{"id":9758,"date":"2022-09-15T09:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T09:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.verblio.com\/?page_id=9758"},"modified":"2023-04-26T18:13:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T18:13:43","slug":"sell-content-marketing-strategy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.verblio.com\/sell-content-marketing-strategy","title":{"rendered":"PP How Agencies Should Sell Content Marketing Strategy To Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

<\/span>How To Sell Content Marketing
\nTo Clients<\/span><\/h1>\n

The Comprehensive Guide for Agencies<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\"Content_marketing_ppP-35\"\n\t

<\/span>Here’s what this post covers if you need to jump around:<\/span><\/h2>\n
Introduction<\/a><\/h5>\n
1: The Benefits of Selling Content Marketing Services (For Your Clients and Your Agency)<\/a><\/h5>\n
2: How to Confidently Start Selling Content Marketing at Your Agency<\/a><\/h5>\n
3: Pitch Tactics for Content Marketing That Have Worked (Either for Your Agency or Clients)<\/a><\/h5>\n
4: Be Prepared to Overcome Common Content Marketing Objections from Clients<\/a><\/h5>\n
5: How to Conduct a Content Marketing Audit for Potential Clients<\/a><\/h5>\n
6: Create and Execute a Content Marketing Strategy With<\/em> Your Clients<\/a><\/h5>\n
Conclusion<\/a><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span>\n\t\tCAN’T WAIT FOR THE CONTENT KIT?\n\t<\/span><\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSTART HERE\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t

<\/span>INTRODUCTION<\/span><\/h2>\n

Marketers, you know what it’s like to vie for new clients who are only interested in one-off projects.<\/a><\/p>\n

That process is time-consuming and, if it never leads to long-term client relationships, is often ineffective with little to no return.<\/p>\n

According to Agency Spotter<\/a>, there are more than 120,000 marketing agencies in the U.S., and the industry has become increasingly competitive as agencies continue to multiply, diversify, and niche-ify.<\/p>\n

If your agency business model focuses on one-time projects like web design, you’ll inevitably spend more time looking for new clients than selling to existing ones. Customer acquisition becomes the bottleneck that sets your growth back dramatically.<\/p>\n

And that’s where selling content marketing services comes into play-by helping you bust the never-ending cycle of customer acquisition and sell more options to existing clients.<\/p>\n

Providing ongoing services to clients you already have (like a content marketing package) can benefit to your bottom line, and it can help you grow in ways you might not expect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, doing so produces better lifetime values and increasingly loyal clients. Not only does it open the door for new revenue streams, but it works as the perfect add-on to existing projects, like developing and<\/strong><\/em> fleshing out a new website’s content.<\/p>\nEven if you’ve never written a blog in your life, we’ll take it back to basics and show you the ins and outs of starting a content marketing agency<\/a> so that you can confidently pitch content marketing services to your clients.\n

\n

Editor’s note: Part of the content playbook is updating old pieces of content, which we do for this pillar page on a regular basis. Our original guide has been stripped down, edited, and updated-so you can rest assured that the info you find here is USDA-Premium quality (or whatever Google uses these days). <\/i><\/p>\n\t

<\/span>Section 1<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

THE BENEFITS OF SELLING CONTENT MARKETING SERVICES (FOR YOUR CLIENTS + YOUR AGENCY)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t

Smart agencies look for solutions that offer benefits to the client as the first priority, and then to the agency.<\/p>\n

No matter what your lead product is (seriously, it could be website development, design, SEO, Google Ads-you name it!), your clients will get big benefits from content marketing services, and you’ll see a number of benefits from selling those services to your clients.<\/p>\n

Why do we believe that?<\/p>\n

First off, it’s a natural way to build long-lasting relationships with clients.<\/p>\n

Since content marketing is never really “done” (in contrast to projects with a more distinct beginning and end like building a website), you’ll have an ongoing way to engage with clients and create value for them.<\/p>\n

Whether it’s creating new blog posts or e-books, there are nearly endless topics<\/a> to cover, giving you significant opportunities to pitch projects.<\/p>\n

Which means content marketing services are a natural way to produce an ongoing revenue stream for your agency. <\/p>\n

Beyond having projects to pitch, your client’s bottom line is directly impacted with content marketing. Want to produce big wins that keep clients around for years? Content marketing is the king of ROI-for your clients and for your agency.<\/p>\n

A high ROI for clients is likely to produce continued business and increased lifetime values for clients of your agency.<\/p>\n

HubSpot’s 2018<\/a> data showed that 53% of marketing leaders credit content marketing as their strongest ROI source-and their 2021 update<\/a> reported that 82% of marketers actively use content marketing strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, when Semrush surveyed 1,500 content marketers<\/a>, 97% of respondents said they include content in their marketing strategies, but 42% of those same marketers were still in the earliest stages of development.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Content-Marketing-Stats-for-2022-What-You-Need-To-Know-01\"\n\t

