Small and medium businesses especially tend not to like the idea of a content agency. Many of them do some form of content marketing themselves, but Social Media Today mentions that as many as 76% of them don’t see much return on their investment. The lack of content marketing benefit doesn’t come from an ineffectiveness of the technique, but because the company doesn’t approach the problem in an efficient manner.
Small businesses see investing in a content agency as an unnecessary expense. Some companies realize they do need a professional copywriter, as Copyblogger suggests, but decide hiring a single professional is not in their best interest. The idea that an only writer is better than the combined strength of an agency comes from the notion that the same thing that a content agency does, an individual can do just as well. Content marketing in 2019 is a complicated machinery of working parts, and simple content production and distribution isn’t enough to make it work. Working with a content agency offers specific benefits to the product that a company can’t get from a single writer.
Expert Writing on Topic
The number one way that content agencies allow businesses to be better at their content production is by offering them high-quality writers that are versed in the field they’re creating content for. Expert writing from an individual writer can happen, but the entire process of writing, editing, proofreading and at times, even fact-checking, is much quicker and less prone to errors if a team does it as opposed to a single individual. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology reports that scientifically, people are not inclined to see their typos, which is why having an external editor (which is the norm in the case of a content agency) offers better content with less chance of a typo slipping through [].
Augmenting Capabilities and Managing Cost
It’s a common misconception that content creation agencies are just writers. Single writers can only produce so much content, and if the business intends to scale up its content production capabilities, then it will need to get more writers. In the world of content production, finding reliable and skilled writers is hard enough, but with each writer added to the staff, the impact on the business’ bottom line also enters into the equation.
Content agencies offer a location where businesses can get high-quality content, and the volume of content they need isn’t an issue, the price would remain standard across the entire contract. A controlled rate allows businesses to budget their content marketing better and to have a solid goal set for returns on their investment. Scalable solutions are what firms who intend to grow should be looking at. In-house writing can only get a company so far in its goal for content marketing success.
Reducing Risk to the Company
Onboarding and training new employees can have a significant impact on a company’s time and finances. It’s even worse if the company invests that time and money into the employee and they just don’t stick around long enough for the business to see returns on that investment. Engaging a content agency allows a company to lower that risk that comes with hiring an employee to write for them. The long-term financial benefits become apparent when a company starts to realize that during slow months in their marketing process, they effectively save on not having to pay an employee that’s only minimally functional.
Allowing Access to a Wide Range of Skills
Entrepreneurs build a business around offering goods and services for a niche. To do proper content marketing, the material the company produces needs to remain fresh, be consistent, follow the marketing plan, and appeal to the customer. Juggling all of this can be difficult for a single individual, and it’s no fault of the writer if their content misses the mark a few times. With an agency, there are a handful of people working on any job at a particular time. Each of them has their own specialty and can lend their set of skills to the creation of content. The result is more polished material that appeals to the customer, reads like a dream, and plays to the marketing plan.
A Single Point of Contact
One of the biggest problems that small businesses have with working alongside agencies is that they fear that they’ll get lost in the complications of dealing with so many people that they don’t directly have control over. Most agencies assign projects to a single departmental supervisor, and this ensures that one individual handles all communication to and from the agency. In such a way, an agency can be just as concise as a single writer but offer so much more potential and scope for scalability in the future.
More Than Content for Content’s Sake
In the past, it was enough to create content and stick a few search terms inside the body, then let the search engine do its magic. However, as algorithms become more sophisticated, content needs to match it. People aren’t interested in just finding stale content anymore. Static landing pages won’t offer much to a business. That’s why companies turn towards content marketing to create material that is both engaging and appeals to their customers. Consistency and quality are the key elements of useful content, and with a professional agency, a business is almost guaranteed to hit that sweet spot every time.