9 Things To Look For In A Content Marketing Agency

There are so many digital marketing agencies and content agencies out there, that it can be a challenge to know who is best to work with when it comes to your business. Here we explore some different factors to consider when looking for an agency to handle your content marketing.

How Do You Know Which Marketing Disciplines Your Business Needs?

You may think that you only need some support with your content marketing strategy, but are you certain this is exactly what is needed to meet your goals? Content marketing integrates with other disciplines, such as SEO, PPC and social media marketing. For this reason, it can be very rewarding to work with a full-service digital marketing agency, in which experts on every aspect of digital marketing collaborate based upon your goals and ideal outcomes.

Whatever agency type you are looking to work with, the values and service you should look for should be consistent. Below are some factors worth considering in your hunt for a digital agency:

1. Do They Provide Consistent And Valuable Reporting?

In order to understand the impact of marketing efforts, you will want to see regular reporting. This could be on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on what you need. It should provide clear data showing how your website is performing, based on initial goals that can develop as you see results.

Often with content marketing and SEO activities, results are going to take time, but being able to look back and see the progression path taken can be an invaluable tool to keep improving your business.

2. Do They Have A High-Quality Website?

Any agency that provides SEO or content marketing should have a well put together, current and optimised website, because they know how essential a well-designed website is. If their site isn’t showcasing current best practices, then this doesn’t provide a good first impression.

Furthermore, if they’re not executing internal projects well, why would you expect them to deliver for you?

3. Do They Share Previous Work?

Being able to browse case studies and previous successes for businesses like yours will give you peace of mind that the agency can get things done.

Try to find out if they have long-lasting partnerships with other clients.

Questions worth exploring could be:

Do they have other clients that are similar to you or within your industry?
Do they have good testimonials?
Do they have relevant and factual case studies?

This sort of information can give you an insight into what working with that agency is like. Clued up marketers understand the importance of displaying case studies and such on their website. So, if you can’t find any, they may not have any previous clients, or they may not understand the industry as well as you’d want them to. If in doubt, just ask them!

4. Understanding of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

An understanding of SEO is essential as it should tie in with your content marketing strategy.
This is an example of when a full-service digital marketing agency is preferable, as you will be able to work with different team members with specific knowledge in multiple areas, to form a coherent strategy for you across many disciplines. When you work with SilverDisc, you may have one team member working on your content and SEO and another managing your PPC account, with all of this being tied together via your main point of contact – your dedicated account manager.

5. Specialised Team Members

Following on from the above point, regardless of the type of services you are looking for, it is vital that your agency has the right team members to suit your business needs. You want to be sure that there are team members with different areas of expertise that will support you with your marketing needs.

6. Similar Company Values

It is important to work with an agency that values the same things and operates in a similar environment as your business does – primarily because you can be fairly sure that you will collaborate well as a whole team. At SilverDisc, we like to consider our agency as an extension of your business because of the close working relationships we foster with our clients as we work towards the same goals and values.

7. No Wild Promises

A good content or digital marketing agency will give you measurable results based on agreed targets, not wildly exaggerated promises.

An example of this would be claims to fast track you to the top spot in the organic Google search results. This would show a lack of understanding of long and short-term marketing strategy and goals.

It is best to stick to digital marketing agencies that offer transparency and realistic promises.

8. Experts That Are Easy To Contact And Happy To Talk

You want to work with genuine people that are at hand to help, and the best agencies will make it easy for potential clients to get in touch with them. As a general rule, contact information shouldn’t be more than one click away regardless of what page you are on.

When you contact a company as a prospective client, you want to be able to speak to someone about what they can do for your company and expected results, as this is what you are paying for.

You should ask to be guided through the process of how they research and plan out their content, how they produce it, and how they monitor results in order to understand how it performs.

9. A Great Company Blog

Does the agency have a current, relevant blog? Because they should! If they have a great blog, then it’s likely that they have a clear content marketing strategy in place and have current industry insights, in the form of optimised long-form content being created consistently. This is a promising sign that the same approach will be taken to your content. Our Knowledge Centre is a great example of this (even if we do say so ourselves).

Looking For A Digital Agency?

Really great content is the result of many hands. A content agency will be filled with talented copywriters, designers, SEO specialists, website developers, social media experts, account managers and more, who know how to help you achieve your goals.

If you’d like further information about choosing a digital marketing agency, and why SilverDisc could be the right agency for you, take a look at our recent blog post: How To Choose Your Digital Marketing Agency. For more information on content, browse the content marketing portion of our knowledge centre.

Finally, if you need help with your content marketing strategy, contact SilverDisc today to see how we could help you.