Marketing agencies have been taking a beating lately in the court of business and investor opinion.
And content marketing agencies may sound quaint in the age of
AI.
But as content's
mere existence declines as a competitive advantage relative to its
quality,
creativity,
and
strategic value, the versatility and skills of a good content marketing agency become more important,
not less.
But first, let's clear a few things up.
Content Marketing Agencies Are Not Content Farms
Content marketing agencies are often considered a turbo button that makes large quantities of content
appear very quickly. But
AI can now mass produce slop faster and cheaper than an agency could, so
it's time to leave this expectation behind.
They're Not SEO Providers Either
Some consider search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing synonymous, another misconception
long past its sell date. SEO content doesn't guarantee traffic like it used to, while still being
inherently risky in terms of vagueness, excessive length, and valueless traffic.
The SEO content game must now focus on answering specific questions asked by real life customers, not
general queries, because answers to the latter no longer get clicked.
They're Also Not GEO Providers
Generative engine optimization (
GEO), or whatever you call optimization for AI search (AIO/AEO/LLMO),
is important, and growing in importance, but content marketing agencies should not be seen as mere
providers of this service, since it reflects the wrong mindset.
GEO has quite a few things in common with SEO, but it is not SEO 2.0.
As just mentioned, GEO is nowhere near as reliable at attracting traffic or holding a favorable
position.
It's also slower, because not only must you optimize for specific queries, you must also optimize
for
fan-out queries (i.e., similar
queries). And there can be lots of them.
What's more, the answers a large language model (LLM) gives can be
random AF, and sites
referenced can vary
by the engine.
The criteria used for AI citation can change fast.
And GEO is much more dependent on
earned media, and other off-site or off-page efforts.
Take all these things together, and you need a partner, not just a provider.
You need a long-term relationship, less bound and hindered by short-term goalposts.
And what's more, AI citation is rather like a strong search engine results page (SERP) ranking in
how it correlates with
brand strength and
awareness, only more so.
A content marketing agency is better positioned to build them than a mere GEO provider.
Because content builds
B2B brands, not optimization
minutiae.
The best GEO strategy is a good brand strategy, the GEO is just details.
And brand skills often aren't found in house in B2B or in someone advertising themselves as a mere
GEO provider.
What a Content Marketing Agency Is
There are many definitions of
content marketing, few remember to include marketing or strategy in
any kind of meaningful way.
Content marketing is the planning, creation, managing, publishing, sharing, and promotion of content to
achieve a marketing or brand goal (or goals), which is why a content marketing agency is an organization
with capability (and preferably expertise) in all these areas.
And if they don't, worry. Even a bad marketer can manipulate your dashboard metrics to make themselves look
good without delivering revenue or other real-world benefits.
Sure, each content marketing task I just mentioned can be done by many people and organizations, but few
have the complete skillset, which can prove more useful than you might think.
What a Content Marketing Agency Does
A content marketing agency's competencies extend beyond what I'm about to tell you, but these are some of
the ones real companies in the real world tend to need.
Content Strategy Creation
Interest in and adoption of
content strategy is growing, but it remains a poorly understood and very
diverse discipline. There are nine types of
content strategy, which is a planned user or customer
journey created using content, and many businesses need more than one.
You might need a UX strategy for your website and a social media strategy to help bring people to it, for
instance.
The odds of any company being willing to hire even a single content person with the skills and experiences
to craft and run even one of these strategies properly, as a full-time in-house employee, are low, let alone
two or more.
And don't let a few high-profile, high-paying
job ads fool you. Such hirings are rare.
Content Operations Management
Even if you don't need someone to craft a
content strategy, perhaps because your
previous content strategist quit in April and you're bound to your current strategy till the end of the year,
you still might need someone to run the show day to day, while making sure the strategy is followed and
achieved, and perhaps even pivoted if necessary (depending on what's happening in Google and AI search).
