In House v Outsourced Content Marketing Services
Given all the hype about content marketing is it best to manage the content marketing process in house or are outsourced marketing services a better option? This article compares the two approaches.
Content marketing is a key element of inbound marketing. More and more businesses are turning to inbound marketing as businesses and consumers become more resistant to traditional outbound marketing such as telemarketing, direct mail, advertising and spam Email.
Best practice content marketing is based on delivery of useful and engaging information to prospects at various points in the sales process until they are ready to buy. The emphasis is not on delivering sales messages but on delivering information of benefit to prospects that boosts the business credibility.
The key to the process is to deliver content to the point it is most likely to be read and engaged with by prospects. Careful identification of the target customer is important as is the research into which delivery channel has the best chance of reaching those prospects. Delivering content via the wrong channel can waste a considerable amount of time and effort.
It takes time and considerable effort to produce new content. To make best use of that resource content should be re-used (re-spun) to be delivered via a different medium or deliver channel. Wherever possible the content creation task should be spread across as many individuals as possible and existing information in the business should be re-created or amended to be used as valuable content.
The key advantages of internal content marketing are an in house team will have an intimate understanding of customers and markets and what information will be of use to customers and prospects. An in house team will have the knowledge required to produce industry specific content and understand what existing information exists that could be converted to useful content.
An outsourced team is more likely to have the process management expertise, the skills required to research the most appropriate delivery channels and a more detailed understanding of the range of marketing tools and services required to deliver a successful content marketing process.
Often the best approach can be to combine the best of the internal and external content marketing services approach. Combining the detailed customer and market expertise of the in house team with the detailed understanding of the process, the management skills and the marketing tools and services expertise of the external content marketing team can deliver the best results.
Content marketing is a key element of inbound marketing. More and more businesses are turning to inbound marketing as businesses and consumers become more resistant to traditional outbound marketing such as telemarketing, direct mail, advertising and spam Email.
Best practice content marketing is based on delivery of useful and engaging information to prospects at various points in the sales process until they are ready to buy. The emphasis is not on delivering sales messages but on delivering information of benefit to prospects that boosts the business credibility.
The key to the process is to deliver content to the point it is most likely to be read and engaged with by prospects. Careful identification of the target customer is important as is the research into which delivery channel has the best chance of reaching those prospects. Delivering content via the wrong channel can waste a considerable amount of time and effort.
It takes time and considerable effort to produce new content. To make best use of that resource content should be re-used (re-spun) to be delivered via a different medium or deliver channel. Wherever possible the content creation task should be spread across as many individuals as possible and existing information in the business should be re-created or amended to be used as valuable content.
The key advantages of internal content marketing are an in house team will have an intimate understanding of customers and markets and what information will be of use to customers and prospects. An in house team will have the knowledge required to produce industry specific content and understand what existing information exists that could be converted to useful content.
An outsourced team is more likely to have the process management expertise, the skills required to research the most appropriate delivery channels and a more detailed understanding of the range of marketing tools and services required to deliver a successful content marketing process.
Often the best approach can be to combine the best of the internal and external content marketing services approach. Combining the detailed customer and market expertise of the in house team with the detailed understanding of the process, the management skills and the marketing tools and services expertise of the external content marketing team can deliver the best results.
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