Why should you be outsourcing your content to an inbound marketing agency? Let’s put it another way. Do you really have time to do your own content marketing and do it properly?
Time and Money
There are plenty of reasons why you should outsource your content to an inbound marketing agency. Let’s look at this more closely.
As a business owner, your responsibilities extend beyond providing quality service to customers, managing staff, and handling administrative tasks. In addition to traditional marketing efforts like PPC advertising and trade show preparations, it is crucial to incorporate digital marketing strategies. Utilising search engines is essential for enhancing online visibility, ensuring that your business is easily discoverable by potential customers actively seeking your products or services. Lead generation becomes paramount in acquiring potential customers by identifying and capturing interest, establishing a foundation for successful conversions.
Furthermore, email marketing proves invaluable for engaging and nurturing your audience, fostering lasting relationships and driving customer loyalty. These strategies, combined with marketing automation and inbound marketing services, contribute to a well-rounded approach that integrates technology and automation to optimise your marketing campaigns and streamline operations.
So on top of all those other duties, do you really want to take on the job of content marketing? Do you think you will do a better job of it than an inbound marketing agency? Content marketing takes time. To do it properly takes even more time.
Time is not a problem when you hire somebody in to do it. Let’s look at just some of the skills involved in content marketing:
- Written content
- Visuals
- Video
If you are going to do the content marketing in-house, you are looking at least one full-time job right there. Salaries, benefits, contracts. Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? It is. Content marketing involves a mixed set of skills, and an inbound marketing agency will have a wide range of people who can provide them.
Check out the following articles to learn more about inbound marketing agencies:
- 5 Signs It's Time to Work with an Inbound Marketing Agency
- Inbound Marketing Agency: 5 Ways to Pick The Best One
- 3 of the Most Impressive Inbound Marketing Website Designs
Written Content
Everybody is a writer these days, crafting articles, posts, messages, and comments. While many are adept at expressing thoughts, content marketing demands a different precision. It involves strategic elements like search engine optimisation (SEO) to boost content visibility online. Outbound marketing strategies further extend reach beyond immediate online presence, engaging potential customers through channels like advertising. For effective content marketing, a skilled marketing director is essential, steering the strategic direction of your efforts in the competitive landscape.
Just look at how B2B marketers rate the effectiveness of their organisation’s use of content marketing according to latest report from the Content Marketing Institute:
(Image source: contentmarketinginstitute.com)
Then there’s the sheer volume of content that needs to be produced for it to be effective. Let’s look at just blogs, for example. Hubspot reports that businesses that post at least 16 blog posts each month generate over 4.5 times as many leads and 3.5 times as much traffic as companies that only post four times per month.
Identifying, reaching and engaging with your audience
Content marketing starts with understanding who you want to reach, where to find them, and what media to use. A content marketing writer must be versatile enough to write in the way that will attract the interest of the target audience. It takes more than a fancy headline. They need to draw their reader in, take them on a journey, and successfully provoke a favourable response to the call to action.
Recruiting staff – more time, more money
Finding a skilled content writer who meets your need and expectation can be a challenging task that might require the involvement of a dedicated marketing manager. Once you successfully hire such a writer, they may demand a high salary and benefits package. However, it's important to ensure that they can effectively communicate your brand's message and values to all of your target audiences, as part of your overall inbound marketing strategy. This is crucial for achieving your business goals and facilitating business growth. Creating quality content takes both time and resources, but it's an essential part of a successful marketing campaign, contributing significantly to achieving your business goal and propelling business growth.
You’re not alone in the struggle to find the right people.
(Image source: skilledup.com)
Freelancing?
Hiring a freelancer may seem like a convenient option for content marketing, but it's not always the best solution. While some freelancers may offer quality content marketing services, it's important to remember that they may not be aligned with your wider marketing strategy and inbound methodology. Additionally, you may need to spend extra time and money to check and refine their work to ensure it resonates with your target audience. It's essential to approach content marketing with care and ensure that it's done correctly to achieve optimal results.
An inbound marketing agency will have a crack squad of professional writers and will select the right one for each task within each project. The inbound marketing agency takes ownership of the work. You still want to take care of your content marketing yourself?
Can your writer do video (competently)?
Nowadays, everybody has the power to use their phone as a camcorder. However, there is a difference between being able to knock up a 30-second amateur piece and having the skills to put together something that is professional and effective as content marketing.
Your videographer may not be the greatest writer. They may expect you to provide the script. Your writer may not understand the “Dos and Don’ts” of video content. Again, an inbound marketing agency will have no desire to cut corners. They will have writers and video coming out of their ears. That’s the beauty of recruiting an agency – content marketing is their business. What’s yours?
Infographics and other design work
There is more to design than manipulating imagery. As a content marketing tool, design is just one part of the strategy. Are you creating memes? If so, who is writing the words for them? Where is the meme going to be distributed? Are there rules that have to be obeyed in terms of text to imagery ratios?
Questions. Questions. Questions. What you really want, however, are answers. You want to focus on doing what you do best – offering the best service to your customers. All the answers are provided by one organisation – an inbound marketing agency. But if you still think it is cheaper or easier to do it in house – all you need is several writers, a videographer and a graphic designer.
Hold on. There’s more to this content marketing business. When the content is posted out, it will need accompanying text. If you are going to use infographics, your writer is going to have to understand what information is going to be most useful for the target audience.
Tip of the iceberg
The true art of content marketing involves a lot more than banging out the odd blog here or there. And to be honest, even when we throw video and graphic design into the mix, we’re still nowhere close to tasting the full sandwich. What your inbound marketing agency knows inside out that many businesses don’t – and wouldn’t have the time or resources to implement – is that a content marketing process needs to consider the entire user journey.
It looks something like this:
- User sees the content – does the blog, video, infographic, link to a white paper appeal to them?
- User engages – will they read it and agree to the next stage?
- User gets to landing page – will that content engage them?
- Where next? – Is it easy for the right user to take the right action?
- Conversion – how effectively are you capturing data, bookings or orders?
Having the writer, the graphic designer and the video staff in place is not enough. Who is coordinating all these content marketing efforts? You? Or do you have to hire a project manager? An inbound marketing agency will have all you need in-house.
Remember that content marketing done correctly does more than engage with customers and potential customers. There are great SEO benefits as well, and again, the inbound marketing agency will have this expertise.
Why use an inbound marketing agency?
- Save time
- Save money
- Produce quality content
- Reach the right audience
- Better return on investment
- More conversions
These are just a few of the benefits. You can still try doing it yourself if you have the time, the money and are an expert in every aspect of inbound marketing. You can always hire stacks of freelancers or employ another two or three people as permanent staff. If that’s what you really want to do. That being said...
Using an inbound marketing agency is a smart option for businesses seeking quality content produced as part of a successful content marketing strategy. Inbound marketing agencies can provide expertise and guidance from inbound marketing experts who are skilled in creating content that attracts, engages, and converts leads through the sales funnel. With the help of an inbound marketing agency, businesses can achieve their marketing goals more efficiently and effectively.
Get in touch to find out how we at Incisive Edge can help you reach your marketing objectives.
