5 reasons to hire a freelance technical writer

The majority of small businesses, startups, or mid-size engineering, manufacturing and high-technology companies do not have a technical writer in-house. However, luckily for them, freelance technical writing is a rapidly growing profession, allowing easy access to technical expertise. Working with a freelance technical writer can give you the flexibility to hire talent as and when needed, without compromising on quality.

Hiring a technical writing consultant is invaluable for SMBs and research organizations, and it can be rewarding to work with an experienced expert who can complete the job precisely, systematically, and on schedule. 

Here are 5 reasons why you should hire a freelance technical writer:

1. Clarity in Language

Scientific organizations and tech startups often struggle with communicating their work to their target audience. Scientific organizations need to get their research out into the world, apply for grants, and communicate with peers and lay people. Tech businesses need writers to help them communicate their product value to all stakeholders including potential customers and investors. 

Technical writers have the essential ability to explain complex ideas in a simple way. Many technical writers specialize in specific topics, such as medical writing or product user manual writing. These kinds of documents require utmost clarity, and the cost of miscommunication is very high. Freelance technical writers can help you make sure all you clearly speak to your intended audience with a well-defined purpose. If you’re an online technical publication, for example, you might want to hire multiple experts for different topics. In the end, bad writing simply looks unprofessional. 

2. Value for Money

Technical writing can be an expensive task for a non-expert to carry out. Producing a high-quality piece of content can take several hours of research, compiling information, writing, editing, reviewing and formatting. Working with an expert technical writer can save you precious time and money. 

There is far more value to be had in hiring a freelancer over an agency writer. Why? Well, first off, a freelance writer is running their own business, and will typically aim to outshine, in order to work with you again. Agency writers can be more expensive, and are rarely available to work on one-off tasks. Experienced technical writers have the professional skills to simplify tangled ideas, procedures, and transfer knowledge to a broad diverse audiences, reading levels, and comprehension levels. And let’s not forget the project management and negotiation skills which they inherit, making your job easier.

3. Expert Formatting

Technical documents often need complex formatting, whether it’s through using software like LateX or whether it’s putting together a user manual. Documentation isn’t solely about assisting customers, but it’s also an integral piece of your brand. An attractive and clear manual tells users that they can have faith in you and your expertise. A couple of people think nobody reads documentation, which is why several firms don’t take into account their manuals. Every detail impacts customers’ decisions and strengthens your brand loyalty.

Formatting technical documents can be a time-consuming and painful process, especially when you are short on resources. Working with freelance technical writers can help you speed up the process several fold.

4. Reduction in Support Costs

Did you know? Technical writers are trained to think of the task from the audience/user’s point of view. Hence, they outline better how users can attain their goals, how they should go about if they face a bug. Tech writers form the bridge between you and the audience, helping them easily understand your product/research.  In product companies, technical writers can even help save support costs by designing well-illustrated manuals, giving customers less reason to call and distract your support staff.

5. Quick Service

Compiling a carefully written, insightful, faultless piece of copy requires a lot of  time. Technical writing experts, however, are adept at picking out the main value propositions of a product or breaking down complex data into the most useful, meaningful information. Adroit writers are great time savers. Specialized technical writers, in particular, can take on complex jobs of creating regulatory documents, product manuals, and more. 

Need to hire a freelance technical writer? Choose from thousands of experts on Kolabtree. It’s free to post your project and get started.