How To know If You Need Content Creation Services?

If you are a progressive business that knows what works in the world of advertising today, then you surely know that going digital and using content to market your products and services are mandatory. For starters, no business can survive without a website or blog today, thanks to the massive influx of online shoppers. Secondly, words are powerful and when used strategically, can enhance your brand awareness, attract more website traffic, motivate your target audience to buy from you, and improve your sales. So, you think you can take care of it all? It’s great if you can, but if you can’t, marketing agencies offering content creation services can truly help. But how do you know when to call them?

• Do you have a content team? – A content team ideally comprises of writers, copy editors, SEO experts, designers and a marketing manager. Even if a professional wears multiple hats, the above-mentioned are the roles they must play. And if your business doesn’t have that kind of manpower or resources, and your team doesn’t really know what content marketing is and how it works, it makes sense to call in a specialized content agency.
• Is no one reading your content? – While you may get a certain satisfaction from creating your own content, if no one reads what is there on your website, blog or social media pages, it really doesn’t make sense. Because, it means that your content is not working. It probably needs a better format, structure, or heading, or maybe you need to offer better, informative and more engaging content. You might also need a better SEO strategy so that people actually find your website or blog when they search with relevant keywords. And these are things that an agency offering content creation services can take care of.
• Is your blog almost dying? – Having a blog is a great way to connect with potential customers, but only if you can post regularly on it. Creating 3 to 4 blog posts in a month will not do it! Your readers will lose interest and probably start following others. Also, dull and meaningless blog posts won’t do anything to improve your reputation as an industry leader. These have to be full of information and should solve the problems that your audience has. And if you feel that you cannot devote the time or energy to create blog posts frequently, it’s time to ask a content agency for help.
• Do you have a dull social media presence? – If you notice that you have not been able to attract new followers for some time, or your social media posts are not getting enough likes or shares, know that something is wrong. Maybe your feeds are boring, not engaging enough and don’t motivate the audience to interact more with you. A good content agency can help you create posts that intrigue the audience, connect with them on a friendly note, offer information and are based on varied topics. So, if your social media posts were all about your products till now, understand that it is not going to work.

So, as you can see, agencies offering content creation services do more than simply “write” for you. They create a content strategy for you, follow it up, analyze it, and tweak it to achieve your core business objectives. Hire one wisely to stay ahead of your competitors.

What’s The Benefit Of Hiring A Video Marketing Agency?

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg coined the term ‘video first’ two years ago in 2016. The term ‘video first’ has since picked up and is now used to emphasize the importance and growth of video as a content format. If Zuckerberg’s views aren’t convincing enough for you- perhaps statistics should do the trick.

● Approximately 87% online marketers use video content.
● Nearly 1/3rd of the online activity is spent on watching videos.
● More than 500 million people watch videos on Facebook every day.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg- there’s a lot more where that came from and that’s precisely why you need to hire a video marketing agency right away. Hire a video marketing agency when you don’t have a competent in-house team. It’s as simple as that. Don’t take video marketing lightly- when done right the benefits that it has to offer are large.

Hiring a video marketing agency is a lot like hiring a content agency or an advertising agency. The reasons behind hiring one are the same- the benefits of hiring one are primarily the same. With that being said, let’s now look at three main benefits of hiring a video marketing agency:

1. Experienced: Experienced, professional, seasoned- call it whatever you want but one of the biggest benefits of hiring a video marketing agency is that you will see a degree of professionalism in their works. There’s no substitute to experience. Agencies and video production houses know how to get the work done in the best possible way. They understand the importance of quality work and timely delivery.

2. Affordable (Long-Term): Video marketing is not a short-term strategy. Sure, it can be done on a short-term basis to get results but for continued results, it needs to be a long-term strategy. And from a long-term perspective, hiring a video marketing agency makes a lot more sense financially. Video marketing agencies already have all the tools that you need to execute a strategy and these tools aren’t cheap. Moreover, most agencies ask you for your budget first and then build video strategies accordingly. The benefit for companies here is that they get to leverage certain tools for free which otherwise cost hundreds of dollars. In the long run, hiring a video marketing agency can help a company improve their ROI.

3. Informed & Unique: Video marketing agencies have employees whose sole job it is to do research on the trends and advancements in the video marketing industry. Agencies and production houses likewise know the importance of ingenuity while designing video campaigns and know exactly what works where. All of this comes down to their research efforts and past work. Hiring a professional video marketing agency means that the company will not have to waste their time and resources in finding out what works and what doesn’t. Video marketing agencies are informed and up-to-date and they know the trends inside out- a massive advantage that’s often overlooked.

Digital Content Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing

Digital content marketing encapsulates all the content that you see companies post online. The word ‘content’ here is a wide term- it includes everything from social media posts to video content to press releases. Digital content marketing happens online on different digital media platforms.

Traditional marketing is the marketing that most of us have been exposed to while growing up. Traditional marketing includes using media like print, TV & radio.

The rise of digital has seen a small fall in traditional marketing. Not a big fall- but a small one nonetheless. Will this fall compound in the years to come? Highly unlikely. Despite the growth and popularity of digital marketing as a whole, it’s hard to see traditional marketing fade away anytime soon.

That brings us to the next question. So why are so many companies focusing a major chunk of their marketing budget on digital content marketing and bypassing traditional marketing in the bargain?

 

Biggest Benefits Of Digital Content Marketing Over Traditional Marketing

• Longevity: Content circulated online lives longer than advertisements. Advertisements have a short shelf-life. They run for limited periods of time on limited resources and once exhausted- they are discontinued forever. Content on the other hand, once published online, stays online. Unless you remove it of course.

