Is It Still A Good Idea To Hire A Content Marketing Agency?

So you want to hire an agency to create content for your website. Why? Because ‘Content is King’ as they say. Without successful content marketing, only a few prospective customers will stray onto your website.

To help get regular and relevant traffic, you need two things: to convince Google of your relevance and get people talking about you. Both of these can be achieved with good content marketing. The problem is, good content takes time and talent. You may have the talent — but do you have the time?

With all the fuss over ChatGPT and other AI tools magically creating content for pennies on the dollar, does it realistically still make sense to go out invest money to bump up your content game?

What is Content Marketing? 

Content Marketing is marketing with free content that adds value to your website — among other places. It allows you to focus on providing solutions to your customers’ problems. If you can demonstrate that you understand your target audience’s problems and have the expertise to help them solve theirs, people see that you matter to them.

Content Marketing has three important tasks:

• to create interest in a product or service;
• to increase sales; 
• and, to increase brand identity and trust.

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

(The Content Marketing Institute)

What are the Advantages of Content Marketing?

Successful content marketing has many advantages:

• Increases the visibility of your brand attracting more customers
• Develops lasting relationships with your audience. 
• Improves awareness and recognition of your brand. 
• Builds loyalty and trust, both with your current customers and potential customers.
• More traffic to your website leads to increased sales

How Does Content Marketing Work?

There are six basic phases in the content marketing process. Some of these phases you can be responsible for in-house, and some you can outsource to an agency:

• Defining the target audience
• Defining goals and objectives
• Developing a strategy including concrete measures
• Implementing those measures
• Monitoring & reporting
• An iterative optimization

What are Some Examples of Content Marketing?

There are many different types of content you can create as part of your own or your client’s marketing strategy, including:

• Blog Posts: Articles published on a website’s blog.

• Guest Posts: Articles written for publications and blogs outside of your own website.

• Videos: Short films published on a YouTube channel or embedded on your own website.

• Podcasts: Auditory content that provides useful information, how-tos, or tips.

• Infographics: Explanatory graphics that use a mix of images, statistics, and charts.

• User-Generated Content: Content, such as videos, images, and more, created by users and then shared or endorsed by brands.

• Case Studies: Testimonials from customers, often in the form of blog posts, that share success stories about using a product.

• eBooks: Online books, usually packaged as downloadable PDF documents, that contain in-depth information or how-to guides related to your industry.

• Webinars: Online video presentations, often streamed live. Creating a webinar that viewers can join increases engagement by allowing real-time questions to be asked.

“Before you produce any content, it’s critically important to develop a deep understanding of your audience and their search habits. Research what your audience is searching for online. Then dig into the keywords and phrases they’re targeting in those searches.”

(Rocket.net)

Great Content Marketing Example: Canva

Canva’s Design School gives added value by teaching users how to create great images with little experience or expensive software. At the same time, it gives users a very good look at everything Canva has to offer as a design tool

Before You Hire an Agency, Do Your Homework!

The problem many companies have is that they are not marketing agencies themselves. How can you manage what your agency is doing for you if you don’t know what their job is? You could get charged for work you never knew you didn’t need.

What Does a Content Marketing Agency Do?

A content marketing agency creates a comprehensive strategy for you to place value-added content on your company’s digital channels in the best possible way. This can include services such as content creation, search engine optimization, and the optimization of existing content.

How Much Does a Content Marketing Agency Cost? 

Budgeting for a content strategy depends on numerous factors. In particular, the type and scope of the content to be created have a major impact on the price. 

It all depends on what you need, and for how long you need it. While a complete content strategy with all the deliverables will cost thousands of dollars, monthly writing support will cost you considerably less.

“46% of marketers revealed that their companies spent around $10,000 on content marketing efforts in 2019.”

(SERPWATCH)

What Should I Look for in a Content Marketing Agency?

Before you hire someone, we wanted to look at the pros and cons of hiring a content marketing agency in the first place. 

Like hiring anyone, you might want to ask a few questions:

• Are they experts in your field?
• Do they understand what you want to achieve with your marketing?
• Do you have modern marketing know-how?
• Do you have time and resources for your marketing?
• How much are they charging and for what content?

