Is your marketing department struggling to keep up the demanding pace required to stay relevant in the competitive digital arena? In the never-ending quest for customer attention, you don’t want to be lapped by competitors that seem to have a deep well of valuable assets—like compelling blog posts, interesting use cases and in-depth white papers—to supply their prospective and existing buyers.
As a result, you may be looking into how a third-party content strategy vendor could be of assistance. Here are some telltale signs your business could be ready to pass the baton to an expert content provider:
Your website is stale: One of the biggest reasons a website may fail to attract attention is because it’s emerged as more of a notification system than a hub for information and activity. While customers may see the types of products and services you offer, as well as your rates and contact information, they won’t see the critical “why” factor that differentiates you from other providers in your space.
If you’re struggling with a stale website, you’re not alone; 54 percent of B2B and 62 percent of B2C marketers grapple to produce engaging content according to the 2015 Content Marketing Institute benchmark study. A content strategy vendor solves this problem by transforming your website and all of your Web pages—from your blog to your product descriptions—into a living resource full of interesting and thought-provoking news and information. The end result is a website that invites customers in and keeps them there long enough to influence their purchasing decisions (and your retention rates).
Your internal team is overworked: If you are hearing complaints of writer’s block or aching wrists and eyes, alarm bells should be ringing, as these are the classic symptoms of burnout. To keep employee morale at an all-time high, make sure to protect the mental health of your workers by giving them the support they need.
As our Director Carrie Majewski explained during a presentation at Content Boost’s recent Content Boost Crash Course, your top-notch employees will typically say “yes” to new projects—like maintaining a blog or social channel—but they don’t always have the bandwidth, read energy, to do so.
By outsourcing your critical content needs to a team of professional editors and writers, however, you will always be guaranteed access to fresh work from a team of dedicated content strategists who are trained in producing large volumes of work and adhering to strict deadlines. These reinforcements will replenish your team of marketers and ensure that your website always reflects a strong, professional and enthusiastic image.
Your metrics are poor: One of the biggest goals of your marketing department is to produce a strong return on investment. It’s just about impossible to tell if your marketing strategy is doing well or not, however, if you don’t have the capability to run metrics like click rates (or how many times customers click through your site), bounce rates, (which tell you how quickly customers leave your website), and email open rates (which tell you what percentage of email recipients open emails).
Having access to basic marketing metrics is one thing but using them to steer a high-quality and informed content marketing strategy is quite another. A content strategy vendor can provide this skill, helping you identify the different types of customers that are on your website and how to best target them. For example, all of your digital assets may be geared toward senior-level engineers when, in fact, lower-level purchasing managers with less subject matter expertise are the visitors to your site. Your content provider can help you focus your message to your actual audience as well as imbue it with relevance and quality.
Is outsourcing to a content strategy provider in your future? If you’re struggling with any of the aforementioned pain points, and can’t gain access to the in-house resources you need, don’t be afraid to test the outsourcing market.
We’re waiting for you here at Content Boost when you’re ready to get some relief.
