Why You Should Hire a Content Marketing Agency For Your Business
You have a website and you’re on social media. You may even have a blog.
But your data reveals that your site is barely getting any traffic. Leads just aren’t coming in like you need them to.
You’re not alone.
The digital landscape has grown fiercely competitive. Simply sticking to the same outdated marketing tactics just doesn’t work anymore.
In this article, we’ll look at why great content matters as well as the benefits of working with a content marketing agency. We’ll also look at how to get started.
Here’s a breakdown of what we’ll cover:
- Why Quality Content Writing Matter More Than Ever
- Benefits of Working With a Content Marketing Agency
- In-House vs. Third Party Content Production
- What to Look For When Hiring a Content Marketing Agency
Why Quality Content Writing Matters More Than Ever
The primary goal of content marketing is to produce quality content that’s useful and relevant to your audience. The keyword here is quality.
Pumping out articles that provide little value just doesn’t cut it. It even increases the risk of your site getting hit with a ranking penalty thanks to the Panda algorithm update.
Here’s why quality content matters more than ever.
Consumers Want Great Content
Attention is a precious commodity on the web.
Visitors won’t hesitate to leave a site if the content fails to meet their expectations. The challenge that many brands face today is creating the kind of content that stands out.
39% of consumers feel annoyed when branded content is poorly written. Other annoyances are when content is:
- Poorly designed (28%)
- Too personalized (25%)
- Old or stale (23%)
- Not relevant (22%)
- Not mobile friendly (21%)
- No videos or images (17%)
3 out 5 consumers said that experiencing just one of these situations is enough to stop them from making a purchase.
The keyword takeaway here is that quality content matters more than you think. Producing mediocre content is more likely to harm your brand than help it.
Search is Changing
Google’s ranking algorithm has grown increasingly sophisticated thanks to Hummingbird — an algorithm update that can understand the context of a search query.
Gone are the days of writing a keyword-focused article and getting it ranked with a few backlinks. Producing great content is the only way to rank now in Google, especially for more competitive keywords.
Customer Journeys Are More Complex
Online consumers today rarely discover a brand for the first time and make a purchase right away. They conduct research and turn to multiple channels before they purchase.
This is why an omni-channel digital marketing strategy is important. But you need to produce content for each channel your business is on.
Your Competitors Are Investing in Content Marketing
Companies are allocating more resources to their inbound marketing efforts. If you’re not making similar investments, you risk losing a major competitive advantage online.
What kind of content should you create for your business? Here are some of the most popular types of content that B2B content marketers have created in the last 12 months:
There are an estimated 3.6 billion users on networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Companies are understandably investing more in content for social media marketing. They’re also producing other types of content like blog posts, infographics, videos, and ebooks.
To increase your reach online and avoid getting left behind, you need a content marketing strategy — one that establishes your brand authority and drives your lead generation efforts.
Benefits of Working With a Content Marketing Agency
Your business is marketing on multiple channels. But how can you keep up with your content creation efforts without compromising on quality?
One solution is to outsource content creation to a content agency. Here’s how your business can benefit by hiring a content marketing service.
Raise Brand Awareness
More people are going online to kick off the customer journey. 49% of shoppers use Google to research and discover new products.
Your target audience won’t find your business if you have a weak online presence. They’ll find your competitors who’ve invested in their content strategy instead.
A content creation agency can develop content that raises brand awareness and positions your products or services as the solution.
One way this is achieved is by producing content for the awareness stage — prospects know they have a problem, so they’ll turn to search engines or social media for answers.
Creating content like a blog post or how-to video can make potential customers become aware of your brand and what you offer.
Build Trust
Content marketing isn’t just about producing content. It’s also about providing value to your audience in the form of informative posts.
Users appreciate sites that contain relevant content because it demonstrates that the company wants to be helpful.
Consistently providing relevant and useful content helps you build trust with your audience. That in turn helps your business become the go-to resource for quality information.
Increase Conversions
Each piece of content you publish is a marketing asset that your target audience can discover via search, social media, or other channel.
You can add a CTA (call to action) to your content to encourage visitors to take action whether that’s purchasing your product, filling out a lead form, or downloading a free trial.
The value of content marketing is immensely clear. But there’s a major caveat — mediocre content doesn’t cut it anymore.
You need to produce great content at every stage of the customer journey. Otherwise, your efforts will barely generate any measurable results.
But one of the top challenges that many organizations face is producing quality content on a consistent basis. Let’s look at what your options are.
In-House vs. Third Party Content Production
Producing quality content is certainly challenging, but it’s not impossible. You have two options to keep up with content creation demands.
Build a Content Writing Team In-House
Hiring in-house means building a content team to manage your entire content marketing strategy.
Pros:
- More control of your content
- No third-party dependencies
- More intimate brand knowledge
Cons:
- Greater initial investment
- Time-consuming to build a team
- Key individuals may leave
Outsource Content to a Content Marketing Company
Outsourcing content production to a content marketing agency is another option.
Pros:
- Tap into a large talent pool
- Highly scalable
- Faster start-up
Cons:
- Tons of options available
- Lose some creative control
- Lack of flexibility
So what’s the best option?
There’s really no right or wrong answer here. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of both options and how they fit into your overall business goals.
What to Look For When Hiring a Content Marketing Agency
You’ve decided that you want to hire a content marketing agency. But what are some things you should look for?
Portfolio
One of the first things to look for when considering a content marketing agency is to view their portfolio. This gives you an opportunity to evaluate their content quality and determine whether they’re a good fit for your business.
Search Engine Optimization
Consumers increasingly turn to Google to discover brands and conduct product research. Look for a content marketing agency that also has experience with SEO or search engine optimization.
Writer Expertise
Does the content marketing agency have experience in your industry? Have they written content that’s relevant to your audience before?
These are important questions to ask. Someone who is familiar with your industry will be able to produce better content for your business than a general writer.
Software
Content that’s filled with spelling and grammar issues reflects poorly on your business. Choose a content marketing agency that uses software to check for basics like spelling, grammar, and plagiarism.
FAQs
What kind of content does your content marketing agency create?
At Codeless, we produce long-form articles for some of the top SaaS, service, and affiliate sites on the web. We also create landing pages that convert.
How much does it cost to hire a content writing service?
Prices for our writing services depend on the overall scope. Landing pages cost less as there’s (generally) less work involved. Long-form articles require more time and resources to create, so they tend to be more expensive. Use our Instant Quote calculator to get a price estimate.
What content marketing tools do you use?
We use AI-based tools to check for grammar and plagiarism issues for each piece of content.
We also use tools like Frase to further optimize your content to increase their visibility online.
What does a content writer do?
Our content writers produce long-form content and sales copy for our clients. We have a team of writers that specialize in different industries. We’ll assign a writer with the right skill set for your business.
Do content writing services work?
We’ve helped dozens of SaaS, service, and affiliate sites grow their business. But don’t just take our word for it. Check out our case studies to see the results our clients have gotten by working with our content marketing agency.