A content package is a great solution for any business wanting to grow their business through content marketing.
And if you’re not already doing this, then what are you waiting for?
Creating content is the most effective way of building trust with your audience, and ultimately generating sales.
When people take to Google, they are usually asking a question. If you can answer this question through high quality, meaningful content, then boom, you’ve successfully positioned yourself as a content expert.
They don’t need to continue scrolling or clicking onto your competitors. Their question has been answered, you’ve saved the day.
As such, when they need something in the future, they’ll come to you. After all, why would they go elsewhere? If you can serve user demand then they’re yours.
However, creating content for content’s sake is not enough.
No one is going to read your article, or indeed trust you, if it’s a load of waffle. This leads me nicely onto the next section – investing in a content package.
Why Should I Invest in Content Packages?
As we’ve touched on above, simply creating content isn’t going to do the job.
It needs to be quality content that understands exactly what your user is searching for.
Now you might be wondering ‘well how do I know that?’ Through in-depth keyword research of course! If you’re thinking that sounds easy enough, this isn’t a two minute exercise. It’s a deep exploration into your field to find relevant keywords which you can seed naturally into your content pieces.
If you haven’t got the expertise in house, or indeed the time to do this, then investing in a content marketing package is the answer. Agencies usually include keyword research as part of their content offering so you can relax knowing this part of your strategy is covered.
Or you can stumble your way through, and pluck keywords out of thin air?
Aside from saving you time figuring out keyword research, there are lots of benefits of investing in a content package.
Let’s take a look.
Access to Content Marketing Experts
An agency will have a team of content marketing experts who will be dedicated to researching, planning, and executing your content marketing strategy. Day in, day out, they will breathe content marketing and understand exactly what is needed for your business.
Creating content isn’t something they’ll just ‘do’. Sure anyone can throw 500 words together, but is this approach going to attract quality leads?
It’s not enough to just create content without putting any thought into it. You might think that you know your audience pretty well and you just ‘know’ what type of content they’re searching for. Unfortunately whilst no one knows your business as well as you do, this usually isn’t the case.
By carrying out some keyword research you might be surprised about what your audience actually wants from your business. As a result, your content strategy should work on the basis that you create content that your audience needs rather than assuming you know what they need.
An agency will handle all of this for you and will get inside your business, and your ideal consumer. They’ll also carry out competitor analysis to identify any missed opportunities that you could, and should, be taking advantage of. They’ll then craft high quality content that grabs the attention of your audience whether this is in the form of a blog post, video, or infographic.
Have you got the time to dedicate to this?
Keeps You on Track
Of course when deciding whether or not to invest in a content package you might be tempted by the option of a freelancer. In this scenario, you could end up with a different person writing a different piece of content each time.
Finding a freelancer isn’t a difficult task. Simply look on Fiverr and you’ll be spoiled with choice. However, the quality of the content produced is very questionable.
In lots of cases, a freelancer is hired to write one piece of content and that’s it.
As such, when you inevitably need another piece of content creation, you will have to find a different freelancer. This creates inconsistencies across your blog, as each person will have a different style of writing. Plus the chances are, if they’re only creating one piece of content for you then they won’t have enough time to get to grips with your brand, including your tone of voice.
They also won’t have the time to get inside your business and delve deep into what you do.
The result?
A piece of content that has been thrown together, probably with little or no keyword research to justify it. This will look unprofessional, and will not instill that crucial sense of trust and credibility that you’re striving for.
Also from a management point of view, this can get very confusing. Which freelancer is writing which piece of content? How much will you pay for each piece of content? Is the freelancer going to provide analytics?
It can be very difficult to track as you’re essentially relying on numerous people instead of investing in a content package where all of your deliverables are laid out for you.
Flexible to Your Requirements
A content package might sound quite restrictive as in you’re getting a ‘package deal’.
However this certainly isn’t the case as you can pick and choose which services are relevant for your business. Maybe you require blog posts, social media promotion, mark up, imagery, and video. Or, maybe you’re not that interested in video (which you should be!) and want to concentrate on your blog content and social media instead.
That’s absolutely fine, as not every business has the same needs. If you did, you would all be a carbon copy of one another and no one wants that!
Includes Analytics and Performance Tracking
As we’ve mentioned, you can pay a freelancer or independent contractor to create your content for you, either on a single content basis or to complete an ongoing project.
However, what services do freelancers offer?
Many freelancers only create content, and that’s your lot. They expect the keyword research to already be done, and they don’t spend time adding links or images either. Also when it comes to tracking the performance of content, this is left to you.
They write the content, publish it live, and then it’s left – maybe it’s generating lots of organic traffic or maybe it’s just collecting dust. Either way, without analytics and performance tracking, you would never know.
