The best content marketing agencies are the ones that deliver on their promise.
It’s important to consider that the best choice for your business will vary depending on your scope, industry, essential products or services, etc.
No matter how great a content marketing agency is, it won’t be the perfect fit for everybody.
For example: if you run a small B2C business and you hire a content marketing agency focused on B2B, it probably won’t work.
Or if you are in the healthcare industry and hire an agency that mainly works with technology, the results will never be the same.
This is why it’s so essential to consider many standards when looking for the best content marketing agencies out there.
In this article, we will analyze 5 elements of each agency:
- Niche: Usually, agencies will have a niche they focus on. This doesn’t mean that they will automatically reject you if you are outside their target, but surely your work together will be a little bit harder.
If you choose an agency that goes according to your niche, they will already have the basic knowledge and familiarity with the topics you require. Their network and experience will be even more valuable to you.
- Services offered and/or scope: not every content marketing agency is the same. Some focus on social media, website articles, SEO optimization, or video production. Some do all of them.
You can hire a content agency with the goal of starting and creating a strategy that you can then execute on your own. On the other hand, perhaps you want your ideal content marketing agency to handle your content forever.
Depending on your existing abilities, goals, and budget, you will decide which modality is the best for you.
- Understanding of the market: regardless of the niche, it’s clear that some agencies have been in the market for longer than others or have worked with certain clients that give you an idea of what their work looks like.
You need to hire an agency that understands your market and industry, knows how to handle conflict, and can keep updated on trends.
- Cost: your budget will have a significant impact on which content marketing agency you choose.
Remember that even though most agencies will give you a monthly fee, it will take several months to start seeing the results. Don’t trust agencies that promise overnight results: those do not exist.
If you want to reduce costs, you can hire an agency to help you with the strategy and then execute it yourself. You could also focus on one area of content you haven’t mastered (video production, for example) and hire that.
- Clients & reviews: most of the agencies on this list have worked with companies that you will easily recognize. It’s essential to dig a little bit into their experiences and case studies to know if they will deliver the results you’re expecting.
They will highlight what these agencies are truly good at and if it would be a good idea to investigate them further.
This article could also give you ideas on what elements to consider when researching by yourself the best content marketing agency for your business.
Contents
Reasons You Should Hire One of the Best Content Marketing Agencies
When you are starting, chances are that you will be doing all the content marketing. And that’s okay.
Hiring a content marketing agency is not always the right way to go.
Maybe you don’t have the monetary funds, or you rather keep the content production within your employees.
Those are valid reasons.
However, if one or several of the following statements resonates with you and your business, you should consider hiring a content marketing agency.
- Your revenue is stuck: maybe you have reached a specific and stable goal but can’t go past it.
- Your revenue is unsteady: sometimes you earn a lot and close many deals, and then you go on long periods in which you aren’t making any progress.
- Your content is not directly influencing your customer funnel: sometimes, this data can be challenging to track, but your content (long-form videos and articles, mainly) should be helping you close deals.
- Content production is taking a lot of time: sometimes, you can get so focused on making new content that you or your team abandon other essential business activities.
A good content marketing agency will help you leverage that content, create a strategy, and make every piece worth your time and money.
Siege Media
Siege Media is an SEO-focused content marketing agency that delivers products made to drive traffic to your website and build your authority in your niche.
Niche
Siege Media focuses on B2C areas and e-commerce. Nonetheless, they also work within these industries with large companies with wide audiences and targets, as you will see further.
Services Offered & Scope
Siege Media offers SEO, content marketing, and link-building services. However, their focus is on graphic design
Understanding of the Market
Siege Media has been featured in the Inc. 5000 and has been a 100% remote company for a while now. This shows they can adapt to the market needs and have been in constant growth.
With around 100 employees, mainly in the US, they have conducted several successful campaigns for big companies, all recognized globally.
Cost
As you will see in all of the following agencies on this list, specific fees for content marketing can be tricky to find.
This is because it will depend on the particular services clients need, their industries, and the involved departments.
Siege’s “minimum initial suggested engagement for SEO” is around $100,000. However, they will adjust it according to the industry and how much money is required to start seeing results.
Clients & Reviews
They mainly work with B2C companies, such as Airbnb, Trip Advisor, Asana, Audible by Amazon, and many more.
For Airbnb, Siege conducted a three-month link-building campaign that generated more than 110 links to their page.
For Audible, they wrote over 50 articles for their website. 30 of them ranked #1 and 48 on the first Google page.
This shows that they know how to blend into their client’s workflow and still deliver great results.
