The marketing agency business model is a great place for new entrepreneurs to start. There are many benefits to owning an agency that can make it attractive to people looking to get started with their own business or side-hustle. However, do the benefits outweigh the negatives? In this article, we're talking about the pros and cons of starting a marketing agency [From an agency owner].

The Pros & Cons Of Starting A Marketing Agency [Advice From An Agency Owner]

Running a marketing agency for almost a year, I was able to learn about the pros and cons of the business model. I wanted to share this with others to help them make a decision on whether this venture is worth the pursuit, or not.

Starting an agency can be a very lucrative business. however, there are many factors to consider beforehand. Here are the pros and cons of an agency.

All marketers want a content marketing strategy that helps them generate influence and a large audience. Case in point — “how to develop a content marketing strategy” was the fifth most searched question about content marketing in 2020.Unfortunately, no concrete formula will help you generate incredible content with consistent results, yet it is essential to create incredible content with consistent results. Competitive intelligence poses a solution to this issue, yet only 23% of marketers leverage it in their content creation strategy.

Why is content intelligence important?

Content intelligence is the process of using software that combines machine learning and AI to conduct market research about the effectiveness of specific types of content to help marketers create a high-quality content strategy that they know will work.It is essentially a GPS that leads you to a high-quality content strategy that drives leads, conversions, and revenue. You don’t have to guess what will be of interest to your audience because the data shows you what performs well with your audience based on market and competitor analysis.

What is content intelligence?

<ul><li>Generating a deep understanding of your target audience and the type of content they enjoy based on competitor data and analysis.</li><li>Data from market research helps you create content that is entirely centered around your users and what they enjoy.</li><li>Gain insight into various content types and how they should be created, like video content intelligence that lets you know actions within videos that drive results.</li><li>AI analyzes content for style, tone of voice, and other important metrics to eliminate guesswork and the trial and error that often goes into creating content.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Ability to predict the effectiveness of your content based on the historical performance of your competitors.</li><li>Generate authority in your niche through high-quality, informative content that helps you get more visitors, increase conversion rates, and gain visibility in search results.</li></ul>

Why is content intelligence important? (contd.)

Learn how content intelligence helps you create an effective content strategy, and discover high-quality tools that will automate the process. 

Discover the most interesting and off-beat ideas in marketing and advertising! 

Marketing & Advertising

What Is Content Intelligence?

<ol><li>Determining Your Business Blog’s Purpose (e.g. Attracting quality traffic; Generating leads; Driving conversions; Educating users, etc.)</li><li>Setting up Measurable Blog Goals (e.g. Attract X% of the total addressable market (TAM); Increase organic traffic by X%; or Get X% more leads in a year.)</li><li>Defining Your Target Audience</li><li>Deciding on the Content You’ll Publish (One of the approaches to this is to consider two kinds of content strategies - Publications & Libraries. Publications cover the latest industry news and trending topics.  Libraries focus on evergreen content)</li></ol>

Step 1. Outlining Your Blog Strategy

<ol><li>Topic Clusters: Create a ‘pillar’ page that roughly covers a general topic, & usually targets a high-volume keyword; & Several ‘cluster’ pieces of content that focus on specific, long-tail keywords.</li><li>Determining Your Pillar Topics: Think about topics as they relate to your product or service. Review your product’s value proposition and persona portrait. Merge your audience's challenges with your product solutions to find a topic.</li><li> </li></ol>

Step 2. Identifying Your Core Blog Topics

Do topic research using multiple sources, such as:<ul><li>Brainstorming: Industry, User-problem-related, Product/service-related Topics</li><li>Competitors’ keywords</li><li>Search and social media trends</li><li>Keyword research tools</li></ul>

Step 3. Expanding Your Topic List

<ol><li>Filtering Keywords by Keyword Volume & Difficulty: focus on keywords with highest volume & lowest difficulty/competitiveness</li><li>Grouping Keywords by Topic Clusters: Tie each keyword to a general pillar topic. During filtration & grouping, you may come across a general/popular topic that fits your pillar topic list. Then you can substitute your original topic, or add a new one. Working on a table, introduce a pillar topic column with your 5-10 topics, a cluster topic column with the remaining topics distributed by core pillar topics, & product/feature column for each topic.</li></ol>

Step 4. Filtering and Grouping Your Topics

<ol><li>Matching Search Intent with the Buyer’s Journey: Informational intent (pre-awareness or awareness stage); Navigational intent (consideration stage); Commercial intent (consideration stage); Transactional intent (decision stage)</li><li>Identifying Search Intent for Your Keywords</li><li>Deciding on Post Types and Headlines</li></ol>

Step 5. Identifying Potential Headlines

Here are a few ideas on how you can prioritize your article publication in line with your business goals:<ol><li>According to Your Cluster Topics</li><li>According to the Buyer's Journey</li><li>According to Volume and Difficulty</li><li>According to Your Product or Feature Releases</li><li>According to Trends</li></ol>

Step 6. Prioritizing Topics Based on Your Goals

Learn how to research post ideas that will drive organic traffic to your business blog. This step-by-step guide will help you find suitable topics for your content plan.

How To Research Topics for Your Blog's Content Plan

Metasearch engines are a way to get a wide range of search results from different search engines. The theory is that you can get a wider breadth of answers and information to inform your decisions better.Metasearch engines matter because you don't just get all your information from one channel. We’ve seen from regular media outlets that one data source can be skewed, and you may not get a balanced point of view.

What Is a Metasearch Engine?

In simple terms, a metasearch engine takes the query you've entered and gathers results from multiple search engines online, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more. They aggregate the results for you so you can choose the best information from the search results provided.Metasearch engines are known for keeping a user’s privacy - they keep your details private and out of the data-gobbling hands of search engines.

