4 reasons to work with ONE content marketing agency

Content marketing requires hard work.

You must be willing to roll with the punches, tinker, try new things. Success in content marketing means never being satisfied. Always keep one eye on the future. It it can be done—and done well—with support.

How do you decide with whom to work?

Running a content marketing agency the last eight years, I’ve found the best results come from strong relationships with talented people.

Here’s how to forge lasting collaborative relationships:

1. Build a relationship with ONE agency.

When one agency and one brand build a symbiotic relationship, the quality and efficacy of work get significantly better.

Real collaboration—vs. one party giving orders and one taking orders—is radically different. Because both view the relationship through the lens of collaboration, not transaction, both show more,trust. Both encourage creativity in the other.

2. Invest your time.

The longer you’ve known someone, the better your relations. When you deal with partners, teammates or vendors for years, you learn from and challenge the other. You both grow.

You know each other’s strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses. This rapport means less posturing, more empathy, honesty and vulnerability.

Ego’s less important; the best ideas win more often. Good work gets created. The first project my agency takes on for a new client is always the toughest: There‘s no familiarity. We’ve never done a second project that wasn’t a lot better, both the product and the experience. And it only gets better.

As your relationship with a content marketing agency deepens, you’ll both develop efficiencies in your processes, start to think together, and build on what the other brings. If you’re willing to invest, you’ll get better work that scales better.

3. Know that they care.

When your relationship with your content agency strengthens, the agency will invest deeply in your business. I’m not denigrating freelancers! It’s just a fact: The closer you are with your agency, the stronger the investment in success on both sides.

A trusted long-time agency shares your struggles. It lives your goals. The agency is on the journey with you, proactively and automatically offering suggestions and recommendations.

Their success is your success. They go the extra mile, think about your work when you don’t and keep your content on track.

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What’s every brand manager’s biggest worry? Creating engaging content. An agency helps you jump that hurdle—and ensure you clear the water in stride.

4. Get the last drop of your team’s collective creativity and experience.

A content marketing agency is your built-in sanity check. It lets you tap into the agency’s experience and wisdom. Fifty brains often are better than one. They help you avoid mistakes.

Because much creative content work is collaborative by nature, chances are the work you do together will have ideas from people who specialize in distribution, content and design.

You get what you pay for. An agency adds tremendous value. For creative work, I’d rather partner with a team that specializes in what I do.

A tight, long-term relation with a content marketing agency is the smartest decision, A content marketing agency’s hard-earned knowledge and expertise help you scale up any initiative, create plenty of engaging content and think new strategic thoughts about your brand.

Josh Ritchie is the co-founder and CEO of Column Five Media.

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