As a business owner, you know how vital a solid strategy is to long-term success. You also understand that winging it with your content marketing strategy isn’t a sustainable option.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to creating a plan for your content marketing, consider partnering with a content strategy consultancy.

Read on to learn more about what a consultancy does and how you can find the right one for your financial services company.

What Does a Content Strategy Consultancy Do?

Let’s begin with the specific benefits a strategy consultant can provide. The following are some of the standard services most consultancies offer:

• Get to know you, your business, and your goals
• Develop an SEO strategy built around specific keywords relevant to your industry and target client
• Create a content strategy incorporating target keywords into quality content, such as blogs and white papers
• Produce content on your behalf designed to benefit your audience and generate interest in your business’s services

Your consultants will check in with you regularly and get your approval and input throughout the process. They’re dedicated to helping you succeed and are happy to answer questions and address concerns as needed.

How to Find the Right Content Strategy Consultancy

Does the idea of someone doing keyword research and writing content for you sound appealing? If so, hiring a content strategy consultancy is an excellent choice.

These tips will help you find the best one for your business’s needs:

Ask for Referrals

Do you have any friends or colleagues who have worked with content strategists before? If so, reach out and ask for their opinions.

Would they recommend the agency they hired? What did they like or dislike about them?

Use this information as a starting point for your search. You can add referrals to a short list of potential candidates that you want to evaluate more closely.

Read Reviews

Reading reviews is standard practice for anybody looking for information on a business — including a content strategy consultancy.

Look at third-party review sites like Yelp or Google Reviews to learn about consultancies that assist companies like yours. Check out their ratings and the written reviews attached to them. Consider how old the reviews are and whether the company responded to them as well.

Use what you’ve gathered from perusing reviews to decide if a particular agency should remain on your list or if its poor reputation disqualifies them.

Consider Industry Expertise

Ideally, you’ll work with a consultancy specialising in helping financial services businesses — or at least has previously worked with companies like yours.

It’s beneficial if the consultants understand the financial world because they’ll be familiar with critical details like the types of services you offer and your clients’ pain points.

Look at Lists of Services

Next, consider the services each company offers. For example, can they help with content strategy, specifically? Do they write content or assist with SEO?

Make sure they can assist with all the aspects of your marketing strategy that matter to you so you can have everything handled by one team. This allows for more consistency and streamlined processes.

Ask for Samples of Their Work

The consultancy’s portfolio will tell you a lot about their work, from the quality of their content to their writing style. Review past articles or eBooks and consider the following:

• Is the content compelling and well-researched?
• Does it provide a clear answer to a specific question?
• Is it easy to scan (e.g., it uses bullet points, headings, short paragraphs, etc.)?
• Is it free from typos and grammatical errors?
• Does it contain relevant keywords without being “stuffed”?

It also helps to ask about the results the agency’s past clients have seen. For example, did they see a significant increase in website traffic? Did they convert more leads?

Book a Consultation

Finally, book a consultation. Meeting on the phone, via video, or face-to-face gives you a chance to connect with a consultant and get answers to your remaining questions.

Pay attention to the answers you receive during the meeting, but focus on other, more subtle factors as well.

For example, was it easy to get an appointment with a consultant? Do they seem focused on you and enthusiastic about helping you achieve your goals? Do they provide clear answers to your questions?

If you can say “yes” to these questions, you might have found the right consultancy!

Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy Today

Stop throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick. If you need help creating an effective content strategy, you need help from a content strategy consultancy.

At Fintech Content Marketing, we specialise in strategy, search engine optimisation, and writing a variety of content types, from articles and blogs to eBooks and white papers.

Reach out today to book a consult. We can’t wait to help you grow your financial services business!