What Do Metasearch Engines do?

A search engine sends out queries to websites to see if the website’s content best matches the search query entered into the search engine. It returns with a results page, ranked from most relevant, according to algorithms.A metasearch engine submits queries to multiple search engines and aggregates the results into a list. The search engine can sort this list they came from, by subject, or by relevance. The user can then choose which results best match their intent.

What Is the Difference between a Search Engine and a Metasearch Engine?

The pros of using a metasearch engine include the potential to be anonymous online and not have your user data vacuumed by Google.Meta searches give you a much bigger picture of what is out there online. You’re not influenced by one search engine and past user history.In addition, metasearch engines can be quick in finding you a wide variety of results. While they give an overview, they don’t provide detailed results, so they are so speedy.

What Are the Advantages of Metasearch Engines?

One of the disadvantages of metasearch engines is they sacrifice detail in the name of speed. They can give you a broad range of results but not a detailed result for your search query.You cannot always guarantee a wide net of search results with a metasearch engine. They may limit themselves to specific search engines, and you may not know which ones they are pulling from. A limited search engine reach can skew results.

What Are the Disadvantages of Metasearch Engines?

Discover how metasearch engines work, how to use them, and the best search engines available right now.

What Is a Metasearch Engine? How You Can Use Them to Your Advantage

Just like everything digital marketing, influencer marketing needs to start with a properly formulated goal. What is your niche? Who are influencers in that niche? What do you want to accomplish with this influencer? More importantly, how are you going to measure success?If it is your first time attempting something like this, start small. Maybe don’t tackle the multi-million follower influencer in your niche, and expect high returns. To start off, micro-influencers might be the way to go, build up experience, and as you grow so should your expectations, and ultimately your goals.

Define Your Goals and Objectives

For example:Category A: 1,000–25,000Category B: 25,001–50,000Category C: 50,001–100,000Category D: Over 100,000Category D influencers have the greatest following, the farthest reach, and could offer us the greatest visibility. But they are often extremely busy and could potentially come at a very high cost.Categories A and B is where you want to be, especially when starting up or are still inexperienced with influencer marketing. They are potentially more narrow in their focus, and surprisingly more engaged with their audience. Their cost will also be much lower.

Identify Influencers and Organize Them Into Three Tiers

Influencers are not tools, they are human beings, so instantly emailing them with a business proposition or a pitch might have negative effects, ultimately putting them off.You need to build trust, and nurture your relationship with them before any business-related topics are mentioned. Show them you actually admire their work and success before ever talking shop.

Before Reaching Out, Start to Build a Relationship

Before reaching out, do some homework. Get to know what the influencer talks about, what they like, the type of audience they have, etc., and then send out a personalized email in a friendly manner. Show them you appreciate their work and that you realize they are an authority in their niche.Another important aspect of reaching out to an influencer is timing. Monitor channel activity and conversations, you want your email to also be relevant, and that it will warrant further engagement and conversation.

Personalize Outreach

So you’ve set your goals, found the influencers in your niche, and have initiated a conversation with them. It is now time to talk business.Present your proposition in a friendly but still professional manner, and lay down the goals and objectives for both sides. Honesty and transparency are key here.Remember, influencer marketing works best if the individual is working with you, not for you. You spend time building a relationship and trust and now is the time to leverage it.

Tell Them Exactly What You Want Them to Do and What You’ll Do for Them in Return

When the time comes to create content some creative liberty needs to be in place. Be sure to appropriately communicate what you envision the campaign and content to look like, but always ask for the influencer’s 2 cents as well. Of course, if there are certain things you really need to be done in a certain way, be careful in the way you ask. Create requests and help the influencer understand why things need to be done a certain way; don’t just demand it.

Create Requests, Not Demands

In order to appropriately talk about and understand your brand and offering, they will need certain info. Be sure to empower them, and grant them access to all the necessary documentation for developing a holistic image. Things like blog posts, white papers, e-books, press releases, case studies, etc. are all good examples of such documentation.Note: In addition to knowing your brand better, this might also help the influencer be more invested in the project.

Give Them Access to Information, Events, and Experts

Influencers are influencers because they have a certain authority, a certain character, and this carries over to the way they create content. Their audience follows them for this very reason, so it would be unwise to restrict them and take away from their “charisma”. Allow them to be themselves, to use their own words, voice, and tone.

Allow Them to Be Themselves

Be sure to include hashtags such as #sponsored, #promotion, # “company name”, or something along those lines.Be sure to check each post. Oftentimes, the influencer might have forgotten to add the proper disclosure, which is a big violation. If this is the case, kindly remind them to disclose any promoted content with your brand to avoid either party from getting penalized.

Know Disclosure Requirements and Tell Them What They Need to Do

Sharing reports and analytics with each other is key to determining if the path you are currently on is the right one. See what currently is working, and try to spot any room for improvement with the influencer.Tracking metrics in both the influencer and program levels is imperative for optimizing both parties’ approaches and of course to evaluate the relationship accordingly. Finally, this can help both of you determine if the influencer’s audience is actually interested in what you have to offer

Think About Reporting

Influencer marketing has been gaining traction at an increasing rate. It is no longer a “buzzword” or a marketing trend, today it has evolved into a full-fledged strategic approach for gaining…

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The Pros & Cons Of Starting A Marketing Agency [Advice From An Agency Owner]

The Pros & Cons Of Starting A Marketing Agency [Advice From An Agency Owner]

Why is content intelligence important?

What Is Content Intelligence?

Step 1. Outlining Your Blog Strategy

How To Research Topics for Your Blog's Content Plan