Creating content and getting noticed online is essential to growing your online presence and landing business. While some companies prefer to create content themselves, many opt to let a content creation agency handle their content generation. This can be very beneficial, but it can also have some set backs. It is important to know what to look for when partnering with an agency to deliver your content.
While “Quality Content” should go without saying, it is important to look for a content creation agency that is creating good content for themselves. Check their blog, website, and other relevant materials to sample the quality of work being produced. It is also important to set expectations for what your content standards are. Different content expectations will often affect pricing. For instance, if your piece requires research, then the cost per word will be a little more and experienced writers will also cost a bit more. Discussing your content needs with the agency will help you to correctly set all expectations and pricing.
If an agency is not managing your campaigns, then they need to understand your campaigns & SEO objectives before writing or designing each piece. Objectives can cover many things, such as: SEO keyword strategy, buyer persona strategy, intended buyer’s journey stage, intended outcome, follow up actions, and previous marketing contact with people reading a particular piece. In all reality, the list can be rather exhaustive, but the main idea is to get the content agency on board with your marketing department. If the content agency does not understand what your objectives are, then it will be that much harder to hit those goals.
While I mentioned SEO in the last point, it needs further elaboration. There are many companies that still write content and stuff keywords, because they believe that this is an effective way to optimize…or they just do not have enough experience. Regardless, you do not want to have your keyword or phrase in the body of the content more than 5 times and it should be in the title once. Aside from this, only your meta data, alt text, and url should have the keyword/key-phrase. In short, avoid these agencies.
When choosing a content creation agency, be sure to look at the scope of your work and the work that they have done. This is especially true if your content requires research. Additionally, if you are requiring lenghty pieces of content, then look to see what work they have done in the past and how this compares to what you are looking to receive. Scalability is another factor to consider, because your need for blog posts, articles, eBooks, infographics, may scale up in the future. Make sure the agency is able to grow with you or is already in a place that they can handle an influx of content demands.
Finally, it is important to mention the importance that company culture plays in content generation. While your company and the content agency doesn’t have to be the exact brand of soup, they should both be similar. You are really partnering with this company to provide content that is going to drive revenue. Depending on what your company does and how involved you intend to be, content subjects may reach into various parts of your company infrastructure and writers may need to work with various people within your staff to arrive at the most optimal content. This may not apply to you, but it is worth keeping in mind.
