The fundamentals of using content marketing to increase your agency s revenue

Transcription

1 The fundamentals of using content marketing to increase your agency s revenue

2 Introduction The advent of content as a primary search engine ranking signal has put pressure on many companies to produce high quality content to improve their rankings, all while meeting the content demands of their target audience. For agencies, content marketing offers a wide spectrum of advantages that not only benefit the agency itself, but also the needs of its clients. This guide offers a comprehensive walkthrough of how to communicate the value of content marketing to clients, how to sell content marketing as a service and how offering content marketing will help increase the agency s revenue. 2

3 Content marketing helps build and sustain long-term client relationships One of the most obvious areas where agencies can benefit from offering content marketing services is in how it supports the creation and maintenance of long-term relationships. Below are 3 reasons that demonstrate how this happens: 1. Content marketing is not a one-time investment. It is a strategy that requires time to allow for development and maturity, and rarely - if ever - yields results when conducted on a per project basis. In other words, offering content marketing helps support longer relationships between agencies and client. In turn, this means that agencies can have longer contracts with their clients. 2. Content marketing only works as a consistent and constant marketing program. Again, this sets up the need for agencies to provide their services to clients for a longer period. 3. Adding content marketing not only boosts the agency s revenue numbers, it also diversifies the revenue sources, insulating the agency against shifts in service demand. Aside from these benefits, offering content marketing services makes it easier for agencies to maintain a steady stream of revenue - after all, it is a lot easier to keep current clients than it is to find new ones. Moreover, it is much easier for an agency that is already doing a good job offering a particular service to upsell content marketing as a new offering. 3

4 Selling the benefits of content marketing effectively to clients Whether an agency is upselling content marketing services to existing clients or looking to break into new territory and attract new clients, it is of the utmost importance that an agency demonstrates the value of content marketing in such a way that clients completely understand what they are signing up for. In fact, after an agency s content marketing specialists have delivered their pitch to the client, they should be raring to get started right away. Whatever the case, the best place to start when selling the benefits of content marketing to clients is with results.when it comes right down to it, any business, regardless of niche, industry, focus or ideology, is driven by the goal of turning a profit. And this is the entire point of marketing, to increase profits by raising awareness and promoting the brand, as well as its products and services. The goal for any agency, then, is to zero in on the expected results from effective content marketing, which include: Increased leads Improved SEO Improved brand relationships A richer customer experience 4

5 Lead generation Content marketing is very much hinged on the concept of give and take. The brand provides great, valuable content to a potential customer, who returns the favor by providing their contact information. This is where the lead generation process takes place. The numbers do not lie either. A 2014 report by web-based digital asset management company WebDAM showed that besides native ads, blogging was the primary platform for generating leads among B2B and B2C marketers. In fact, B2B marketers who invested in consistent blogging reported generating 67 percent more leads than marketers who did not. Likewise, according to Curata s 2016 Content Marketing Staffing & Tactics Study, 74.2 percent of organizations report content marketing as increasing their lead quantity and quality. 5

6 Enhanced search engine optimization Search engine optimization plays a vital role in ensuring a website ranks on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant search keywords and phrases. The higher a site ranks on the SERPs, the more likely it is to generate more leads and revenue. From once being about gaming search engines through questionable link building practices and spamming keywords, SEO has evolved into putting content first. Much of what pushed content marketing into the spotlight can be attributed to Google s Panda and Penguin search engine algorithm updates, which prioritize original, high-quality content as a primary signal for ranking sites. Although many marketers make the mistake of thinking that SEO is no longer relevant with the rise of content marketing, the truth is that both approaches actually serve to complement each other. To explain further, a 2013 survey by Marketing Sherpa showed that 53 percent of respondents ranked content marketing as the most effective SEO technique. In terms of traffic, an Aberdeen report found that year-over-year growth in unique visits was at least 7.8 times higher for content marketing leaders (19.7 percent) compared to those that were simply followers (2.5 percent). The fact of the matter is that content marketing is not there to replace SEO. Rather, SEO techniques can guide the content creation process, from identifying keywords and topics to determining the best opportunities for distributing content assets. It is also important to note that content marketing can help augment the expected timeline for SEO results. Although it is difficult to be completely certain with anything related to SEO, most firms would agree that it takes about 4 to 6 months for results to be visible. And provided the site s owners continue to employ SEO best practices combined with content marketing, the benefits of strong SEO should become more apparent as time passes. 6

