Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable, relevant, consistent content in order to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Unlike direct advertising, this method aims to build long-term relationships with potential clients through useful, informative material. Content marketing includes creating blogs, videos, podcasts, infographics, emails, and other content formats that don't just inform — they solve the target audience's problems.
Running content marketing yourself is an extremely labor-intensive, complex process that demands deep professional skill and a significant time investment. Producing quality content takes more than copywriting skill — it requires understanding SEO, the target audience's psychology, the ability to analyze performance metrics, and constant adaptation to changing search-engine algorithms. Professional agencies have a team of specialists — copywriters, marketers, designers, and analysts — who can solve content-promotion problems comprehensively and effectively, in a way that significantly outperforms a single specialist or a small in-house team.
Here's a list of well-known international companies that specialize in content marketing and offer related services:
1. HubSpot
An American developer and seller of software for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006.
- Specialty: tools for customer relationship management, social media marketing, content management, lead generation, web analytics, search optimization, live chat, SaaS, and customer support.
- Clients: small and mid-size businesses, SaaS companies.
- Distinctive feature: the platform offers CRM and marketing automation tools.
2. Skyword
- Specialty: content strategy development, content creation, analytics.
- Clients: IBM, Mastercard, Adobe.
- Distinctive feature: focused on growing brands through storytelling and SEO.
3. Brafton
Founded in 2008 in Boston. Now has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, London, and Sydney, with teams of SEO specialists, social media experts, copywriters, designers, developers, videographers, and consultants.
- Specialty: content marketing, search performance reports, full-funnel inbound strategies, landing pages, blog posts, ebooks, white papers, infographics, press releases, video and animation, newsletters, email campaigns, and other content.
- Clients: Pearson, Walgreens, Citibank.
- Distinctive feature: a full cycle from strategy to execution.
4. Edelman
A multinational American PR and marketing consulting firm. Founded in 1952 and named after its founder, Daniel Edelman; now run by his son Richard from headquarters in New York. As of 2022, it's the world's largest PR firm by revenue, with roughly 6,000 employees across 60 offices worldwide.
- Specialty: PR, content marketing, branding.
- Clients: Microsoft, Starbucks, Samsung.
- Distinctive feature: integrates content marketing with global communications strategies.
5. Neil Patel Digital
NP Digital was founded in 2017 by Neil Patel — a New York Times bestselling author and one of the world's most influential marketers according to The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
- Specialty: content creation and promotion, SEO, PPC.
- Clients: small and mid-size businesses and large corporations.
- Distinctive feature: founded by well-known marketer Neil Patel, with a focus on content performance.
6. Animalz
A content marketing agency focused on written content. Helps companies educate and inform their audience (executives, managers, and other specialists in their field) about strategies and tactics.
- Specialty: content for SaaS companies, B2B.
- Clients: Intercom, Wistia, Google.
- Distinctive feature: deep analytics and a focus on long-term client growth through content.
7. Optimizely
An American software company: A/B and multivariate testing tools, website personalization and feature-flag capabilities, and web content management.
- Specialty: content marketing, project management.
- Clients: Barclays, Dell, Fidelity.
- Distinctive feature: uses its own platform to build and track content campaigns.
8. Copypress
A marketing agency providing comprehensive solutions for businesses across recruiting, healthcare, technology, finance, and more.
- Specialty: content creation (copy, infographics, video).
- Clients: Staples, The Motley Fool, Fanatics.
- Distinctive feature: flexibility in creating content across different subjects.
9. Shop'n'SEO
- Specialty: tools for promoting online shops, including content creation and management.
- Clients: KB77, Asder Es, Ivecom.
- Distinctive feature: offers its own SEO-focused content management platform.
These firms serve clients around the world and have years of experience creating and promoting content across a range of industries.