A National Commission on Writing initiated a study done by College Board established that businesses lose up to $3.1 billion because of poor writing. Poorly written emails, memos, blogs, communications, and other materials cause clients, associates, and potential customers to spend more time trying to understand your content. As for winning brands, they do not want to be on the losing end and have, therefore, opted to hire a freelancer technical writer to deliver compelling content.
Come to think of it; poor writing will cause the reader to misunderstand your message. Further, the reader will require more time to seek clarification. Only the patient and desperate ones will spend their time trying to understand what you have written. Most will abandon your page or document and swiftly move to the next brand.
Consequently, poor writing results in lost business since your target clients cannot understand what you are trying to sell. It also paints a low image of your brand, resulting in tainted publicity.
Quality writing also has a direct impact on your sales and bottom line. Think about the time spent communicating with employees or partners—precise writing results in a productive, efficient, and innovative environment.
However, technical writing goes beyond good writing. Interestingly, every organization or business has unique requirements for technical writing. Let’s dig deeper into technical writing to see its place in the smooth running of your business.
What is Technical Writing, and who is a Freelancer Technical Writer?
To understand who a technical writer is, you must appreciate the two models of doing business. You are either running a business that serves the general public or one that performs a specific clientele.
For instance, a supermarket serves the general public while a stock market consultant or engineering consortium serves B2B.
Technical Writing
Either way, you have to serve the content needs of these two types of clients. On the one hand, you have a general public that buys because your blogs, product descriptions, or reviews have simplified a complex element like how apps work to make it understandable. In this case, the technical writer helps you simplify highly scientific aspects and put them in a language that everyone can understand.
On the other hand, you could be serving a specific market like doctors looking for medicines, engineers searching for tools and equipment, or stock market analysts following your blog to understand trading for the day, among other cadres of servants. Such categories of people expect you to deliver your content, brochures, social media posts, and videos in a technical language.
With this information in mind, it is now easier to define a technical writer and his trade.
Technical Writer
A technical writer simplifies the most complex documents like user instructions, manuals, journal articles, and reference guides in the most straightforward language without misleading or losing the point. He is a writing professional who helps you communicate complex medical, engineering, product, and legal ideas in a common language.
Another technical writer helps you communicate effectively with a specific cluster of people in the language only they can understand. For instance, Covide-19 to a doctor is more than a disease that causes fever, coughing, and congested chest: You must explain the physiology and anatomy of sickness. Without such detailed and academic writing, your articles or communications are heresy, shallow, and mundane.
It takes a technical writer to make simple stuff make sense to professionals while at the same time simplifying the most complicated information for the masses. Such writing helps a brand to achieve its communication and marketing needs. It is the only way you make sense to your customers.
Why You Need To Hire a Freelancer Technical Writer
A freelancer technical writer is not your ordinary content mill. The responsibility requires a professional who understands your field and can communicate easily with the target audience. Consequently, the hiring process is both sensitive and expensive.
How do you justify the effort and the expenditure into hiring a technical writer?
Here are a few reasons why you need to hire a technical writer for your brand or business.
a) Communicate Effectively With Your Target Audience
Business is anchored on effective communication. If you cannot explain the benefits of a product or service to a potential customer, you will not sell. Technical writing simplifies product descriptions, ingredients, benefits, and such details to understand the target market.
Effective communication in business is always two-way. Customers read blogs or watch videos then ask questions about your product. In the course of the engagement, you’ll convert the inquiry into a sale.
Hence, customers understand your brand and products better because it has been explained in a simple language.
b) Bolster Your Brand Image
A brand is as good as the public and peer perception. The perception can grow based on the information you release to the market. Every email you send, a blog on your website, an opinion on magazines, and general information coming from your desk must demonstrate knowledge of the subject.
For instance, a doctor must quote the right illness, symptoms, treatment, and outcomes. That is why you need a professional writer who understands the industry and will name the correct details.
Technical writing is especially important for professional branding. Fellow engineers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, and such peers will easily spot misleading information in your articles.
