Content marketing has many benefits and can play a key part in any brand’s digital marketing performance. It is important to work with a content agency who will know how to use it to meet your business aims. Your content refers to any of the online assets your company are sharing either on-site or off-site.
Content marketing is more complicated than writing the occasional blog – and it can be tricky to create content that has a direct positive impact on your business. A content marketing campaign should generate valuable traffic to your site and give you a better ROI.
So, it’s essential to choose an agency that is going to help you get the best possible results. Here, we have put together this handy guide to get you on the right path. What exactly should you be looking for when starting your content marketing journey?
On-site, off-site or both?
First of all, when looking for an agency to work with, you should make sure they offer off-site content as well as on-site. Sharing posts on off-site publications can lead to driving new traffic to your service or product. Your content agency should help to create more backlinks and shareable content to attract your target customers.
Format & Quality
It’s not just about where you share your content, but also how well you present it. The digital agency you choose must understand the basic ‘rules’ of content. This includes everything from the length or amount, to the correct tone, and the format. Usually, when we hear ‘content’, we tend to think about written blogs and articles – but this is not the only option you should be considering.
If you want to ensure you’re delivering the best possible material to meet your digital marketing aims – then you should try to use a variety of text, images and even videos. There are also more advanced options you might be interested in such as GIF’s, podcasts and infographics. What you choose will depend on your audience & your aims.
When choosing a content agency, you should ask about their diversity of mediums – because most businesses will find that it’s useful to utilise a mixture of both written and visual content to engage their audience.
Editorial planning
When it comes to engaging your target audience, it’s not just about the format or platform you’re using. It’s essential to understand the best time of day/ which day to share particular content. When working with the right agency, they will understand the most beneficial time to share – depending on who your audience is and what your company offers. Your content agency should be able to gather insights about your audience and their online behaviour, to determine when they are most likely to interact.
SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is intertwined with your content marketing. It’s simple – when you are sharing more engaging and relevant content, search engines will recognise this and your company will rank higher on search pages as a result. For this reason, when looking for an agency, you should check that they understand SEO fundamentals as well as how to produce a content plan.
Social Media
Like with SEO, social media and content marketing tend to work closely together. The great thing about social media is that it can be used to improve your content, by keeping you up to date with trending conversations and popular topics. On the other hand, you can use your content to draw more attention to your social media pages and improve your engagement. When used in the right way – the two should work together to make using both channels simpler and more effective. When looking for a content marketing agency – you should check if they know how to utilise the benefits of your social platforms to keep content relevant and current.
Content strategy
This might be expected – but it’s essential for your agency to leave you feeling confident, with an effective content strategy. A content strategy should keep your audience engaged whilst inviting new customers. Perhaps you’re a new company and haven’t yet defined your unique brand personality? Or, you might just need some help creating content that will showcase your tone of voice and send the right message to your audience. The right agency will know how to do both of these things and take your business in the right direction.
Metrics and reporting
You’ll benefit from transparency when it comes to updates and reports throughout your content marketing process. You should look for an agency who will communicate with you in clear and straightforward terms – keeping you involved with any progress throughout the campaign. Questions to ask agencies could be; how will we be updated? How often will we receive updates (weekly, monthly)? Will reports be given in a digital format?
Most digital agencies will utilise an analytics platform to provide in-depth data about how you’re reaching your goals. It’s important to find out how you’ll be involved in the reporting process.
Your unique goals
This is probably one of the most important things to look for when you’re looking for an agency to work with. Content marketing relies on connecting to your audience. It’s a way of reaching out to your customer profile by creating and sharing content that they can resonate with. Content is essentially the story behind your brand – so it needs to be personal.
When an agency takes the time to understand you as a business – they can combine this information with data and insights that they will be able to gather about your audience.
So, when approaching an agency – consider the following questions;
Will they take the time to understand your unique business goals and target audience? Will they make your content marketing campaign personal to your brand?
Get in touch
Hopefully, you now have more of an idea of the things you could consider before getting started with any content marketing.
If you wanted some more information on content marketing, we do have a page explaining the ins and outs here. Otherwise, feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our London-based services.