This requires not only an understanding of content strategy, but also of people and organizations. A proper
content lead is half strategist and half editor in chief, but many real-life in-house leads are merely the
latter, ex-journalists who've run a team of fellow journalists, who may not understand brand, marketing, or
content strategy, and may not listen to stakeholders, because they think their job is to run a newsroom.
Brand-Level Marketing
In-house B2B content marketing tends to focus on at least one of three things: SEO/GEO optimization,
launch support, and
demand generation.
B2B organizations know they need brand-level marketing, but often lack the skills to make it happen. The
hiring of such skills internally can lead to tensions, since the long-term focus of brand and the short-term
pressures of
marketing can sometimes conflict.
The average in-house content team is focused on pipeline, while brand-level marketing focuses more on
attracting people to that pipeline, which requires a somewhat different
set of skills. It's a bit less
technical. A bit more human. And a bit
more creative.
And you've got to understand brand, how to measure it, and how such metrics connect to and benefit
marketing. And this is rarely found in house in B2B.
Brand Storytelling
Brand storytellers are
in demand, though I doubt this will drive much real world benefit.
Most businesses don't understand storytelling, how it would help them (when done right), or what type of
storytelling or storyteller their brand needs based on their goals (and there are
six such
goals we recognize).
The average business isn't suffering from a storytelling deficit or problem, they're suffering from
declining organic reach, rising ad costs, and
unresponsive prospects.
They also have a mindset problem, because what they say is buzzword-laden nonsense optimized for machines.
It isn't worth listening to, and doesn't say what prospects need and want to hear, and storytelling won't
solve this.
Even where storytelling really can help, many businesses don't really need full-time storytellers. There
often isn't enough story to tell, unless your business is big.
Always-On Campaigns
As mentioned earlier, many in-house content operations focus on launch support and demand gen, both of
which tend to focus on discrete campaigns and individual products.
A big problem with this is you're starting from zero every time, with zero momentum and little to nothing
carried over or repeated from previous efforts.
But brands are built through repetition, along with focused themes, brand pillars, and generating demand
for a resolution (not just a product).
Such efforts often don't require specific or time-sensitive product knowledge, making them well suited to
an external partner.
And what's more, always-on efforts may not align directly with what internal stakeholders prefer, making
them better handled by an outsider.
One-Off Projects
One-off projects are the enemy of content strategy.
While simple ad hoc content tasks are often better handled internally, large one-off projects (the type
that take weeks or months) are often better handled externally.
I'm talking about things like whitepapers, e-books, and event support content.
With
whitepapers and e-books, there may be another third party involved (like a consultancy), who will
often get lazy and try to screw you if you don't have experienced eyes watching while they work.
And this is high-priority content, often requiring
creativity and gloss more easily found externally,
especially when it comes to post-launch promotional campaigns that may go on for weeks or months, across
diverse channels and formats.
Launching Your Brand
When you launch your brand and your first website, you'll be stuck with the results for a while, so you
really want something good that you won't start hating a week after launch. And, of course, you may
need a certain volume
of content, quickly.
Launch content must often be glossy, impressive, and eye catching, yet also convey your value proposition
without excessive buzzwords or vagueness, which internal stakeholders tend to drive.
And In Case I Haven't Been Clear
Most tasks I've just told you about require skills your average in-house content person simply doesn't
have. There are two big reasons why.
One, most
content people understand content, not marketing, and they don't report to more experienced content people
who do. Instead, they report to ex-journos or SEO types who often don't get marketing, or to marketers who
don't get content (and therefore don't know how to provide the feedback they need). Content marketers who
understand both sides of what that name implies are rare.
And two, even if you do find one, few organizations will pay what such a rare bird commands in house.
They just don't see the value in someone with "content" in their job title.
And even when they do hire a highly strategic and valuable master of content, that person will often spend
much of their day on tasks that are neither strategic nor valuable, so it's often better to go external or
fractional.
Now go online and find a better explanation of why you need a content marketing agency or what they can do
for you, I dare you.
But if you'd rather know more about what this one can do for you,
get in touch.
