Ready to outsource your content marketing needs? Here’s all you need to know.
According to the 2023 Gartner Technology Marketing Benchmarks Survey,[1] content ranks second to in-person events as the best-performing call to action. This is according to technology marketers in organizations with over $100 million in annual revenue. But balancing volume with quality is easier said than done when it comes to content, especially as your business grows.
For those feeling buried in blog posts, emails, landing pages, social media content, and everything in between, there is a solution—the option to hire a content marketing agency. Seeking talent and skills elsewhere may be the ticket to sustained growth.
What does it mean to hire a content marketing agency?
Hiring a content marketing agency means bringing on external professionals or agencies to handle some or all of your content marketing efforts. Some companies hire out their entire digital marketing services, seeking assistance with everything from creating content and running social media accounts to setting up ad campaigns and conducting market research. Others might opt to simply hire an agency to help with specific tasks or projects.
As a marketer or business owner, you know the value of quality content. Whether you want to build a loyal social media following, increase traffic, or boost your SEO rankings, you can reach those goals with content writing. However, high-quality and relevant content writing takes immense time, effort, and skill.
Because many SMBs don’t have the staff or resources to do this all internally, they are beginning to hire third-party agencies to address this challenge. Doing so frees their time and energy to focus on other big-picture tasks.
Benefits of third-party content marketing services
Content creation is a lengthy task at the heart of any content marketing strategy. Your content should reach the right audience at the right time, so you must consider content scheduling, content strategizing, and data analytics.
Consider the following advantages of hiring someone else to handle your content marketing efforts:
Saves time and money
It's hard to justify the hours spent creating and managing content if you're trying to grow your business. Content marketing outsourcing helps take those tasks off your plate while providing the expertise you lack in-house.
Jason Wise, [2] chief editor at EarthWeb, recommends hiring a content marketing agency so you can leverage their wealth of knowledge and varied specializations: "These teams of professionals specialize in different areas such as SEO, copywriting, social media, and more.”
Second, content outsourcing is cost-effective. It saves businesses from the expenses associated with full-time salaries, benefits, and training costs. Plus, you pay only for the services you need, making it a flexible solution.
In addition to saving time and money, outsourcing content marketing gives you:
The ability to focus on other business operations, driving growth.
The opportunity to improve SEO, your ranking, and website traffic—especially if SEO strategies are outside your wheelhouse.
If you don't have the budget to invest in outsourcing, be more particular about what you want. Do you need help writing blog posts and social content? Start there, and as your ROI improves, invest in more operations based on what makes sense.
Keeps content on trend
You should invest in varying content types to meet your audience's different preferences and learning styles. However, you may not have the bandwidth or experience to do so.
Gartner’s 2024 Tech Marketing Benchmarks Survey revealed that the best performing content types for tech marketers with $100 million or more in annual revenue are thought leadership content (20%), video (14%), white papers (14%), and recorded demos (13%).[3] The types you choose will depend on your business. An agency with experience and its finger on the pulse will know what's on-trend, leveraging tactics to boost your ROI.
Before you choose a content marketing agency, develop a clear content strategy outlining your objectives, style, target audience, preferred metrics, and content topics. An agency can help you in these areas, so you should be open to their recommendations. However, being part of the process is equally crucial.
Decide if a content marketing agency is the right fit for your business
The benefits of outsourcing your content marketing needs are vast, but how do you know if this is the right step? How do you find an agency that fits your needs?
Before searching for an agency, consider the following questions:
What are your team’s weak points? Authoritative and high quality content can be challenging to write, especially when optimizing content for SEO. Can your team craft engaging content that ranks in search engines? If these aren't your strengths, outsourcing can help you ensure quality content that converts.
What is your team’s bandwidth? You may lack the time it takes to create content, especially while your team is busy with other marketing campaigns or strategies. If you cannot give content marketing the time and attention needed, consider outsourcing at least some of your ongoing tasks and operations.
