Choosing between Column Five and ClearVoice isn’t about picking a favorite—it’s about figuring out which style actually fits what you need. Both teams help bring content to life, but they go about it in completely different ways. Think of Column Five as your creative brain trust, the folks who dive into your story and put a new spin on complex ideas. ClearVoice gives you experts at building a quick, flexible content machine, driven by a huge group of freelancers and polished software.
Not sure which path matches your goals? This guide explains what each one brings to the table across background, know-how, creative quality, client lists, distribution chops, project style, cost, and speed. By the end, it’ll be clearer which one makes sense for you.
Column Five: A Closer Look
Column Five started in 2009 as pioneers in infographics and data storytelling. Picture those early pieces for Mint, before Intuit bought them—they went viral because they made big data feel simple and interesting. In the last 15+ years, Column Five has evolved from flashy visuals to a full creative studio, now offering brand identity, content strategy, and content production for B2B and SaaS companies.
Their entire approach centers on turning stories into something people remember and connect with. They help SaaS brands find and share their unique point of view, pulling together content programs that get people talking well before a sales call ever happens.
What does the work look like?
- Brand building: positioning, messaging, clarifying your visual style
- Content game plans: personas, buyer maps, and measurement so you know what’s working
- Creative output: video, motion design, infographics, interactive stories, in-depth reports, etc.
Column Five mostly teams up with growing SaaS companies and the occasional finance player or nonprofit. Their partners include Dropbox, Instacart, Netflix, Microsoft, Zendesk, Intuit, and Salesforce. Each client gets a dedicated creative crew—designers, motion pros, strategists, and an account lead—who stick with the project to the end. Most work happens as ongoing partnerships or in big phases, rather than as one-off one-pagers.
ClearVoice: Here’s How It Works
ClearVoice popped up around 2013, aiming to match brands with the right freelance talent and make content production painless through smart software. After years of building, Fiverr brought them on board in 2019. Today, ClearVoice keeps running as its own thing, supporting teams and agencies who want to kick content creation into high gear.
The ClearVoice platform blends workflow tools with a huge freelance network. Their VoiceGraph tool pairs you with pros—writers, designers, video people—across over 200 industries. They’ve got editorial calendars, collaboration features, and publishing links for WordPress, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more. Whether you want to steer things yourself or need a strategist to run point, they’ve got flexible options, including white-label teams.
The people who get the most out of ClearVoice already know their content plans. They just want to execute faster and keep quality strong. You can pick pay-as-you-go, managed services, or subs—whatever fits your flow. The platform is built for speed and volume, not custom creative campaigns. Big companies, like Cisco, use ClearVoice to pump out assets across multiple teams, keeping tight control with software for real-time feedback and status updates.
By 2025, ClearVoice saw a real jump in both revenue and customers, showing just how much companies want a ready-built production engine that syncs with their other marketing tools.
What Each One Knows Best
Column Five sticks with what they do well: brand storytelling for tech, SaaS, and select nonprofit groups. They have a knack for turning technical topics into engaging, visual stories (e.g., infographics, animated videos, and interactive explainers that resonate with audiences). Their mix also includes identity work, strategy, and custom creative, so clients get a full package instead of just another asset.
Their main clients are people who lead marketing or product at SaaS companies. Most projects play out as campaigns spread across several channels, shaped by real insight into what buyers care about. The real focus lands on brand growth you can see, including more leads, better customer wins, stronger reputation. It’s about making your story stand out, not just filling up your blog calendar.
ClearVoice plays the field with all kinds of industries, such as advertising, finance, health, legal, ecommerce, and education. Their strength is speed and matching you with freelancers who know your space. They support everyone from content managers to marketing ops teams and agencies who need steady, high-volume work.
If you already mapped out what you want to say, ClearVoice moves you into production and lets you scale fast. Pre-built templates, organized calendars, a skilled freelancer pool—these keep things running, so you never have to build a creative staff from scratch. Managed services also add a helpful layer of oversight, but software-driven production is always their home base.
The Backstory: How Long Have They Been Around?
Column Five has built its own path since 2009, growing from a small West Coast trio to a team distributed across the U.S. Their early experiment with content and infographics landed them at the front of visual storytelling, well before content marketing became a buzzword.
Agency growth picked up after Intuit bought Mint—the word got out, and other brands wanted in on the data-driven storytelling. By 2013, making the Inc. 500 list showed the approach worked. Since then, they’ve stuck to high-value creative and built deep client ties, driven by their brand philosophy (“Best Story Wins”). Their projects stretch beyond short gigs; they walk with clients through whole brand evolutions.
ClearVoice hit the scene in the early 2010s, raised venture capital, and by 2019, was snapped up by Fiverr. The acquisition kept ClearVoice as a separate platform, though founders shifted to advisory. Fast forward to today, and they’ve proven their model scales: more revenue, a bigger user base, and every sign that workflow platforms have earned their spot in content creation.
