The Internet has become somewhat of an equaliser in that small companies can be viewed on the same scale as large companies by simply having an impressive website and/or blog. 

This point was already made in 1993 by Peter Steiner - as is evident in his cartoon with the caption “on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”.

If you have a proper online presence you are pretty much guaranteed business and if your website is no good, well, you won’t gain anything from it – in fact, you might even lose business.

The digital marketing agency is the main difference between the content marketing efforts of major companies, and that of smaller, less established companies. Bigger companies will have bigger budgets meaning that they can afford to employ a digital marketing agency to manage their content marketing needs. This digital agency will do absolutely everything – content marketing related – for the company, at a steep price of course.

Hiring a respectable agency is a good idea simply because it’s what they do best. They live and breathe content marketing. Digital marketing agencies don’t come cheap, mainly because (regardless of what many think) it’s not all about pressing buttons and trying to outsmart Google. Work hours are long and some tasks can take weeks – even months – to complete. Content marketers work in an environment that aids their knowledge of digital marketing and all that goes with it. This knowledge cannot be matched by generic staff training – which is why these companies exist and flourish.

Unfortunately many small companies can’t afford to hire these professionals but they, nonetheless, understand how important a proper content marketing strategy is for the success of a business.

Due to this they hand the content marketing tasks down to junior staff members – because the senior members don’t want to spend all day on Facebook. This seems fine, how difficult can it be, right? Fast forward two years later and the company have nothing to show for their “efforts”.

The Digital Agency as Advisor

The problem, unfortunately, is management. If you do choose to employ your own staff as content marketers you’ll have to manage them and know exactly what they’re doing, what they’re going to do and why. The managers will as such have to know an awful lot about content marketing and all that it requires. 

Who better to manage a novice team than a digital marketing agency? This means you won’t employ the agency to do your content marketing but simply to manage your team and monitor what they do. The agency becomes an advisor and will cost you far less than when they’re doing all the work.

The agency will train your staff and the methods will be specified towards your company. They will keep a close eye on your efforts, help with editorial calendars (by checking it) and they’ll assist in composing a content strategy (one that will work). The agency will also assist in crucial planning, from the outset, in terms of who you’re marketing to, what your goals are and how you’re going to make it all come together.

The agency is much better placed to do this and your fresh-faced intern won’t be as overwhelmed or spend the whole day mucking around on Facebook.

By employing a digital marketing agency to train your staff and advise on content marketing strategies you are ensuring that your team is well organised. Monthly meetings can be arranged to ensure that everyone is in the loop and certain about their tasks. In these meetings the agency will give you reports including statistics about what worked, what didn’t and what should be done. They evaluate all you’ve done and give you valuable feedback.

*Remember: A professional agency works ahead, i.e. editorial calendars are planned months in advance to ensure that there is never a lack of content.

It’s Up To You

In order for the above to work it is necessary that management within a company is totally involved and enforces all that needs to be done. The digital marketing agency won’t become a babysitter – they’ll simply assign tasks to individuals and monitor the outcome.

If management is as involved as they should be and staff members complete given tasks your content strategy is sure to be a successful one – almost as if it was completed by a professional digital agency.

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