NP Digital
NP Digital is an SEO and digital content marketing agency that offers holistic and integral solutions to marketing issues.
Their main office is located in Las Vegas, US, but you can find them across the globe in Canada, Brazil, India, the UK, Germany, Singapore, and Australia.
It was founded in 2017 by the best-selling author and marketer Neil Patel. Besides the primary agency, they also have an SMB division, a blog, and software for SEO.
Niche
NP Digital is “made by marketers, for marketers.” They have worked with several companies in different industries.
This team focuses on ever-changing digital channels. Because of their workflow and reputation, they mainly work with big companies with substantial annual revenue, as we will later further explain.
Services Offered & Scope
They are an “end-to-end performance marketing agency”, which means that, if needed, they can take care of many things.
NP Digital’s services go from strategy, planning, and mapping your customer journey, to paid media, influencer, and affiliate marketing.
They divide their products and services into four categories:
- Digital IQ: this covers all the strategic and analytics aspects. Besides offering strategy and planning, they also cover data analytics and insights, persona and dashboard development, and conversion rate optimization.
- Earned media: this is where we want to focus for the sake of this article. It is all about the Internet share you can win thanks to SEO, link building, and, you guessed it, content marketing.
- Paid media: thanks to their connections, PR, and networking, with NP Digital you can access paid search, paid social, marketplaces, and much more.
- Tools & Tech: finally, they also offer solutions via their tools and software, such as UberSuggest, their ROI calculator, and their ads grader.
Understanding of the Market
As we mentioned before, NP Digital started in 2017, and they have gained a lot of experience since then, thanks to their amazing clients.
During these years, they have collected over 30 awards and mentions and worked with over 950 clients.
However, it goes beyond that. Their founder, Neil Patel, launched his first website when he was 16 years old. Years later, he helped his first client generate more than 25 million dollars in revenue.
Cost
NP Digital has always worked with personalized pricing for its clients, so it’s very difficult to offer you a range.
Nonetheless, its main division works with large companies with at least $100 million in annual revenue, and they also manage contracts of 1-year minimum.
SEO and content marketing projects require time to plan and execute, and the results also take their own time to show up. None of the best content marketing agencies will promise you results immediately.
Clients & Reviews
NP Digital has made a name for itself, and one of its most impressive factors is its clients. They have worked for B2B and B2C companies such as LinkedIn, HP, DirecTV, ESPN, CNN, Adobe, and many more.
Column Five
Column Five is a content marketing agency focused on creativity, storytelling, and visual content.
Through stories, they help their clients reach their ideal targets, build reliable relationships and become an agent of change.
Niche
Column Five specializes in growth-stage SaaS companies and B2B in general. They are distinguished by their creativity and passion for storytelling and change, so their clients will also match these values.
Services Offered & Scope
Column Five offers a wide variety of services divided into four categories:
- Brand strategy: to help you plan your strategy and understand who you are and what your message will be. They offer an alignment service, brand guidelines, visual identity, brand messaging, and employer brand.
- Content strategy: to create a content plan that guides potential customers to engage with your brand, message, and, ultimately, your services. This includes research, a customer journey map, campaign planning, keyword strategy, and much more.
- Content creation: to create consistent and on-brand valuable content. This can include annual reports, copywriting, video, social media content, web design, motion graphics, interactive content, and more. This is the part where Column Five shines.
- Distribution strategy: to showcase your content and deliver them to your audience. This involves audience targeting, campaign management, media planning, paid social, and more.
As you can see, they can cover every aspect of the content marketing funnel or just parts of it. It all depends on your needs and resources.
Understanding of the Market
Column Five has been around for 14 years. It has been a period of great changes in the digital world, and they know how to adapt and still work with big and important companies.
They understood that the key to connecting with users is storytelling and human interaction, and then they mastered it.
Its founders also have a fascinating origin story, that shows how sometimes coincidence leads to destiny.
Cost
The minimum investment you will need to work with Column Five is $10,000. They make customized prices depending on the company and the project.
According to Clutch’s reviews, Column Five’s projects can go up to $1 million or more for big companies like Microsoft.
Clients & Reviews
Despite their niche, Column Five has worked with companies in different industries, such as education, technology, consulting, finance, health, non-profit, real estate, and venture capital.
Among their most recognized clients, you will find Netflix, Spotify, Adobe, Amazon, Harvard University, 23andMe, Girls Who Code, Uber, and much more.
For Netflix, they were in charge of making the 2020 Year-In-Review campaign. Its goal was to show how Netflix had been a companion for millions of people worldwide and the US during the pandemic.
