Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
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A content strategist decides what gets written and why: audience research, topics, formats and a plan that ties content to each stage of the buying process. Writers are easy to find and a plan is not, so we screen for a plan they built, content they chose to stop making and results they can trace back to the strategy.
A new content strategist is judged on whether content stops being made one request at a time. The first quarter is about evidence, a plan the team agrees to and briefs writers can use. Each stage below has a signal we test for first.
The ramp, and the test behind each milestone
Weeks 1 and 2
A review of what has been published, with traffic, conversions and the buyer question each piece answers, plus conversations with sales and customer teams about what is missing.
On track looks like a short audit that names what to keep, fix, merge or stop, with the evidence, not a spreadsheet of every page.
How we test for it before you meet them
A live exercise in our screen: twenty minutes on a sample content inventory with analytics. We score what they would stop making and what they would make next.
Weeks 3 to 6
Who buys, what they ask at each stage and the words they use, taken from sales calls, support tickets and search data, and mapped to the topics the company could own.
On track looks like a topic map tied to buyer questions and search demand, agreed with sales and product marketing.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask for the research behind a plan they built: the sources, what surprised them and what they changed. A former head of content confirms it.
Weeks 7 to 10
Formats, topics, order and owners for the next two quarters, with the measure for each and a plain list of what the team will not make.
On track looks like a plan with owners, dates and a stop list, signed off by the head of content or marketing.
How we test for it before you meet them
We read a plan they wrote and ask what it left out and why. A strong plan names things it deliberately does not do.
Weeks 11 to 13
Each planned piece gets a brief: the reader, the question, the angle, the evidence needed, the structure and how success will be measured.
On track looks like writers producing pieces from the strategist's briefs without a rewrite.
How we test for it before you meet them
We read a brief they wrote. A strong one says what the reader needs to believe at the end; a weak one is a topic and a word count.
After day 90
Reporting that ties content to leads, pipeline and retention rather than traffic alone, and decisions to refresh or retire pieces made on evidence.
On track looks like a quarterly review showing what the plan produced in leads and pipeline, and what changes next.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask how they would measure the plan's first year. A specific answer built on sales and customer data predicts a strategist who ties content to revenue.
Five responsibilities. If the seat mainly writes the pieces, it is a content writer; if it mainly runs the team, the calendar and the budget, it is a content marketing manager.
Who the buyers are, what they ask at each stage and the words they use, from sales, support and search data.
Which topics to own, how pages and themes connect and which search demand each one serves.
Formats, order and owners for the next quarters, including what the team will stop making.
Briefs writers can work from, and a quality standard that editors can apply.
Reporting that ties content to leads, pipeline and retention, and the decision to refresh or retire a piece.
Three neighboring seats absorb work people assume belongs here. Drawing the line wrong is how a content strategist ends up writing every piece or running a team nobody planned for.
That seat ownsThe content program: the team, the calendar, the budget and the results.
Hire it instead whenthe plan exists and the gap is running the team and delivering it.
That seat ownsWriting the pieces: articles, guides and landing copy from briefs.
Hire it instead whenthe plan and the briefs exist, and the bottleneck is writing enough good pieces.
That seat ownsWhich searches to win and in what order: demand analysis, content architecture and competitive gaps.
Hire it instead whenthe main question is search demand and ranking, with content as the means.
The title stays the same; the company does not. Pick the one that matches yours.
Plans and defends content priorities for one company, working daily with sales and product.
Builds the plan from search demand: topic clusters, intent and the gaps competitors leave.
Plans content for a product-led company: onboarding, education, community and docs as well as marketing pages.
The questions we ask in our own screen. Use them in yours; the warning signs are as useful as the answers.
Every candidate we put forward is scored on these five, and the scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included. Four out of five with a named weakness beats a clean sweep you cannot verify.
| What we score | Weak evidence | Strong evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Plans they built | A calendar of requested pieces. | A plan with research behind it, including what was left out. |
| Audience research | Starts from brainstorming. | Starts from sales calls, support and search data, with what changed as a result. |
| Briefs writers can use | A topic, a word count and keywords. | Briefs that produce pieces writers do not need to rewrite. |
| Measuring what matters | Reports traffic and shares. | Ties content to leads, pipeline and retention, and acts on it. |
| Fit with your company | Consumer or agency experience for a complex B2B sale, or the reverse. | Has planned content for buyers like yours, at your deal size and sales cycle. |
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Salary.com’s content strategist band and Built In’s self-reported figures sit close together, and the content marketing manager seat above them runs well higher. Scope moves the number: a strategist who owns research, the plan and measurement is priced toward the upper end of the band, one who plans a calendar for others nearer the lower end.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)Average total pay, base plus variable
Content Strategist
Salary.com base, Built In total
$68,575 to $85,331 base$86,492 average total
Content Marketing Manager
Salary.com base, Built In total, the next seat up
$106,212 to $128,101 base$102,336 average total
Content Writer
Salary.com base benchmark, neighboring seat
$67,129 to $82,227 base
Marketing specialists
BLS, all industries, the marketing specialist category
$58,350 to $108,310
Content Strategist, Content Marketing Manager and Content Writer bars: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Content Strategist ring: Built In average total compensation (base plus additional cash, self-reported), reviewed October 18, 2026; Content Marketing Manager ring: reviewed October 5, 2026. Marketing specialists: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles (SOC 13-1161), all industries. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
A content strategist decides what a company publishes and why. They research the audience and the questions buyers ask, choose topics and formats, build a plan that ties content to each stage of the buying process, write briefs for writers and measure what the plan produces. They also decide what to stop making. The measure is pipeline and retention, not volume.
Salary.com puts a content strategist at $68,575 to $85,331 base, with a median of $73,677 (October 2026). Built In’s self-reported figures show a $70,000 median base and $86,492 average total pay. A content marketing manager sits higher, at $106,212 to $128,101 base on Salary.com. Scope moves the number: research, plan and measurement price above planning a calendar for others.
A content strategist decides what to make and why: research, topics, the plan and the briefs. A content marketing manager runs the program: the team, the calendar, the budget, agencies and the results. In small companies one person does both. If content gets made with no plan behind it, hire a strategist; if the plan exists but delivery stalls, hire a manager.
When content is made one request at a time, when several teams publish without a shared plan, when traffic grows and leads do not, or when the content team cannot say what it should stop making. Before that, a good content marketing manager may cover the planning. The signal is output rising while results stay flat.
A freelance or agency strategist suits a one-off audit or a plan for a launch. In-house pays off when the plan has to be kept alive: weekly decisions with sales and product, briefs for writers and reporting on what it produced. They learn your buyers and say no to requests. Some teams use a freelancer for the first plan and then hire.
Give them a sample content inventory with analytics and twenty minutes. Ask what they would stop making, what they would make next and what they would want to know first. Then ask for a plan they built and what it left out. The answers show judgment about priorities, which a portfolio of finished pieces hides.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates, each with our content inventory exercise scored and a past plan checked with a former head of content. Interview speed decides the rest: good strategists rarely run one process at a time, so a decision within two weeks of the first interview keeps them.
Tell us what you publish today, who asks for it and which results matter. We come back within one business day with how we would run the search and what the seat pays.
We build shortlists from people doing this work now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for content roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
The content strategist is one of twelve seats in this function. If the gap sits elsewhere, start there.