When outsourcing content, working with an agency is one of the options to get high-quality content that meets your business needs and save time to other important aspects of your business. However, agency is the third-party which means they might not be aware of some of the key aspects of your company’s style, tone of voice and brand in general. That’s why it is important to establish clear communication and expectations from the start of your working process.

We gathered some on how to work with an agency effectively.

Top 5 tips on how to effectively work with a content agency

Write a strong content brief

A clear and detailed content brief is essential to ensure that your content agency understands your brand, goals, and audience. To make the content production process effective, include information about your company’s values, tone of voice, and target audience in your content brief, as well as outline the specific deliverables you need, such as blog posts, social media content, or video scripts. Provide examples of content you like and don’t like, as well as any relevant brand guidelines. The more information you can provide upfront, the better equipped the agency will be to create content that meets your needs.

Ask the right questions during your kickoff

Before starting to work with a content agency, it’s important to ask them a few key questions to ensure that they’re the right fit for your business and goals. We prepared some questions that can help evaluate the content agency and its expertise.

What does your content creation process look like?
What is the revision and feedback procedure?
What kind of content have you previously created that is similar to our requirements?
How do you make sure that the content is consistent with our brand and meets our objectives?
How do you measure the success of the content you create?
How do you ensure that the content is search engine optimized?
What services are included in your pricing structure?
What is the estimated time frame for content delivery?

Understand the process

Make sure you have a thorough understanding of the content creation process with your chosen agency after asking all of the necessary questions. A good content agency will have a clear process for creating and delivering content and should be able to provide you with detailed answers if you have any additional questions. For you, as a client, understanding the process is crucial for managing expectations and ensuring that the project stays on track.

Be an active collaborator

Although outsourcing your content to an agency means delegating everything to them, you still have an important role to play in the process. Stay engaged throughout the process and be ready to provide feedback, answer questions, and give additional information as needed. By playing well your part in this process, you can make the content production procedure smooth and efficient which will allow you to receive an outstanding final product.

Complete the feedback loop

Once the content has been delivered, be sure to provide feedback to the agency. Openly state what you liked and didn’t like about the content, and make specific suggestions for improvement if needed. The agency can improve its strategy and produce even better content in the future with the help of this feedback so do not be afraid to make it as detailed and informative as possible. Remember that collaboration does not end when the content is delivered; closing the feedback loop is an important part of ensuring the success of future collaborations with the agency.

Play as a team

Outsourcing is not simply giving all your content tasks to a content agency. Although they take on your content responsibilities, you both play a crucial role in getting the desired results. Playing on the same team, here is a quick checklist of what you should provide your content agency with:

Company goals: if your content provider knows your goals, they can tailor your content to support the goals you set.
Personas: providing your outsourcing partner with your ideal persona can help them to create content that speaks directly to your target audience and satisfies their needs.
Key contact within the company: to establish a smooth communication process throughout the project, it is necessary to define a contact person who can provide feedback and answer any questions the content agency may have. That way, you have a higher chance of receiving efficient and quality of work.

With these key pieces of information in hand, a content agency will be better equipped to create high-quality content that delivers results.

How to measure success with the agency?

When evaluating your success with an agency, pay attention at analytics of your website and how it changed since working with an agency. Also, consider client feedback as one of the measures of success.

Analytics

Analytics tracks website traffic, social media engagement, conversions, and other metrics that can be a good indicator of how your agency’s efforts are affecting your business. For example, if you’re running a digital marketing campaign, you can track the number of clicks, impressions, and conversions to see how well it’s performing. The same goes for user behavior you can track and see how visitors interact with your website and how it can be improved. When it comes to the tools, you can use Google Analytics for tracking website traffic and determining how much of it is coming from the agency’s content.

Client Feedback

The agency should check in with the client regularly to see if they are satisfied with the quality of the content the agency provided. Client feedback is a valuable resource that can help the agency make the necessary changes to its content strategy and improve the results. As a result, it’s critical to consider two factors: what previous clients have said about the agency and whether the agency is successfully incorporating your feedback as a current client. Make sure that your content agency understands the value of your feedback and works with it for better results.