Hire a content marketing agency?Ask these 11 questions first

Hiring any content marketing agency is easy. If you need to start producing content quickly, there are many options.

However, found The right institution – People who really understand your business and can help achieve your goals – difficult. If you want your content marketing strategy to be successful, hiring the right partner is absolutely essential.

The process of hiring a content marketing agency can be very time-consuming.

But there is a clear outline What is your goal The key questions you should ask during the screening process will help ensure that time is not wasted discussing with the wrong supplier.

Here, you will find a list of important questions to ask before choosing a content marketing agency to help ensure that you are recruited for your unique marketing team and organization.

1. Do you do SEO?

If so, what best practices do you use?

Many organizations claim to be SEO experts. Although some people do have strong SEO skills, the truth is that many people who claim to be good at SEO are actually using outdated best practices, if any.

It is important to understand the SEO elements considered by content marketing agencies and the best practices they apply.

Ask them to share their Best Practice Document It will help you better understand their knowledge and whether they are aware of the latest strategies.

If you are not an SEO expert yourself, I strongly recommend that you run it by someone who is or is doing something Online research Before starting to screen content marketing agencies.

2. How will you help our business?

This seems to be a very basic question, but it is absolutely necessary.No matter how excited you are about the agency, please Don’t forget to ask this!

Initially, the agency might show you a fairly simple or universal content marketing strategy they use among customers. This is good-this is a good starting point. But please follow up to learn how to tailor it to your specific business needs.

For example, the agency may set certain standards for word count or publication frequency.But you may be in a highly technical industry that requires deeper posts, or your business may require thought leadership style content, which will require Interviews with your subject matter experts (SMEs).

This will not only give the agency the opportunity to provide strategic advice and showcase their expertise, but it will also help you better understand their engagement in your business and industry.

3. What results can we expect?

A successful content marketing strategy takes time. If the content agency promises you the world, this is definitely a red flag.

Ask them to prove this by explaining their strategy in detail and/or sharing the results they have promoted for another comparable organization.

More specifically, when a content agency promises any type of bottom-of-funnel result, it is an automatic red flag. Obviously, this is the ultimate goal of all our marketing strategies. However, there are too many factors beyond the control of content agencies to promise sales, new customers, etc.

It’s no secret Content success Tracking and reporting are not always as easy as we hope. For example, brand awareness is difficult to measure.

At the same time, you want to make sure that they are responsible for the results that your organization needs to see, which is why you need to understand exactly how the agency will measure their success and what metrics they use to prove it.

set a goal It seems more realistic to revolve around increasing traffic and conversion rates, improving keyword visibility, and increasing social share. Determine what goals they (and you) are satisfied with-leave them unchanged.

4. How do you report the results?

Performance tracking and reporting are critical, especially when you build trust with content marketing agencies. Be sure to ask how they usually track and report to customers, and how often they do so.

They may also have some de-branded sample reports that they can share with you to provide more insights on how to present them.

Although they may have one Standard reporting framework They are used by customers and it is best to see if and how they customize it for your business.

As part of the onboarding process, a quality content agency will compile a baseline report for you. In this way, you can finally see the progress since your relationship began.

5. What does our team need?

Setting expectations around what the content agency expects of your team-in order to achieve the results they promised-is key.

How much do they want you to participate? What types of reviews and approvals are required? How does the whole process work? There are many things to introduce here.

Resolving this issue before you choose to work with the agency will help avoid more difficult conversations in the future.

6. What industry are you good at?

When you are in a research institution, you must consider their expertise. Some people claim to be a jack-of-all-trades, but this is not always the best.

In fact, many times this is a red flag. Finding a content marketing agency that you are good at and sticking to will often be more successful in providing customers with high-quality content, rather than trying to be good at all aspects.

An organization that already has a deep understanding of your industry will eventually be easier to work with.

They will understand the pain points and the content that your audience resonates most in order to develop a content strategy that suits your target audience.

