Best Content Marketing Agencies

Getting compelling and clean content isn’t just about writing a few blog posts and posting something on social media. Other aspects of content marketing are more technical, but every business can use this approach to attract more customers.

Content marketing is a subset of inbound marketing that focuses on attracting customers through non-invasive means. Instead of bombarding your customers with ads, you allow them to come to you by themselves. Usually, that happens during their research online.

What Is a Content Marketing Agency?

Let’s talk about content marketing agency definition. Content marketing agencies existed to fill that specific need. Business owners wanted to engage in content marketing but needed assistance with overall implementation and direction. Making content can take time, and acquiring the necessary resources to track a content strategy can be expensive.

By working with a content marketing agency, you can outsource that effort and reduce costs. Here are a few of the best content marketing agencies you can find today.

Our Top Picks

	SearchEye SearchEye was founded by Chris Porteous, a finance professional turned entrepreneur. SearchEye focuses on providing quality content that business owners, content marketers, and agencies can use to help grow their companies. By using strict techniques and machine learning, SearchEye can: Provide full transparency Improve turnaround times (TAT) Reduce overall prices Schedule a demo now for more information.
	NP Digital NP Digital is a content marketing agency founded by Neil Patel. Neil created NP Digital to help millions of people who needed help with their content marketing. Individuals who need help with their content marketing and advertising plans can rely on this company. NP Digital can: Build a business that generates revenue, leads, and traffic. Offer a package deal including local, off-page, on-page, and technical SEO. Help reach the growth and income you deserve in your business. For more information, click here.
	Seer Interactive Seer Interactive, which started as a search engine optimization company, was founded by Will Reynolds. Seer has built a massive data warehouse by combining third-party and in-house tools. It helps them identify unexpected, hidden, and new customer trends. If you’re in a competitive industry, this kind of data is what you need to stay ahead. Seer Interactive’s clients include: Crayola LinkedIn Intuit To learn more, click here.
	Distilled uncan Morris and Will Critchlow built Distilled in 2005. Distilled (now part of Brainlabs) has always been focused on technical SEO, focusing on the development aspects of content marketing. While other companies focus on revenue generation, conversion optimization, or big data, Distilled focuses on technical SEO. Distilled has been a leader in the content creation and online marketing industry since 2005. Distilled has also branched out to include digital PR and training programs, but their specialty is still the same. Visit their site for more details.
	Fractl Fractl is a research-heavy, data-driven content marketing company. Fractl focuses on rapid, organic growth driven by search engine optimization, digital PR, data journalism, and content marketing. Fractl is a leader in: Researching industry-related topics Sharing their understanding of the art and science through newsworthy content Publish their research in authoritative conferences, scientific journals, leading market resources, and top publications Fractl is a good choice if you’re in a data-driven industry and looking for a high-growth content marketing company. Click here to start your journey.
	Column Five Column Five focuses on the visual side of content marketing, including exhibition design, interactive motion graphics, data visualization, and storytelling. As a content creation company, they also focus on: Content distribution Content creation Content strategy They use a simultaneous mix of paid and organic distribution channels to draw attention to client content. For more information, click here.
	Single Grain Eric Siu, an entrepreneur and marketing guru, bought Single Grain for $2. Using his growth mentality and marketing expertise, he transformed and nurtured Single Grain into the top digital marketing content agency today. Eric and his team have their attention on optimizing conversions and rapid growth. Some of their clients include: Airbnb Alexa Amazon To learn more, click here.
	The Content Bureau The Content Bureau is a premier B2B content marketing company. TCB’s team comprises mainly women who focus on financial sectors, venture capital, and technology. TCB gives their clients lots of handholding. Their team is transparent and open with each of their clients. They deliver excellent service with their unique content. Many of their clients are long-term, fully established companies who prefer their veteran workforce, exclusive attention, and premium approach. Visit their site for more details.
	Web Profits Web Profits is an advertising and content marketing company founded by Alex Cleanthous and Sujan Patel. Their focus is on SaaS companies of all sizes, showing founders how to improve inbound lead generation. Web Profits has refined its process based on real-life, in-the-trenches experience. Sujan Patel has an intimate understanding of what it takes to build a successful SaaS business. He’s also comfortable on both sides of the company. Web Profits is uniquely qualified to serve SaaS clients. Click here to start your journey.