7 Enhanced brand relationships Content can be a powerful tool for building brand awareness and loyalty. Agencies need to emphasize how their clients reputations can be shaped using high-quality content, which will be the medium for reaching out to potential customers, engaging them and converting them into buyers. When it comes to relationship-building, content marketing best practices involve: Development of buyer personas for creating targeted content with the highest possibility of engaging customers Identifying an ideal frequency of publishing content assets; certain relationships require constant communication, while others require gentle pushes Identifying an ideal style of communication that is most relevant to the brand s image and audience And once again, the numbers do not lie. A 2014 report by Demand Metric found that 82 percent of consumers reported feeling more positive about a brand after reading content tailored to their needs. 7

8 Richer customer experience Now more than ever, the average customer relies on firsthand research before making a purchase. The more significant the purchase, the more stringent the screening process will be. A DemandGen Report entitled the 2016 Content Preferences Survey found that 51 percent of B2B buyers use content when planning their buying decisions, with 41 percent saying that they consume at least 3 to 5 content assets before engaging with the company s representatives. And note that content marketing is not so much about selling a product or service as it is about educating the potential customer. While it is true that content marketing helps to bridge the gap between the consumer and the brand, its true goal is hinged on providing valuable information to readers - even if they may not necessarily be potential customers. The more relevant information a customer receives when learning about a product or service, the closer they will be to making a purchase decision. 8

9 What are the real costs of producing content? Unfortunately, many companies often face challenges when creating content due to a number of reasons. These range from a lack of lack of time and resources to a lack of content marketing expertise. For small agencies with limited staff and resources, offering content marketing as a new service to clients can be an expensive undertaking. Even the most basic forms of content marketing (e.g. blogging, press release writing, white paper writing and case study development, among others) can be both time- and resource-intensive. To provide additional context to the cost of producing content in-house, consider the typical salary of a digital marketer or copywriter. Assume for a moment that the salary is pegged at $50,000 - a number that actually increases up to 1.5 times after considering insurance costs, staff-specific overhead and taxes. For this example, assume once more that a one eight hundred word article requires 2 hours of a writer s time to research, 2 hours to write plus 1 more hour for potential revisions. This brings the cost of one article to around $130 each ($50,000/1920 working hours in a year = $26.04 x 5 hours [time needed for one 800-word article] = $130.21). And again, this does not include additional overhead costs of having an employee, editorial costs and plagiarism software detection costs. Full time employees require benefits, health insurance, training, and other costs that may not come to mind immediately. The true cost of an employee for an employer is typically 1.5 times a salary. When these additional costs are added in, the cost for that eight hundred word articles exceed $250! One solution to this expensive problem is to outsource the production aspect of content marketing to an organization specializing in high-quality and custom content creation like Tempesta Media. Agencies need to ask themselves the following questions before committing to producing content assets (specifically textbased content) on an in-house basis: How many revisions are needed for each piece of content? How long does it actually take for a writer to finish a content asset? How does the voice or tone of content stay consistent when different employees produce them? 9

10 Measuring revenue gains from content marketing To ensure agencies can protect their revenues while offering content marketing services, they need to adopt new pricing structures, or perhaps even a new business model. Business model suggestions: The agency s business model must free up time to create a premium content marketing strategy for clients. That same business model must allow the agency to scale without necessarily hiring more talent. For agencies that decide to outsource their content creation processes, a good rule of thumb is to price their content marketing packages by at least twice the cost of outsourcing content assets. Agencies could also charge by the word, at least for text-based content assets. The price per word an agency charges a client will likely be at least twice the cost per word of outsourcing content assets. Client package suggestions: Agencies that offer a pricing structure hinged on a subscription model give them flexibility and peace of mind knowing that they have a stream of future income. The consistency of a subscription model not only offers the agency steady revenue, it also frees up time that can be allocated for providing deliverables to clients. An example of an inbound marketing package can include the following deliverables:»» Content strategy»» Editorial calendar»» SEO for all content assets»» 4 blog posts/articles every month»» 1 long-form piece of content that can be given away (e.g. white paper, ebook, case study) The price of this package can be pegged at $3,000 per month. Agencies may also charge their clients with a setup fee. If the typical cost of outsourcing content creation to a reliable content marketing partner, like Tempesta Media, is less than $1,000, agencies can obtain a gross margin of $2,000 per month, or $24,000 per year. 10

11 In conclusion Regardless of what a client s business model is, it will still rely on unique and original content in one way or another. The claim that content is king may seem like an exaggeration, but it is very much rooted in fact. As long as consumers rely on content to guide their buying habits and preferences, content will always have its place in digital marketing. Given its importance, it only makes sense for agencies to offer content marketing services. The challenge is to find a way to scale the company without entering a point of diminishing returns, or worse, outright losses. This is where outsourcing to a company like Tempesta Media can help. 11 (312)