Content Marketing Institute data reveals that 61% of businesses struggle to create content that caters to different stages of the buyer's journey. This makes content marketing crucial for businesses seeking to attract and engage their target audience in the current digital landscape.
However, creating high-quality content requires a significant investment of time, effort and resources. Outsourcing content marketing can be a pivotal factor for businesses in this regard.
Keep reading to learn more about the significance of content marketing for businesses and how outsourcing content marketing can help companies to achieve their marketing goals.
What is content marketing and why is it important?
Content marketing is a strategic approach that includes creating and distributing consistent, valuable and relevant content to engage with potential customers and retain existing ones.
Content marketing aims to inspire profitable customer action, such as purchasing a product, subscribing to a service or sharing content with others. The content can take various forms, including blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, social media posts and more.
Quality content requires a deep understanding of the target audience's preferences, pain points and interests. It needs to be tailored to its needs and presented in a compelling way. It should be optimized for search engines, social media and other platforms to increase its reach and visibility.
Content marketing's ability to build trust, establish credibility and foster long-term relationships with customers is what makes it so important.
Businesses can position themselves as leaders and industry experts by providing valuable content that caters to the audience's needs and interests. This, in turn, can enhance brand awareness and reputation, increase customer loyalty and retention, and drive revenue growth.
While content marketing can be an effective strategy for businesses to attract and retain customers, it can also be challenging. Many companies find it difficult to keep up with the demands of content marketing while still running other business aspects.
Outsourcing content marketing to experts helps ensure businesses focus on what they do best while enjoying the benefits of a successful content marketing strategy.
What are the advantages of content outsourcing?
Outsourcing content marketing allows businesses to tap into the expertise and experience of professionals with the skills and knowledge to create and execute a successful content marketing strategy. Content outsourcing agencies can be lifesavers for businesses looking to establish a solid online presence.
By collaborating with an agency, businesses can benefit from a team of specialists who can develop a tailored content plan that aligns with their goals and objectives, produce high-quality content that impacts their target audience and measure the performance of their content marketing efforts.
Outsourcing content marketing can free up time and resources for businesses to focus on other critical areas of their operations, such as product development, customer service and sales.
Outsourcing content marketing can help businesses overcome the challenges of content creation and distribution, improve their online visibility and reputation, and ultimately drive growth and profitability.
Content marketing - a more cost-effective option for exposure
In 2021, a survey by Demand Metric revealed that content marketing could generate three times more leads while costing 62 percent less compared to traditional outbound marketing.
It also showed that 70 percent of people prefer to learn about a company through articles instead of traditional advertising and that content marketing had six times higher conversion rates than other methods.
Cost is one of the most important factors when deciding whether to outsource or keep content marketing in-house. In-house content marketing can be expensive, requiring businesses to invest in equipment, software and the salaries of full-time employees.
CMI’s study indicates the average annual salary of a content marketer in the United States is around US$82,738 — not including the cost of additional staff, tools and resources.
Outsourcing content marketing can be a cost-effective alternative to reach and engage a broader audience as it allows businesses to just pay for the services they need.
What is the ROI of content marketing?
Return on investment (ROI) is a percentage measure that indicates how much revenue a business has generated from a given expenditure. A content marketing ROI of 100 percent shows that revenue generated was equal to costs, while an ROI higher than 100 percent means you made more money than you spent.
Content marketing is paramount in driving sales. It enables businesses to establish themselves as trustworthy experts in their industry while reaching their target audience through relevant content. In turn, this leads to increased brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty, ultimately resulting in higher sales and revenue.
Ultimately, all marketing metrics aim to drive revenue. Even if your content marketing campaign boosts traffic, engagement, and brand awareness, it will still be considered a failure if it doesn't have a positive impact on your business's financial performance.
Four common ways to measure content marketing ROI are through consumption metrics, sales, lead generation, and sharing.
Consumption metrics include unique visits, bounce rate, time spent on site, and downloads of email-gated content. Sales refer to the number of sales made since the content marketing campaign, while lead generation tracks the total number of leads and those generated by content marketing pieces.
It's important to implement proper tracking. Use landing pages, thank you pages, goals, events, and tracking parameters like UTMs to attribute returns to specific content types and channels. To do proper tracking, you also need to understand your metrics. Track key metrics like SEO, social media, PPC, and email performance to see if your content marketing is on the right course and identify areas for improvement.
Consider all costs associated with content production, distribution, and optimization, including payments to writers, keyword research tools, social media tools, and analytics tools. This will help you decide how much you actually gain from the campaign.
In addition, you can assign a monetary value to non-sales conversions, like leads generated from gated content downloads, by analyzing sales team data and analytics. The number of shares on social media is also important to track as it exposes your company to a new audience.
How outsourcing can help businesses scale their content marketing efforts
Outsourcing lets businesses scale content marketing efforts while focusing on their core competencies. This approach helps them achieve content marketing goals and still adapt quickly to market changes.
