We’ve all heard it: Content is king. This popular marketing aphorism definitely rings true to us, and this marketing monarchy isn’t fizzling out any time soon.
From brand awareness and engagement to driving higher conversion rates, your queen, (aka an excellent content strategy), is going to be the thing that gets you there.
Looking to fill out your content royal court? Well, look no further. This page outlines everything you need to know about content creation, when to hire a content marketing agency partner, and the benefits of a well-rounded content creation team as your right hand.
What is Content Creation?
Content creation is the act of writing, producing, and posting content. In the digital marketing world, this usually means creating content to promote a product, service, or brand. Some examples of popular content formats include:
- Blog posts
- Web copy
- Video scripts
- Online advertisements
This isn’t quite the same as content creation on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. While those content creators might take a similar approach, most of the time the brand they’re ultimately promoting is, well, themselves.
There are intersections between content creation for entertainment/promoting creators, and content creation for promoting products or brands. For example, influencer marketing has seen a significant uptick in recent years, and continues to be a tactic to watch.
Of course, content creation is just one side of the coin. On the flip side, you have content marketing, audience research, content marketing strategy, and even website design and optimization. You’ll want to keep all of these in mind when searching for a potential partner in content production.
What Is A Content Creation Agency?
A content creation agency is a group of experts who know how to research what types of content people will consume, what type is best for your business, and how to leverage killer content and excellent copywriting to drive results.
On top of that, a good content creation agency will know that more content isn’t necessarily always better.
What Does A Content Creation Agency Do?
An agency’s focus is to create high-quality content that’s relevant, helpful, and specially-tuned to speak to your target audience. Whether you’re talking to seasoned marketing pros (like we often do at HawkSEM), avid crafters, or beginner cyclists, a marketing company will have the tools to know how to reach them and on which platforms.
We briefly mentioned the rise of influencer marketing above, so let’s dive into a couple of other helpful definitions to keep in mind while you’re noodling on content creation.
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Content marketing: This is a form of inbound marketing which involves pretty much every written thing that your brand provides. From thought leadership articles, white papers, and case studies to daily social media posts or email marketing, this strategy is designed to pique interest and keep people reading about your brand, product, or service.
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Influencer marketing: This involves working with an online influencer – often industry-specific – in order to market your brand via a piece of content.
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Digital marketing: As I’m sure you know, digital marketing is the act of connecting with a potential customer base through digital avenues.
As is often the case in our industry, all of this works best when you have clear goals and a holistic approach. From a Hawk’s eye view, this might look like taking advantage of other services an agency might provide in addition to content creation, such as:
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- SEM (search engine marketing)
- Paid social
- Organic social
- Creative writing
- Video production
- Graphic design
- Branding & awareness
Content Creation Royalty
Fill out your court with a partner who can deliver results like these:
Results are everything
HawkSEM in 90 seconds
Content Creation Agency vs. Marketing Agency: What’s the Difference?
Typically, content creation will be one facet of a full-service digital marketing agency. However, if you’re in the market for content creation only, there are agencies out there that focus solely on this.
Content Creation Agency
If you want to go the content creation route, this type of agency might be for you. A content creation agency will get to know your brand, your audience, and the services you offer.
Then, they’ll take the reins creating eye-catching and engaging content on relevant platforms that will drive the results and search engine rankings you’re looking for. With a focus on one aspect of your marketing strategy, this can prove to be a cost-effective option if it’s the right fit.
Marketing Agency
On the other hand, a full-service agency can offer some additional perks. Along with creating your content, this type of agency can track results, and deep dive into your entire online presence to help fill in any gaps in your digital marketing strategy.
While this is likely the more expensive option, you might find you get more bang for your buck with assistance in other areas outside of content creation.
Arguably, the real trick to leveraging your awesome content after creating it to promote it effectively. This is where content marketing services come in (and where a full-service agency with marketing experts might do you some good).
Who Should Hire A Content Creation Agency?
Essentially, anyone who wants to establish a solid online presence is a good candidate for hiring a content creation agency.
But, before you go on a wild Google goose chase, it’s important that you determine what you want to get out of a potential partnership. Here are some questions to ask yourself before signing on the dotted line.
1.
What Type of Content Do I Want to Create?
Maybe you want to try your hand on short-form video or beef up your social media marketing. Perhaps you’re in need of a total website overhaul, landing pages and all.
Maybe you want your brand to be more interactive, and need creative minds to brainstorm awesome YouTube videos and engaging infographics. Once you know what type of content is your King, you’ll have a better idea of what to search for.
PRO TIP
Not sure what types of content you need to publish? No worries! Many content creation agencies can help you determine what’s best for your business depending on your goals.
2.
What Are My Goals?
Content for the sake of content is a great way to bungle a good thing. Take some time to consider what your goals are when it comes to content marketing.
Do you want more high-quality traffic? Do you want to establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry? Knowing what you’re working toward will help you immensely in your search for the perfect agency partner.
Take our client Moneta for example. This wealth management firm was looking specifically to improve SEO and gain local organic visibility in four key markets, as well as expand their nationwide keyword reach.
That’s where HawkSEM swooped in. After taking time to dig into Moneta’s ideal client personas, we worked to establish local SEO in the four key markets. We built geo-specific web content for each market aimed at capturing local queries.
To expand the overall keyword reach for the Moneta website nationwide, we first researched keyword gaps when compared to top competitors. From there, we prioritized filling those gaps. We targeted keywords with the lowest competitive metrics. Next, we built a content calendar to capture those keywords systematically in order of least resistance.
