Two reasons you shouldn’t hire out content strategy

I get it. You want to win at content strategy and position your executives as thought leaders, give them opportunities to speak at conferences, and write books. You want those big PR and marketing scores that only great content can bring. But before you move forward, consider why you shouldn’t hire out content strategy: because it can easily backfire.

Big reason 1: Experts see through it

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people, working for iHeartRadio interviewing Presidential Candidates, Congressmembers, and top executives like the founders of Starbucks and Ancestry.com. Without a doubt, skilled interviewers can make you a hero, or bring you to your knees without trying.

I pick my guests carefully and have zero desire to embarrass or challenge anyone. In fact, my goal is the opposite: I seek to amplify the most inventive people and connect their ideas to millions. To do that, I meticulous research my interviewees by reading their body of work. For true experts, my approach makes for an engaging interview. But for people who haven’t done the work, the result is their inevitable embarrassment when they’re asked about a subject in their book, that they can’t recall.

Big reason 2: The content sucks

Because I work with my clients to create engaging content, I get requests to produce written or audio/visual content on behalf of a company. With a few exceptions detailed below, marcom folks who request this usually place zero value in that content. They often believe volume is a magic wand to achieve better search results. It’s not. Volume has zero impact. I always have the same response: if I can out-expert your experts, you need better experts.

It should be obvious, but the reason content will draw visitors to your website is because it’s good, unique and helpful content. For the same reason a book report never changed the world, anyone re-telling or re-mixing someone else’s unique content won’t attract buyers.

The only reason you can hire out content strategy is when the person you’re hiring truly is an expert, you’re hiring them as a curator, or you’re hiring them to edit and help lead your expert sources—this can be very effective.