What Does a Marketing Agency Do?

Marketing agencies, also known as marketing companies or marketing firms, help clients manage and implement strategies to achieve their business goals. Here’s an overview of what a marketing agency can do for your business.

Evaluate marketing results: Marketing companies monitor strategies and use data to improve campaign results.
Implement marketing strategies: Marketing firms execute and manage marketing campaigns for clients.
Identify valuable strategies: Marketing agencies work with clients to find the plans to maximize return on investment and drive the best results.

You already have an idea of what a marketing company does. But what’s the difference between a marketing firm and a marketing agency? Which one should you choose?

Types of Marketing Agencies and What They Do?

Hiring a digital marketing agency can be challenging if you’re not familiar with the industry. Other agencies specialize in one service or industry, while others offer a wide range of services. Bear in mind that your business’s digital marketing objectives and goals, your budget, and how hands-on you want to be in your strategies will affect your decision. Below are seven of the most common kinds of digital marketing agencies:

Digital Marketing Agency

Digital marketing agencies reach their customers through single-channel, multichannel, or omnichannel marketing. With single-channel and multichannel marketing, agencies interact with customers through one or multiple channels such as social media, email marketing, blogs, websites, and more. Omnichannel marketing provides a seamless customer experience across devices and channels throughout their lifecycle. Digital marketing agencies won’t offer traditional content marketing services.

Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency

Full-service digital marketing agencies are larger than other kinds of agencies. Usually, they offer a variety of digital marketing services. Businesses often work with full-service digital marketing agencies because they have the expertise to do specific projects that the company needs to do. It may include a website redesign or lead nurture campaigns. These agencies can also bring added force to the existing marketing teams at a lower price than it’d take to build them out with new employees.

Inbound Marketing Agency

Inbound marketing agencies offer inbound marketing plans, which differ from traditional outbound strategies. Inbound agencies focus on positioning a business online to generate sales, build trust over time, and find customers. Inbound strategies offer significant results, but they require a more extended timeframe before sales and leads rise.

SEO Agency or SEO Services Company

Digital marketing agencies specializing in search engine optimization (SEO) help their client’s websites and content rank higher on search engines. They’ll have a team that specializes in:

Link building
Video description optimization
Metadata assessment (checking the quality of meta descriptions, title tags, URL, and more)
Website and blog content
Backlink and website audits
Keyword research

An SEO company will use many website developers and data analytics tools like SEO Moz, SEM Rush, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics. SEO agencies are early adopters of search engine optimization methods, including complying with Google’s ever-changing search algorithm.

Digital Ad (PPC) Agency or Online Ad Agency/PPC Agency

Paid search or paid advertising is another means of generating traffic to a website. Unlike free organic traffic, paid traffic involves spending money to bid on ads and keywords placement on search results. Digital ads can appear on social media channels, search result pages (SERPs), and websites.

Digital ad agencies know how to create compelling, keyword-filled ads that comply with the best practices of the digital platform where the ad will appear. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook ad creation and deployment, and Google Ads Manager account maintenance and creation are popular services they offer.

Digital marketing agencies that focus on online advertising create compelling, optimized ads that follow the best practices. You can opt to hire an online ad agency alone or in conjunction with other agencies as part of a broader online or digital strategy. While PPC can perform well on its own, it works best when paired with a cheaper, long-term plan that can capitalize on the paid traffic you generate.

Social Media Agency

Businesses depend on social media agencies when they need help with maintaining and establishing a social media presence. Social media agencies can produce and manage content and set up advertisements on different platforms like Instagram and Facebook. They’ll also offer services associated with reacting and responding to customer interactions. Lastly, they can also provide influencer outreach for affiliate marketing or cross-promotions.

Web Design Agency

Web design agencies are full of creative designers who build optimized and customized web pages or websites for businesses. In addition, they’ll deal with the functionality, feel, and look of the pages, whether it’s for a smaller project, a website redesign, or a new website. Web hosting and web development, ecommerce platform development, image creation and storage, user experience, and user interface design and research are the standard services offered by website design agencies.

