Virtues of the Best Content Marketing Agencies

Content marketing is an extremely valuable piece of the digital marketing puzzle. It’s time-consuming when done in-house, so many marketing directors seek the help of a content strategy agency.

The best content marketing agencies will support your business by:

• Knowing your brand inside and out, including voice, tone, differentiators, mission and more
• Performing keyword research so blogs and other content utilizes search engine optimization
• Creating multimedia assets (if they’re a full-service agency – hey that’s us!) to support written content, or at least sourcing relevant stock images
• Acting as subject matter experts to establish trust between your business and users
• Creating relevant social media copy to encourage clicks to blog and resource content
• Planning content based on industry and seasonal trends

You’ll know you’ve found the best content marketing agency to handle content creation when they provide a robust promotion strategy with the content.

How to Choose a Content Marketing Agency

1. Search Online & In Your Network

Use these guidelines to begin your search:

• Limit the use of “best” keywords. You’ll likely get many lists from paid aggregators that don’t help you decide.
• Ask your network for suggestions, using LinkedIn, other social media and word-of-mouth to source recommendations.
• Consider searching with specific keywords by industry.

2. Vet Initial Options

To narrow down your options, look carefully at the following:

• Their website. Is it well built and easy to use? Any content marketing agency worth their stuff knows the value of a good website.
• Their blog and resources. Is this agency publishing thought-provoking, original content? Does it demonstrate leadership, or is it riddled with generalizations and typos?
• Their past work. Case studies, testimonials, experience information and other social proof can help you determine the quality of an agency’s work.  

3. Pick a Content Strategy Agency Instead of a Content Farm

The best content marketing agencies handle content creation while also providing content strategy based on their knowledge of full-funnel marketing, industry trends, UX, keyword research and more. This type of partner is considered a “content strategy agency.”

The opposite of a content strategy agency is a content farm – a copywriting service that writes for you based on information you submit. Though content farms usually have lower prices, they often provide lower-quality work, limited SEO knowledge and no content strategy. This type of partnership is transactional instead of strategic, and it often requires your own team to do the topic research, keyword research, quality assurance, etc.  

In short, it comes down to getting a true expert to do your content marketing – or not. Would you hire a professional plumber or a guy on Craigslist to fix your toilet? Content marketing requires the same professionalism to be effective.

This resource has more information about why not to use a content farm.

4. Perform Interviews

When you’re ready to interview a content marketing agency, ask these questions:

• Who will be on the team, and who is the point of contact?
• How important is process to the agency, and how would they describe their process?
• What type of reporting is provided?
• What initial ideas does the agency have to solve your biggest pain points? (Put them on the spot.)
• How will the content strategy incorporate SEO and various digital marketing channels?
• How does the agency perform topic research?
• Can the agency provide references?
• Does the agency have experience working in your industry or parallel industries?
• Does the agency have multimedia capabilities (e.g., photography, video, graphic design)?

Finally, while you’re interviewing, make sure the agency is a good “culture fit” – meaning, the personalities on their team mesh well with yours.

Have You Met Your New Content Agency?

Content marketing is essential, especially during economic downturns. It builds brand authority, trust and recall – that is, if you choose the right content strategy agency to get those long-lasting results. Oneupweb has been helping diverse businesses improve their content marketing for more than 20 years. We prioritize not only compelling writing but also user experience and full-funnel marketing. To see how strategy makes a difference, reach out online or call (231) 922-9977 today.