If you’re considering hiring a content marketing consulting firm you’ve no doubt discovered that there are a lot of companies offering a wide range of content marketing services. How do you ever choose? For my money, I have to say that trust is an important issue here. A great deal of time and energy has likely gone into building your company to where it is today and the last thing you need is to put your reputation in the hands of some social media yahoos who might just run it into the ground. And, too, content marketing might be new to you. You’re going to want to feel your way along for a while.

My company, Crossman Communications, has been playing with marketing, social media and content for many years and although this is old news to us, we generally find that many of the projects we recommend for our clients are new to them. In fact, we take great care to not only provide a service to our clients but to educate them about how content marketing works so that they can be partners in the process of tailoring their program to their product or service, their company culture, and, most importantly, their customer base.

What to Consider When Selecting a Content Marketing Consultant

Our clients tend to be people who are used to taking action and feeling the certainty that comes from having built a successful company; jumping into content marketing can be a very uncomfortable feeling for a lot of people and we take great pains to share our expertise as we work so that the unfamiliar becomes more “normal.” There needs to be substantial collaboration and accountability in a content marketing program: regular meetings are key, as is a commitment to and a mechanism for communicating between meetings. The relationship is important to us. Other outsourcing companies may work differently, and it’s important that you feel you have a good fit with the people you are asking to help you sort through all this. Ask questions about how they see the relationship working.

When we onboard a new client, our team asks for a lot of information so that we can understand the matrix within which the firm operates. And many decisions need to be made right from the start on a large number of different issues. Given that we are not insiders, there is something of a learning curve involved for our team as we learn the nuances of how our clients operate. Masses of information, much of which is second nature to our clients, need to be gathered, analyzed and acted upon. And, while we are reasonably quick learners, that does take some time.

We also tend to ask our clients to give some thought to what they need from us in order to feel confident that this program is being done “with,” rather than “to” the company. We are here to support our clients and how they feel we can best do that is important to us. And, while we provide as much analytical data as we can gather, there are other criteria that go into creating success. What are they for your company?

Finally, the program that we lay out for a customer is usually open to discussion. If there are elements that they feel will not serve them, we can make adjustments, although deleting any elements will usually dilute the results they are able to generate. By the same token, if there is something they wish to see included that is not presented in one of our proposals.

If you’re considering launching into the fascinating world of content marketing, why not contact me at susan@crossmancommunications.com to find out more about what that would look like for your company? Content marketing is a wonderful topic of conversation and I’d be pleased to share my insights with you!

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