How to Manage a Content Team (Part 3: Strategy)

There’s just so much to say about strategy. I’m going to link you to some of the best strategy resources I know of, but I’m also going to run through a few common scenarios to help you get your footing. Nailing strategy is about understanding the context, navigating politics and applying your content expertise. Strategy never happens in a creative vacuum—it’s always just a little bit messy.

As the content team leader, you should in charge of creating and executing the content strategy. You’ll likely have input from a higher-up, and need to report on your progress, but you should retain control over the final strategy. Executing someone else’s strategy is often (but not always) a red flag. If your title says you’re the content lead, you should be the content lead.

Since almost no one is starting a content plan from scratch anymore, so we’re going to focus on creating a content strategy based on the m̶e̶s̶s̶ situation you’re inheriting. (Let’s be real, though, you are probably inheriting a mess.) You’ll need to apply the advice from the strategy articles I’ll share, but in the context of your own situation.  

Get your footing

The first thing any new content lead should do is conduct a thorough audit of the existing content, its traffic, efficacy, relevance, and quality. (Here’s a great article on conducting an audit.) Audits are a vast topic that deserve its their own article. In general, you want to learn:

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Check out the rest of the articles in this series:

1. How to Manage a Content Team (Part 1: People)
2. How to Manage a Content Team (Part 2: Hiring)
3. How to Manage a Content Team (Part 3: Strategy)
4. How to Manage a Content Team (Part 4: Planning)