Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question about content marketing or how our packages work? Find all the answers you need in our FAQs.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a way of building a relationship with your audience over time by creating and sharing high quality, regular content. This content is used to educate, inspire, and occasionally entertain, your audience.
Effective content marketing is an ongoing and iterative process: a cycle of creating, sharing and measuring results.
When done well, content marketing can create evergreen content on your website. This means that the high quality traffic your content attracts increases year on year. Viewed in this light, content marketing can be a fantastic investment and your content a valuable asset to your business.
Check out these relevant in-depth posts on the topic:
Why do I need content marketing?
The truth is, not every business needs content marketing to grow. It’s also true that content marketing in some sectors can be more challenging than in others.
Saying that, if you’d like your website to generate new enquiries and customers every month, then content marketing can transform your business.
If your website is central to the growth of your business, then engaging in content marketing can be a fantastic investment. Why? Because if you create high quality, timeless content, it will continue to bring you more website visitors year on year.
We’d suggest an initial commitment of 6 to 12 months, to enable you to start seeing good results. But ultimately, you’ll reap more rewards the longer you invest in content marketing.
What results can I expect from content marketing?
This is an impossible question to answer because it depends on so many variables:
- your type of business
- your sector
- your position within your sector
- your competition
- your goals
- your location
- your language
Each of these variables is unique to any given business, making it impossible to predict accurately. A better way of approaching this question is:
- Set a goal;
- Break down that goal into smaller steps;
- Benchmark your current performance;
- Start regular content marketing;
- Measure progress and make incremental improvements;
- Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 for a period of at least 6 to 12 months.
Needless to say, steps 1 and 2 are actually much harder to define than they first appear. For example: Let’s say your goal is to generate sales enquiries on your website; assuming you have one service, product or package, the first question you need to ask yourself is, “How much is the average value of a sale?”
Typically, a lower amount requires less effort: perhaps you just need a well written product description and a call to action to buy now. A higher average sale value requires that you design a sales process around how you expect customers to behave based on their past buying behaviour. This process needs to be broken down into steps that you can measure.
Our packages are designed to help you define these goals and take steps towards reaching these goals, by helping you create regular, high quality content.
Do I need a WordPress website?
Yes! In our experience, WordPress is by far the best platform for launching your content marketing. That’s why we only work with businesses who have a WordPress website.
WordPress comes in two flavours:
WordPress.org – This is a self-hosted WordPress site tailored to your requirements. You have a custom theme and can add plugins to your site. You will pay for the hosting of your website and your domain name. If you have a WordPress.org site then you could be a perfect customer for us! Check out our Essential Setup package and then book a free consultation.
WordPress.com – This is a free website service and has much less flexibility for you to add your own theme and plugins. We currently don’t work with WordPress.com sites, as we need to install our own set of plugins to set up your site properly. But we’d still like to hear from you if you want to discuss working together.
Don’t have a WordPress website yet?
Don’t worry if you don’t have a WordPress website yet – we can connect you to a great local WordPress agency or freelancer who can design and build your new site for you. Contact us and we’ll let you know who’s the best fit for your business.
Do I need a MailChimp account?
Yes. MailChimp is the best email marketing provider for most businesses starting out with content marketing. Here are 5 reasons why.
Don’t have a MailChimp account? No problem! We can get you set up in no time. And if you already have an existing email marketing provider, we can migrate your email lists into your new MailChimp account, so you’re all ready to go.
We also work with Drip which is a more complex marketing automation software. If you don’t know what marketing automation is, then we suggest you start off with MailChimp to build your audience.
I've never done any email marketing - is this a problem?
Not at all! Our Email Marketing Package includes everything you need to get set up with MailChimp for your email marketing. We’ll set up your account, start your email list and even create a branded email template for you.
When you sign up to one of our monthly packages we’ll create and schedule all your email campaigns – we’ll even find and resize great images to help your campaigns stand out. We love helping new clients get started with email marketing and watching their business grow!
I don't have a big email list - is this a problem?
No, don’t worry. One of the main aims of content marketing is to grow your email list by publishing high quality, regular content, giving away free stuff and connecting with the right audience.
Whatever size your existing email list – or even if you don’t have one at all – we’ll help you build it, so you can start growing your business with content marketing.
What is permission marketing?