But before you talk with anyone, let’s look at what it is you’re hiring them to do. Remember: a content marketing agency’s job is not just to write blog posts. Their job is to market how you make people’s lives better.

“Focus on those activities that bring value to what you do. Don’t turn them into a special event either. Standardize those solutions. Normalize the excellence you bring to your service.”

(Rocket.net)

Being Successful with Content Marketing

Design a meaningful strategy

For your content marketing to really rock, you need to design a content marketing strategy. Set out clearly defined and measurable goals. Don’t just post content because everyone else is. 

Write for your target audience

You need consistent and uniquely targeted content that’s relevant to your target audience. You can only offer real added value if you understand what your target group is actually looking for and how you can help them with your content. Tailor your content to this.

Create search-engine-optimized texts

Optimizing content for search engines means more than including keywords in your text and metadata. Google recognizes your content and can match it to search queries without too much help. 

Assisting people as they look for content, and supporting Google in that task is an important part of content marketing too. Good SEO content marketing means regularly doing two things:

• Creating unique, high-quality content instead of rehashing duplicate content.
• Optimising your content to answer specific needs to specific problems.
• Keeping your marketing hygienic by reducing clutter. Recycle yesterday’s unique content to fit today’s search intent.

Use successful seeding for more traffic

Content creation is followed by distribution, which should be planned just as well as the content. According to your target group, select the channels on which they are on the move and which are relevant to them.

Use analysis tools

If you can’t measure it, you can’t use it. Not all distribution strategies are as successful as you would like them to be. Understand what the numbers are telling you and derive your further action steps from this.

Invest in customer loyalty

Once your content has been written, published and seeded, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing left for you to do. Short and sweet: what are you doing now that you have people’s attention?

“Data suggests that content marketing revenue reached nearly 66 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, and according to the latest forecasts, the content market industry is set to double revenues by 2026.”

(Statista)

The Pros and Cons of Hiring a Content Marketing Agency

Now that you know what a content marketing agency will need to do, you’re ready to look at the pros and cons of hiring one.

Regardless of how you decide, you should make sure that the people who do your online marketing have the following qualities:

• Great know-how and competence in current online marketing trends.
• Flexibility, so that change can be quickly taken into account and strategies adapted.
• Sufficient experience, so that results are achieved quickly. 
• Able to work with correct numbers (results) and stand up for them.
• They should be interested in constantly improving their own results. 

Advantages of a Content Marketing Agency

• With an agency, you can tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge of all the agency staff. Their experience will help ensure the success of your content. They have probably also worked for companies in your market, so rookie mistakes are fewer.

• Good agencies have structured process flows, experienced staff for a wide variety of tasks, and can deliver promised services quickly. 

• Experienced agencies have a large network to offer other services you may require later.

• Employees work for different clients at the same time and are able to think their way into new situations, problems and challenges.

• Agencies tend to use a variety of tools and products that may not normally be purchased by a freelancer.

Disadvantages of a Content Marketing Agency

• Your account may not receive full attention all day, every day of the week, due to multiple clients being serviced simultaneously.

• Assigned teams often work on multiple accounts simultaneously.

• Some agencies have frequent staff turnover.

• Agencies may not have detailed knowledge of your company. They may overlook a crucial detail.

• Not all agencies are good. Choosing an agency you trust can be difficult.

• Just like an employee, an agency is limited in its capacity and capabilities. There are areas it does well and others not so well. Familiarize yourself sufficiently with the strengths and weaknesses of an agency before you choose one.

“Creating high-quality content is definitely time-consuming, but it’s one of the most effective SEO strategies for new websites. In a survey conducted by Statista, 91% of marketers mentioned they were using content marketing to promote their business.”

(Rocket.net)

Good Content Works Even Better With A Great WordPress Hosting Company

No matter what you ultimately decide to build out your content strategy, there are so many benefits to being hosted with a company that works with you every step of the way. Let’s talk about how we can migrate your site to Rocket.net, the fastest WordPress hosting available anywhere.