Having access to this data is important for crafting future campaigns. You can’t be strategic in your content marketing efforts if you don’t know what your audience are engaging with.
By hiring a professional agency, analytics and performance tracking will be included in a content package.
At Canny, we understand that your content should never just be left. We put a lot of time and energy into creating great pieces of content so we want to be sure that they’re doing the right thing. This all comes back down to your business objectives and what you’re trying to achieve with your content. However, regardless of your goals, we help you get there and we have the stats to prove it!
There’s no fluff here.
Saves You Time
If you’re not used to writing 3,000 word content rich, meaningful blog posts, then this can be a VERY time consuming task. You sit down at your desk, fully intended to blast out a blog, and you’re interrupted by several different people asking you to check this and confirm that.
Before you know it it’s lunch time and the status of that all-important post? Well so far, it has a title.
Now you’re going to have to push it back until tomorrow because your afternoon is chock a-block with meetings. Tomorrow rolls into next week, and by the time you’ve finished one blog, you’ve lost precious weeks of valuable content. In order to be successful with your content, you need to be posting on a regular basis.
Google loves fresh content, so publishing a blog every week is a great place to start. The more content they publish the more chance you have of being ‘seen’ by Google and the more likely you are to rank higher. Essentially every time you publish a piece of content, you’re waving to google and saying ‘Hey, this is new. Check it out.’
However, if it’s taking you 3 weeks to complete one blog post, this is never going to happen. Google is going to skip right past you.
Enter: a content package.
This way you will never need to worry about content creation again. If the thought of writing a 3000 word blog post (not to mention keyword research and competitor analysis) fills you with dread, then invest in a content package.
At Canny our team of content marketers are the experts at curating high quality content. It’s what we do, every single day, so you can be confident your content is in the best possible hands.
Still unsure? Take a look at our previous clients.
Saves You Money
If you’re still sceptical about a content package then you have two other options.
Either:
- Pay a freelancer
- Hire someone in-house
We’ve already shared our thoughts on option 1, so now let’s consider the idea of hiring someone in house to create all of your content for you.
Whilst this might sound appealing because you can control everything directly, think about how expensive it will be. First and foremost you will need to pay their annual salary, which is anything from £18K upwards for a Junior level.
You then have the chore of finding the right candidate and the right level of expertise.
If you’re paying them £18K then do they possess all of the skills you need to build and execute a winning content strategy?
If the answer is no then you will still need to hire a senior content writer (or content strategist, marketing roles can get confusing!) to manage the top level planning.
Now it’s starting to get expensive.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to outsource this and save yourself the time, and indeed, money?
The hiring process isn’t a pleasant experience either. If you’ve got time to sift through countless CV’s and to conduct interviews, then go ahead.
Single Source for All Content
Arguably the most obvious benefit of a content package is having a single source for all content. Instead of relying on one company to manage your social media, another to manage your video, and then a freelancer to write your content, a content package has it all.
This supports our earlier point about content packages being easier to track.
It becomes a management headache when liaising with various external agencies and trying to work out who’s doing what. From paperwork to finances this is additional stress. However, by investing in a content package you know exactly what you’re getting, and from who.
Most content packages include a range of services designed to boost traffic to your website through a variety of means. Whether this is paid advertising or organic content, it’s much easier to have one single content hub.
Also, there’s bound to be changes and edits when working with a creative agency. This is totally natural and all part of the collaborative process. However, imagine trying to give feedback to three different groups of people? This would cost you precious time which is something a lot of marketing departments can’t afford.
At Canny, we provide you with a dedicated point of contact to guide you through each stage of your content project. We know how frustrating it is ringing up and speaking to several different people. There’s nothing worse than having to repeat the same information over and over again. That’s why you know exactly who you’re working with from the get-go, saving you time and frustration later down the road.
What do Content Packages Include?
Content packages have so many benefits, which is why they’ve made it into our ‘Content packages don’t suck! Here’s why’ post.
But, what do these brilliant packages offer?
Not every business needs the same services and that’s absolutely fine. Again, it all comes back to your objectives and what you’re trying to achieve through content marketing.
If your business operates in the IT and SaaS market, then you might decide to create some infographics to help your audience understand complex information. If you work in recruitment and training, then video content might be a great way to introduce new employees to your company.
The choice is all yours.
That said, let’s take a look at some of the services within a content package.
Blog posts
Blog posts are the best way of attracting organic traffic to your website.
By exploring a topic in depth, you’re telling your audience everything they need to know. This acts as an educational resource by answering any questions they might have. Your blog post should leave no stone unturned, so that after reading your post, your audience does not need to go elsewhere.
They should not have to click onto one of your competitors, as you have answered their query in full. As a result, you are the expert they will turn to in the future. You have given them absolute confidence in your products or services as you have helped them solve a problem. You have saved them time sifting through the internet to find what they need.