Permission marketing means you explicitly agree in advance to receive marketing information. Rather than ‘interruption marketing’ which can literally interrupt you with unrequested information, permission marketing works on the basis that you must give consent in advance, i.e. you need to be able to opt-in and opt-out.
Opting in means you sign up in advance for information about certain products or services, e.g. opting in to a mailing list.
Opting out is also very important in permission marketing, as once you’ve opted in there must be an option in all emails to opt-out again – that’s what the unsubscribe link at the bottom of most emails is for.
In permission marketing it’s good practice to:
- give people the opportunity to update their subscriptions or settings – because over time they may opt-in to lots of stuff, and
- only send people what they ask for – no oranges when they’ve asked for bananas!
At Wildheart we only ever use permission marketing, so we’ll never try to sell you anything you don’t need or send you emails you don’t want. If you ask for bananas we’ll only give you bananas!
I think my website is great. Do I really need a new one?
Your website may look great, but the chances are – especially if you’re visiting our website – that something isn’t quite working as it should and you’re not getting the results you want from your marketing. A successful website is made up of many factors all working seamlessly together.
Most of this stuff is hidden under the bonnet, out of sight, and is pretty geeky – which is why it’s easy to miss. Our New Website Package includes fine tuning your WordPress website with all this essential geeky stuff to ensure it becomes the powerful engine you need to drive your content marketing. Without it, your content marketing simply won’t be successful.
Read the details of what’s included in our New Website Package.
Can you write blog posts for me?
No. And here’s why: No-one knows your business like you do. That’s why we believe you should write your own blog posts. What we’ll do is give you feedback on your posts, proof them, format them, make them search engine friendly, add compelling images and get them in front of the right people. You know your subject, and we know how to package and present it to your audience so you get the best results. Together we’ll make a kickass team!
But don’t worry if you’re not a confident writer – we can help. We have a thorough editing and feedback process which will help you hone your skills, and we publish new articles every week in our own marketing blog, which are packed with useful tips and advice. As an excellent starting point, check out our 7 steps to writing a great blog post.
Will you write my website content?
No. For the same reasons we don’t write your blog posts, we believe you should write your own website content too.
What we will do, however, is ensure that your site architecture is clear and simple, that your pages are well organised and easy to find, that each page has a clear and compelling call to action, and that each page is fully optimised for relevant search engine friendly words and phrases.
Is there a minimum commitment on your monthly packages?
Yes, our monthly packages have a minimum commitment of 3 months.
It takes time and patience to grow your business with content marketing, so 3 months is really only the tip of the iceberg. Whilst you’re under no obligation to renew your package at the end of the initial term, we would recommend continuing with regular, consistent, content marketing for at least 9-12 months to see meaningful results.
What are the payment terms?
Our fixed-price packages are invoiced in advance and we start work once payment has been received. Talk to us if you need help managing your cash flow, as we can usually split the cost of your package(s) over 2 or 3 months.
Consulting work is billed on completion. We send invoices on the 1st of each month so we'll invoice you for the time completed so far that month.
The payment terms on our invoices are 7 days.
What is your cancellation policy?
Our monthly packages have a minimum commitment of 3 months, so we’d encourage you to see out this initial term in order to get a feel for what’s possible with content marketing.
Of course, we want all our clients to feel happy with the service they’re getting from us. If you’re dissatisfied for any reason, we’d encourage you to talk to us first, so we can discuss any issues. If you really need to cancel your package you can do this at anytime, but we’re unable to issue refunds for payments already made.
Do you offer web design services?
No, but feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to recommend a local WordPress agency or freelancer to design your website for you.
Can you manage our social media accounts for us?
Social media management is not currently one of our standard packages. However, we will share your blog posts across your social media accounts as part of our monthly packages.
If you’re looking for a full social media management package, we can offer this as an add-on, so do contact us and we can talk through the details.
Do you offer website hosting?
Each day we:
- backup your website files
- backup your database
Each week we:
- update WordPress core files
- update your theme
- update all plugins
- update all translations
We also do a manual check through your site after the updates, to test for any plugins that may have broken during the weekly update. Our servers are based in the UK and offer 99% uptime (excluding planned or emergency server maintenance or conditions beyond our reasonable control).
Our Website Updates Package costs £549/year and is payable in advance.
Contact us if you’d like to discuss how we can manage your WordPress website for you, and you’ll never have to worry about updating your website again.