Congratulations on deciding to work with a technical content agency! Regular, well-written content will help to improve your position in search engine rankings, establish you as a major player in your industry and help you form brand loyalty across your customer base.

But how do you know which agency is right for you? A simple Google search will bring up a list of content writing companies but choosing the best one from this list isn’t easy. We’ve done a little digging and come up with our top three tips for choosing a content writing agency.

We’ve observed what our most successful customers did and have distilled what we saw into the list of 3 tips for choosing a technical writing service.

Should the focus be on quality or quantity?

Thanks to the sheer number of sites on the internet, one could assume that quantity matters more than quality. As long as your blog or website is out there, that’s the important thing, right? Wrong.

There are numerous content agencies that produce work with a focus on word count. There are blogs out there that borrow heavily from other sites and provide minimal value to the reader, albeit on a regular basis. You might not have seen these pages; after all, they tend to rank around page 250 in a Google search. They won’t win any awards for a digital marketing strategy, and they won’t win any fans. With this method, a business may get lucky and get an occasional hit of organic traffic from a long-tail search term but it’s unlikely that their top line will improve. And if growing your business is what you’re after, this isn’t the method for you.

For tech companies, in particular, the method of quantity over quality is especially ineffective. Whether you’re selling a tech product or service, your customers come to you because they’re looking for expertise. They’ll want to know that you don’t just understand your field, you excel in it. They’re looking for reassurance that yours is the best possible service to meet their needs. It’s why choosing the right agency is so important. You could hire a generic writing agency but it’s unlikely that they’ll have the know-how to create top-quality content and showcase your expertise in your field.

Which technical agency is best?

Once you’ve ruled out generic content agencies and established that a technical agency is the best choice for you, there’s still a way to go before you find your perfect match. Our advice is to do a little research and when you’ve found an agency you like the look of, consider the following three tips to help you choose “the one”.

Tip 1: Ask for examples

The first thing to do when you find an agency whose website you like the look of is to ask them for examples. If you specialise in wearable technology, for example, ask if they’ve written any content that covers that topic. Looking for a blog that espouses the merits of website personalisation? No problem, simply ask if they’ve written anything in that field. Of course, you can’t expect to find your exact question answered for another client (nor should you want to, originality is a major factor in search engine rankings?) but you can ask the technical writing agency whether they’ve previously worked on anything that ticks the same boxes.

By requesting samples of work that are similar to what you’re hoping to produce, you’ll be able to see quickly and easily if this agency is capable of providing the level of technical detail and quality that you require.

It’s also worth asking to see case studies from previous clients. This will allow you to see how the agency has helped others in your field and the type of results you can expect from working with them. Take a look at a handful of our case studies here:  

Tip 2: Ask about their process

After you’ve seen some examples and decided you’re happy with the quality of work that the content agency produces, what next? How do you know if their processes will work for your business? You ask them, of course!

A professional and committed technical writing agency will easily be able to answer your process questions to reassure you that they can work to fit in with your business needs. A plan that’s too complex or one that’s too simple is unlikely to generate a great outcome. You want to see that there’s a clear, logical process which incorporates a digital strategy and forward planning (with the option to work reactively and shake things up where necessary, if there’s a major announcement in your industry for example).

This is also your opportunity to assess how much input they require from you. Most business owners will want, at a minimum, an initial discussion of the content to be produced and a feedback round before the content goes live. If a content agency requires more input than you can commit to or isn’t willing to incorporate your feedback, then you may want to continue your search elsewhere.

Tip 3: Do a test engagement

You’ve been impressed with their examples and you’re happy with the proposed process but you’d still like a little additional reassurance. No problem, that’s where our third and final tip comes in: request a trial engagement.

As the name suggests, a trial engagement gives you the chance to put their service to the test without making a long-term commitment. By signing up for a trial period, you get to see exactly how the process works for you without forking out on a major investment. Many agencies will be happy to carry out the pilot engagement in a way that helps you to get the best feel for the work ahead. They may suggest a single piece of long-form content so you can ascertain the level of detail and research that they’ll put into your posts or, perhaps even more usefully, they may recommend a longer trial session where you can assess if this is the right digital strategy for your business.

At Wizard on Demand, we’re happy to provide all of these options. Having worked with major tech firms in the past, we understand that it’s important to get the right match. If you’re interested in knowing more and want to see how we can help your business to grow then get in touch with us using the contact form on the website.