Content production in agencies in DACH

Around three quarters stated that at least five or more people are involved in the implementation of their content production and that they have established processes for collaboration, but only 30% of those surveyed consistently comply with them.

Microsoft and Google Office suites dominate the use of software, supplemented by a quarter of the respondents who rely on project management offerings. Specialized content collaboration solutions are rarely used.

The majority of the agencies surveyed believe that they work efficiently. Yet more than 70% believe that improvements are possible. When asked about the challenges, they name the work flows and processes the most frequently, at around 40%.

With 69 participants, the survey provides significant results. Of course, interpretation is essential to draw conclusions.

What kind of content is mainly produced?

Content production is constantly shifting to social media, which is now on par with web content. Given the nature of this channel, this is not surprising: Social media always depends on new content. Display advertising can be found at the end, which is also due to the peculiarity that displays can be used for longer.

Search engine marketing remains relevant. But for how much longer? With developments such as ChatGPT, its significance could diminish. At the same time, unique, relevant content gains in value. On the one hand as “fodder” for AI, on the other hand, it creates attention and keeps it in constant competition for users' time.

How has the amount of content to be produced changed in the last five years? And what does it look like for the future?

This is an extremely clear picture: More than 95% of respondents confirmed that the amount of content has increased, around 60% say that the amount has even increased significantly.

When interviewees look into the future, they expect a further increase in content to be produced. Probably not quite on the scale of the last five years, but more than 85% of responses expect a further increase, and around a third of all responses even a significant increase.

How many people are involved in content production?

Around a quarter of the respondents stated that only one or two people are currently involved in the production process. This is to be expected for agencies that are primarily at home in one discipline or where individual employees take on various tasks.

Around half of them are two to five people, which corresponds to the typical composition of content production: text, graphics, project management, customer. As soon as languages or legal checks, for example, are added, the number of participants is over five, which was the case for the remaining quarter of the respondents.

Is software used to support the production process?

It goes without saying that software is used. It gets interesting when it comes to the type of software. With over 50% of the answers, the group of users of the classic office suites from microsoft and google. A second group of 24% uses project management solutions such as Trello, Asana or Jira.

Only a small group uses specialized content tools such as gatherContent or easyContent. And an agency has decided — probably due to a lack of suitable solutions — to develop a solution itself.

Does your company have standardized and established workflows for creating content?

A third of respondents say they have established processes and comply with them. Although almost 44% have work processes in place, they find it difficult to always comply with them. And yet almost a fifth say they have not implemented any clear processes.

What this evaluation does not show are the reasons for the respective situations. This raises the question of whether the failure to comply with processes is due to the lack of tools that can support these processes.

What are the biggest challenges when it comes to content production?

Finding skilled personnel is also a constant challenge in the communications sector, affecting a third of those surveyed. It is interesting to see that with over 40% of respondents, the largest group states that processes and workflows are a central issue in content production.

The fact that just under 20% of respondents perceive missing or sub-optimal software as a challenge suggests that there is only a partial connection between processes and software.

How efficient is content production?

Finally, we wanted to know from the interviewees whether they rated their content production as efficient. Small shares of around 15% each rate their efficiency as either comprehensive or poor. The vast majority of just under 70% rate their own performance as efficient, but at the same time believes that improvements are possible.

Data basis

85% of the sample of 69 responses includes agencies such as creative, PR, digital marketing, media or social media agencies. A good third of the answers came from agencies with 1 to 5 or 6 to 15 employees. Agencies with 16 to 50 employees accounted for a further 20% and larger organizations accounted for the rest. Management board members responded in over 90% of cases.

A big thank you to all participants who made this survey possible!

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