How to work with a content marketing agency like Edify
When we started Edify Content earlier this year, I harbored a false assumption—I incorrectly thought price would be our customers’ biggest concern. It turns out that the number one question from every customer has been:
“How does this work? What’s it like to work with you?”
Okay, technically it’s two questions, but both have the same intention. Working with a content agency is a new experience for many clients. Clients come to us because they haven’t had a lot of success creating content or they’ve lacked the time or resources to produce anything engaging themselves. Some of the questions sound easy on the surface, but answers aren’t so simple:
How will you write a blog post for us?
Do you provide ghostwriting services?
How do we transfer knowledge to you?
How will you learn about our products and services?
Will it take a long time to produce content?
Let’s talk about how a content marketing agency like us can help you in the content production process.
How does a content marketing agency write a blog post?
CEOs, founders, and key leaders often lack the time to write, especially at startups. The thought of participating in digital marketing efforts can be overwhelming when they’re selling, implementing, and supporting their customers. Writing a blog post, or even helping an agency write a blog post, is just another task on the unending to-do list.
(And we argue that CEOs should not regularly write; often their vision is too broad and their knowledge is too deep to be able to create meaningful marketing content, but that’s fodder for another post.)
We are very sensitive to the reality of our clients’ time constraints. Here’s how we typically write a blog post for a client:
Schedule a 30-minute conversation with the subject matter expert(s)
Record the video and audio of the conversation (usually using a lossless recording service like Riverside.fm)
Transcribe the conversation and take copious notes
Do some search engine optimization research to maximize potential exposure/traffic
Determine a meaningful story with compelling pain points
Write a draft in a collaborative app (like Google Docs) and ask for feedback along the way
Help the client identify meaningful imagery to support the story
Go through a couple rounds of asynchronous revisions, mostly using comments and suggestions in the doc
Hand off the final draft for publication
If desired, we produce short videos using the recorded conversation that are great for social media
Writing blog posts with us is pretty simple. Some clients are very hands-on and the CEO is providing a lot of commentary. Some clients are extremely hands off and tell us to just write whatever we need according to the content calendar (yes, we can provide the content calendar, too). We’re as flexible as our clients need us to be and we work like we’re part of their team. We’ll even join our clients’ Slack or Teams channels.
Keep it easy, keep it convenient. We write blog posts anywhere from once a week to once a month. Whatever our clients need, we are there to help. We usually require a couple of weeks to ramp up and align on tone, voice, style, length, detail, and jargon. Once we’re all aligned, we can start churning out content.
We are also happy to sign NDAs so that you can feel confident that you can tell us important, proprietary information that we will keep in confidence.
What about newsletters, case studies, website copy, and whitepapers?
When getting started with a content agency, you may be thinking about much more than blog posts. You might need a content strategy that reaches a target market and generates some of that sweet inbound marketing traffic. You might need marketing campaigns and lead magnets to generate interest. Or you might need someone to finally write that monthly newsletter you promised you’d send to your mailing list seven months ago. (We’re not judging! We’re guilty of it sometimes, too!)
Our process for non-blog content is pretty similar to what I described above. We usually require a knowledge transfer session or two so we can understand your target audience, what type of content you need, what your short- and long-term goals are, and whether you need an overall content marketing strategy.
Beyond that, we’re as collaborative as you need us to be. We have clients that send us stream-of-consciousness emails that we turn into newsletters, or spreadsheets full of research that we turn into whitepapers, and PDF wireframe documents of a future homepage redesign that we turn into punchy marketing-speak.
If you’re curious about all the services we offer, here’s a more comprehensive list:
Blog posts: Technical and non-technical, from quick 500-word blasts to 3,000-word thought leadership pieces
Website overhauls: We’re capable with many content management systems and have helped several clients completely rebuild their websites
Use cases/case studies: Case studies are a great way to prove your value propositions
Key messaging workshops: We help clients think like their customers by walking through capabilities, pain points, and persona research
Search engine optimization: Good content requires good keyword research and we’ve got the fancy tools to make that possible
Video strategy and production: I’ve been running a YouTube channel since 2007 when it launched and I have a professional video studio in my backyard
Newsletters: We work with various mailing list services, including homegrown setups, and get the right messages to the right segments
Lead magnet creation and maintenance: We create the lead magnets and corresponding email sequences for clients who need something compelling to exchange for visitor email addresses and increased conversion rates
Monthly social calendar: We’ll plan all of your social media posts for your most relevant and valuable social networks for the entire month—heck, we’ll even help you automate it
Content strategy guide: We want our clients to succeed with or without us, so our content strategy guides provide wisdom well beyond our engagement
Why choose Edify Content over another content agency?
There are a lot of great content marketing agencies out there, but we have an unfair advantage. You will have a very hard time finding a content agency founded by a software leader and a marketing leader. Our clients are very surprised to find we have such in-depth writing skills and technology chops.
My business partner, Ellis Fitch [LinkedIn], has over a decade of experience in marketing and rebranding. She’s worked at two high-growth companies, both of which successfully rebranded thanks to her leadership and contributions. One rebrand led to a $525M acquisition by a Fortune 100 enterprise. That acquisition also led to another (much larger) rebrand. She’s fluent in Chinese, a novelist, and a whisky connoisseur.
As for me [LinkedIn], I have 20 years of hands-on experience in IT and software development roles. I’ve been a network admin, application admin, sys admin, and other kinds of admin. I’ve done 24/7 support for globally-delivered products with millions of users. I’ve managed teams across the globe using every tool out there. I helped run a multi-million dollar digital marketing agency for five years. I’m also a published author and run a successful interview-driven YouTube channel called Make Weird Music.
In other words, we’re the perfect blend of tech and marketing. We have all the skills to satisfy your content creation dreams, no matter how technical or esoteric your offerings may be. We’re also witty, so meetings with us are always enjoyable.
How do I get started working with a content agency?
Most content agencies, like us, have a contact us form on their website. Just fill it in, tell us what you need, and we’ll get back to you right away. (I mean, we might need a day or two, but still.)
If you’ve read this far, I’m pretty sure you need us. So what are you waiting for? Reaching out and having a 30-minute chat with us comes with no obligation, and we can guarantee you’ll come away abuzz with ideas for all the marketing potential in your business.
