When To Fire Your Content Marketing Agency: 7 Things To Consider
You hired a bona fide content marketing agency.
You really hoped they would start producing amazing content for your brand or your clients' brands soon.
This content will help increase brand awareness, generate more traffic and generate more leads.
But your hope began to fade after months of no change in awareness, traffic, search engine rankings, or conversions.
What does it give? Is it time to ditch your content marketing agency and move on?
Delay Not so fast.
Maybe it's time to say goodbye. But you may even need to step back and pause before you leap. (Content works longer than traditional or paid marketing methods, but is also more sustainable.)
Here's what to weigh and consider.
When is the best time to fire your content marketing agency?
1. You are not seeing results in the expected time frame
Content marketing will not work and will not work for a week unless there are rare or special circumstances. It won't work for a few months or months.
It can take anywhere from a few months to a year or more to see the full ROI on your content investment.
However, the arrow should start moving sooner. After a few months you should start to see growth - gradual growth, but still. If you see movement in any metric and it's been six months, you can start asking questions.
And by the way, your content marketing agency should define clear results from the start.
You need to set goals, strategy to measure KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and track them. They should give you an idea of when to expect a return on investment and what it will look like.
If none of the above has happened, that in itself is good reason to question the content agency you're working with.
Remember, marketing is stupid for marketing. You can and should expect a return on investment, and your agency should be responsible for moving that needle.
2. The agency makes mistakes in your content all the time
Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is to learn not to repeat them.
For example, your content marketing agency creates content for your brand with obvious flaws (such as links to low-authority pages or, worse, to competitors).
Let's say it happens in the first few months of your relationship. This is something that can be quickly reported and corrected to prevent it from happening again.
If your agency continues to make mistakes in your content, even after making corrections, that's a good reason to remove it.
The whole point of hiring an agency is to offload the content so you don't have to worry about it. Their work is as follows.
- Give your voice your brand.
- Make the right links in your blogs.
- Use correct grammar and spelling.
- Use keywords correctly.
- And overall, create content you can be proud of.
If they don't pay attention to the details, they may not be right for you.
3. Are you generally dissatisfied with the quality of the content?
Content quality is an organic search ranking factor. This means that you should be completely concerned about the quality that you are getting from the copywriting agency.
Bad content can have a domino effect on your brand reputation and awareness. Bad content will rank poorly in searches, if at all, and therefore will not attract any traffic from Google. (Click-through rates drop dramatically after the second page of Google search).
Not to mention that a visitor who reads bad content is more likely to:
- skip
- File it in their "do not trust" file.
See you later Roy.
If the content isn't cutting, there's probably something wrong. Bad content is:
- Poorly structured, with few headings and long paragraphs.
- Out of focus, out of place or confused.
- Lots of spelling and grammar mistakes.
- It contains factual errors and inconsistencies.
- Brand-centric (not user-centric)
- Ignore the search target.
- Poorly optimized keywords or keywords with little or no keyword stuffing.
- It is not designed to direct potential customers to the next action (with a CTA).
- There are no external links to authoritative websites or internal links to relevant website pages.
If you continue to see any of the above indicators, it's time to fire your content marketing agency. They should know better and do better.
4. The content marketing agency doesn't communicate well
You will never get good results from a content marketing agency that doesn't communicate well.
Their good communication will help you clarify and clearly define your goals, set your expectations, understand the various steps and processes, get answers to questions that arise, and more.
Without a reliable connection.
- Feeling uncertain about where you're going with content can hold you back.
- You can't understand what is happening or when.
- You may feel alone when in fact you should feel like a member of a group.
Some red flags to look out for when it comes to communication:
- No response to emails or messages or waiting days for a response.
- Asking questions but getting inappropriate answers or no answers at all.
- Not knowing when to contact the agency to discuss your strategy, progress or results.
- Lack of transparency on their part creates confusion on your part.
5. The agency constantly misses deadlines
Meeting deadlines isn't just about sticking to a content schedule or publishing content on time.
Yes, these things are important factors for consistent content, which is critical to the overall success of a content strategy, but let's not forget one more aspect.
Meeting deadlines also means showing respect and responsibility. If you and your agency have set deadlines in advance (such as when and how often content will be posted on your blog), meeting those deadlines also shows:
- The agency respects your time.
- They respect your brand.
- They respect the strategy and stick to it.
- They care about your content and think about it before it's published.
Therefore, constantly breaking deadlines and making excuses is a good reason to part with the agency.
This brings us to the next point.
6. The agency does not see you as a partner
To see the best ROI, you need to work well with your content agency. Your individual gears must spin in sync or the whole operation will jam and stop.
Part of it is good communication, but another part is cooperation and collaboration at all stages of the game.
For example:
- Does the agency you work for take your concerns seriously?
- are they listening well?
- Do they keep you informed every step of the way?
By the way, that doesn't mean they let you run the show. They are the content experts, not you. However, your content marketing agency should involve you in the process and decision-making and help you understand the strategy and its moving parts.
They are responsible to you as you are responsible to them. Mutual trust is important. If you don't want to work as a team, you can reconsider your working relationship.
7. You suspect that they are using spam or deceptive methods to get quick results
Usually the only way to get quick results with content is to cheat.
Even today, spam tactics are surprisingly common in content marketing. However, using them is a huge pitfall. You may see a rapid increase in rankings or traffic, but that increase is unsustainable.
They will disappear quickly because Google is very sophisticated and can detect most types of spam through its automated systems as well as manual actions.
This can result in your site being penalized from lower rankings to being completely removed from Google search.
If you suspect that your content marketing agency is using spamming techniques to crawl your site, they are playing with fire. This may work for a short time, but it will inevitably cause your site to lose visibility.
If they are playing with fire, leave them alone and find an ethical content agency that will set up your site for longevity and stability.
What to keep in mind before starting a content marketing agency?
A content marketing agency's job is to manage your content marketing so you don't have to. They will take care of everything from planning to creation and distribution.
If you hired an agency, you probably don't have the time or experience to handle it yourself. At the same time, you expect strategy and results from the person you hire.
And that's totally justified, but don't give up too quickly.
Content marketing is a long-term game. It's not about quick wins, but slow and steady gains that grow over time.
It can be frustrating at first, but persistence will pay off in the future.
If your agency works diligently on your content marketing, publishes regularly, communicates well, analyzes metrics, treats you like a partner, delivers quality content, meets deadlines, and keeps you engaged, stay there.
The desired results will appear soon.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of the researcher. Staff authors are listed here.
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