Stryde Choose The Right Content Marketing Agency eBook

HOW TO CHOOSEThe Right Content Marketing Agency

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Although content marketing has been around FOREVER, most companies we speak with are lost and confused when it comes to vetting and picking a quality content marketing agency. In this guide, you will learn what to look for and the questions to ask as you go through the awareness and consideration stages of the decision making process to finding the right content marketing agency for your business. As you work through this guide, you’ll be able to score and rate each agency you speak with to determine who would be the best to work with.

How To Choose The

Right Content Marketing Agency

How to Choose The Right Content Marketing Agency

When looking to engage with a content marketing agency, one thing you need to be sure of is that they can write for your industry. Creating good content is hard enough without adding in a technical element that might be foreign to general writers. Keep in mind that it’s okay if your agency outsources content to subject matter experts who know your vertical; you just need to make sure that someone who knows your industry is producing your content from the very beginning.

Number 1

Subject Matter Expertise

Agency Name: Agency Name: Agency Name:


Here are some good questions to ask:1 Have you ever done work in my industry?2 How do your writers get up to speed on my industry?3 How do you find quality freelance writers to write about my industry?

Have They Ever Written About My Industry: Yes / No

Can They Find A High Quality Freelance Writer To Write About

My Industry: Yes / No







One of the biggest signs that you’re engaging with a winning agency is that they practice what they preach! Take a look at their blog. Do they provide consistent resources that actually provide value to their readers? What do they offer their audience in terms of premium content like eBooks, guides, white papers, and videos?

Number 2

Practice What They Preach



Here are some good questions to ask:1 What does your company do to generate new business?2 What are some of your best blog posts you can show me?3 What are some of the publications you’ve written on or been mentioned in? Can you show me some of those?

Does the agency blog? Yes / No

Does the company have their own marketing resources? Yes / No

Does the company blog for other publications? Yes / No







Before deciding on an agency to go with, you need to make two specific requests. First, you need to request case studies. Some agencies don’t publish full case studies on their website (like us) due to agreements with current clients not to publicly share their data, but can share them privately.

Second, you need to request 2-3 introductions to clients who would be willing to talk with you on the phone to discuss their experience. It’s best if the clients are somewhat related to your vertical, but they don’t have to be.

Number 3

Provide Case Studies & Client References



Here are some good questions to ask:1 Do you have any case studies I can review?2 Do you have any customers who I can talk to?

Does the agency have case studies? Yes / No

Did the agency send me the case studies? Yes / No

Does the agency have customers I can talk to? Yes / No

Did the agency introduce me to at least two of their customers? Yes / No









BONUS: When speaking with the clients, here are some questions you might consider asking them:

Number 3

Provide Case Studies & Client References


1 Overall, how has your experience been?2 Has the agency delivered on promises made during the sales process?3 How is the quality of the content they are producing?4 How is the quality of the customers they are generating?5 How is their communication and reporting?6 Do they treat you as a client or as a partner?7 Do they work as though they are part of your internal team?8 Do they think outside the box?9 Do you believe they have your best interest in mind?10 Would you recommend them to a friend, family member, or colleague?

You know the old adage — you don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been? The same applies to any form of marketing. Unless your potential agency understands where you are currently at, they cannot effectively put together a plan of action, scope of work, or accurate pricing to deliver the results you are looking for. You should plan on providing access to, or at the least, providing PDF exports of your analytics data, webmaster tools data, and lead generation data. Be wary if your agency doesn’t ask for this fairly early in the process.

Number 4

Ask For Data Up Front



Here are some good questions to ask:1 What kind of research can you do to up front to provide a more accurate proposal and quote?2 Do you need access to my analytics?3 Do you need access to any other data?

Did the agency explain what kind of research they can do to provide an

accurate quote? Yes / No

Does the agency need my analytics data? Yes / No

Does the agency need any other data? Yes / No









Number 4

Ask For Data Up FrontAgency Name: Agency Name: Agency Name:


Email Address To Provide Analytics Access To:

Email Address To Provide Google Webmaster Tools Access To:

Email Address To Provide Bing Webmaster Tools Access To:







One area where agencies tend to really struggle is in identifying success metrics for your unique business needs and mapping a plan that will help you get from point A to point B. The content marketing agency you choose should have a very good idea, before you close the deal, of what your business does and how you generate revenue. They should be able to provide you with some KPIs that are unique to your business and should be based on the trends and information they see from looking at your data. You should also request some sample client roadmaps that they’ve created so you can see how they operate on a weekly and monthly basis.

Along the lines of roadmaps and success metrics, your agency should be providing thorough reporting to you on a regular basis. Reports should include what’s being worked on, what’s scheduled, and any road blocks that they need your help in overcoming. Reports should also include your unique success metrics and how far along they are to meeting/exceeding your goals. At minimum reports should be delivered once per month. A good agency will deliver twice per month and hold in-person meetings or calls on a regular basis.

Number 5

Have Clearly Defined Roadmaps, Success Metrics & Provide Thorough Reporting


Number 5

Have Clearly Defined Roadmaps, Success Metrics & Provide Thorough Reporting



Here are some good questions to ask:1 What does our first month of engagement look like?2 How do you plan and schedule your work?3 What are some of the typical success metrics you look at?4 Do you provide reporting and how often?5 What do you report on?6 Can you send me examples of roadmaps and reports?

Was the agency easily able to describe how they operate from

month to month? Yes / No

Did the agency provide example success metrics? Yes / No

Did the agency provide sample reports? Yes / No

Did the agency provide sample roadmaps? Yes / No











A good content marketing agency knows that content should fuel all other channels and create demand for a product or service. When engaging in content marketing, your agency should know how to leverage their content to improve your SEO, create more effective PPC campaigns, and skyrocket your social media presence and engagement.