Outsourcing content marketing can help businesses achieve more consistency and diversity of content. It allows businesses to achieve their marketing goals more efficiently without sacrificing quality. Companies can enhance their content strategy by trying out various types of content and publishing more high-quality content more often.
Another benefit of outsourcing content marketing is access to experienced and specialized experts. These experts can provide a fresh perspective and bring new ideas and strategies to the table.
One example of a company that has successfully outsourced its content marketing is Coca-Cola, which outsourced its content marketing to a team of experts who helped them to create a successful digital marketing campaign called "Share a Coke."
The campaign was created by the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. The campaign involved replacing the Coca-Cola logo on bottles and cans with popular names, encouraging consumers to share a personalized Coke with friends and family. The campaign was a massive success, generating a 7% increase in sales for Coca-Cola among teens in the United States alone and winning multiple advertising awards.
When to outsource content marketing
Outsourcing is a business practice that involves delegating tasks or projects to an external company or individual.
When it comes to content marketing, outsourcing can be a valuable strategy for businesses looking to scale their efforts while maintaining consistent quality and production. Around 60 percent of B2B companies outsource some aspects of their content marketing, such as keyword research, content writing and ad management.
They seek help from external sources like agencies and freelancers with specific expertise. This indicates that only slightly over 40 percent of B2B brands manage their entire marketing strategy in-house.
A survey reveals that 84 percent of marketers choose to outsource content creation, making it the most commonly outsourced task in the industry. In fact, over half of all marketers outsource at least one component of their content marketing strategy, with content creation being the most popular choice. This is likely because 62 percent of marketers cited content creation as their biggest challenge.
Find a content agency that can provide quality content and save you from the pain of producing content on your own.
Here are things to consider before outsourcing your content marketing efforts.
SEO prowess
SEO prowess — the ability to optimize content effectively for search engines — is an essential factor to consider when outsourcing your content marketing efforts.
A strong understanding of SEO principles and the latest best practices is required for creating content that ranks well in search results, drives traffic to your website, and generates leads and conversions.
Outsourcing to a provider with SEO expertise will ensure your content is optimized for maximum impact and visibility. Outsourcing to a provider with SEO expertise can help ensure that your content is optimized for maximum impact and visibility by leveraging their knowledge and skills in the field of search engine optimization.
These services can help companies design an effective SEO strategy as search engines like Google continually refine their ranking process. This involves considering how search engines evaluate the content, what aspects of SEO offer the most impact, and where companies can change their current content to align better with search engine expectations.
They can also assist in link building, developing backlinks and creating external links to your content, which is another important aspect of SEO. This way, businesses can benefit from outsourcing as it saves them time from learning about SEO and allows them to focus on customer conversions and product improvements.
Innovative editorial process
A competent outsourcing provider should have a structured and reliable editorial process in place to ensure that your content is of high quality and aligns with your brand messaging.
This process includes steps such as thorough research, keyword analysis, and peer review to ensure the content's accuracy, relevance and readability. With a refined editorial process, outsourcing providers can deliver content that captures the attention of your target audience and establishes your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
However, beyond being refined, an innovative editorial process involves using creative and unconventional approaches to generate and refine ideas, develop content, and engage with the audience. It may include various techniques such as brainstorming, collaboration, user-generated content, data-driven insights, and feedback loops.
This type of editorial process also prioritizes experimentation and testing to continually improve content quality and impact. It might also leverage technology and automation to streamline the workflow, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. For example, using AI-powered tools to generate content ideas or automate mundane tasks like proofreading and formatting.
The obvious benefit goes beyond optimized content and enhanced consistency for your brand's voice. An innovative editorial process streamlines the content creation process, enabling the production of high-quality content quickly and efficiently.
Varied content forms
Another thing to consider before outsourcing your content marketing efforts is whether the provider can deliver varied content forms.
A good provider can create various forms of content, such as blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, infographics and videos, to cater to the diverse preferences of your target audience. As a result, you can better engage your audience and improve your chances of driving growth and profitability.
It also takes the time to understand your target audience, ensuring that the content it creates speaks to their needs and leads them to take action.
Competitive pricing
When considering outsourcing your content marketing efforts, weighing costs against benefits is important.
Finding a provider with competitive pricing can help you stay within budget and get the most value for your investment. But it's also essential to consider factors such as the provider's experience, expertise and the quality of their output when making your decision.
Outsourcing content marketing can really help businesses as it lets them tap into the expertise and experience of professionals who can develop a tailored content plan that aligns with their goals and objectives. As a result, businesses can allocate their time and resources to more important operational areas, like product development, customer service and sales.
By outsourcing content marketing, businesses can scale their efforts, achieve greater consistency and diversity of content and ultimately help drive growth and profitability.
Origin Hope provides any content operation with newsroom efficiency, powered by its optimized processes, AI technology and excellent customer service. We work with marketing departments, independent creators, publishers and media groups around the world. Get in touch here.