Now you might be asking, well how does this generate sales?
In your blog post you can softly ‘sell’ your products and services, but take note, this is a soft sell. The whole point of a blog is to educate and inform, so you do not want to hit your audience with a direct advert. This will make them switch off and look on another site as no one likes being sold to.
As such, only link to your product or service when it is relevant. For example, if you’re a vegan dog food brand, only link back to your own products when explaining the benefits of a particular ingredient which you include. This isn’t a hard sell and doesn’t overload the reader with reasons to buy from you. You’re simply saying if you’re interested in vegan dog food, then we are here.
A blog post should also be well written and include meaningful information. This adds credibility and authority to your brand and positions you as a thought leader. At Canny, we love blog writing – check out our other blog posts to find out more. We understand the value of this medium and we are always seeking to help our audience.
Keyword research
Writing a blog post is all well and good, but is it going to rank?
By this we mean, is it going to appear in the search engine results pages (SERPS) on Google?
If not, then your audience is not going to click onto it as they’re not going to see it. Ideally you need to be on the first page of Google (search result position 1-10) as people rarely scroll past this.
If your content is ranking low and sits on page 5 or 6, then you need to consider the likelihood of your audience clicking through to your website.
This is why keyword research is pivotal.
This process involves finding specific keywords that your audience is searching for. For example, using the example of a vegan dog food brand, your audience might be looking for ‘best vegan dog food’, ‘benefits of vegan dog food’, or ‘dog friendly beaches’. Therefore, you need to be including these keywords in your blog post so that Google knows to show your post in its search results.
However, there are lots of best practices around keyword research as you can’t just find a keyword and ‘stuff’ it everywhere in your post. It needs to be seeded in naturally otherwise your blog post won’t read well and people will click off it. It’s super spammy and obvious when a brand puts the keyword everywhere in their content.
As a result, keyword research is a careful process and the most important thing is creating high quality content that your audience will read.
Does this sound like a complex process?
It is! That’s why you should invest in a content package as this is all done for you. A creative agency will have a team of content marketing experts who will analyse, find, and include relevant keywords throughout your content – without compromising on the quality.
Analytics and Reporting
There’s no point creating lots of content if you don’t know how it’s performing.
Make way for analytics and reporting.
By having access to different pieces of data you can work out what’s working and what’s not. For example, with Google Analytics you can see which posts have been clicked onto as well as how long people are staying on a particular page.
This lets you work out your top-performing content so you can tailor your future strategy to suit. For example, if you’re writing about a topic which has a low-click through rate, this suggests your audience is not interested enough as it’s not enticing them to the page. Similarly if a post has a high bounce rate, then clearly people are finding your content, but it’s not answering their query.
These are just some of the metrics available in Google Analytics. Aside from this you can also take a look at page views, goal conversion rates, average pages per session, returning visitors, and many, many more.
However, it’s no good having access to all of these metrics if you don’t understand how to use them.
When you invest in a content package, analytics and reporting is often included. You also have access to content marketing specialists who will be able to explain these key metrics to you and help you understand how to build on them moving forward.
This saves you time pulling all of this information together yourself and the headache of trying to decipher what a bunch of different numbers mean!
Social media
Social media is a fantastic tool when it comes to promoting your business.
Whenever you create a new piece of content you should be distributing it on your social media channels to maximise exposure and reach an even bigger audience.
This also increases engagement as people can share, like, and comment on your posts which creates a two-way conversation between your brand and your consumer.
However, simply posting a tweet every now and then, or a quick update on LinkedIn every so often isn’t the best approach to increase your online presence. You need to be consistent, and most importantly, develop a social media strategy.
This depends on the goals of your business and also your audience. For instance, if your audience is over the age of 60, you might decide TikTok isn’t the best channel to take advantage of. However, if your audience is ages between 20 and 40, then this would definitely be a platform you should be prioritising.
Instead of trying to work all of this out yourself, a content package often includes social media as part of the offering. This saves you the hassle of planning, drafting, and scheduling posts on a weekly basis. This can be a full-time job in itself and requires time and dedication to get right.
As we’ve touched on, anyone can make a post every now and then but to be successful, you need to have a sense of direction and understand what you’re trying to achieve.
Videos
Video content is everywhere.
Consumers have a short attention span which makes it even harder for brands to sell their products and services. People don’t have time to sift through large chunks of text and want information which is easily accessible and easily digestible.
This is what makes video marketing so effective, and is why so many businesses are prioritising this in their content strategy.
Similar to social media, it can be tempting for anyone to think they can ‘do’ video. We all have a mobile phone these days and the cameras are pretty good. This leads many entrepreneurs to assume they can manage video marketing on their own, but to be successful, it needs to be carefully planned and executed in the right way.
