Brands looking to circumvent consumers’ burn-out over sales-heavy messaging are turning to content that educates, informs or entertains. By leaning into stories, tutorial videos, infographics, expert interviews and other types of content, companies provide value in a way that respects potential customers’ time and provides a more trustworthy approach than traditional advertising. Suppose you’re looking to relay information about your brand’s products and services that benefits prospects and existing customers without hitting them with pushy promotion. In that case, it’s time to invest in content creation services.
Often provided through agencies that use teams of in-house or contract specialists, content creation services tap into the expertise of writers, editors, graphic designers, website developers, videographers, SEO gurus, illustrators, and researchers. With the most professional content creation providers, such as IZEA, you’ll also be supported with influencer marketing software, program management, and marketing strategists.
Here are some tips to help you determine if your brand could benefit from content creation services, as well as how to choose a company to provide the help that your brand needs.
How to tell if you need content creation services
How do you know it’s time to invest in content creation services? See if any of these issues look familiar:
- Decreased leads or sales
- Poor brand recognition
- Lackluster engagement on social media accounts
- Disappointing returns on marketing investments
- Lack of dedicated, experienced personnel to generate content-creation ideas
- Inability to scale current content marketing efforts
- Lack of organization and production resulting in missed deadlines, weak content, and low team morale
Benefits of using content creation services
An audience that’s informed about the features and benefits of your products and services, your company’s values, and positive reviews provides the potential for your brand’s sales and growth.
When weighing the solutions-focused benefits of a full-service content creator service, consider that outsourcing your content creation may benefit your company, brand or team by freeing up personnel resources and providing:
- Audience research to ensure strategies, messaging, and influencer partnerships are on target
- Deep content competitive analysis
- Content research analysis, including trends, projections, fact-checking, keyword research, expert interviews, polls, etc.
- Social media influencer research and analysis
- Customized services
- Information mining and validation
- Lead generation
- Expertise in research, strategy, and content creation
- Content variety (e.g., white papers, infographics, social media posts, ebooks, website copy, press releases, etc.)
- Improved ROI through aligned cross-channel marketing efforts
Tips for finding the right content creation service
As content marketing proves its worth with impressive ROIs, more companies are launching services to fill the growing need for material. If you’re in the market for content creation services, consider these tips to help decide which company is the right match for your needs and budget:
1. Determine your initial content needs and budget.
If you only need someone to write a weekly blog or content for a one-off social media campaign, a content creator freelancer or a social media content creator could be an option. By hiring a freelancer, you can coordinate projects as needed and pay for what you need.
As your brand’s marketing efforts grow, you’ll need to scale your content creation. You’ll likely need a content creation company. Beyond simple content creation, ask about social media marketing, search engine optimization, and other digital marketing services, such as pay-per-click advertising and email marketing.
Choose an agency or partner that can grow with you, so there’s no need to supplement their work — or replace the agency entirely — down the road.
2. Look for content creation companies with experience in your industry.
Popular industries — such as fashion, food, or real estate — won’t have trouble finding content creation services. But if you market products or services in a specialized niche, you’ll want to pair with experts who understand the trends, nuances, lingo and overall audience for your brand. Ask for samples of previous research, content, and results from work the company has completed in your field.
3. Ask about the content creation process.
What steps will the company take to get to know your brand’s voice, tone, and values? How will they help you stand out among your competitors? Will they conduct an internal brand analysis or churn out content based on your identification of the target audience? Ask about the entire process — from the initial consultation to analyzing results.
4. Clarify how to measure and define success.
Choose a content creation agency or company that goes beyond simply delivering content for a fee. Ideally, you’re not just hiring someone to provide landing page copy or white papers. You’re looking for a partner who is invested in your brand’s success and has a clear understanding of their role in driving results and improving your ROI with each piece.
Make this the year your marketing team gets the support it needs by working with a content creation team. With the right partner, you’ll benefit from quality collateral materials that you can use for years while lightening your team’s workload. Best of all, your investment in outsourcing will help your brand reach your target audience more frequently and effectively, improving your marketing ROI on content-related campaigns and beyond.
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