Agencies trying to drum up content assignments better have one skill set in place. Email newsletters are now the most required form of content, according to Agency Trends: Strategies & Tactics, a study by Ascend2.
Email in general ranks far down the list of general capabilities, the top one being overall marketing strategy. But content creation is second.
And there’s work to be had — 56% of marketers are increasing their agency budgets this year, 43% by 1-20%, 9% by 11-20% and 4% by over 20%.
Only 9% are decreasing their budgets, and 35% say they will remain the same.
Here is the list of general capabilities:
- Overall marketing strategy — 45%
- Content creation — 33%
- Lead generation — 32%
- Social media management — 31%
- Advertising/Retargeting/PPC — 29%
- Branding — 26%
In addition, clients seek these martech strengths:
- Online advertising/retargeting — 59%
- Personalization — 56%
- Data/content visualization — 41%
- Automation — 38%
- AI — 28%
- Chatbots — 12%
- Voice search — 10%
Those needs are for actual work. On a deeper level, clients value these attributes:
- Creativity — 55%
- Responsiveness — 54%
- Execution — 46%
- Innovativeness — 41%
- Project management — 26%
- Collaboration — 26%
- Data management — 24%
Despite that, there are barriers to creating a good client/agency relationship:
- Delivering innovative ideas — 48%
- Attributing revenue to marketing — 45%
- Delivering on established metrics — 35%
- Maintaining effective project management — 33%
- Understanding brand completely — 30%
- Making client the priority — 23%
- Using sender talent on accounts — 14%
Happily, 42% say their agencies are very successful — best-in-class — at overcoming these barriers, and 57% are somewhat so. Only 1% feel they are unsuccessful.
How did they find their agencies? Of those polled, 35% did so through client referral, 32% by word of mouth an 27% via an internet search. Another 6% utilized a search consultant.
Here are the types of content required of agencies:
- Email/newsletters — 44%
- Research & thought leadership — 42%
- User-generated (reviews, testimonials, etc.) — 40%
- Video — 40%
- Infographics — 25%
- Blog — 22%
- eBooks & case studies — 19%
- Webinars — 14%
- Podcasts — 8%
Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 257 marketing professionals, 39% B2B marketers, 41% B2C marketers and 20% who are an equal mix of both.
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