Source: 40+ Content Marketing Statistics to Power Your 2022 Strategy<\/a><\/p>\n\t

This reads to us like a huge<\/i> opportunity for growth-especially when you look at the success stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the greatest examples of a successful agency content strategy in recent years is Hotpads<\/a>, a company dedicated to helping people rent houses and apartments in new cities.<\/p>\n

Like any other business, they had the goal of building traffic from organic search. Paid search worked, but they wanted natural visitors to find them too. The problem? Their blog was only generating 400 views a month<\/a>, and most of the users already knew about Hotpads.<\/p>\n

The content they were working with just wasn’t engaging enough. Hiring a full-time in-house content marketer would have limited their scope on topics to write about (not to mention costing a small fortune.) So, Hotpads knew they had to outsource their content marketing strategy to improve keyword targeting strategy and topic expertise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In just seven months, they invested in and produced 270 new articles for their blog, resulting in a 4,000% increase in blog traffic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What made the difference for Hotpads? Their willingness to take action<\/b>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are countless companies out there looking to increase their marketing efforts, giving your agency the chance to step in-producing more revenue and loyal clients as a result.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Content marketing has taken the digital marketing world by storm, and for good reason: it works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, how do you start to confidently sell content marketing services if you don’t have a dedicated in-house staff of writers or a solid plan in place?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s how. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t

<\/span>Section 2<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

HOW TO SELL CONTENT MARKETING AT YOUR AGENCY<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\t

For agencies just starting to sell content marketing services, it can be a misleading prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most think that you have to first hire tons of dedicated in-house writers and content strategists. Then, you have to build out brand new systems to churn out droves of new content and report back to clients. Not to mention the bandwidth required to field edit requests from clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But these steps don’t necessarily ring true anymore. The modern agency isn’t a massive team of in-house writers that explode overhead costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doing it on your own isn’t feasible either though…\u00a0<\/p>\n

You’re already strapped for time as is, so cranking out blog posts, pillar content pieces<\/a>, and long-form guides for clients isn’t really an option. After all, what if clients want dozens of blog posts written each month alongside e-books plus<\/i> white papers or pillar pieces? Does that mean you need to hire new full-time writers to fulfill their needs?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course not. Hiring employees is expensive and far less easy to scale<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When you’re ready to start selling content marketing through your agency (or to take your services to the next level), an ideal starting point is with a freelance team of writers or using a writer service that fits your needs. This gives room for scaling and profit from the start.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, you can work on the details of determining a client’s need, pricing your content, determining a client’s need, selling to them, and building out a cohesive workflow that has room to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that brings us to Step 1: securing freelance writers to produce your content rather than hiring a full team.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Step 1. Secure freelance writers<\/span><\/h2>\n

As many lean, modern agencies know, freelancers and writing services can help you produce content for clients without providing them a salary, benefits, and a 401k. Need 10 posts for a client each month? Freelancers and writing services can provide that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting into the content marketing game is easier than you think:\u00a0<\/p>\n

You don’t actually have to produce most of the content you create for clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, tons of agencies don’t<\/a>. Many great<\/i><\/b> agencies don’t<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your first step is hiring freelance writers based on your budget and content needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let’s say you have a new client who is looking to bolster their online presence quickly after launching a new website. They need to build traffic and brand awareness on a faster timeline. In mapping out a strategy, you mutually decide that you need to publish many pieces of content to reach that goal in three months’ time-which might come to 12 blog posts, 10 website pages, and 2 pillar pages, as an example.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If those needs exceed the bandwidth of your in-house team, you’ll suddenly be struggling to hire great writers fast enough to meet demand, leaving customers waiting potentially months for their content or under-satisfied with copywriting that doesn’t hit the mark.<\/p>\n

That can be devastating to customer relationships, future loyalty, and your client’s bottom line.<\/p>\n

Instead, hiring a niche-friendly marketplace-style freelancer team<\/a> will be your most sustainable (and cheapest) option. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"hiring-a-freelance-writer-chart-blogmutt\"\n\t

By outsourcing your content creation through a marketplace<\/a>, you and your clients will have industry-specific knowledge at your fingertips from a wide variety of contributors. The ability to scale is built right in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also consider your costs here. Hiring individual writers will cost more, especially when working with a high volume of freelancers. Don’t forget the cost of time spent searching for high-quality freelancers who can provide engaging and<\/i> effective content for each of your clients’ specific needs.<\/p>\n

The marketplace option gives you the benefit of searching for industry-specific freelancers at a higher volume and reducing costs in the process. <\/p>\n

