Building a Content Marketing Team

Brands have two options for how they actually do content marketing:

1. Manage content projects internally, e.g., through in-house marketers and content creators
2. Outsource content projects, e.g., to freelance writers, agencies, or consultants

For sustainable content-driven growth, we recommend hiring at least one dedicated content marketer.

Why? Someone needs to fully own all of your brand’s content marketing efforts and be invested in using content to grow your company.

Freelancers with multiple clients have a lower chance of success here because they have competing priorities. For the same reason, you shouldn’t split up marketing work among multiple team members.

Later on, you can grow that single content marketer’s role into overseeing full-time writers and/or freelancers. Or make them the point person for working with an agency. But starting out, there should be, at minimum, one person focused on content.

Strategists and creators

Marketing talent often shows up in one of two forms:

• Strategists: Marketers skilled in ideating, research, and analysis
• Creators: Marketers skilled in writing, editing, or design

These roles aren’t mutually exclusive—in fact, the best content marketers are both.

How to hire excellent content marketers

We’ve got six tips for finding and screening content marketing candidates:

1. Share your job posting on Twitter or LinkedIn. Traditional job boards don’t attract content marketing talent because the best candidates are already working at other startups or in non-traditional settings (like freelancing full-time). So post your open role on your personal Twitter or LinkedIn account and ask users to comment if they’re interested.
2. Find candidates in growth communities. Join growth marketing Slack groups and see who’s discussing topics relevant to your company. Message members with obvious expertise and ask if they’re interested in a new role.
3. Ask for samples of candidates’ work and content ideas. Remember that the ideal content marketer is both a strategist and a creator. Work samples speak to a candidate’s skills in creating content, and content ideas show their ability to research your brand and come up with relevant topics.
4. Prioritize writing skills over subject matter expertise. Don’t pass over candidates just because they don’t have experience in your industry. Knowledge about a topic can be developed relatively quickly into expertise; becoming a better writer takes a lot more time.
5. Test candidates with a freelance project. Test assignments provide a more realistic idea of how a candidate might perform if hired. If different types of content projects are expected of the role, vet them with more than one assignment. For example, at Demand Curve, we test content writers with 2-3 projects. The added benefit of testing candidates is that they’ll also get a better sense of what working for your company is like.
6. Pay well. Top content marketers that generate consistent quality don’t come cheaply. Pay well to attract better candidates.