Marketing agency of the future: top three things clients should look for

Content marketing legends @jaybaer @robert_rose @paulroetzer (let's call them the three wise men of content consulting!) all have plenty of practice serving clients, large and small, with content services. They've built agencies, developed service lines and rolled out content strategies over and over again.

So what can you learn from our three wise men - who are expert service providers - as a client?

Sure, I gained a massive amount as a consultancy owner, but for clients the takeouts are quite different. Having spent more of my time "client-side" than in consultancy, I'm going to share just the things that are most helpful to those procuring, not selling, marketing services from this year's Content Marketing World (#CMWorld).

CMW got off to a cracking start today (overnight in my body clock's time zone!) in Cleveland, Ohio with pre-conference workshops including a return of the marketing agency session offered last year.

So as a financial services client, what would I now look for in an agency offering content marketing?

My top three, based on today's session, are these:

1. Measurable results: a few things done well are better than a lot poorly. Paul's counsel is to measure just a few key metrics - think downloads, leads, inquiries. As a client share what you're measured on with your agency - and make it their problem to measure it for you! Without metrics we're all dead in the water.

2. Strategy services, before content production: there's absolutely no point getting into content execution without a game plan. The three wise men counselled that clients are wasting their money producing content without a plan.

3. Integration across marketing and digital channels: we don't live in a siloed world when it comes to content consumption - yet typically client organisations are siloed functionally. This makes it even more important your agency can help you bridge those gaps.

So how does @bluechipcomm fare on these three criteria? We're on the journey. The measurement piece remains challenging, "strategy first" we're absolutely insistent on, and integration...well it's hard but we've started.

I'm speaking on Thursday at the Financial Summit. I will (of course!) also be blogging and tweeting (@carden).

To follow the main event starting tomorrow see the free live streaming here or the blogs here.