Digital Marketing Consultant

Digital marketing consultants are professionals who may or may not be associated with a digital marketing company. Digital marketing consultants have a broad knowledge of digital marketing strategies. They can also identify the best way to make the most gains, areas of improvement, and weaknesses in your existing plan. They also have a network of other marketing agencies or professionals they can refer you to for further assistance.

Traditional Marketing Agency

Unlike digital marketing agencies, traditional marketing companies focus on traditional marketing strategies like:

Broadcast marketing on radio or television
Print marketing
Brand management
Public relations
Your business goals, budget, and needs will determine the kind of marketing agency that best fits your SMB.

Benefits of Partnering with Marketing Agencies

If you’re not convinced working with a marketing agency is the best move for your business, here are three benefits you should consider.

Marketing agencies can help you find result-driven strategies.

Not sure which marketing channels and services are best for your business? An established marketing agency will help you create an overarching marketing strategy to drive the most significant results for your business. With a solid plan in place, you can better evaluate the impact of your marketing efforts. You can also identify the channels that contribute most to your goals.

Marketing agencies help you implement and manage campaigns.

If you lack the technical expertise needed to manage and launch plans, marketing agencies can help. Working with a marketing agency gives you access to industry experts who can efficiently manage your campaigns, so you can focus on driving your business. You’ll save time. Your agency can also use its expertise to ensure the long-term success of your SMB.

Marketing agencies can help optimize and monitor campaigns.

Marketing strategies need continual optimization and monitoring to deliver the best results. Marketing agencies will keep a tab on the pulse of your campaigns. Other agencies also offer custom reporting, so you can see where your marketing efforts go. If you’re not happy with the outcome from a specific channel, agencies can help you adjust your channel or campaign spend into the services that contribute most to your goals.

What Makes an Excellent Content Marketing Agency?

Your content marketing’s success depends on different factors. An established content marketing agency will provide you with all of these. They’ll also have no problems showing that they have the expertise needed to make your campaign successful.

A Stable Team of Content Creators

An established content marketing company will have a team of qualified and consistent writers. Stable writers are skilled at storytelling, logical consistency, grammar, and copywriting. These writers can attract your readers by creating content that moves people towards a specific objective or goal you have in mind.

These writers don’t need a lot of supervision. They’re also dependable, and they can match your brand’s voice. Content mills produce poorly written filler content that’s written for search engines. If you work with a content marketing company, you’d want to ask them questions about how they run their business:

How many years of experience does the average writer on your team have?
How do you manage your team of writers?
How many of your writers are full-time? Part-time?
Are they W-2 or freelance writers? Do you use a mix of both?
How many writers do you have on your team?

If you ask them these questions, take note of their answers. Look for red flags or inconsistencies. If you find any red flags, bring them up and ask for a response immediately.

Access to Publishers and Influencer Marketing

According to Derek Halpern, the founder of Social Triggers, you should be spending 20% of your time on content creation and 80% of your time on content promotion. Content marketing companies are no exception. If you’re investing a considerable amount of money and time in creating an exciting piece of content, you should be spending 4x as much time on promotion.

Make sure your target audience sees the content you’ve created. If you’re working with a content marketing company, they should have a list of publishers and influencers in their address book. They should also connect with the right people, so they’re reasonably sure they can drive traffic to your content.

Specialized Knowledge About your Industry

Your content marketing company should have a significant amount of experience in the industry or the ability to connect with professionals who do. You’ll want to ensure that your chosen company can write credibly about the relevant topics to your business. The more technical the content, the more important these factors are for your business.

Finance, engineering, or healthcare industries require large amounts of specialized experience. You shouldn’t expect an unreliable company to write credibly about a technical topic. On the other hand, there are different pros and cons that you’ll have to weigh for your business.

Inexperienced Company Con: If you hire an inexperienced company, they’ll need more time to research and get up to speed. Content production or content creation will also take more time than expected. You’ll also have to revise them more at first.
Inexperienced Company Pro: They’ll offer new ideas that are perfect for beginners. Because they’re learning the industry as they go, their writers will produce content that your audience finds helpful.
Experienced Company Pro: If you hire an experienced company, they’ll provide content more quickly. They’ll also give the readers a deeper level of insight that stems from years of experience.

Specialization requires professionals. The more technical your business, the more critical it is to hire a professional. Mainstream content can do well with generalists.

