How to Prospect for a Great Content Marketer

If you’re considering hiring a content marketing firm or considering switching to a new content marketing firm, here are a few easy steps to help you make the right choice.

Step 1. Clarify Your Purpose

You’ll want to think about what your firm’s brand is or should be. If you need help getting started, check out these suggestions from Forbes (e.g., your firm’s view on big court rulings, and a focus on quality and attractiveness).

It helps to have measurable goals for the marketing campaign. In other words, what does your successful content marketing strategy look like? Is it X number of Facebook “likes?” Y number of retweets? Z number of news media interviews? Whatever your answer is, it’ll help to start with an idea of where you’re going and what success looks like.

Step 2. Clarify Your Standards

Set some internal controls about where you want to see your name.  Decide in advance the places you want to be, but you might also want to decide where you’ll say, “No thanks.”

Step 3. Cast a Wide Net

This is a case where there’s no such thing as too much information. Talk to as many experts as you can to get ideas about reasonable goals and deliverables.

Step 4. Ask Great Questions

Any marketer worth her salt will be able to talk to about concrete results. A good marketer will also be careful not to promise too much. So see if the marketer’s goals align with your goals.

Also, ask how soon before the firm can see results, and how these results actually should translate into new business for the firm.

Step 5. Use Intuition With Analysis

There’s the old saying, “Trust—but verify.” If you ask concrete questions and get nothing but jargon back, you’re probably in the wrong place. And if you’re already using someone, but you’re not seeing results, it’s time to follow up.