You Say You Want a Content Strategist – But What Do You *Really* Need?

My last three official roles all involved content strategy to some degree. Two even included “content strategist” in the title.

None of the three roles really focused on strategy, though. While that’s not the lone reason I’m no longer in any of those roles, a lack of clear expectations certainly played a part.

As I’ve continued my transition to full-time freelance writing, I’ve been thinking about why none of these roles met my expectations, and whether my experience is solely related to me or emblematic of a larger challenge for anyone seeking to fill a role with what they believe should be a content strategist.

Strategy Is Easier Said Than Done

The biggest challenge, I think, is that strategy is easier said than done. When you hire or promote someone to a role with strategist in their title, whatever the job or the industry, your primary aim is to project to the outside world, “We’re thinking big. Change is coming.”

Are you really, though? And is it? Consider the following.

• If your strategist is limited to working within the confines of your existing processes and systems, without having much leeway to operate differently, then, well, you’re not thinking big. You can’t and shouldn’t be surprised if the results turn out to be pretty much the same. You can only fix a broken dishwasher so many times.
• If the bulk of your strategist’s work is actually tactical, that’s also a problem.
  • Perhaps this role, like many others, involved a new title but not a new job description. How many companies have a Senior Associate Somethingorother who was given the title mostly to justify a higher paycheck because they’ve been there so long? In this case, you’re not innovating; you’re perpetuating existing bureaucracy. Don’t string the person along with a false sense of hope.
  • Maybe there’s just too much tactical work that needs to be done. If that’s the case, and you move ahead and hire someone for a strategic role, all you’re doing is reeling them in with a bait and switch. Don’t do that.
• If your strategist isn’t given any guidance or direction, then you can’t expect to get much out of the role. Yes, some degree of autonomy is necessary – and, to reinforce the first point, you can’t innovate inside a rigid box – but you need regular check-ins (or at the very least a set of requirements and expectations) to guide their work. This is especially true if you’re bringing in someone who’s proven in your subject matter but new to your industry vertical, or vice versa. Simply saying “We’re trying to be like a startup” won’t cut it.
• If you confuse strategy development and product development, there’s a good chance you’re going to hire the wrong person. These require different skill sets, not to mention different ways of thinking and approaching a problem. If you’re in a rush to fill a role, step back and figure out what you truly need. Simply putting a body in a seat rarely succeeds.

(OK, So I *Might* Not Be An Expert…)

I think each of these problems is solvable, to a degree. But before offering solutions, three caveats:

• I’m not a recruiter or hiring manager (and likely never will be). So there’s a chance I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. I also recognize that you need to shoot for the stars in job descriptions. Noting that 50% of a job is wrestling with an home-grown and obsolete content management system, or that 40% of a job is sitting in meetings that could have been emails, surely won’t bring in top candidates.
• It’s entirely possible that I didn’t like or succeed in my content strategy roles because I’m simply not cut out to do that type of work. I operate best when I have a clear assignment, objective, and deadline. Strategy obviously is more fluid. Sometimes I can work with that; sometimes I can’t.
• Two of my three recent roles were in conference production. I learned the hard way that I really, really don’t like that work. The expectations of the role, coupled with how the work tends to be done, is a stark contract with how I prefer to work and am motivated to work. I’d like to think it’s not clouding my judgment here, but I can’t promise that it’s not.

Four Possible Fixes to Your Content Strategy Conundrum

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about how to try to fix these problems.

Rigid processes. Don’t hire someone to change something that’s already firmly established, whether it’s an event that’s already been planned or an editorial calendar that’s already full. A strategist can have minimal influence over something that’s already set in stone, and trying to change what someone else has already created is bound to lead to conflict. Instead, put a strategist to work on new projects – or don’t hire them at all.

Too much tactical work. In one sense, there’s a simple solution: Hire someone who will do, and is expecting to do, the tactical work that actually needs to be done. This points to a bigger issue, though: What do you need to fix? Are the Big Ideas really not there – or are they there, just not trickling down into your finished products? In the former case, a strategist might help, but you also need to explore why you’ve been missing the Big Ideas for so long in the first place. In the latter case, you don’t need a strategist; you need an experienced manager of products, people, or both. Again, these are different roles with different skill sets.

No direction. The temptation to hire a strategist and send them on their merry way to concoct business-changing ideas is great. But, let’s face it, that’s not how work gets done (unless you’re a tenured professor or inventor). A strategist needs to know where to focus – new or expanded markets, new clients, new content types, etc. – along with when, how, and who to coordinate with to begin execution. Arguably more so than with any other employee, set clear guidelines and milestones for specific tasks to be done. Establish a clear reporting structure as well. “Dotted lines” to multiple managers will only add to the confusion for the strategist – and it gives managers a valid reason to pay less attention, since technically they’re not “in charge” of the strategist.

A need for product development, as it turns out. If the aforementioned Big Ideas aren’t there, but your company knows how to turn ideas into reality, then a full-time strategist won’t help you. Because – here’s a feel-good moment – you actually know what to do! You just need a nudge. Hire someone on a freelance or contract basis to hand you a polished idea and then run with it. Yes, there are a lot of details to work out, but keeping a full-time strategist on your payroll to do work that you know you are better at managing isn’t going to help your business. You’re going to be overpaying someone to do a job that, most of the time, isn’t really what they signed up to do.

Let’s Think About It

While I’m happy with the direction that my career has taken in recent months, I’m also a bit sad that my content strategy roles didn’t pan out. I liked my coworkers and managers, and I appreciated the work that we were able to accomplish together.

I don’t think my experiences entirely reflect the shortcomings of the places I worked. I think it’s part of a larger trend: Content companies think they want a single strategist, or even a team of them, but their true need is a bit different, and they haven’t taken the time to explore what (or who) will best impact the business. (It’s not unlike data analytics – everyone says they want AI, but really they just need better business intelligence.)

I hope these rambling thoughts are helpful for anyone who’s either planning to hire someone for a content strategy role or looking for a job with that type of title. They aren’t easy roles to fill, or jobs to do, and I hope we can all give them a little more thought as we work to create better content.