Regularly publishing high-quality content is the number one solution for businesses that want to drive traffic to their site, generate engagement, and build brand authority.

But what do you do if you don’t have any time to create content each week?

The answer is actually pretty simple: hire a content writing agency.

A content writing agency can help you create and execute an effective content marketing strategy that garners impressive results.

Today, I’m going to share some of the key factors you should consider when choosing a content writing agency for your business.

Before we begin, however, let’s take a look at some more reasons why you might want to work with a content writing agency in the first place.

Why choose a content writing agency for your business?

A content writing agency is a team of professional content writers who create multiple types of content for businesses. This typically includes blog posts, tutorials, reviews, comparison pieces, guides, and e-books.

But why do businesses work with content writing agencies?

Well, a content writing agency can help you create content to achieve a goal. For instance, you might work with an agency to create content that’s meant to attract prospective customers and encourage them to buy your product or sign up for your subscription.

The main goal of a content writing agency is to help clients create engaging content to meet their goals, whether that’s to drive more site traffic, generate qualified leads, or make sales.

A content writing agency is suitable for businesses that want to drive more organic traffic to their site, build brand authority, provide more information about their products or services, and encourage users to make a purchase or take action.

Another common question many people have is: how is a content writing agency different from a freelance writer?

Generally speaking, a content writing agency is a team of professionals who have experience creating and delivering high-quality content. A typical content writing agency might have researchers, writers, and editors to create content for clients.

Here are some reasons why you might consider working with a content writing agency:

  • Create lots of high-quality content. With the help of a content writing agency, your business can publish high-quality content consistently. This helps build brand authority and is a great way to boost organic traffic on your site. Additionally, publishing high-quality content on your site can help position your business as an industry expert.
  • Don’t need to constantly hire new writers. When you’re hiring a content writing agency, you don’t have to worry about recruiting freelance content writers for different projects. A content writing agency works with clients in the long run instead of on a per-project basis. In simple words, you get to work with professionals who understand your business and are committed to helping you achieve your goals.
  • Execute content marketing strategies. Collaborating with a content writing agency can help you execute your content marketing strategies. You have dedicated writers who can produce high-quality content for any stage of the marketing funnel.

How to choose a content writing agency

So, if you’ve decided to work with a content writing agency, the next step is to determine how to pick the right one for your business. I’ve boiled it down to a 5-step process:

Step #1: Check content quality

High-quality content is important for keeping your target audience engaged and helps attract more organic traffic to your website. It’s also a great way to position yourself as an industry expert so prospective customers have an easier time trusting your brand.

The keyword here is high-quality content.

If the content you publish is difficult to read or incoherent, visitors won’t think twice before exiting your site. What’s worse is your business will create a bad first impression. And a bad first impression easily becomes a bad lasting impression.

This is why it’s important to make sure to vet the quality of the content the agency produces. And what better way to do that than by checking out the content writing agency’s own blog!

So, as a first step, I recommend heading over to the content writing agency’s blog page and reading through some of the blog posts they’ve published. Ask yourself:

  • Are these blog posts capturing my interest?
  • Is the topic immediately clear?
  • Is the blog post well-structured, well-researched, and easy-to-read?
  • Does the blog post have comments?

To take things further, you can even check out some of the content they’ve written for paying clients. The easiest way to do this is by heading over to their portfolio page and checking out some of the samples they’ve provided.

After reading a few content pieces from their blog and portfolio, you’ll have a better understanding of the content quality they aim for.

Step #2: Take a look at their past performance

The main difference between a freelance writer and a professional content writing agency is that they produce content to serve a direct purpose. This might be to increase visibility in search engine ranking pages (SERPs), match user intent with content, or produce content pieces for specific stages of the marketing funnel.

This is one of the reasons why looking at a content writing agency’s past performance is crucial when deciding to commit to one. You want to dig deeper into their published work and maybe even start evaluating how well the content pages are performing.

For starters, you can see how many blog posts they’ve written for the clients they’ve worked with. The easiest way to do this is by looking at their author pages on client sites. Writers from content writing agencies often have a dozen or more articles they’ve written for their clients. This shows that the writer did more than just write a one-off piece for the business.

Ideally, you want to work with a content writing agency that has a solid performance history. If they’ve successfully helped other businesses achieve their content goals, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll help with yours too.

Looking at the past performance of a content writing agency is an effective way to understand how valuable their service is, the benefits your business can gain, and whether it’s the right fit for your business or not.

Step #3: Ensure reliability

Since consistently publishing content is a major aspect of any successful content marketing campaign, it’s important to make sure the content writing agency you choose offers reliable services.

For starters, you need to think about how easy they are to communicate with and how long it takes them to respond. If they’re not responsive before you start working with them, they’ll likely exhibit a similar pattern once you’ve onboarded.

Ideally, you want easy communication so collaborating with another company is easy for you and your team members. One major green flag is if the team behind the content writing agency gives you multiple ways to contact them. This can be via email, social media platforms, or a workspace such as Trello or Asana.

Step #4: Evaluate the additional services you may require

Executing a successful content marketing strategy requires a multi-pronged approach. You need high-quality content, editing and proofreading, good SEO, backlinks, promotion, and much more. A content writing agency might be able to help you with a few of these factors.

You might find a content writing agency that goes beyond simply writing the articles. BloggInc, for example, will write articles, edit and proofread, make sure they’re optimized for search engines, add images and internal links, and upload the content piece to your site’s back-end.

Generally, most content writing agencies offer additional services like SEO optimization, topic research, content promotion, and link building for your content. We recommend reading through the agency’s services page closely and ask them about the additional services they may offer over a discovery call.

Step #5: Consider the costs

The final step in choosing a content writing agency for your business is evaluating costs.

While there is no fixed price within the content writing industry, the costs of working with a content writing agency varies based on the quality of content, the type of content, and the level of expertise required.

For instance, a brand new content writing agency with a small portfolio might charge $75 for a technical 1000-word blog post but a large-scale organization with thousands of reviews might charge $750 for the same post.

But once you’ve shortlisted some content writing agencies, you can check out their prices to see if it fits your budget. Good content writing agencies are open about their rates and will have a Pricing page on their website. Others might require you to get in touch with them for a quote.

BloggInc, for example, offers two content writing plans:

  • Content Catalyst – Perfect for businesses looking to publish one article per month. Starts at $250 per post.
  • SMB Solution – Monthly content creation package for businesses that are serious about content. Starts at $600 per month and includes at least 4 articles per month.

Ready to hire a content writing agency?

Whether you want to boost site traffic or promote your products and encourage purchases, creating and publishing high-quality content is the best approach to take. However, creating high-quality content takes a lot of time and effort.

This is why it’s best to hire a content writing agency that can help you create high-quality content regularly. We shared a simple 5-step process for choosing a content writing agency and, hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take the next steps.

Ready to start working with a content writing agency? Get in touch with BloggInc today!