Once peers or the industry lose confidence in your brand, you are as good as finished. If you are serving a B2B clientele, your fortunes begin to dwindle.
c) Produce Quality Content
Quality content remains a crucial pillar in the success of any business. However, the definition of quality is relative and has nothing to do with grammar or sentence construction. It is the ability to produce content that the target audience understands. Thus, technical writers make the most complex issues easier to understand for professionals and your ordinary reader.
Simply put, an article on how engines work in plain language does not appeal to an engineer. Quality for the engineer involves the technical descriptions. On the other hand, quality for a layman involves simplified language. It takes a professional technical content creator to bridge the gap and customize quality for all the audiences you will be speaking to through your content.
d) Meet Regulatory Requirements
It is probably one of the things you never consider when creating content until your business shuts or you face a panel of tough-looking regulators. Wait until your article is misleading because some facts were misrepresented. Regulators require all instructions, manuals, and directions to be accurate.
A technical writer packages and repackages your information without losing the point. It keeps regulators away from your case, safeguarding your reputation and shielding you from expensive legal challenges.
How to Hire a Freelancer Technical Writer
A technical writer is not your ordinary content creator. A small mistake during hiring will be costly to the extent of attracting lawsuits and chasing away customers.
How then do you ensure that you get the best technical writer? Where are these freelancer technical writers found?
Here are a few tips to guide you when hiring a technical writer.
i. Training
Choose a writer trained in the area where you need content. If you need technical legal writing, hire a lawyer. Where your blog or business serves the medical field, hire a writer with a medical background. The writer understands the technical elements about the topic or subject of your writing.
Training cannot equate to experience or expertise in writing. While a writer may learn how to write medical articles, it will take a while to understand the details. Without training, it takes longer to complete the content. The content is also weak because the writer depends on third-party knowledge, unlike one already trained.
ii. Expertise
Writers specialize in different fields. They understand the writing rules and can deliver within a short time. Moreover, their writing is also more accurate and captivating to read. Therefore, it takes experience and passion for being an expert writer in a particular subject.
You can determine the expertise of a writer by looking at already completed works. The ability to follow instructions and produce engaging content also points to expertise.
It is also exciting and enlightening to read articles produced by experts. For instance, some writers are video marketing content experts. They create a video that goes viral and will win any marketing campaign. You are sure that your project will achieve its objectives when handled by a particular writer.
iii. Experience
Technical writing is just like wine; it gets better with age. An experienced writer is a double-edged sword. He understands the specialized area and knows the formula for producing the best quality content.
An experienced writer will guide you when crafting your content for the first time. Their work is free of errors, delivered faster, and means that you start as though you have been doing it for years.
iv. Reviews and Recommendations
Who are your peers using to produce their technical content?
Check freelancing websites for specialists in technical writing. Read reviews or check their ratings to determine who can deliver to your expectations.
Reviews and recommendations are more reliable because they come from clients who have already enjoyed the writing services. Friends and associates will never mislead you by recommending a poor-quality writer. Reviews are even better because they are anonymous and difficult to manipulate.
This is your chance to get the best technical writing services without a hustle.
How Much Do Freelance Technical Writers Charge?
Technical writing is not for everyone. As such, the few people who offer these services charge a premium above regular gigs. Still, the industry has no flat rate for such writing.
Each project is considered on its merit when costing technical writing services. Several factors will help you to determine the right price for your technical writing project.
- Technical difficulty– How technical do you want your writing to be? For instance, a blog article can never compare to a manual or product description. Highly specialized projects are more expensive than ordinary writing.
- Quantity of work– two projects with the same difficulty level will differ in price based on the amount of work. Count the number of pages since more pages mean that the writer spends more time on your project.
- Urgency– Pressing writing projects are always more expensive because the writer has to abandon other chores to meet your deadline.
Last Word
Technical writing focuses more on what you say than how it is said. It has a higher threshold for accuracy and, therefore, requires an industry professional beyond writing knowledge. Hence hiring a professional freelancer technical writer is the best way to produce quality content for your brand.
