If you’re a marketing manager, it goes without saying that you take on a lot of tasks.
You’re in charge of generating demand for your company’s products or services. You could also head up and research pricing strategies. You’re also responsible for keeping abreast of marketing trends. Plus, you also need to know what your competition is up to. On top of this, you’re probably responsible for preparing and presenting regular reports to senior management.
With all this and more, you have little to no time to add content marketing strategies tasks to the mix.
You know that content strategy is vital to marketing efforts. Quality content promotes audience engagement and brand awareness. But you don’t have time to add these tasks to your already lengthy “to-do” list.
One way to deal with this issue is to hire an experienced content marketer to join your staff. Alternatively, you could outsource these tasks to a qualified, experienced content strategy service company.
But which solution is more effective for you, your tasks, and your organization?
Read on to learn more.
Defining content strategy services
First of all, what does a content strategist do?
Let’s take a moment to discuss the definition.
A content strategist helps plan, develop, and distribute your content. The content strategist determines audience needs. Then they develop the right messaging to meet those needs. They also determine the appropriate channels to disseminate those messages. Furthermore, the content strategist ensures it aligns with your business goals.
Content strategy activities include (but aren’t limited to):
- Determining how content fits with business goals
- Assessing KPIs and other metrics for content analysis
- Researching target audiences and their pain points
- Conducting content audits to identify gaps and propose solutions
- Sourcing content ideas and their presentation
- Determining the correct content formats and distribution methods
- Organizing human and other resources to develop appropriate content
- Analyzing SEO and SERP strategies
Marketing managers have little time to complete any of these above tasks. These require the help of a content marketing manager.
In-house or outsourced?
By now you probably realize the value a content strategist can bring to your company. The next step is determining whether to hire an in-house team or outsource to a content marketing strategy service.
Building and maintaining an in-house content strategy team offers many benefits.
An in-house team knows your company, mission, brand, and vision inside out. It also understands your company’s messaging. This means there’s no time-consuming learning curve required. Finally, that in-house team also understands your company’s processes and procedures. This can be helpful regarding the review and approval of content.
Now here’s the challenge.
Building that perfect in-house team is difficult. It would be best if you took the time to find the right people to fill content strategy, creation, and analysis roles. These individuals need the right skills. They also need the right personality to fit your company’s culture.
Employee inertia might also be a problem. No matter how talented your content strategy team is, some members might get bored. Then they’ll leave and take a job with your competition. Additionally, your company’s culture or processes might inadvertently block innovation or creativity.
This could spell disaster for content creation efforts.
Outsourcing content marketing strategy services can take care of the above issues.
Working with an established content strategy agency gives you access to qualified staff. This staff has the time and experience to help you plan, and implement that plan. The content strategy services agency knows about SEO audits, audience research, and content gap analyses. The agency also offers outstanding content creators who can create the right messaging.
The outsourcing process helps mitigate the problems of an in-house content strategy management team. At the same time, outsourcing offers extra services to boost your marketing efforts.
Is it worth the cost?
Hiring content strategy help does mean a financial commitment. But is it less expensive to keep that assistance in-house? Or to outsource it elsewhere?
To answer the in-house question, let’s take a look at salaries.
According to Glassdoor, a content strategist’s annual salary is approximately $71,380. This appears reasonable enough. But that strategist will likely want to hire staff. It takes more than one person to create, distribute and analyze content.
Here’s the salary for a basic content management staff:
- Senior content writer: $66,175
- Graphic designer: $46,976
- Content analyst: $63,548
The above totals about $248,000 per year, on average. And that’s just for salaries. To attract the right talent, you need more than a base wage. You need to add in benefits.
At the very least, this might include paid time off, health insurance, and a 401(k) matching program. You can also add payroll taxes as an added expense.
The total of staffing an in-house content management team could exceed a quarter of a million dollars a year.
Now let’s examine outsourcing costs.
These vary, depending on how much help you need in this area. Monthly averages can be as low as $6,000 or as high as $50,000 a month, or more. But with that cost comes seasoned professionals with years of experience.
That price tag also includes outstanding content creators. These individuals know how to craft blogs, white papers, newsletters, emails, and other content. Outsourcing also eliminates the administrative hassles of salaried employees.
Finally, outsourcing offers scalability and flexibility. Whether you need more or less content, the agency works to your requirements and budget.
Outsourcing content strategy to experts
Content strategy management is essential to marketing efforts.
It’s also an extra task for you to handle. When choosing between in-house staff or outsourcing, the latter provides many more benefits.
Working with a content marketing strategy services firm helps you develop an effective plan. It also provides you with access to content creation and analytic abilities. This, in turn, ensures you can help your organization achieve its goals.
ClearVoice has the experience and reputation for helping you build an effective content strategy. We also have a deep talent bench to create quality content.
To learn more about how we can help, schedule some time with us.