Content Measurement and Analysis

You’ll have to check the numbers. Your content marketing company should be able to provide you with a detailed report. It would help if you also asked for the data that outlines your performance. In addition, your content marketing agency should provide you with sentiment, metrics, and KPIs surrounding the content.

You should be able to answer the following questions:

Which content marketing strategies are we missing, and where?
What do we have to optimize/change to improve conversion rates?
Where in our channel are we losing customers?
How far are people reading into our content?
Does this piece of content (web page, blog post, infographic, white paper, case study) lead to a conversion?
Does this content move us closer to our campaign goals?

Creating content isn’t enough. Your chosen content marketing company should provide you with the appropriate data needed to create good content for your business.

What To Expect From a Great Content Marketing Company

An established marketing company should be able to provide you with a comprehensive and consistent set of deliverables. These deliverables ensure that your content marketing campaigns stay on track. These will also ensure that you can achieve the consistent results you need.

Your content marketing company should provide you with deliverables throughout the post-launch, launch, and pre-launch phases of your campaign.

Deliverables include:

Monthly debrief to discuss failures and successes
Consistently updated delivery timelines and due dates
Regular meetings to discuss performance
Consistent updates on your campaign performance
Content audits
Analysis and reports including business risks, tactics, strategies, metrics, KPIs, objectives, and goals
Their procedures, policies, and process
Expectations from you
The best way to communicate (text, chat, phone, email, or other channels)
Hours of availability
Your point-of-contact including their contact information and name
Their process (if they’re not working with you and on your projects)
A list of deliverables and a statement of work
The materials and information they need from you to get started
Content samples demonstrating your expertise and knowledge

Here’s a few additional information you should also expect from your content marketing companies:

Accurate information about the different aspects of your campaign, including performance, campaign, and financial data
Clear and prompt feedback
Good boundaries (including the ability to reject something)

A good content marketing company should ask more questions at the beginning. They should provide you with the upfront information needed to vet their company and make an informed decision. Once you’ve decided to hire them, they’ll ask for the materials or information required to deliver the result you want.

Pro tip

Always remember that the content marketing agency you choose will have a great impact on your SEO

The Bottom Line

Traditional marketing and advertising are helpful when it comes to the second two phases. Content marketing taps into the first stage of the buying process by educating customers about a product they may have never considered before and raising awareness of solutions.

The return on investment for content marketing can be huge if appropriately executed.

Content marketing also provides additional content for social media marketing. It also contributes to SEO efforts by building good content on your website that gets found in search engines and generating natural inbound traffic. For many companies, their SEO efforts should focus on content marketing.

FAQs About the Best Content Marketing Agencies

What are specialized marketing agencies?

A specialized marketing agency offers only a specific service to fulfill the particular need of a business. Instead of providing all digital marketing services, a specialized marketing agency puts all its resources into offering only one service. It may include:

Graphic Design
Web Design
Public Relations
Social Media
Email
PPC
SEO

How do content marketing agencies increase brand awareness?

Quality content allows you to show your customers what your brand represents and who your company is. Brand awareness isn’t about your audience knowing your brand’s name but how well they understand the characteristics that make your brand stand out from the rest. Your content has to highlight the features that set your brand apart from your competitors to create that specific distinction.

Does content marketing drive revenue?

Content that provides relevant information, addresses concerns, or clarifies questions is content that customers want to read. Brands that can provide insightful and helpful content are more likely to appeal to people ready to make a purchase. In short, content marketing supports sales goals by:

Creating personalized buyer experiences
Increasing buyer engagement with your brand
Establishing authority and thought leadership
Improving brand recall and awareness
Nurturing leads with relevant information
Bringing relevant buyers to your website

Best Content Marketing Agencies

What Is a Content Marketing Agency?

SearchEye

NP Digital

Seer Interactive

Distilled

Fractl

Column Five

Single Grain

The Content Bureau

Web Profits

Top 9 Content Marketing Agencies

SearchEye: High-Quality Content and Templates

NP Digital: Immediate and Consistent Revenue Growth

Seer Interactive: Big Data Search and Content

Distilled: Technical SEO

Fractl: In-Depth, Research-Heavy Content

Column Five: Data and Content Visualization

Single Grain: Conversion-Driven Content Marketing

The Content Bureau: B2B Content Marketing

Web Profits: SaaS Content Marketing