Explaining Your Brand’s Identity to a Freelance Writer

Understanding your brand is essential for launching a successful marketing campaign. Without a clear brand identity, your marketing materials can lack a cohesive message that resonates with consumers in the demographic you’d like to target. Of course, even if you know your brand’s identity, it won’t get you far if you can’t explain it well to a freelance writer.

A good freelance writer will be able to refine your brand identity and incorporate that messaging into every blog, Tweet, and video script they produce. However, you need to be able to explain what your brand is all about so that your new writer gets the tone right the first time around. Follow these guidelines to introduce your brand to a new freelance writer working with your company.

Know Your Company Values

Your brand identity should reflect your company values. So, if you don’t yet know what those are, now is the time to develop them. Your business might be dedicated to a greener, more sustainable future. Or, it might aim to be a disruptive force in new technologies. Alternatively, your business might set out to build a sense of community in the neighborhood it serves. Regardless of your specific goals, they should be clearly aligned with your values. Those values should be something you list for your writer right from the start.

In writing and other types of content marketing, your brand’s values will reflect the emotional tone of the content. For example, a company that values sustainability and environmental consciousness might aim to be inspiring and positive in their brand messaging. When your writer has this background, the content they deliver will hit the mark for your campaign goals.

Create a Mission Statement

A mission statement will be the most succinct way to explain your brand to an outside party, such as a freelance writer. Your mission might be simple. For example, it could be to provide exceptional customer service at every opportunity. Or, it may be more complex, depending on the nature of your company. If you don’t have a mission statement, a freelance writer may even help you create one, though this will require availability to brainstorm and work as a creative consultant on your team.

Identify Your Target Audience for the Writer

It’s not enough to simply know and explain your company’s values and mission. You must also know which audience you want to reach with this brand. Ideally, it will be one that has a similar value set to your brand. Inform your writer of the specific consumer demographics of your target audience. These should include age range, gender, household income, and geographical location.

Offer Examples of Your Ideal Brand Messaging

You may have difficulty explaining your brand if you don’t have much content of your own to show to a new writer. However, you can find inspiration from more established brands that you’d like to mimic. Browse local and non-local competitors’ websites and social pages to find content that reflects a similar message to your brand. Show some key examples to your new freelance writer and explain what specifically you like about them. You might be drawn to a fun, approachable tone in the writing. On the other hand, it might be a trendy and edgy design in another brand’s social posts that stands out.

Encourage Writers to Ask Questions

Ideally, discussing your brand won’t be a one-time event for you and the writer you’ve hired. Though you should frontload a more thorough description of your company and your brand to a new writer, you should always leave the door open for questions along the way. It can also be helpful to ask your writer to sit in on company meetings or brainstorming sessions to capture more of your brand in action. Of course, you will need to compensate the writer for this additional time, but it can make a world of difference in the content they produce. The more of the behind-the-scenes action you can show to your writer, the better.

If you’re looking to hire a freelance writer, head to Writers Work to post your job listing or browse our Writers Marketplace to find a talented writer who is ready to get to work. We provide our writers with the resources they need to do their jobs well, so you can spare yourself the headaches of working with an inexperienced, unorganized freelancer. Writers Work is always free for employers to use, so check us out today!