<\/span>STEP 2. DETERMINE YOUR PRICING<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once you have a freelance writer solution, you’ll need to nail down a pricing for your new service. But where to begin?<\/p>\n

Pricing is always a tricky subject, no matter what you sell or who you sell it to. We all want the best deal. As an agency, you’re probably already pretty familiar with navigating pricing questions from your clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In many ways, amping up your content marketing offerings won’t be any different than how you handle the rest of your billing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many agencies build the price of content into the retainers<\/a> they sell to their clients. So, for most agencies, your real question is more along the lines of: <\/p>\n

\n

“HOW AGGRESSIVELY DO WE PRICE OUR CONTENT SO THAT IT CAN LIVE EFFECTIVELY IN-AND GROW WITH-OUR CLIENTS’ RETAINERS?<\/b>“<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Because when your bottom line is on the line, it’s important to make thoughtful choices about your resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We’ve seen at least three distinct outlooks that agencies take when deciding how they want to price their content marketing: <\/p>\n\t

1. The Racehorse:<\/b><\/p>\n

Your agency does not mess around with content very often, and it’s certainly not a significant part of the vision. However, you occasionally have clients with a strong demand for content, and you deal with those demands as they come and race to find a short-term solution for what they need.<\/p>\n

2. The Workhorse:<\/b><\/p>\n

You retain content as a significant piece of the puzzle, and you work hard at it because it provides a helpful value-add, but your primary services and offerings are elsewhere, such as SEO or web design. <\/p>\n

3. The Unicorn:<\/b><\/p>\n

Your agency places content near the center of its mission and services offered. This pricing model is the least common of the three, but if your agency is positioned to pull it off, this forward-looking approach can establish fruitful client relationships that are built to last. <\/p>\n\t

And we aren’t horsing around. You should seriously consider which of the three models your agency falls into because it can ultimately help determine how aggressively you price your content. (Plus, it’ll help ensure you’ve done enough freelancer-finding, like mentioned in Step 1.)<\/p>\n

When pricing content, consider a few primary factors, such as length and complexity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a survey we completed<\/a>, the results show individual blog posts commonly being priced below $500 per piece.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Screen\n\t

We suspect that the niche of our agency partners<\/a> also helps determine how high the dollar sign climbs in each of these scenarios.<\/p>\n

All that said, we hope this gives you a target to aim at when determining how to price your content marketing. You may have to adjust your aim a bit, but you can rest assured you’re aiming in the right direction.<\/p>\n

<\/span>STEP 3. FIND CLIENTS THAT ARE NATURAL FITS FOR CONTENT MARKETING<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Now, it’s time for rubber to meet road, so to speak. It’s one thing to nail down pricing and another to have a fulfillment method lined up. But it’s something else altogether to determine how you reach those potential content marketing clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are some low-hanging fruit opportunities for most agencies to consider.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You already have a pool of clients with varying needs. They know you, trust you, and are in the perfect position for an upsell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

START WITH THE CLIENTS YOU ALREADY HAVE!<\/b><\/h3>\n

There’s no need to go out and start selling content marketing services from scratch-or at least not only<\/i> selling them from scratch. If you’re already working on projects with other clients, they’re naturally positioned to take you up on your new service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consider this scenario:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let’s say you’ve sold SEO services to a client for a retainer. Many SEOs see the initial phases of this service as technically-intensive efforts to fix<\/i> what’s already on a website, which often leaves no room for content-even though that content is a huge part of long-term SEO success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means one of two things happen:\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. No content is created because there’s no budget, or<\/li>\n
  2. The agency asks the client to produce the content they need. For reasons we’ll cover in Section 3, below, that’s not always the best idea.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The solution here is simple: create a strategy that has content baked into it from the beginning, while still utilizing the full budget of the retainer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    With the freelancers you sourced in Step 1 and the pricing you developed you developed in Step 2, you’ve already sold your first content marketing client!\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Of course, each client is going to be different and have varying needs, but you can creatively approach their pre-existing strategies and find ways to add content marketing. And, if you aren’t sure where to start, you can use our Agency Content Kit<\/a> to spearhead new content initiatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Then, moving forward, look for ways content can benefit future clients as you sell to them. Including content from the start can help you increase the value you deliver over time, leading to loyal and satisfied clients. <\/p>\n\t

    <\/span>Step 4. Determine content needs and goals with client<\/span><\/h2>\n

    Once you’ve found a partner to work with to outsource your content marketing efforts, it’s time to sit down for a chat with your client<\/a> so that you can start collecting essential data that will allow you to produce better content for them. <\/p>\n\t