There is also so much to consider to ensure the final product is professional. We’ve all seen low-quality videos, and let’s be honest, this isn’t going to send out the right message to your audience. For starters you need to know how to write your script, choose your video format, distribute your video, and more.
Otherwise you might have just spent a lot of time creating something that no one will watch!
When choosing a content package, you can decide whether or not you want to focus on creating more video. And even better, you’ll be able to relax knowing your video is being managed by a professional.
At Canny, we have a dedicated videographer who will manage your project from start to finish. We don’t just ‘do’ video, we love video and understand the potential of this medium. If you want to find out more, check out our video services.
Infographics
To reiterate my earlier point, people have a short attention span.
As such, businesses need to use a variety of content formats to engage their audience – and quickly. This is particularly important for those businesses that are trying to communicate technical information as a text-heavy document is going to make the reader switch off.
However, infographics are a fantastic way of communicating lots of information through a visual means. By using interesting graphics and icons, as well as a range of brand colours, you can effectively explore a topic in great depth without overwhelming your audience.
In addition, infographics can also be easily via social media and Pinterest boards which maximises your reach even further.
At Canny, we have created infographics for a range of clients and use infographics frequently in our own posts. Take the below infographic for example which effectively compares and contrasts indirect marketing vs directing marketing in a clear and concise way.
Infographics are also included in our content packages which allows you to diversify your content offering further. Instead of only relying on blog posts, or video, you can use these visual assets across your website to attract the attention of your audience.
Key Considerations Before Investing In a Content Package
Before investing in a content package there are several things you need to take into account as this can affect the overall price.
Furthermore, it’s good to have an idea of what you want from your content marketing before starting your search. Let’s take a look at some key considerations.
How Much Content Do You Want to Create?
The great thing about a content package is that you can pick the list of services that you need. Don’t be deterred by the word ‘package’ as you can still select the services that suit your business best.
Perhaps you only want to publish once a week, but you want to concentrate more on social media marketing to be more active across various channels. Or maybe you want to make more of a splash on your website and post a blog twice a week, alongside an accompanying video.
The amount of content you want to create, and the frequency of publishing is totally your choice. However, this will increase the price of a content package as you’re requiring more content creation.
By engaging a creative agency you can choose which of their packages you want to invest in based on your business objectives. Furthermore, by partnering with an agency, they are the experts in content marketing and will be able to advise on how much content you need to create and which channels will be most suitable.
What Type of Content Do You Want to Create?
Again, this all comes down to your business and what types of content will work best for your audience. If you’re unsure who your audience is then it’s time you created your ideal customer persona.
From here you can identify their job role, income, location, interests, hobbies, age, gender, and most importantly, what type of content they will engage with best.
Going back to our earlier example of using TikTok, this would be best suited for an audience who was defined as young and tech savvy. By understanding who you’re trying to target through your content, you can identify which types of content you want to create.
This strategic approach will ensure everything you produce is pitched at the right level so that customers will ultimately invest in your offering. Different content packages will include different services, allowing you to choose which one best suits your needs. It’s not a ‘one size fits-all’ as you can tailor the package to suit your own requirements.
Also, by partnering with a creative agency such as Canny, we can sit with you to develop a game plan for the amount and type of content you need to create in order to be successful. We dig deep into your business and find out exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Our team of experts then take a strategic approach and work out how to get you there through content marketing.
Do you feel confident enough to undergo this on your own?
What Services Are You Interested In?
A great thing about partnering with a creative agency and investing in a content package is the choice of other services. Usually an agency will offer more than just content so they will be able to help with other areas of your brand too.
At Canny, we specialise in content, website development, and branding, so if you’re ready to grow your business, we’re here to help. We have a team of experts with a wealth of experience in their respective fields so we know what it takes to smash your business goals and targets.
Therefore, by investing in a content package you also have access to additional services without needing to shop around first. It can be a headache trying to find an agency that you trust with your business, so having a central hub for all of these services is a huge benefit.
Content Packages Don’t Suck, Here’s Why!
Content packages are an ideal solution for any business wanting to grow their traffic through content marketing. This strategic approach relies on the creation of high quality, valuable resources which build your online presence and help you attract more customers.
However, the problem with many businesses is that they simply don’t have enough time to dedicate towards this. As a result, content marketing is started and then left before producing any meaningful results.
Make way for a content package.
By partnering with a creative agency and investing in a content package you can be confident your business is in safe hands. From content strategy, to content creation, to reporting and monitoring, you can be sure all bases are covered.
At Canny we offer a range of content packages to suit a range of needs and budgets. We’re passionate about helping clients grow their business through content (after all, that’s how we grew Canny) so we know what it takes to make an impact. Could your business benefit from our team of content experts? If so, you know what to do… get in touch!
