Here’s What You Should Know
Hiring a content marketing agency for your business is no easy feat. We get you!
It’s like being in this vast market, where everyone is screaming at you, touting to be the best. Utter chaos and confusion, right?
So how do you navigate this process and find the best content marketing agency? After all, a good agency can tremendously impact your business reputation, growth, and return on investment.
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be so difficult. Our guide will take you through the steps to hire the right agency for all your content marketing activities. Let’s get started.
What a Content Marketing Agency Does
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Content marketing agencies do much more than just content creation. They produce, distribute, and refine content to attract and retain a well-defined target audience.
They strive to create content that motivates the customers to take action. More customer action = higher profits, driving maximum business growth.
Hiring a content marketing agency as opposed to a freelancer has several upsides. While freelancers might possess excellent skills in specific areas, such as writing or graphic design, agencies can offer a comprehensive set of services.
This covers everything from content creation and distribution on various platforms to content performance evaluation.
Therefore, a content marketing agency is your one-stop shop. Thanks to their varied range of services, they can help implement robust marketing strategies that necessitate coordinated efforts, boosting your brand awareness across platforms.
Top Reasons to Hire a Content Marketing Agency
Is working with a content marketing agency worth it?
Here are a few of the top reasons you need a content marketing agency for your business.
1. They are SEO Champions
SEO is about more than just including the keywords in your content. It is also about using the best set of related keywords, understanding the right sentence and paragraph structure, correctly formatting the images, and preparing your website from a technical standpoint.
A content marketing agency understands how Google and SEO work. They make sure your content not only ranks on Google but also attracts the right audience.
2. They Know How to Reach Your Target Audience
Too much traffic is not always good. If your content is not attracting the right audience by addressing their specific pain points, you might just fail to see any tangible results.
A good content marketing agency knows how to conduct effective keyword research and optimization. These keywords are relevant to your business as well as your target audience group. They also thoroughly evaluate your customer’s pain points to produce content that truly attracts them.
3. They Perform Regular Content Audits
Content marketing agencies are known to conduct regular and thorough audits of your existing content. This helps them identify gaps, understand what is working and what isn’t, and offer valuable insights to boost performance over time.
By evaluating the effectiveness of your current content strategy, they can develop targeted recommendations that align with your business goals.
Nowadays, many agencies offer comprehensive content audit services as part of their broader content marketing services, offering a detailed analysis to refine and enhance your strategy.
4. They have Access to the Best Industry Tools
Content agencies work with an extensive set of tools and resources that small businesses may not be able to afford. This includes SEO tools, analytics platforms, and paid marketing software.
These tools offer actionable insights into performance and boost the effectiveness of your content marketing campaigns.
5. They Build Your Reputation through Link Building
Building backlinks involves reaching out to high-authority websites to create a pathway back to your site. These backlinks boost your website’s authority by pointing out the value of your content to Google, which in turn, improves search rankings.
A good content marketing agency creates an effective backlink outreach strategy to secure quality links through guest posting, public relations, and producing meaningful content.
Finding the Best Content Marketing Agency
Let’s say you have decided to hire a content marketing agency for your business. How do you begin your search?
Finding a good agency is much more than simply going to Google and typing “best content marketing agency in [state/city/country].” It involves thoroughly evaluating several factors to ensure an agency is a good fit for your business.
Here’s what you must consider to find the best content marketing agency for your needs.
1. Understand Your Goals
Setting goals is a significant part of your content marketing strategy. As per a survey by CoSchedule, marketers who establish tangible goals are 376% more likely to report success.
Take time to identify your precise goals before you hire any agency. Create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals for your content marketing campaigns. This will enable your chosen agency to prioritize content creation and utilize your marketing budget accordingly.
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Here are some examples of SMART goals:
- X number of new leads in 2 months
- Grow organic traffic by X%
- Boost email list by 20% by the end of Q1
- Improve conversion rate by X% during the holiday season
2. Create a Shortlist
Explore potential content marketing companies through various channels. Start by asking for recommendations from your team and industry peers. You can also look up online reviews, association directories such as the American Marketing Association, and agency aggregator websites like DesignRush to read more on content marketing trends, as well as industry-specific social media groups.
