Ask these questions to a content marketing agency before hiring

The success of any digital marketing strategy largely depends on the kind of content you create. And this is not something that everyone can be good at. Naturally, hiring a content marketing agency makes sense as you will get expert guidance this way, without having to onboard professionals permanently and spending a lot more on their salaries. Moreover, by outsourcing content development and marketing to an agency, you will have more time on your hands to focus on the core aspects of your business. But, can every content agency you come across seal the deal for you? No! You need to ask these questions first, to gauge if an agency is the right choice or not.

What is your experience and can you show past work samples?

While some agencies might have a decade of experience to back them, others might be just starting off but ready to make a mark. Even a brand new content agency can do a great job for you if they have the requisite knowledge or talent. This is something you will need to decide based on your requirements. Also, if an agency has spent some time in the industry, they should be able to show you past projects and give you a list of clients. This will help you assess if they can run campaigns successfully, have a quality team at their disposal and know the latest trends. 

How do you carry out research before starting to work?

If a content marketing agency doesn’t have a clear research method, do avoid it. Whether the content marketing strategy will succeed or fail will largely depend on the research process. Ideally, a good agency should find out all that they can about your company and industry, they should understand your objectives, and they should study your target audience’s behavior, intent and needs. Plus, the agency should conduct a competitor analysis which will help them devise a strategy to help your business stand out from others. 

What are the tools used to collect data or generate insights? 

Any reliable agency will use tools related to web analytics, SEO analytics, social media analytics, CMS and blogging, to collect valuable data and provide insights about how your campaign is performing. These tools usually take care of everything from keyword research and SEO campaigns to monitoring competitors’ keyword usage and organic traffic tracking etc.  Also ask how the agency will prepare the analytics reports and if they use charts, graphs and so on. They should be able to tell you which keywords are performing well and which ones should be dropped. The agency should also help you to constantly update your content so that the traffic doesn’t decline. 

Who will work on the project or how will it be handled?  

This is an important question to ask before hiring a content agency. See if they have enough writers, editors, designers and content marketers in their team to handle your project’s size and complexity easily. For example, if your project is a massive one and requires say 800 SEO articles per month, an agency that uses only an in-house team will not be suitable. You will need an agency that has a large network of contract-based professionals. Such an agency will be able to scale up or down the staffing as per the project need. 

Last but not the least; do ask how much they charge and how much time they will take to start the project and complete it. Avoid a content marketing agency that promises a very short timeline or too cheap rates. This will usually lead to compromised quality and a waste of money for you.