Does a content (marketing) agency make sense for the new website?

A new website is planned. There are a few things to consider. What can be done in-house? Where do you need external support? And would it be better to get it from a full-service provider or from specialists? And all of this, of course, as quickly as possible, in top quality and at a good price.

What services are needed for the new website?

A website launch or relaunch essentially consists of the following components:

• Strategy and conception
• Design
• Programming
• Content and SEO

As part of the strategy, the target groups are looked at closely and the sensible goals for the new website are defined. There are specialized providers for this, often freelancers. In principle, designers and Content agencies with this subject area. A distinction must be made here between pure content agencies, which specialize in content creation, and content marketing agencies. A small but subtle difference. Content marketing agencies always have the customer's needs in mind first. For them, personas and customer journeys are daily bread. So they are already a very competent contact at this stage. This is all the more true because the SEO strategy should already take place in this phase. Otherwise, double efforts are pre-programmed for the later necessary adaptation of the website structure.

Design is now a much simpler trade for many new websites than in times past. Websites that are primarily image in nature and used to attract new customers and generate leads are 99% based on WordPress. The variety of proven and very good looking themes in conjunction with customizable layout makes the web design fast and very good. Only those who really want to have it very individual, still resort to manually designed and programmed templates. The situation is different with large websites, which have a large number of interfaces to a wide variety of systems. Here, there is no way around individual programming anyway. Accordingly, an individual design is necessary.

For such a custom design, a user experience designer and/or graphic artist may be useful. For most websites, design is primarily about selecting and editing photos and creating graphics. Such web design services are professionally handled by both the graphic designer and a content (marketing) agency with appropriate staff.

So WordPress websites don't need programmers. They are essentially configured, for which a basic technical understanding is quite sufficient. For interfaces to the CRM system, to your databases, etc. you need developers. Again, depending on the system, it makes more or less sense to use specialists. Who wants to work with someone who is doing this kind of work for the first time?

And finally, there is content to be created. Texts, photos, graphics and videos. Often in several languages. These must be tailored in advance to the needs of the users and planned with coordination of the SEO-specific specifications. Specialists are needed for the video at the latest.

Aren't we better creating the content for the new website in-house?

From the experience of more than 800 digital projects, I know that the most underestimated part at the beginning of the project is the content creation and entering it into the system. Creating good content takes time. Especially on the homepage and in About Us, the management usually wants to look at it. Professionally important paragraphs on products and services should be checked by in-house experts. And translations, especially of technical texts, must be proofread by native speakers. This cannot be done without external support.

The old rule applies here: The duration of the project depends on the coordination processes and the content. I've often seen it happen that everything is ready after three months, except for the content, which is to be created in-house. Then the live launch of the new website is delayed by another six months! This is frustrating for everyone involved and doesn't have to be. Outside assistance helps coordinate all the necessary content creation work. An external authority can also provide the pressure for difficult project participants to finally complete the task.

The fact that the competence for SEO is often not sufficiently available in-house also speaks in favor of outsourcing this part of the project. Content and SEO from a single source save coordination processes, avoid duplicate processing of the same content and accelerate the project.

Everything from a single source or with individual providers?

As you can see, there's a lot to do for a new website. And that involves a wide range of very different specialized knowledge. Wouldn't it be great if you had an agency that could do it all for you?

Of course, but you can already guess that the "egg-cellent" solution is few and far between. Only digital agencies with at least 50 employees can competently handle custom programming projects from a single source. But you have to take a close look at whether all disciplines are really equally well represented. Many agencies have a focus and corresponding weaknesses in other areas.

The situation is different for projects based on WordPress. These can be completely offered by a number of agencies from a single source. Here you should also pay attention to where the focus of the agency activities. Does it come from the programming corner (and probably has little sense of design)? Or from web design (focusing on the brand and less on the specific customer needs in your industry)? Or from content marketing (with a gap when it comes to custom programming services needed)?

Therefore, the more complex a project is and the more experienced you are in dealing with different specialists, the more likely it is to pay off to outsource to specialists.

And who is going to fix it now?

It takes a lot of know-how and experience to implement a new website quickly and well. Doing it all in-house is usually not recommended. If you don't want to take over all content 1:1, you should not do without the content marketing agency. This can cover the areas of strategy, conception, SEO and content. For WordPress sites also design and programming. If your new website will be very extensive, it is better to work with a large full-service agency or a good project team with selected specialists.

If you are planning a new website, we wish you good luck with the project!