So you have decided to add some content to your company’s website.
As the newly-appointed CMO, you know the value of inbound marketing, and when you looked at the site, it seemed too outdated. The CEO wrote the last blog two years ago when the company was still a start-up.
Time to add some great SEO-friendly content regularly, you tell yourself. There should be blogs, case studies, eBooks, whitepapers, and perhaps even videos.
Great idea, your boss tells you (or you tell yourself). So how do you start? Where do you start? And who does the writing?
You turn to your marketing team. Sure, you got some great SEO specialists, but they don’t have the technical knowledge about the product.
How about the SMEs? The engineers are busy developing new product features and fixing bugs. They don’t have time to spare. A couple of them write the first two articles, then get busy again. That’s when you have the idea. How about freelancers?
You start hiring freelancers from popular marketplaces and give them the briefs. But the quality somehow isn’t something you were expecting. You have to get your SMEs to recheck the blogs; most of the time, they have to rewrite the whole piece.
Don’t get us wrong. There’s nothing wrong with freelancing authors. Here at Professional Data Skills, we love freelancers and the freelance life. But this is a picture we see all too often in our customers’ marketing journeys. And we believe, as a bonafide marketing team, you will probably get more value working with an agency than a solopreneur when it comes to content marketing. As talented as freelancers are (we’ve been there!), Nothing beats working with a squad packed with different expertise and skill sets.
There are many reasons why engaging an agency is beneficial to your business in the long run. Here are a few of our favorites.
Seamless Experience
An agency will have developed tried and tested processes, tools, and systems that make working together easy. This can include everything from streamlined onboarding steps to detailed briefing documents to collaboration platforms, dedicated account managers, and monthly reporting.
What does that mean for you? It means working with an agency (like ours) will be seamless. From the initial meeting to collaborating and receiving the finished product, an agency will have got the process down pat.
It may not seem important, but believe us, once you’ve spent a few months or weeks chasing individuals to make the edits you requested or frantically finding a replacement author for last-moment cancellations, you’ll notice the difference.
Wide Skillsets
There’s no denying that freelancers are generally highly skilled in their fields. But a well-structured agency? They hire a range of freelancers or employees to offer a broader range of expertise.
Take us, for example. We have engineering authors who specialize in every possible area of IT, tech reviewers, project managers, copy-editors, and account managers who can take your content topic, ask the right questions or do the right research, and produce a polished product within the timeframe. Looking at individual skills, we’re specialists, but as a team, we deliver values that a single-person band simply can’t provide.
If one author doesn’t have the knowledge you seek, we will work with another author who does. Better still, we can turn work around faster because we have more resources available. And we are always researching authors and hiring them. We ensure potential candidates have passed two exams before they are called for an interview. The result? Quality you can trust.
Quality Assurance
Speaking of quality, professional content marketing agencies will have strict quality checking processes in place. A single person can only do so much for quality assurance. An agency will have reviewers, proofreaders, SEO specialists, and even graphics designers who can add value to the content.
Here at ProDataSkills, we check everything from word count to adherence to writing guidelines to plagiarism to writing style, language, and grammar once an article is submitted. It then goes through extensive tech review cycles by dedicated SMEs. Finally, once all the kinks are ironed out, our copy-editors polish it off. The article is then dispatched to the client. 99% of the time, our work is approved during the first round of client review. This saves you time and money you’d otherwise spend re-working the piece. And, of course, we accommodate client requests if they ask for further changes. With individual authors, you may find it hard to do.
Team Collaboration
Another area where you may find yourself better off with an agency is when it comes to collaboration. You may have your in-house writing guidelines and probably use a dedicated content management and publishing platform like WordPress. With an agency, you can have your content written and delivered in the format you prefer or posted through your CMS. We know this because we have delivered content in formats ranging from MS Word to Google Docs to Markdown to HTML. We have delivered documents via Google Drive, WordPress, or even Notion. Clients often give us access to their content calendar and project management systems so both parties can collaborate on deliverables.
Freelancers often have limited capacity when it comes to such collaborative content development. Most freelance sites allow freelancers to upload their work as standalone files (Word, PDF, plain text, etc.). There’s no scope for “real-time” edits and comments, nor is it feasible to give access to your content calendar or CMS to every freelancer you work with.
Faster and Guaranteed Delivery
Sometimes you have to have content delivered within a short time or a very tight deadline. For example, suppose your company builds security tools for Windows or macOS. In that case, you may want to run an extended content campaign before a new version of Windows or macOS comes to the market or when they release a new patch for a security vulnerability that’s just been discovered.
You may find it hard to source the person with the right knowledge, experience, and authoring skills to write such content. Even if you find, the person may fail to deliver on time due to unforeseen circumstances. With an agency, you don’t have to deal with this. You simply ask your account manager, and the rest is taken care of. Most agencies will have agreed-upon SLAs with you; some can even offer a money-back guarantee.
Here at ProDataSkills, we build enough buffer into our workflows to ensure we deliver on time. We have dedicated project managers and content leads who work with authors, manage the pipeline of work, and keep in touch with clients.
Cost-effectiveness
You may think working with a freelancer will be a cheaper exercise, however, working with freelancers can cost you more in the long run in some cases. For example, you may hire a freelance content writer to create a blog but then pay another freelance copy-editor to edit it and another SEO freelancer to ensure it’s SEO-ed. Although agency rates will be higher, it will not be the same as hiring multiple freelancers for the complete delivery cycle. You will work with a professional team, and the pricing will include that team’s service.
Also, consider your capacity. Do you have time to manage multiple freelancers and keep track of their work? The answer will probably be a “no” because if you had, you would have made them part of your team in the first place.
Final Words
Having freelance resources work on your digital marketing projects is a great way to save time, cost, and effort. However, not every aspect of marketing is a great fit for solo players. Sometimes, you need a dedicated team—particularly when your requirements involve guaranteed delivery of high-quality service.
Here at Professional Data Skills, we take pride in our service quality. Check out our services, see how we work, or contact us for your content needs.