Agency vs. freelancer for content marketing and content creation
Anyone who does online marketing never has enough content. Something is always missing. One blog article after the other has to be written. The new landing page is still missing images. The applicants should be convinced of the company with upbeat videos. And and and. The website in particular needs to be constantly fed with new content. Marketing can hardly keep up.
The obvious solution: external help. A content marketing agency or freelancer can take a lot of work off the marketing department's plate.
Why external service providers at all?
Before we get into the direct comparison between agencies and freelancers in content marketing, we would like to talk about general advantages of both options.
External service providers in marketing must of course first be selected. Then follow briefings and the service provider must deal with marketing strategy, Content Strategy and self-image of the company. Of course, this all takes time.
However, the alternatives are not exactly more attractive. Either existing employees do the work. Their schedules become fuller, the content is of inferior quality, and in the end everyone is more stressed than before.
Or you can bring a new content marketing employee into the company. Acquiring a new employee is certainly more time-consuming than finding an agency or a freelancer. The training period is even longer and the contract is much harder to terminate, which reduces the margin for error.
If you're unhappy with your content marketing freelancer, there's usually a quick, easy solution. With permanent employees, it's a different story.
Conclusion: You want as little complexity as possible? Get the skills for content creation from an external service provider.
Content creation: agency vs. freelancer
If you've decided to enlist outside help for your content creation, the next question you'll face is: who does this job best? A Content creation agency or a freelancer?
We have compiled a catalog of criteria. Based on this list, we would now like to compare the two options.
1. Number of employees
The number of employees in an agency is open to the top. There are agencies with only a few permanent employees. But content marketing agencies with several hundred employees are also possible. Here, there are specialists for each topic.
Freelancers for content marketing are always independent and work alone.
2. Degree of specialization
Agencies exist with every conceivable specialization. Content marketing is offered by full-service agencies as well as by content agencies. So when looking for an agency, you can choose exactly how high the degree of specialization should be and what specific industry experience is already available.
Freelancers are usually very specialized in one topic. Since a freelancer always works alone, the quality quickly goes down the drain when one person tries to offer everything in one.
3. Capacities
The comparison is obvious. The more employees, the greater the capacity. For short individual jobs, a freelancer may be worthwhile. But for larger jobs with multiple types of content creation, only a content marketing agency has enough capacity.
4. Flexibility
If you often place smaller orders, then flexibility is especially important to you. An agency always has enough capacity to squeeze in a content creation at short notice. However, many agencies do not like to work spontaneously, but on a regular basis, for example a blog article every two weeks.
Some freelancers accept jobs very spontaneously. However, if you want to work with the same freelancer all the time, they may be busy at the moment.
5. Speed
Agencies are often considered slow. But high-quality content takes time. Agencies work carefully and often go through internal feedback loops. This ensures that the result that ends up with the customer is already very mature.
Freelancers can work very quickly when they are focused on just one project at a time. This is especially true for short-term, small content marketing projects.
Website texts, blog articles or a photo shoot can be created quickly by freelancers. If it becomes more extensive, a freelancer needs a very long time, because he does everything alone. Thus, only one service can be processed after the other.
A content marketing agency, on the other hand, can have several employees working on a project at the same time for larger projects. Thus, the speed of an agency clearly exceeds that of a freelancer.
6. Quality
Basically, there are good and bad agencies, just as there are good and bad freelancers. But in our experience, the probability of encountering bad freelancers is higher.
This is because anyone can register a business, call themselves a copywriter or photographer and sell their services. However, anyone who is employed by an agency as a copywriter or photographer has been selected through the agency's application process.
In agencies, there is at least one specialist for each area. Everyone does what they do best. This means that a wide range of marketing campaigns and industries can be covered. Through internal feedback loops, the quality of the content is increased to the point where it perfectly fits your requirements. So you always get high-quality results.
Pros and cons of content marketing agency
Pro
- High quality of the created content through internal feedback loops
- Many employees with individual strengths and specializations
- Specialized in content marketing or full service depending on your needs
- Large capacity
- Works fast for large orders
Contra
- Large agencies often do not take on small projects
- Not very flexible in some circumstances for irregular, small projects
Pros and cons of freelancers in content marketing
Pro
- Perfectly suited for spontaneous, small orders
- Flexible, if not fully booked
- Uncomplicated, personal cooperation
Contra
- Only one person who does not seek external feedback
- Strong quality differences between freelancers
- Comprehensive large-scale projects not possible
- Has many customers in mind at once
- Has the capacity of only one person