• Sharing: Anything posted online can be shared extremely easily. Most digital media platforms have an exclusive share option that allows users to share liked content with the rest of their friends online. Sharing traditional marketing campaigns in comparison is much harder- sharing the visual proof through word of mouth is difficult.

• Customizable: In a world where no two groups of people are the same- targeting has become all the more important. Traditional marketing doesn’t allow you to tailor your messages to an individual customers needs. Digital content marketing does. It’s a very flexible marketing strategy. Using digital content marketing, marketers can target different groups with different content- content that will resonate with them.

• Meaningful: When done right, digital content marketing satisfies consumers by providing them with information that acts as a value-added service indirectly. It’s a welcome change for consumers who are so used to being drilled by salesy messages that fill traditional marketing.

• Cost: Digital content marketing is much, much more affordable when compared to traditional marketing. Most small businesses do not have a huge marketing budget to spend on traditional marketing. Whatever money is set aside for marketing is spent on salespeople or digital marketing- depending upon the industry in which the business is operating.

If you were to take a look at some content marketing statistics- you will see that most companies and marketers, be it B2B or B2C, are increasing their digital content marketing budget by a significant amount. And now, you know precisely why they are doing this. Read up on content marketing statistics to learn more.

What To Look For While Hiring A Content Marketing Agency?

Finding the right content marketing agency for you is not difficult at all. Finding the best content marketing agency is a little more challenging. Yet, that’s not too difficult either. Here’s a little secret. All the best content marketing agencies have somethings in common. Look for these things and you shall find the best content marketing agency for your company.

What are these ‘things’ that we speak off? Given below is a list that should serve as your check-list whenever it is that you plan on hiring a content marketing agency to do your bidding.

1. Date Of Establishment

Naive as it may be, experience counts for something. One of the first things to look at in a content marketing agency is the date of its establishment. The best agencies have at least 10 years of experience in pure content marketing.

2. Reputation

One of the surest signs of reputation are awards and certificates. Agencies that have won awards for their work can be said to have earned a decent reputation for themselves. There are other ways to judge the reputation of an agency but they aren’t reliable. Most of the reviews and testimonials that you find online lack credibility but it’s nice to check a few of them to get a kind of heads up.

3. Software Deployment

When the content marketing agencies come up for their pitch be sure to ask them about the tools or software that they use. The best content marketing agencies fully exploit online tools to improve the efficiency of their works. Look out for agencies that use tools to plan, implement and monitor the content marketing strategy.

4. Services

Honestly, services is not the best parameter to use to find the best content marketing agency out there because almost all content marketing agencies offer a broad range of services. However, if they have won awards for more than one of their content marketing services, then that’s something that you should take notice off. Make sure to look at the agencies portfolio to check for versatility. The benefit of contracting a content marketing agency that offers multiple content-related services is that it makes managing the entire content strategy a lot easier and brings about a level of standardization to your communication.

5. Personnel Of Team Members

Some research has to be done from your end. After shortlisting the best agencies- take some time to look at the team members who make up that agency. Go through their CV, their achievements, their past work- try to interact with them if possible and time permits. The objective of this is to see whether the individuals who will be working for you fit right into your business strategy. The agency and you have to share the vision to get the desired results. Otherwise, it’s impossible even if you have appointed the best content marketing agency in the world.

Top Content Marketing Statistics 2018

Digital marketing strategies give marketers an opportunity to study the precise cause-effect relationship of the activities undertaken by them. Measurability- that’s been one of the key propellers for the growth of digital marketing.

Two branches of digital marketing have seen a tremendous amount of growth over the last decade: social media marketing and content marketing. Every year research organizations conduct multiple research studies to gauge the impact of digital marketing. Every year, something new is learned.

 

The dynamism that bubbles with digital marketing transform every new report into a sort of revelation. Marketers have to look out for these reports and new statistical data to keep themselves informed. Hence, with special emphasis on content marketing, given below are some key statistics that have been compounded in 2018:

Most Popular Types Of Content 2018 (in order)

● B2C: Social media content, Videos, Images (Illustrations), Infographics & Interactive content (games).
● B2B: Social media content, Case studies, Videos, Ebooks & Infographics

Source: https://izea.com/2017/02/13/2017-state-of-the-creator-economy/

Usage Statistics 2018

● The average maximum amount of time that people spend with content while browsing on a mobile phone is 2 seconds.
● The average amount of time spent by a person reading an article online is just 37 seconds.
● Content with images once every 75-100 words receive twice the engagement (shares) than content with fewer images.
● Strong blogging results are linked to the high usage of influencers and incentivized promotion.
● Majority of the consumers (70%) prefer to learn about products through a company’s content strategy instead of advertisements.
● Nearly 47% of the consumers/buyers browse through at least 3-5 pieces of content before actually getting in touch with the company or one of its sales representatives.

Sources: Facebook, BuzzSumo, HubSpot

Content Creation Statistics 2018

● When questioned, 84% of consumers expect brands to publish content that is entertaining, solution-oriented, story-oriented & events centered.
● When compared to the situation in 2015, social sharing is down by nearly 50%.
● When content is shared be an influencer, 84% of consumers give it more attention.

Sources: Meaningful Brands, BuzzSumo

Content Marketing Strategy Statistics 2018

● Majority of the companies (74%) that hone a successful content marketing strategy include press releases in their content marketing strategy.
● B2B marketers should align at least 40% of their marketing budget to their content marketing strategy to be successful.
● B2C marketers should align at least 26% of their marketing budget to their content marketing strategy to be successful.
● Average cost per lead (acquired through content marketing) is less than $200.
● Companies that run blogs end up having nearly 434% more indexed pages when compared to companies that do not run blogs.
● 82% of consumers share a more positive outlook for a business that creates their own content.

Sources: Content Marketing Institute & PR Newswire, HubSpot, DemandGen Report