Are You Ready To Hire An Agency For Your Content?
When it comes to telling your brand’s story, content marketing should be an essential part of your company's toolkit. With the capability to boost your reach, build your audience, and strengthen conversion and retention, strong original content and savvy implementation can transform your online presence. That being said, it’s natural to not be 100% sure where to begin, or to feel like you could use outside support to get where you want to go.
If you have high ambitions for content, but no time or resources to execute them — then you’re a great candidate for working with an agency on your content programming. “Instead of expecting one person at your organization to be great at everything from graphic design to social media marketing strategy, hiring an agency gives you access to a team of people who have focused knowledge and experience in all of those areas,” says Funkhaus Head of Content Erin Himes. We asked Erin to share her tips for making sure you’re in the best position possible to hire an agency to address your content marketing needs — read on for more.
Know Yourself & Your Brand
Before you invite another agency into the fold, you should have some truths about your company dialed in, like your high-level goals, your target audience, and of course, your brand. Get as granular as possible, from colors to fonts to logos, and have thorough internal clarifying conversations that get your team on the same page — it makes handoff easier for all. “When a team is aligned on who you are and what you’re looking to do, it allows us to do the work of identifying how to drive success for your brand across content platforms and engage with your community, rather than solving internal disagreements and trying to pull a bunch of perspectives together,” says Erin.
Assign A Point Person
Identifying a great point of contact within your company — someone who's in the know and is really embedded in the organization and is able to track things down — will help you get ahead on content programming. “You don't necessarily want the founder of your company getting on weekly content calls,” notes Erin. “You want regular communication to come from someone who is really in it day-to-day and who knows the pulse of your company.”
Look For The Right Fit
Content strategy is not one size fits all, and what works for someone else might not work for you. Look for an agency that really hears you out and gets to know you, instead of presenting you with a set package that doesn’t take your needs into account. “At Funkhaus, we call it doing brand therapy with our clients,” says Erin. “We’ve found that taking the time to hear about what the client wants and needs and customizing our offerings to what those are helps us do our best work.”
It’s also key to seek out partnership — open conversations always makes the work better. “In our best relationships, the client can throw an idea out there, and we will volley it back with our thoughts,” says Erin. “We all evolve things together, rather than feeling pressure to present perfection in round one.” Your team should be prepared to offer light input, but as the agency handling your content and community management, you need to be able to trust each other and allow that agency to act as an extension of your brand and adapt, respond, and pivot on the fly.
Understand the Process
The beginning of a content partnership is all about onboarding, defining strategy, and establishing flow. “For the first three months, we focus on getting comfortable together, familiarizing ourselves with the people and activity of the company, and getting set up for success,” says Erin. “By six months, the hope would be that we’ve started to see success with increasing reach and viewership, sustained consistency with content, and an increased capability to come up with new ideas together. At that point, you’re fully up and running.” The longer a partnership goes on, the better your agency will be able to refine your strategy and propose new ideas that fit your goals and further grow your reach.