In the current age, content marketing agencies are a dime a dozen. They design campaigns and develop content for you, toiling away at their screens in the pursuit of their craft. To them, content is art.
But art is subjective. What appeals to someone might not appeal to someone else — and that’s where the trouble lies. How do you pick a content marketing agency that’s tailored not only to your liking, but to that of the public as well?
As content marketing specialists from a digital marketing agency, we’re here to help save you from the possibility of making a less-than-ideal choice in your agency partner.
Before we get started, it’s important to note the difference between a content marketing agency and a digital marketing agency, and what each agency entails.
Digital marketing agency
A digital marketing agency encompasses all the ways that companies market themselves online. This can include things such as SEO, social media, PR, sponsored ads, and PPC. Their goal is to create conversion and generate leads.
Given the prevalence of technology in this modern-day and age, it’s safe to say that almost every marketing company in Singapore is a digital marketing agency.
Most digital marketing agencies revolve around the use of the same tools — it’s the strength of their content that sets them apart.
Content marketing agency
A content marketing agency takes care of the ‘deeper’ work, such as creating blog articles, videos, and social media posts. Their goal is to create brand awareness, and to evoke excitement in your products or services.
However, content marketing isn’t limited to just the digital side of things. Print media is also a form of content marketing, and it includes things such as newspaper advertisements, banners, posters, and flyers. Magazine articles are also another example of content marketing.
Generally speaking, good digital marketing gets people to click on your website, and good content marketing helps them stay on it.
If you think of digital marketing as a tree, content marketing can be considered as one of its branches.
How to choose the right content marketing agency
1. Be clear about your goals
Do you want to increase traffic flow to your website, increase your sales, or build greater brand awareness?
Knowing what you want to achieve from your marketing project will go a long way, especially when it comes to communicating your goals to your selected agency.
Some of the ways that you can track your analytics is through the use of metrics and online services. Google Analytics is a great way to measure the traffic on your website and to build potential SEO keywords.
If you have a newsletter, the people who subscribe to it are part of your marketing funnel. By taking a look at your CRM list, you’ll be able to get a rough idea of the number of leads you currently have in your funnel.
2. Figure out what you’re lacking
Ultimately, all these metrics should lead to a healthy amount of revenue.
If your sales are lacking, something might be missing from your company — making it even more crucial that you enlist the help of a good content marketing agency.
You might be targeting the wrong audience, or not inspiring enough confidence in your product. Your metrics will help you to get a general idea of what needs to be improved.
If you’re lacking leads, you might have to amp up your advertising, or optimise your website content for the search engine.
Learn more about SEO tips to use to rank on search engines here.
If your business model is niche, your competitors’ ads might simply be outperforming yours.
It could even be something as ‘trivial’ as poor web design. After all, the design of your website plays a big role in content marketing as well – and that’s why you should choose your web design company carefully.
3. Look at their content strategy
Some content marketing agencies will list their creation process on their website. This creates a way for you to understand their working model better, and how soon you can expect your content to be completed.
What you want to look for is a content marketing agency that can answer your questions, and is willing to do some research into your industry. This shows that they are willing to go the extra mile to make sure that your content is suited to your consumers.
One thing to note, though — beware the agencies that have all the answers before you ask any questions. This shows that they may be applying a common template to all their work – and your campaign is probably not going to stand out at all.
Some of the questions that a good content marketing agency in Singapore would ask would be along the lines of:
- What are your company’s goals, and which ones are you prioritising at the moment?
- What target audience are you looking at?
- What is your company’s direction?
- What’s the impression that you want your audience to have on your brand?
Another way to understand their content strategy is to look at their content marketing services. Find out the services that a content marketing agency may offer here.
4. Assess their team
Having a team of specialists working on your content means that their content will go through more vigorous checks. Any errors such as spelling and punctuation errors are more likely to be spotted with several rounds of vetting, and any missing points can be caught more easily.
More importantly, a content team with diverse views, beliefs, and cultures is vital. If your proposed concept might be misinterpreted by others, such as Dennis Chew’s brownface ad, the first party to identify it should be your content marketing team.
If there are multiple writers in a team, some companies also list out each individual’s work as a sort of portfolio. This also acts as a good way for you to filter out your favourite writers.
5. Look for results
No matter how good the produced content is, you’ll want to ensure that it can achieve your goals, be it to increase your website traffic or even increase conversions.
Look for the clientele that they’ve worked with in the past, and if there are any testaments from other companies. Testaments are a great way of assessing how well an agency can perform — or at least that the agency is worth working with.
Find out more about how we grew PropertyGuru’s website traffic by 114%.
6. Know who you’re working with
Before you select a content marketing agency, it’s vital to meet the people who will be managing your project. Some of the questions that you should ask include:
- Who will I be liaising with for the duration of my campaign?
- Who will be in charge of my campaign, and who is assigned to it?
- Can I take a look at any similar campaigns you’ve worked on in the past?
- What are your plans for my campaign?
- How will these plans help me to achieve my goals?
Remember that building a relationship with any digital marketing team in Singapore can pay off greatly in future.
A long relationship with a good content marketing agency will mean that they understand your company and products more intimately. This leads to a heightened ability to produce content that’s intricately attuned to your audience.
Given enough information, a content marketing agency may provide marketing advice as well, on top of just producing content. Your content marketing agency shouldn’t be just a vendor; they should be one of your business partners as well.
Reach out to the right content marketing agency
A good content marketing agency should know enough about the rules to break when necessary. This also means that you have to be prepared to doing things a little more controversial.
After all, one of the most important things for any content creator is that their stuff has to be captivating. Otherwise, their copy won’t build any momentum at all.