Content is what inspires, educates and compels your users. It inspires them to try new things, educates them to take action and encourages them to come back for more. It also helps search engines to pick up your website for certain search phrases and terms.
The challenge is that now your users are expecting more and more from the content you produce. More data, more insight, more expertise.
Are you producing content in the best way right now?
There are problems that most content marketers are facing right now:
● Good content is expensive and takes too long to produce
● Content that’s quick and inexpensive to make is usually rubbish
In both cases, the cause of the problem is usually the ‘who’ in the content production process. In other words, the wrong people are creating content.
The two most common ways to produce content used today
Broadly, there are two ways most businesses create content.
1) In-house teams
The first way a business can produce content is by using internal teams.
Pros: Expert level subject matter knowledge, understanding of the industry.
The main advantages are that no one else knows your industry or products/services better. To produce content that’s going to be genuinely useful for your users/customers, you need to be able to talk in a language they understand and offer insights and ideas that only come from experience.
Cons: Time-poor and busy doing other jobs.
The main disadvantage is the people who have the required subject matter knowledge are busy doing other jobs. For example, your sales team will have valuable know-how, but they’ll be too busy to commit to producing content for you.
2) Outsource to content agency
The other option for creating content is to use an external content agency.
Pros: Fast, creative.
The main advantage here is speed. Having a content marketing agency on retainer means you’ve got time to produce lots and lots of work. Their experience of the creative process and experience from other industries and clients can also help to make your content stand out from the competition.
Cons: Can lack expert level subject matter knowledge, can be expensive.
The main disadvantage is an external agency may not have the level of know-how required to produce content that’s detailed or insightful enough. To plug the know-how gap, an external agency usually has to rely on input from one of your business’ subject matter experts – Which affects the speed and ease of handing over to an external team.
There is also a cost consideration. Any delays you cause (e.g. waiting for approvals or input from subject matter experts) when you are paying an agency a retained/monthly fee are going to be expensive.