A good agency knows that different channels require a different approach; you cannot take the same content and submit it to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram and see success. Your audience is conditioned to use each channel differently and requires a unique strategy to reach and engage with them.

It’s also worthwhile to note that you don’t have to attack all channels at once. In fact, a good agency will pick a few channels and focus on getting them right before moving on to additional ones.

Good content marketing agencies are interested in building you an audience, not borrowing one. If you think back to the days or MySpace, what happened when they shut down their services? Brands lost all that they invested in borrowing an audience on their platform. What happens if the four hundred thousand followers you have on Facebook disappear tomorrow? Smart marketers work to tap an audience, bring them to your “playground” and work to turn them into an owned audience that can be engaged with on your terms.

Number 6

Have A Strategy For Each Channel


Number 6

Have A Strategy For Each Channel



Here are some good questions to ask:1 How do you use different marketing channels to promote content?2 How do you pick which channels will be most effective for my campaign?3 What happens if Facebook or Twitter disappears tomorrow? How are you building me an audience that I control?

Did the agency clearly explain how they use different marketing channels

to promote content? Yes / No

Did the agency clearly explain how they pick which channels will be most effective for my campaign? Yes / No

Did the agency clearly explain how they are planning on building an

audience that I can control? Yes / No











If you can find an agency that understands how buyers make decisions, how they move through the sales funnel, and how to encourage prospects to take next steps, grab them and never let go. A lot of content marketing agencies just want to build and market content and don’t take the time to map the buyer journey and individual pieces of content to each step. Doing so will not only help you convert more prospects into customers, but also will help position you as an industry leader.

Agencies that really understand content marketing know that not all leads coming through a website or any other channel, online or offline, are created equal. Every prospect is in a different part of the decision making process and require different touch points to move them through the funnel. When choosing a content marketing agency, make sure they understand and deploy a strategy for nurturing leads through a marketing automation platform. The platform used is irrelevant, but they should be able to make recommendations based on the stage your business is in.

Number 7

Understand The Buyer Journey, The Sales

Funnel, & How To Move Prospects Through It


Number 7

Understand The Buyer Journey, The Sales

Funnel, & How To Move Prospects Through It



Here are some good questions to ask:1 Can you explain to me how the average buyer journey looks?2 What are some of the things buyers are looking for in each stage of the decision making process?3 What tools do you use to help move leads through the funnel?

Did the agency clearly explain how the average buyer journey looks?

Yes / No

Did the agency help you understand how buyers move though the funnel?

Yes / No


Yes / No

Did the agency talk about at least one tool they use to help move leads

through the funnel? Yes / No


Yes / No


Yes / No


Yes / No




Yes / No


Yes / No


Yes / No



Every business is unique and every brand is unique as well. An agency that understands this and knows how to work with brand teams to make their lives easier is a huge win. You should look for an agency that has checklists and a process for creating content that is consistent with your brand. The processes need to include your brand team to review the content without sucking their bandwidth.

Number 8

Sensitive To Your Brand



Here are some good questions to ask:1 How will your team interact with our brand team to ensure we are well represented?2 How will your team reduce the amount of time required by my brand team to work with you?3 What does your process look like for working with my brand team?

Did the agency clearly explain how they would interact with your brand team to ensure your brand is

represented well? Yes / No

Did the agency clearly explain how they would help save your brand

team time? Yes / No

Did the agency explain how their process works for engaging with your

brand team? Yes / No




team time? Yes / No






team time? Yes / No



Money is a sensitive topic, even in the business world. Many content marketing agencies want to get in and start producing content day one. Good agencies take a full inventory of all the content owned by a business and determine what can be reused/repurposed for other uses. This process can save businesses thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours that can be invested in other initiatives.

Number 9

Interested In Using/Repurposing Already Existing Content



Here are some good questions to ask:1 How are you trying to save me money on my content creation?2 How can we reuse some of the content we’ve already created?3 What is your process for collecting all of our content to see what’s usable and what’s not?

Did the agency explain how they would try to save me money on

content creation? Yes / No

Did the agency explain how they would try to reuse some of the

content that’s already been created? Yes / No

Did the agency explain how they would collect and review content already owned by my company?

Yes / No






Yes / No






Yes / No

Good marketing — online or offline — requires a significant investment. Creating valuable content that drives brand awareness and gets a prospect to take action is expensive. There’s no way around it. One of the first things you should ask agencies is what their minimum retainer is. If it’s under $3,000 - $4,000 per month for a minimum of 6-12 months, they are going to have a really hard time producing results for you.

If you have a smaller budget than that, ask the potential agency where they feel you would be best to invest it. Good agencies will provide answers like, “hire an intern to help with x, y, or z”, “invest in a redesign of the website”, invest in conversion optimization to turn more if your visitors into leads”, or “invest in a marketing automation solution to convert more of your leads into paying customers”. These are the agencies that really have your best interests in mind and don’t just want your money.

Number 10

They’re Not Cheap



Here are some good questions to ask:1 If my budget were under your minimum retainer, what would you suggest I put my money towards?

Did the agency provide ideas on where to invest marketing dollars if I can’t

work with them? Yes / No





There are exactly 30 yes/no questions provided throughout this worksheet. You should be able to get at least 21 yes responses (which is 70%) out of an awesome agency that will not only have your best interest in mind, but be able to drive great results for your business.

Final Step

How To Score Your Agencies



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Stryde Choose The Right Content Marketing Agency eBook

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Transcript of Stryde Choose The Right Content Marketing Agency eBook