For brands looking to align their business objectives with delivering what their audience wants, quality content is a must. Many companies, lacking the in-house resources to handle content themselves, turn to an outside content agency to bring them the expertise, talent, and other benefits they need. The best content marketing agencies know their partnership role is to understand and support each client’s unique goals.
Is your content marketing agency adequately serving its clients’ needs? Here are a few ways to determine if it measures up.
Do You Understand Why a Client Needs Your Content Marketing Agency?
Marketers use content marketing agencies for a variety of reasons: to save costs, find niche experts, get better written material, help them troubleshoot their content strategy, and so on. You’ll need to adapt the services you offer to meet those demands. Some content agencies are equipped to meet diverse requests, others focus on one area. Don’t try to “wing it” with clients you can’t adequately serve. There are plenty of clients out there who can benefit from your areas of expertise.
Do You Offer Research and Branding Game Plans?
These two preliminary services should take place before any content marketing campaign is developed. How familiar are you with a client’s brand? Do you spend the time necessary to learn what makes a brand unique? To be effective, content campaigns rely on a consistent voice that reflects an organization’s mission. The only way to convincingly do that is by knowing your subject inside and out.
Market and competitive research fuel the direction a content campaign takes. Just as every brand is different, so, too, is its audience. Do you do comprehensive research before putting together a content strategy? Do you solicit a company’s internal research and use it to design the best possible content plan?
Related: Content Marketing Agency Solutions: 5 Ways to Help Clients Connect With Customers
Do You Communicate Regularly with Clients?
A recent study found that three pain points can harm an agency-client relationship:
- Not understanding a client’s business.
- Not understanding a client’s customers.
- Not understanding technology and innovation.
How does your agency identify ways to build rapport and enhance communications with clients? Just like with other service-related businesses, content agencies must identify and respond to client touch-points. Whether it’s with phone calls, emails, dashboards, or a combination of all these things, regular communication is a must.
Do You Foster a Team Mentality?
Great content marketing agencies know that exceptional content is the result of a team effort. It’s a rare content writer who can also edit and proof all on their own. Does your agency offer its clients a team of writers and researchers, editors, proofreaders, and managers? All publishers know that the more eyes that review content before it’s released, the better. It reduces the number of misspellings, punctuation and grammar errors, and increases the chance the message hits its mark. Agencies that offer the team approach have a distinct advantage over those that don’t. From strategy to distribution, each team members plays an important role in the production of high-quality content. Establish a process that ensures each client gets the team they need.
Related: How to Create a Killer Content Agency
Be the Content Marketing Agency You’d Want to Hire
Providing a well-rounded content strategy helps your agency build a mutually satisfying and profitable relationship that provides real value to clients and consistent revenue to your agency. It also establishes your agency as a trustworthy, go-to source for helping brands attain their content marketing goals. To ensure everyone enjoys the best possible outcome, make the client experience an important part of your agency’s own strategy. To learn more, check out our white paper, "What is a Digital Content Strategy? And Why You Need One."
