Content creation and marketing are among the most underrated tasks in marketing. It requires a mix of many skill sets along with the ability to constantly keep up with changing formats and burgeoning requirements. A content creator needs to be well-versed with various specialized forms of content like text (blogs, website copy), ad content (banners), images (visual content), social media content, audio, video, presentations, and other emerging formats. In addition to creation, there is the tough task of classification and storage for easy retrieval, content dissemination within the organization and outside, a content marketing and re-marketing strategy and analytical knowhow to determine the ROI derived from the content. In addition to all this, the constant check for outdated content and revising it is a task on its own. Although this sounds like the usual job description for a content manager, it is nowhere close to being simple. Often, the sheer volume of content can be exhausting. The job requires not only editorial skills but sound technical knowledge and functional knowledge of ATL, BTL and digital formats of content. The most immediate solution is to outsource some parts of the work to an external agency to do the heavy lifting. It eases the internal pressure and also allows you to expand the volume of work as and when required. The bone of contention here is that ‘managing the agency’ now gets added to the content manager’s job description. The agency-client relationship is one that needs to be handled with patience and understanding from both sides. Persistent deadlines or a deadweight team member can often strain the relationship, causing damage to the process as a whole. Even then, outsourcing content should be a valid consideration when you are making your strategy. Here’s why: 1. Tap into the skill sets of professionals you require, as and when you need it This is, by far, the biggest advantage of content outsourcing. While some content needs will be ongoing, a lot will change according to your campaigns and needs of your organization. From creating emailers in new languages to tweaking content on the landing page, or a GIF to announce a new product variant, you will require professionals with different skill sets at different times. Having a content marketing agency on board will give you the flexibility to pull in expert resources as and when you require. 2. Save time for your business The biggest contribution you can make to your organization is to drive a content strategy. With a load of content creation services outsourced, you will have the bandwidth to contribute on critical aspects of ‘why’ the content is being created and what are the best ways to drive its ROI. 3. You can create and publish more content Imagine that your Search Engine Optimization agency shares a new strategy that you write 10 long-form blogs every month in addition to 10 short articles. Don’t forget, you also need to do all the other regular content. If you have a sales meet at the end of the month, you may also need to create collaterals for it. Demands vary on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis and you will need flexible support to be able to deliver on these demands. 4. It’s cheaper From producing short films to translations, you will require professionals with various skills as a part of your content team. Hiring individuals with such specialized skills will not be the best strategy as, more often than not, each individual will be required selectively and will come at a lofty salary. Instead of hiring an entire team, outsourcing content to various agencies can be a better approach to saving on costs. 5. Get fresh viewpoints and ideas Everyone is creating content to the extent that the daily churn can be overwhelming at times. It is important to take a step back and not lose sight of the big picture. With new campaigns and channels, it is important for you as a content owner to be able to innovate constantly. Having an agency partner will mean getting specialized ideas from industry experts. You can collectively tap on their knowledge base and creative talents to come up with ideas. It also helps to have a sounding board with multiple viewpoints to be able to take a weighted decision. 6. Experiment with different types of content From infographics to cinemagraphs to Whatsapp updates, having a partner churning out content will give you a wider range of content to experiment with. It takes persistence and to keep experimenting with a particular type of content to determine if it is working for your audience. Having a partner share different formats as per your calendar requirement can allow you to schedule tryouts and have a more data-driven approach to your content marketing. 7. It is easier to measure your ROI At the end of the day, all our work comes down to how well we can measure the ROI for it. Measuring ROI from content is tricky as it is almost never the only variable in the equation (like blogs or SEO). It is easier when you are A/B testing emails or landing pages. Traffic, engagement, leads and ultimately conversions are some of the metrics that will have to be measured for all the content you create. Discussing these early on with your partner agency and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) will allow you to measure the ROI on your content on an ongoing basis. With the reports and analysis coming in, you can now spend constructive time to act on the feedback to tweak your strategy. Conclusion: Having a content partner allows your organization to take a lean and agile approach for all your content needs. Having you helm the relationship and own the strategy ensures the best use of your time and expertise. If you are looking for an agency that can not only create content but do it with a ROI focus, drop a
