are several factors that can change the cost of content writing services. For example, the complexity of the content you want written can heavily influence cost. A technical deep dive on a security protocol requires a lot more experience than writing an article on the ten best coffee shops in Lisbon. Equally, the length, turnaround time, and experience of the writer all come into play.

Here are some common pricing strategies of content writing that you can consider:

• Price per word: Many B2B writers charge per word. This is a simple solution, as the longer the article you want is, the more you’ll pay.

• Retainer: Other freelance writers that work with companies for an extended period of time charge a retainer fee. A retainer fee involves the writer producing a certain number of content pieces per month, with a monthly bill recurring to the company.

• Hourly: Some content areas require a huge amount of research, making per-word pricing strategies a poor reflection of the total working time. Due to this, some content writing services bill per hour. This is very common in copywriting, as the final product could be only a handful of words.

If you’re unsure how much a certain writing service costs, always reach out with an inquiry. 

Most Common Content Writing Service Areas

There are several content writing service areas and niches that writers commonly work in. If there is a business area, there’s likely a writing specialist that covers that content. 

To give you a general idea, here are some of the most common content writing service niches:

• B2B: B2B content writing is creating digital content that helps businesses demonstrate the efficacy and utility of their products to other companies. 

• B2C: B2C content writing is creating engaging content that a business publishes to engage its customers and build consumer relationships.

• SaaS: SaaS content writing involves creating content that explains how SaaS solutions work, why customers will benefit from them, and why this SaaS product solves a certain problem.

• Finance: Finance content writing covers personal finance, investing, banking, economic trends, and emerging tech in the finance field.

• Legal: Legal content writing is precise, often simplified content that explains legal concepts, how regulatory frameworks impact businesses, and offers legal services. 

• Education: Education content writing supports learning solutions, explains academic concepts in simple terms, or promotes educational brands, initiatives, and services.

• Technology: Tech content writing is a general field that can encompass everything from SaaS and cybersecurity to cloud and digital infrastructure.

• HR: Human Resources content writing is about creating content related to managing teams, payroll, employee satisfaction, workplace culture, and employee engagement.

• Web3 and Blockchain: Web3 content writing is any content that relates to cryptocurrency, blockchain technologies, NFTs, emerging uses of blockchain, and news in this sector.

• Logistics: Logistics content writing relates to the global supply chain, risk analysis and mitigation, operations management, and third-party logistics.

• Sustainability: Sustainability content relates to eco-friendly production, environmental impacts, green innovations, and environmentally conscious business decisions. 

• Travel: Travel content writing takes the form of guides, advice, recommendations, or promotional resources to inspire travel to certain locations.

While this is an expansive list, it’s far from exhaustive. Most writers start out as generalists before specializing into a few content areas that they have the most professional experience with. Although I don’t cover everything on this list, I’ve worked extensively across numerous niches over the years.

Tools and Platforms for Managing Content Writing Projects

When working on web content writing services, there are often a lot of moving parts to keep track of. From SEO research and competitor insights to the status of each individual content draft and where it is in the pipeline, it can help to have a system to keep everything flowing well.

Here are some tools and platforms for managing content writing projects that I’ve used in the past. 

• Asana: A project management tool that offers task tracking, cross-team collaboration, and workflow management. A great option for writing projects.

• ClickUp: The application offers time tracking, in-app documents, task assignment, and goal setting. A great option for more complex projects with multiple employees.

• Trello: A more visual option that’s great for its drag-and-drop capabilities. A great option for something simple and effective.

• Notion: An advanced, all-in-one workspace for document management, database management, and engagement across multiple employees. This is best for anyone that wants a customizable system for extremely long-term projects.

While I’ve used all of these in the past, I have to say I find Trello most enjoyable for simple work tracking. For more complex systems, I’ve found most companies use Asana or ClickUp.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring Content Writers

In 2025, we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting a freelance writer to work with. There are now 10s of reputable freelancing job sites with millions of freelancers to choose from. In fact, there are over 64 million individuals freelancing in the United States alone. So, how exactly do you choose the best freelance writer services and what mistakes should you avoid?

Source: Number of freelance workers in the United States from 2014-2023.

Here are common mistakes you should avoid when choosing a writer for content writing services:

• Going for the cheapest option: While it can be tempting to get an article written for $5, you’re going to end up wasting $5. Extremely cheap content is almost always AI-generated, poorly written, and unable to meet SEO expectations. When it comes to representing your business online, it’s always worth spending more on high-quality content writing services.

• Providing unclear briefs: When a business provides unclear writing briefs, there is a risk of the final content not meeting the standards and expectations they’ve set. Clear communication and providing an effective brief will alleviate this stress, helping to ensure you get the content your company is looking for.

• Expecting instant results: Especially if your company website is under five years old, it could take weeks or even months for Google to start to index and rank your content. If you expect a content marketing campaign to make a massive difference overnight, you should curtail your expectations. It’s always a good idea to let traction build over 3-6 months when it comes to content writing services.

  
  

How to Get Started with Content Writing Services

If you want to hit the ground running with your content marketing strategy – whether that’s developing long-form articles or constructing a multi-month SEO content map – I’ve got you covered. With a decade of experience in providing content writing services to companies that range from Fortune 500 businesses to start-ups, I’d love to help you out.

Feel free to reach out to me today to get started with any content writing service that I can help you with.

Let’s make something incredible together.