Remain mindful of key qualification criteria
If your goal is to create and incorporate more content types at scale, it's a good idea to leverage an outsourced content marketing agency. Taking this step will ensure scalability, flexibility, and depth.
To guide this process, ask questions across these categories:
Contextual: Ask about the agency's experience with niche industries, its understanding of trends, and how it approaches understanding its clients' targets, objectives, and audience.
Technical: Can the agency strategically create content, taking content to the next level? Ask how they stay updated on best practices and use content throughout the customer's journey.
Functional: Gauge how authentic the agency's claims are, asking questions such as: What is the most complex project you have completed? What marketing strategy do you most often implement? How do you adapt to industry trends, and how does that influence how you recommend tools, processes, and technologies?
Operational: How an agency coordinates externally and internally can make or break a partnership. Ask how the agency measures client success, handles mistakes, communicates changes, and incorporates additional costs.
Analytical: You'll need access to analytical information to determine your ROI. Ask what tools the agency uses for digital and website analytics, how they measure performance, and how they plan to improve your SEO ranking. Plus, how do they determine keywords and targets?
Cultural: Does the agency clash with your core values? Ask where they plan to be in five years, whether there are any topics they refuse to cover, and what you can expect from each phase.
Consider whether AI will be part of your outsourcing strategy
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools can further support your efforts—or those of an agency—if you need more content at a faster rate. And if you’re not yet on the bandwagon, it won’t be long before you are, as respondents in our 2024 GenAI for Social Content Survey expect 48% of their social media content to be produced using genAI in the next 18 months.*
Pam Didner,[4] a B2B marketing consultant, writer, podcaster, speaker, and author, offers the following tips for regulating genAI content among agencies, contractors, and third-party vendors:
Create guidelines. A list of dos and don’ts for contractors using AI tools to generate marketing content encourages responsible AI use and minimizes risk. To get you started, Didner suggests the following: “Don't enter confidential or proprietary information into the prompt, such as customer data, sales strategy, sales proposal, contract information. Don't copy and paste Chat GPT responses entirely or blindly. Do be sure to fact check, and do be sure to add quality assurance steps to your workflow.”
Establish a posting cadence. Requesting that contractors limit posts to once or twice a week can help discourage “AI slop,”[5] a new term for low-quality content generated by AI. “Limiting blog posts to Fridays and YouTube uploads to Wednesdays has helped us counteract AI slop,” Didner explains. “Think it through in terms of frequency and also the quality of your content, and then determine how you want to manage that.”
Ask for transparency. Didner urges any business that is considering hiring a marketing agency to communicate with that agency about their AI use. This is particularly critical considering companies that primarily task in-house staff with producing social media content are significantly more likely to always label AI-generated content versus those whose content is primarily produced by external agencies or freelancers.*
Lastly, Didner urges organizations to revisit any guidelines given to third parties and evaluate the content they’re producing. “This technology is evolving in front of our eyes. That means your policy is a living document and needs to be updated on a regular basis. Don’t say, ‘I did my AI policy,’ check it off, and move on. Your AI policy is a living document, and that's very critical.”
AI in content marketing by the numbers*
Capterra’s 2024 GenAI for Social Content Survey uncovered the following insights:
87% of respondents believe genAI enhances a marketing professional's creative process.
82% say all digital marketing tasks will be assisted by genAI tools in the next five years.
76% of total respondents anticipate that their company will increase their spending on GenAI tools over the next 18 months.
Ready to hire a content marketing agency? Here's what's next
Open communication is paramount if you're ready to start speaking to agencies about their packages and processes. Be upfront about your expectations, and let them know you want to be involved, especially at the beginning. Once the agency has a better idea as to who you are as a brand and what you aim to achieve, you can take more of a backseat position, switching your attention to other business operations.
Do you need more guidance on whether you should hire content marketing services? Be sure to check out these Capterra resources:
Note: Questions and responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