    Information like:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Company goals for content<\/b>: Are they looking to drive traffic? Increase brand awareness? Close leads?<\/li>\n
    2. Target markets and personas:<\/b> Demographics and firmographics like job titles, age, hobbies, and more. These will all impact the content style and organization: i.e, high-level CEOs don’t want to read about implementing technical SEO, as they aren’t the ones doing the optimization themselves.<\/li>\n
    3. Tone and style they prefer<\/b>: Witty, more serious, professional, thought-leadership, or any of the shades in between. This is a great opportunity to ask them for content examples they admire and want to emulate for their own business that demonstrate the desired tone in action.<\/li>\n
    4. Keywords and topics<\/b>: Which are top priority? Would they want help developing these?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\t

      Aligning with your client on these is crucial. Yes, you’re the marketing expert driving the strategy, but it’s impossible to create content that will work for your client unless you know what they’re looking for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      All of these factors and more should then be directed to your freelancers to improve content quality and personalization to each client.<\/p>\n

      <\/span>Step 5. Turn client goals into content briefs for freelance writers<\/span><\/h2>\n

      When you are working with freelancers, you’ll want to make sure they receive content briefs<\/a> on each project that your client is expecting to complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      For example, if your client wants a post on Crossfit nutrition, type up a detailed brief, a bulleted list, or an effective outline<\/a> to communicate their expectations and goals for the post when handing it off to your freelancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      The reasoning here is simple: how can a writer be expected to deliver to a specific set of goals if they don’t know what they are?<\/b><\/p>\n

      The last thing you want is a string of back-and-forth emails with a confused freelancer, resulting in days or weeks of delays. Or, worse, struggling with client retention because uncommunicated expectations weren’t met. Utilizing a content brief ensures nothing gets lost in translation and the content is produced with as few hiccups as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      Finding a great platform or freelancer group to work with will open up doors for you to sell content marketing to clients-without a DIY approach where you’re barely able to sleep from work overload. BJ Enoch, former VP of Enterprise Accounts at SocialSEO, was in that position himself<\/a>: <\/p>\n\t

      Last night at 10pm I was writing a blog post for one of our nutraceutical clients about the best skin care products for women in their forties.<\/p>\n

      BJ Enoch<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n\t

      Is that something a VP should be doing? Probably not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      What BJ learned was that he could hand off work like that to a freelancer-so long as he gave them the info they needed. He could focus on SEO, selling, and relationship building instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      And that opens up a whole new playbook for your business.<\/p>\n\t

      <\/span>Section 3<\/span><\/h2>\n
      \n

      BE PREPARED TO OVERCOME COMMON CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIONS FROM CLIENTS<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t

      The benefits of selling content are obvious. You stand to build long-lasting relationships with clients who gain wow-worthy content while your agency receives a long-term stream of revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      In fact, according to a survey we conducted<\/a>, over 30% of agencies we spoke to make at least half their revenue from content creation.<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n

      But overcoming common objections from clients is a little more daunting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      It’s your job to take those benefits of content marketing and use them to your favor to conquer objections head-on.<\/p>\n

      Here are some main objections that we’ve heard in talking with our agency clients and how they effectively overcome them in the initial selling process.<\/p>\n\t

      <\/span>Objection: <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

      <\/span>Doesn’t content marketing take a long time to show results?<\/span><\/h2>\n\t

      As discussed, agencies we’ve seen be most effective in selling content do two things to mitigate this common objection:<\/p>\n

      1. THEY START EARLY AND PAIR CONTENT PACKAGES WITH OTHER SERVICES IN THE BEGINNING.<\/b><\/h3>\n

      If you’re creating a content strategy and beginning to execute on it early in the engagement (with a minimum engagement period of 3-6 months), you’ll have a crucial head start.<\/p>\n

      While you’re doing other exciting work at the beginning (redesigning a website, setting up ad campaigns, etc.), your content marketing package can be humming along in the background and gaining traction.<\/p>\n

      New websites can only thrive when paired with fresh content. Content marketing is <\/i>SEO, and without it your client’s site will struggle to gain traction.<\/p>\n

      Pairing a new site with an executable content marketing strategy right out of the gate ensures that traffic will steadily rise, benefitting your client and ultimately your bottom line.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      2. AGENCIES WHO ARE EFFECTIVE AT SELLING CONTENT SET GOOD EXPECTATIONS AND SHOW EXAMPLE RESULTS.<\/b><\/h3>\n

      Don’t believe us? Check out this case study<\/a> that shows the payoff of a growing content offering-and they saw results in just three months! And another from an agency with clients in really niche industries<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      Communicating expectations and results, especially when you provide them proactively<\/i>, can really put a client’s mind at ease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      If you have already sold content marketing to clients in the past, look for ways to develop case studies around their experiences, and don’t be afraid to ask!<\/p>\n

      Did they get impressive results in any of the following areas?<\/p>\n