Since partnering with HawkSEM, Moneta was able to increase its net organic keyword portfolio by 326%, grow organic keywords in positions 1-3 by 164%, and boost Google Analytics goal completions by more than 23%.
Read the full case study here
3.
What Is My Team’s Existing Expertise?
Ah, yes. A bit of self-reflection. If you’re just starting out in content creation and content optimization land, you may not have someone on staff with existing content marketing experience. If that’s the case, bringing in the pros might be the best option.
But maybe you do have a small content team that’s totally rockin’. What are their limitations? Are there any areas where a content creation agency with years of experience could give them a boost to help reach your business goals?
In short, good content really comes down to customer engagement and qualified lead generation. If you want to increase engagement — and get the right engagement — working with a content creation agency just might be for you.
Benefits of Hiring A Content Creation Agency
The biggest benefit of hiring a content creation agency is experience. With an agency partner as your right hand in the Royal Court of Content, you’ll automatically get expert insight into all things content.
A dedicated team hired for a specific service will be able to channel their efforts into just one part of the business, leaving you free to focus on and prioritize other initiatives.
While following trends and posting cute or funny content on social media channels may help engagement, in the short term, effective content creation comes from data-driven insights that a good agency will have ample experience in.
Running a business is hard enough, why not add some extra umph on the content side?
Meet The Team
How to Choose the Right Content Creation Agency For You
Once you’ve decided you want to hire a content creation agency, there are still a few things to consider. The right content creation agency for your business is going to depend on a few key factors. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind once you begin your search:
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Center Your Brand Story & Identity
You know your brand best, and any agency partner you choose to work with should get to know it, too. Keep in mind what your product or service is, and the persona of your target audience. This may seem like a given, but coming back to the core of your brand and thinking about key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you narrow down your top contenders.
As you conduct your search, you’ll be able to tell pretty quickly which agencies naturally match your voice and tone, and which ones don’t quite fit the bill.
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Be Prepared with Questions
Once you have a short list of your favorites, think about what you want to know from your potential agency partner. Ask specific questions about a prospective agency’s other clients to see if they’ve got the chops you’re looking for. For example:
- Have they worked with businesses like yours before?
- Do they have specific experience driving results for, say, SaaS companies or ecommerce brands?
- What were those results, and how did they inform a long-term content plan or other marketing campaigns?
The HawkSEM Difference
We don’t love to toot our own horn, but we do value transparency. So, here are a few of the things we offer that we think set us apart from the crowd.
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Our proprietary tech, ConversionIQ™, is designed to provide actionable marketing insights, full-funnel attribution, and high-quality conversions that will continuously improve your bottom line.
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We know our stuff. Every member of our staff is a seasoned marketing professional with experience in a wide range of industries. This allows us to curate your team to fit your needs, no matter your niche.
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We say “yes, and.” As a full-service agency, we can offer expertise in just about every area of digital marketing, meaning you can reach and exceed your goals faster.
We hang our hat on data-driven insights that provide the information you need to help your business thrive. In fact, our clients average a 4.5x ROI.
HawkSEM is also a Google Premier Partner, and the search engine has named us in the top 3% of agencies in the country.
ConversionIQ in Action
For our B2B clients like Microsoft, Datadog, and Columbia University, ConversionIQ was able to connect the dots between which leads were actually leading to new business. We uncovered situations where, although certain keywords were converting at high volumes with a very low cost per lead, it was actually the long-tail, low-volume keywords that drove most of the revenue. We were able to overhaul the campaigns and properly allocate budget to maximize ROAS. Overall, lead volume went up 2x, cost per acquisition was down over 40% and lead quality improved 60%.
Content Creation: Pricing
Costs can roughly range anywhere from $1,000-$10,000+ per month, however the cost of digital marketing services can vary widely depending on which services you require, and the same rings true for content creation. Whether you’re looking for a freelancer or two to help with video content or are in need of a full-service content makeover, there are tons of options to explore.
Once you determine your needs, here’s what you can expect.
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Social Media Content
ZipRecruiter puts the average hourly rate for a social media content creator at about $22.52 per hour. This may be higher or lower depending on experience.
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Influencer Content
When working with an influencer, prices will vary depending on their reach, the length of your campaign, and what you both want to get out of the partnership. Check out our influencer marketing article for an in-depth breakdown.
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Blog Content
Some writers charge per word, others charge per hour or per piece. An experienced blog writer will likely charge between $200 - $750 per 1,000 words, according to Upreports.
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Website Content
You don’t need us to tell you that well-written web content can make or break your online presence. According to The Content Panel, freelance writer prices for website content can vary anywhere from 5 cents per word for a novice to as much as $1 per word for someone more experienced.
HawkSEM has been hand-selected as a Google Premier Partner and Microsoft Advertising Partner
We make things happen …but don’t take our word for it:
CSUN
Patch Of Land
Google Partner
Google Partner
The Bottom Line
Whether you just need help creating incredible content or could benefit from a full-service agency to touch on many aspects of your digital marketing efforts, don’t hesitate to look into HawkSEM.
We thrive on creating a customized, data-driven approach to all things digital marketing. In addition to content creation services, we can also lend a hand when it comes to:
- SEO
- SEM
- Paid search
- Social media management
- Organic social
- & more
If that sounds good to you, we’d love to hear from you! Talk with us today and get started on creating the content library of your dreams.
Request a Free Consultation
No BS, just results. Average clients see a 4.5x ROI
- Dramatically improve ROI
- Outperform the competition
- Increase conversion volume
- Better track ROI
- Reduce cost per acquisition
- Improve lead quality