Tag: content creation
Discover the Top 5 Secrets to Successful Content Creation
They sometimes say that great ideas are a dime-a-dozen. And there’s probably some truth to this. Having a brilliant idea isn’t very hard! It’s the journey from idea to execution that’s challenging. It requires a framework, craftsmanship, discipline, and persistence. In today’s world, where content is being thrown at us from every direction (as an example, a whopping 2 million blog posts are published every day), creating successful content becomes all the more tricky. In the past decade, we’ve seen many clients struggle with content creation services — there are those who face such inertia that they never get a content plan in place while others create a few brilliant pieces and then just stop. But the good news for all is that, here are some of the best-kept content creation secrets that we’ve discovered over the years: Build the right content creation model As a brand, you have to figure out the content creation model that will work best for you in the long run. If you have the bandwidth and the resources, you can hire an in-house content creation team. This is the best option if you need to produce a high volume of content or create content for multiple platforms. If your subject matter is highly technical and requires you to educate your audience, consider hiring subject matter experts. If you don’t have the resources for a full-fledged in-house time, hiring specialist freelance writers or content agencies is a great, cost-effective option. If you have a B2B product with a strong community, you can even consider guest posts from contributors as a viable engine for great content. Whichever model you opt for, it’s important that you find what works for you before you start executing a full-fledged content plan. Read Also: Here are 25 of the most amazing content creation tools ever Build your audience persona and work with it This is the most important rule when it comes to creating effective content. You need to understand your target audience and build effective buyer personas. This means you have to define everything you know about your ideal audience member — how educated they are, where they live, how old they are, what kind of work they do, which gender do they belong to, what their interests are, and so on. Sometimes, if your audience is a bit diverse, one persona won’t be enough. So, you might have to create a set of personas. Fleshing out these details about audience members will help you understand exactly who you’re addressing, and your content will be much more relatable as a result. Zero in on a content niche Do you know what they say about stand-up comedy? You’re more likely to become successful in the long run if a small group of people consider you to be hysterically funny, rather than if a large group of people think you’re mildly hilarious. The same is true for content. When you’re starting out, you don’t want to invest all your energy and resources across multiple channels and different content formats. Zero in on a viable content niche where you can become the master of the domain and build your following from there. Identify your unique content prowess by asking yourself some important questions. These include: Is your audience longing for this kind of Content and not getting it anywhere else? Can you become an authority in your industry within this niche? Do you have the time and resources to create valuable content within this niche and in the right content format? Create shareable content It’s not enough to just create brilliant content. It’s important that this content is focused on topics that will help you generate shares and backlinks. For this, you need to research keywords to make sure you’re choosing the right topic. To start with, get on Google and search for keywords in your niche. Remember to use informational keywords rather than product-based keywords. For instance, you should use keywords like “how to make good coffee at home” rather than “mocha pot” or “coffee maker”. You can then enter the details of the websites of the top results into a backlink checker like Ahrefs.com or Open Site Explorer. This will give you a list of the top-performing content. Now what you need to do is build a piece of content around the same topic, but one that’s much richer and more valuable than the existing content on the subject. Remember, the pieces that rank high have been around longer than what you will produce, so you need to make sure your content is far superior, or you’ll find it harder to rank higher. You can do this by making sure that the content is more relevant to your audience, that it has better design, is more current, or has more details. Use long-form, evergreen content for sustained traffic There are two rules of thumb that every content creator should keep in mind. The first is that long-form content works better in the long run. If you look at Google’s search engine rankings, the top 10 results are usually of 1000 words or more. So, while consistency is the key to better SEO, 400-600 word blog posts writing simply aren’t enough. Try to create more in-depth content (anywhere between 1000-3000 words) to eke out a position as an authority in your niche. Another great trick is to use evergreen content. This refers to content which doesn’t change significantly with time. Writing high-quality, in-depth beginner’s guides or how-to articles are great examples of evergreen content as they don’t really come with an expiry date. Having great evergreen content also helps you to attract traffic to your blog in the long run. The last word These are some of the secrets to effective content creation that we’ve discovered along the way. They should work as a great framework for you. If you have any more questions, or if you think there are some