Based on this, create a shortlist of agencies that align with your needs and business goals.
3. Look for Specific Expertise
Evaluate the shortlisted agencies by thoroughly assessing their portfolios, case studies, and client reviews. Check if they have previously worked with businesses similar to yours and the results they have secured. This will give you a sense of what to expect.
Additionally, assess their communication skills, originality, and how effectively they can convey your brand’s message. Lastly, ask for traceable references of their current and past clients and seek their experience of working with the agency.
4. Schedule a Consultation
Schedule face-to-face consultations with potential agencies to further narrow down your list. Assess how the agency aligns with your business culture, ethics, values, and communication style.
Some crucial topics you can discuss during these meetings include:
- Your company’s vision, content marketing goals and expectations
- Marketing plans and tactics
- Agency’s service offerings
- Handling of client disputes
- Measuring and reporting success
- Past clients
5. Ask the Right Questions
During the consultation, you must ask important questions to determine if the agency is a good fit for your business. Some of the most notable questions to ask include:
- What industries do you specialize in?
- What is your content creation process?
- What tools do you use?
- What is your communication preference?
- What is your availability? How adaptable are you?
- How do you measure success? What KPIs do you use?
- How do you handle reporting?
- When can I expect to see the results?
- What is your cost structure?
6. Review Offers and Pricing
Once you have had consultations with different agencies, you must review their pricing structures and offers. Mostly, content agencies offer different pricing models, including project-based, hourly rates, or even retainer agreements. Consider what works best for your business and offers good value for money.
7. Give them a Brief and Ask for Pitches
One of the best ways to understand how an agency operates is to provide them with a brief and request a proposal. It doesn’t have to be overly detailed—a simple assignment will help you gauge their ability to offer creative solutions and communicate ideas effectively. However, ensure they are compensated for their efforts.
8. Negotiate Your Final Offer
Once you have a contractual agreement ready, you can read the terms carefully and negotiate further, if needed. For instance, content ownership, scope of services, or payment terms may not be as per your preference. You can try to negotiate these terms and ensure that the final contract reflects the discussed terms.
9. Plan the Onboarding Process
The onboarding process begins once you make your final decision. This step is crucial as it lays the groundwork for a successful partnership. Clearly define project goals, timelines, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Schedule introductory meetings between the agency and your team to roll things out smoothly.
Skills to Look for in a Content Marketing Agency
Now that you understand the process of finding a content marketing agency, you should also know the skills to look for.
1. Niche & Subject Matter Expertise
Let’s say you are a SaaS business company that offers two specialized, niche products. You will need an agency that understands the SaaS landscape and has worked with SaaS companies previously.
Otherwise, you’ll simply be stuck with content that just doesn’t cut through. Also, you may have a tough time communicating to them the intricacies of your product. So, you must seek a content marketing agency that knows your niche.
2. Search Engine Optimization Skillset
SEO is a vast field. In fact, there are many agencies entirely dedicated to optimizing your company’s website to rank high in search engine results. And a big part of SEO relies on well-written and high-quality content.
So, when searching for a content marketing agency, assess their SEO skillset. Ensure they conduct some kind of keyword research, website auditing, and competitor analysis. Several reputed content agencies also partner with SEO experts who can help them tackle all aspects of on-page, off-page, and technical SEO with great precision.
3. Specialized Team of Writers
Specialized writers are not only language ninjas but also possess deep expertise in their specific areas or industries. For instance, a content agency that specializes in serving B2B firms would greatly benefit from having writers with a technical background.
Such writers can easily create relevant, informative, and high-quality content that adds real value to your business.
Conclusion
Hiring the right content marketing agency is critical to the success of your content marketing efforts. It is vital to take your time and do in-depth research before finalizing any agency for your business.
At Merlin, we understand the significance of finding the right partner for your content marketing needs. That’s why we offer a complimentary strategy session to help you understand how we can support your content marketing initiatives.
Our seasoned team of marketing strategists and writers will work with you to develop an effective content marketing campaign to get you organic traffic, search engine visibility, and the business growth you are looking to achieve.