If you like tradition, Column Five shows what sticking to a philosophy can build. If you want new tech and a scalable model, ClearVoice’s story tracks the rise of platforms in marketing.
Strategy or Speed: Where Do They Shine?
Column Five always starts with strategy. Their process covers everything: deep research into who you want to reach, what makes them tick, what your competitors are missing, and how you position yourself. Before crafting a single video or graphic, they make sure your message fits your space.
Want proof it works? For Dropbox, they helped increase brand perception 19% and even boosted employee satisfaction. Their Blend project also led to a dramatic traffic jump—183% more, plus a big leap in top search results. This only happens with strong planning paired with creative execution and careful, ongoing tweaks.
Measurement drives their work. Success means picking the right metrics and adjusting as the project rolls out. Rather than a generic dashboard, they tailor reporting to your plans, ensuring you spot real results.
Over at ClearVoice, you get helpful strategy guides and simple templates, but the real power is in making production easy. Their platform automates the work, pairing you with freelancers, tracking workloads, and pushing assets live through publishing links. If you want a bit more guidance, managed plans come with a strategist and a producer, but everything leans toward fast, repeatable output.
Column Five delivers strategic campaigns plus creative substance. ClearVoice focuses on running things smoothly and at scale, best for those ready to produce plenty of content and keep it all flowing.
A Creative Snapshot: What Does the Work Look Like?
Column Five’s best work is easy to spot. Look for compelling content, vibrant infographics, slick animations, explainer videos, and interactive sites. These aren’t just visually impressive; they break down tough concepts and engage people involved in the buying process, whether it’s tech, SaaS, or finance.
Recent projects show their full campaign thinking and ability to scale. For Instacart Ads, they launched over 115 creative pieces, pulled together in two weeks. The Dropbox campaign harnessed talent stories into a whole platform that lifted the brand’s reputation and got people more involved. Blend’s SEO story is another example, as they focused on measurable growth, not just nice-to-have creative.
The creative teams here handle the heavy lifting with video, animation, and visual storytelling. Clients vouch for them with lines like “Column Five is the gold standard—feels like an extension of our team,” or notes on turning early ideas into work that’s far beyond the first draft.
Conversely, ClearVoice gets things done by tapping its network of freelancers. The highlights? Reliable blog posts, white papers, customer profiles, product descriptions—work that’s steady and ready to scale. Client case studies focus on the ease and consistency of working with a flexible network.
Quality depends on who picks up the job. The platform makes sure freelancers are vetted, and project producers step in to polish as needed. The sweet spot is high-volume, steady written output—an efficient way to manage routine content or updates.
Who’s on the Client List?
Column Five has partnered with brands like Dropbox, GitHub, Instacart, Netflix, SAP, Uber, Vercel, and Zendesk, along with a handful of nonprofits, such as Teach for America. Their work cuts across SaaS, tech, finance, and social impact.
Feedback focuses on real partnership and Column Five’s ability to work as an extension of your team. Intuit’s manager spoke about how the team builds true industry insight. Zendesk points to the smooth, fast project flow. Blend values the team’s guidance (insightful, strategic, not one-size-fits-all).
ClearVoice showcases brands like Cisco, along with clients from healthcare, retail, SaaS, and more. Cisco’s story highlights their workflow and control: the tools make large-scale production smoother and more transparent. Reviews often highlight production speed, clear workflows, and easy software features.
Both serve big brands. But Column Five’s roster points to creative projects that drive recognition. ClearVoice’s clients often value platform access and fast production above signature storytelling.
Getting Your Content Out There (and Seeing Results)
Column Five offers distribution planning as part of every creative system. They map your strongest channels—owned, earned, or paid—and build a plan to get your work noticed. The mix could cover:
- Audience targeting by real buyer info
- Media planning and outreach
- Social and paid campaigns
- Detailed campaign management and reporting
Measurement is set from the start. Benchmarks give you a clear view of what’s working, while regular reviews keep efforts sharp and adaptability strong. Recent examples—a Blend SEO campaign, or distribution work for Bloomreach—show that numbers go up when planning, media, and analytics work together.
ClearVoice brings editorial calendars, CMS publishing, and integration directly into the workflow. It automates tasks, feeds content right into your site, and hooks up with platforms like HubSpot, Slack, and WordPress. Analytics come built in, as campaign reports, pre-baked ROI sheets, and easy tracking tie production to outcomes.
With ClearVoice, process automation rules. If you want strategy-backed channel planning or custom benchmarks, you’ll find more value with Column Five’s advisory model. If your focus is “publish at pace” while keeping tabs on what’s shipping, ClearVoice is built for you.
