Best Content Marketing Company Dubai: 5 questions to ask your agency

While Content Marketing in Dubai is a fairly new phenomenon, it's certainly not a new form of marketing strategy. The concept of Inbound or Content Marketing has been around for years, however the concept still seems alien to most businesses in the UAE. 

Whether your company is B2B or B2C focussed, there is a chance that content marketing could be a game changer in this region. Not many companies are engaging in it and even less are doing it well. Performed and executed correctly, it will allow your company to lift above the 'diesel noise' and give you the opportunity to own the online space for your industry in terms of visibility, thought leadership and genuine industry experts. 

Here are the 5 questions you must ask your content marketing agency to ensure that the strategy you engage in is correct for your business in order to get the best results.

1. how do they educate themselves about content marketing?

As already mentioned, the concept of Content Marketing is in its infancy in Dubai. Therefore you are unlikely to find compaines that specialise in Content Marketing training here. It is imperative that your agency invests heavily in their own education and the best way to do this is by attending large scale events and conferences with a heavy content marketing focus.

The areas in the world that are doing the best job of Content Marketing are the USA and Canada (they have been doing this for years), Europe (in particular the Western European countries), South Africa (especially from a design content perspective). 

These countries host several conferences that offer a wealth of information to the companies that attend them. Some great conferences are: 

• Inbound - this conference is hosted by Hubspot, the largest and most used Content Marketing platform in the world. This is a four day conference held in Boston with focuses across sales and business development, partner and cultural best practices. To name a few. 
• Content Marketing World - this Cleveland based conference offers a similar range of amazing speakers and learnings. Unfortunately it is always hosted at the same time as Inbound. It is slightly smaller than Inbound but still has great offerings. 
• South by South West - the largest digital conference in the world. The focus here won't be solely Content Marketing but a dedicated content marketing track provides four solid days of education and case studies.  Attend this and you will learn the best practices over a whole host of digital marketing practices. 
• Social Media Marketing World - the largest Social Media conference. This is hosted by Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner and provides huge amounts of insight to Social Media and the best practices, Content Marketing is a very important aspect of all things Social Media. 

Make sure your agency's team are around the world learning from the best. 

Find out what the Nexa team got up to in Boston this year... 

/inbound-15-more-than-a-content-and-inbound-conference

/inbound15-insights-and-general-thoughts-from-hubspots-annual-conference

2. what platform/s do they use?

Content Marketing is a beast of a task and it is only simplified by the use of powerful tools. Of course you can do it manually but the effort used to create the entire practice is epic. If your agency is not using the software available to them then they will be wasting time that could be used to create great content. 

The best software tools are:

• Hubspot - the best platform (in my opinion). They are one of companies that have made Inbound or Content Marketing what it is today. They were formed in 2006, there conferences started with just 20 attendees, now they have almost 15,000 people attending each year. They are more a movement than a company. The benefits here are not only the software power but the support and knowledge leadership behind the scenes. 
• Marketo - another huge platform. They have similar offerings to Hubspot. They were formed in 2007 and remain the biggest competitor to Hubspot. 

There are others but the two mentioned are by far the most developed. Both Hubspot and Marketo also offer comprenhensive certifications to their partners to ensure they remain at the top of their game. Either way, make sure your agency is focused on the content not the mechanics. 

3. who will work on your content marketing?

Content Marketing covers several spheres so make sure your agency has the team to support your company. 

The important aspects of Content Marketing are:

• Content creation - do they have content creation team inhouse? This should include journalists, designers (web and visual) and a content manager to control all of the aspects. 
• Social Media - does your team have the team and the capabilities to support the Social Media aspect of Content Marketing? Ask them about their team and what they have worked on/with?
• SEO - Content Marketing gives your company the chance to own the search space online. Who do they have inhouse that will ensure every aspect of this marketing also maximises your SEO efforts?

4. how do they learn about your company?

If your agency doesn't invest time in learning everything about your company how on earth are they going to create content for you? 

Your agency must give your company a huge amount of time, especially during the initial immersion stages to understand your company. 

They must at the very least understand:

• What your company does?
• What products or services do you offer?
• Why does your company do what you do?
• Why are you different? 
• What are your USPs (unique selling points)
• Who are the key decision makers in your company?
• What does your current audience look like?
• What does your target audience look like and why?
• What questions are the sales team asked on a day to day business?

This is just scratching the surface but if your agency aren't asking you at least this then you should be thinking twice. 

5. How does your agency build your target audience?

A gigantic portion of Content Marketing is understanding your customers or potential customers. Your agency must know your target audience inside out. 

The way a Content Marketing agency builds your target audience is by developing buyer personas. This is the process of building a virtual picture of every facet of your target audience. This involves building a story for each of these people:

• Who are they?
• What do they do?
• What is important to them?
• What makes them make buying decisions?
• What objections/problems/challenges are they facing?
• What problem does your product or service solve? 
• Why would they buy your product or service?
• Where do they spend their time online and off?
• Where do they get their information?

Again, these are just a few of the questions your agency should be asking. The big idea is that if you understand how and why your customers make decisions you will be able to understand, interest and engage them better. This will bring big results. 

CONCLUSION:

Take the time to ask your agency the questions that will drive the answers your need to know when choosing a Content Marketing company in Dubai. Content Marketing is an investment that will yield amazing results if performed well. Make sure your agency is as bought in to this form of marketing as you are and you will reap the benefits. 

Choose wisely!