Column Five created a story of resilience and how “in a turbulent time, their content helped us bond, learn, grow, and shape culture”.
Considered Content
Considered Content is a UK-based agency that offers branding, demand generation, ABM, website strategy, and content services for B2B companies.
Content marketing for B2B is just as important as B2C. A good content marketing strategy will allow you to stand out and position yourself as the best option for your relationships and deals.
Niche
Considered Content focuses on B2B companies, particularly in the industries of technology, professional services, and manufacturing.
They have also partnered with firms related to accounting, legal, and specialist consultancy.
Services Offered & Scope
As an agency, Considered Content offers more than just content. You can find branding services, demand generation, ABM (Account Based Marketing), website strategy, and technical writing.
If you’re looking for B2B content, this is what they do:
- Ebooks.
- Video marketing.
- Websites, content hubs, and microsites.
- White papers and reports.
- Brochures.
- Infographics.
And besides that, they help you structure your content and build a workflow that works for you and your team in the long run.
Understanding of the Market
During their years of experience, Considered Content has “created content and communications for 22 out of the world’s top 50 technology companies”.
They have been around for more than 20 years and have led several national and international projects in the meantime.
Their team is also made of B2B professionals who have had their own experience in and outside the firm. Considered Content has overcome many challenges and knows how to handle conflict, organize different specialists, and deliver great results.
Cost
Considered Content makes customized prices depending on each company and project’s specifics. However, the minimum investment is $10,000, usually more.
Clients & Reviews
Despite being in the UK, they have partnered with clients in other parts of Europe and North America, too. Among their clients, you will find Sony, Munich RE, Acquia, Orgvue, and more.
For example, they helped Sony position its media solutions in the market. They achieved this by identifying a distinct position and creating an index to help customers determine their needs.
Brafton
Brafton is a content-focused marketing agency. Unlike other agencies, Brafton only focuses on producing the best content for its clients and helping them generate ROI with it.
They have offices in the UK, the US, Germany, and Australia.
Niche
You could say that their niche is more defined by their services and philosophy than by their clients.
Brafton has worked with different companies and businesses that vary in industry, size, location, etc.
In their own words:
“From Fortune 500 to family shops; Sydney to San Francisco; Bavaria to Boston, we partner with enterprises, SMBs, startups, scale-ups, and nonprofits all over the world. “
What they do is content. That’s what matters the most.
Services Offered & Scope
They divide their services offered into two big groups: content and strategy.
Among content, you will find:
- Content writing: they know how important it is for customers to engage with stories before purchasing something. This includes article writing, copywriting, business copy, and more.
- Video marketing: video is crucial for business nowadays. 93% of brands find customers thanks to videos on social media. This includes animation, corporate videos, commercials, production services, and more.
- Graphic design: great graphic design helps you capture your brand and make you recognizable. This includes infographics, web design, UX design, etc.
- Lead magnet creation: finally, Brafton can create a lead magnet for you by putting different specialists to work together. This includes white papers, ebooks, and more.
In their strategy category, you will find:
- SEO: including organic, local, on-page, video, consulting, and more on SEO.
- Social media: for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube…
- Email marketing: which includes email consulting, newsletter management, etc.
- Paid: including PPC consulting, agency, management, SEM consulting and services, and more.
- Inbound consulting: including marketing consulting, persona development, web analytics, conversion rate optimization, etc.
Understanding of the Market
Brafton was founded in 2008, and since then, they have mastered almost every content creation area you can think of.
They differentiate from the competition because they combine creativity and science. All the content they make is data-driven, easy to find online, and has the purpose of helping you make money.
At Brafton, they don’t outsource their work. This means that they know how well-prepared the team is to deliver results.
Cost
Since they work with small, medium, and large companies, their prices can vary a lot. The minimum usually is $5,000 per project, but the average is above $10,000.
Clients & Reviews
Brafton has partnered with companies in the following companies: software, information technology, finance, banking & legal, health & science, education, and many more.
Among their clients, you will find Standford University, Rubbermaid, Preply, Dynaway, AppDirect, Juniper Networks, and more.
As a fun fact, they helped Standford University generate $12,000 worth of traffic in one single blog post.
Elements to Keep in Mind
When choosing the best content marketing agency to work with, there are several aspects to consider.
On the agency’s side, you should consider their:
- Approach.
- Niche.
- Costs.
- Experience.
- Workflow (do they outsource or not? For example).
And on your side as a client, think about your:
- Goals.
- Budget.
- Previous knowledge.
- How much help do you need?
These will help you make the best decision to grow your business and cherish the process.
You can check out our content marketing services to learn more about our approach and mindset.