How Each Team Works With You
Column Five prefers ongoing partnerships through retainers, but also supports projects. Three options define pricing:
- Brand Studio—creative retainer (from $10,000/month)
- Iris AI—SEO/AEO retainer (from $15,000/month)
- Custom projects for brand, campaigns, or websites
Engagements give you a full creative roster, including producers, designers, art directors, writers, and tech specialists as needed. Teams stick through the work, swapping in extras for specific needs. This rhythm means you’re not chasing freelancers or doing constant handovers. Work moves on set timelines: four to twelve weeks for a new brand, motion content in a month or two, and live video a bit longer. You’ll get custom scopes and real clarity along the way.
ClearVoice breaks it down into monthly subs, managed packages, on-demand gigs, and white-label teams. You get access to freelancers, workflow software, and, if needed, a project strategist—whatever keeps your projects on time. If your workload spikes or drops, just adjust the plan. Production scales in either direction, managed services add quality control, and the platform lets you tap new talent for each wave of work.
So, Column Five brings depth, hands-on team ties, and longer lead times. ClearVoice offers speed, scale, and easy in-out flexibility.
How Much Will It Cost?
Column Five sets clear minimums for ongoing work: $10,000/month for a creative retainer, or $15,000/month for SEO-AEO strategies. However, projects are quoted based on what you need and how complex it is. They function as a true partner, not just a vendor. Third-party sources point to most full-service work falling in the mid-and-high five figures monthly, because it involves everything: creative, data, distribution, and analytics.
ClearVoice, in contrast, shows you platform and per-word pricing upfront. Expect to pay $0.10–$0.30 or more per word, depending on the writer’s skill. Managed or enterprise plans get quoted based on how much/how often you want to publish. It’s scaling by the piece, keeping costs predictable and easy to adjust as your plans shift.
Column Five’s rates reflect detailed, strategic work. ClearVoice charges for efficiency, flexibility, and production volume.
How Fast Do Projects Move?
Column Five works on timelines fit for deep creative builds. Branding or strategy takes four to twelve weeks. Infographics and motion design land in four to eight. Live-action video can take a bit longer. Stages break out into reviews, drafts, and revisions—expect a first look one to three weeks in, but know the whole process values quality and teamwork above beating the clock.
If you need results fast, they can do it. Just look at how Zendesk called out their rapid response, or how Instacart got a campaign off the ground in two weeks. Still, most partnerships are about building lasting results, not constant churn.
ClearVoice resets the timeline. Standard articles or blog posts wrap in two or three days, managed plans keep you on weekly or monthly schedules, and the software lets you move through reviews and publishing at pace. Project volume can double without missing a beat, thanks to the freelance pool and in-app production tools. Managed clients get a single producer for oversight. Custom service agreements cover more complex cases or bulk orders.
Column Five suits teams who want to shape and refine their content over time. ClearVoice supports those who need quick turnarounds and steady output for high-volume needs.
Where They’re Best
Column Five is the team for companies looking to build a high-impact brand story, especially in B2B or SaaS. They excel at:
- Visual storytelling that turns data or tech into something people love to share
- Projects where brand, creative, and strategy mesh together and make you the one to watch
- Integrated campaigns and deeper partnerships that go beyond the quick win
They bring a smart, empathetic outlook, which is a good match for organizations that treat content like an investment, not just a to-do.
The right fit for ClearVoice? Mid-sized brands, agencies, or operations leads who have a plan and want to multiply output without hiring a bench of full-timers. ClearVoice works best for:
- Companies pumping out blogs, press releases, or product copy every week
- Teams who need standardized workflows, talent on demand, and seamless publishing
- Agencies who white-label production to knock out deliverables for multiple clients at a time
The pricing is simple. The ramp-up is quick. Software ties it all together so you don’t lose track as you scale.
How to Decide?
Go with Column Five if you want a creative partner focused on long-term brand value and breakthrough content. The agency suits B2B and SaaS marketing teams aiming to stand out with stellar data storytelling and in-depth campaigns. You get a whole creative system—from story and design to measurement—which feeds customer growth and loyalty. Expect detailed timelines, hands-on partnership, and a focus on quality every step of the way.
Pick ClearVoice if the content plan is ready and you need to get it done—on time and at scale. The platform helps build out blogs, thought leadership, or customer stories in bulk, letting you plug in talent, set calendars, and see results on a clear, predictable schedule. From self-serve to managed teams, you pick the right balance between autonomy and producer support. Costs are upfront, and the workflow adapts as your strategy shifts.
Column Five is ideal for teams who measure success in brand momentum and content quality. ClearVoice steps in for companies aiming to reach more people, faster, with minimal bottlenecks. The best choice simply depends on whether you’re focused on breaking new ground with your story, or getting great content delivered consistently at scale.
Thinking about building a brand story that actually earns attention and wins trust? Column Five is ready to talk and build a content system that fuels serious growth.
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