Not sure what to ask your potential content marketing partner, or what to expect from this business relationship? Here are a few things you should look for when hiring a content marketing agency to assist you with your company’s content and social media strategy.
1 Strategic Content Marketing Planning
First of all, a content marketing strategy is pointless without a clear indication of the client’s business objectives and an understanding of the current and future sales and marketing plans. Any content created should support these objectives.
How do agencies know how best to plan content? By asking the right questions, analysing your business objectives, and aligning these with tangible action plans translated into campaigns. If these are paired with measurable results and valuable insights, you are well on your way to strike gold.
2 Marketing Channels and Target Audience
When looking at your digital marketing efforts, you know you can do so much better. With content marketing, an agency’s ability to look firsthand at the client’s existing digital infrastructure and the many ways in which these networks can be used or improved to target the right audience is essential.
How do agencies work with the right marketing channels? Firstly, by understanding your business’s target audience and marketing objectives. Choose an agency that understands your business and focuses on a wholesome marketing approach beyond social media distribution and traffic.
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
3 Automation, Measurement, and Lead Generation
Effective content marketing should be optimized for search engines, deployed into a larger marketing automation feed or lead generation program. Also, it should rely on constant measurement of traffic and engagement, performance optimisation, tracking and reporting tools. Understand how an agency is going to execute your vision, and what indicators and measurements will show performance and growth.
How do content marketing agencies drive results? By employing the latest technology and knowing the KPI (key performance indicators) in the content strategy execution. Measuring success is a must. If the agency can reliably track and report on the actionable steps, and refine the content strategy accordingly, then you can move forward.
4 Creative Content and Quality Storytelling
Last but not least, an agency’s work quality and proven track record should speak volumes of the assistance you can receive with your content strategy. Creativity and quality are non-negotiables. Content should be produced on multiple channels in various forms, be it social media campaigns, video, ebooks, infographics, podcasts and so forth.
How do agencies produce good quality content? By telling compelling stories and making use of emotional engagement, and repackaging or repurposing content in a creative manner to avoid the boredom factors. Look at the past and current campaigns and content before you jump in.