They will test the strategies of your industry and learn from past successes and even failures, which can help you avoid making the same mistakes.

For organizations that claim to have expertise in your industry, don’t hesitate to ask them for case studies and examples of how they achieved goals similar to those you set.

7. How will the project be managed?

Regardless of the size of the agency, this question is essential. Once you sign a contract, many organizations hand over the project to a project manager or account manager with very limited experience.

A good organization will have a content marketing expert to handle your plan. If this is not the case, you may need to reassess before drafting the contract.

Involving an experienced content manager in your project strategy is essential to lay a solid foundation and achieve your goals.

It is also important to understand the structure of the writing team. Will your project have a dedicated team of writers? Or will writers be alternated? If you like or dislike the way someone writes, can you work with them more or less flexibly?

loss of employees It is a real challenge for the agency, so asking about the qualifications of the writer is also helpful. How many years of experience do they have? Are they technical writers?

If your project continues to have new writers, maintaining a consistent tone and writing style may become an issue, and there are many other issues.

It’s also a good idea to ask about the communication process—how often you talk to the organization and what tools you use.

8. Can you share the result proof?

This is what I mentioned briefly above but deserves to be discussed in depth. When evaluating agencies, don’t just ask about their work examples. Real results are also required.

If the institution has no proof of results, this is an easy way to disqualify them. On the other hand, if the agency can share results that are similar to what you expect — whether it’s traffic, conversions, keywords, or all of the above — it will give you confidence in your decision.

Needless to say, you should spend some time delving into the case studies available on their website. But they should also have more evidence in their back pockets-screenshots from Google Analytics, letters of recommendation, etc.

9. What type of content do you create?

To be honest, this is a tricky question. But it is still necessary to ask.

A good content marketing agency should be able to provide you with a lot of Different types of content Including general blog posts, thought leader articles, sales materials, glossary pages, or certain types of definition-based content, high-quality content assets such as e-books and white papers.

Even if you have other people involved in your content creation process, if the agency can’t provide you with any of these types of assets, it’s a bit worrying.

Different types of content will summarize different content, and understanding that the organization can provide you with the content you need to achieve your goals is key.

10. What tools do you use?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask — not only in content marketing discussions, but also when making any hiring decisions. This is a good way to check their professionalism and discover new tools in the field.

For example, if I’m hiring someone to do SEO, and they didn’t mention SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz as one of their preferred tools, then it might not be suitable for that role.

One of the many benefits of working with a content agency is the access to Special tools Your business may not be in your MarTech stack yet. This is also important for reporting purposes.

Choosing the institution that uses the best tools will help ensure that your investment is worth the money. This is also a good way to help leading institutions stand out from others.

11. How much does it cost?

Last but not least, you obviously need to understand the investment required for your business.

Remember the popular saying, “you get what you pay for”. A cheaper proposal does not mean that it is the right choice for your business.

In fact, if its price is too low, you might want to go back to the drawing board.

You can bring it to the attention of the agency and directly ask them why they are more affordable than others-how do they manage to keep prices low, and whether the quality of the content suffers as a result?

If nothing goes wrong, you should do some inspections and digging yourself to ensure that you will not completely waste marketing funds.

At the same time, this does not mean that the most expensive proposal is also a viable method. Use all the research and screening you have done throughout the process to make the best decision.

Final thoughts

Remember that part of making this decision will require using your own judgment and trusting your instincts. There are some precautions that you may not be able to ask directly during the screening process, and you need to dig by yourself.

One of the most important things is-do they practice what they preach?

An easy way to tell if a content marketing agency is full of it (because of the lack of better phrases) is to look at their own content. It is safe to assume that they provide customers with the same quality content as on their own website.

Does it meet your standards?

If you need additional verification, please ask if they can provide you with a reference so that you can hear directly from the customer.

By asking the questions outlined in this article, you can hope to find the right content marketing agency and partner for your business. I wish you a smooth search!

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