Why Your Ideal Content Lead Might Be a Freelancer

Fractional….content….lead.

Hmmmm. 

Is that a real thing?

Valid question. And I don’t know if it’s an actual thing yet, but I’m fairly certain it’s going to be an actual thing soon. It just makes too much sense not to.

These days you hear a lot about fractional CMOs, which is when a company outsources their marketing leadership rather than hiring a full-time or CMO. (Here’s a deeper explanation if you want it.) And maybe you hear a lot about CMOs because, well, they’re marketers and marketers love talking about marketing. But it may also be because increasingly smart companies of all sizes and stage are realizing that while they definitely need a CMO or a CFO (fractional CFOs are also common) they don't need one 100% of the time. Just because a role is crucial and highly skilled, doesn’t mean it always requires a full-time person to perform it.

Highly skilled? Crucial?

That sounds like content leadership to me.

And yet the one role you don’t hear much about being fractionalizing is that of the Content Lead, even though content may be an ideal function to outsource.

In fact, considering all the ways in which a company needs to function - product, logistics, tech, finance, marketing - content may be the one that’s best suited to a fractionalizing.  

By now, we can all agree that content is key and that most businesses require high-quality storytelling of one type or another. (If you disagree, go ahead and get back to Ye Olde Blacksmith Shoppe, where I’m sure there’s some iron for you to smelt. Everyone else can keep reading.) If you think about all the ways in which a modern business has to excel — from generating leads and promoting products, building a brand and fostering community — much of it relies on engagement, education, and enlightenment. And that requires a skilled, thoughtful content lead.

But it may not require one full-time. Or if it may not require a full-time role all the time.

A few years ago, when funding was plentiful, social media seemed indomitable, and every start-up was hellbent on expansion, building a dedicated content operation made more sense. (I know, because I built one.) And once you create an effective content team, stakeholders will find reasons to create content: brand-building, customer testimonials, internal comms…you name it. Most of that content was effective and awesome and well worth the time and effort to create it. 

And some of it wasn’t, which is why when contraction came (and not just to tech) content teams were one of the first things to go. And it’s also why now is the time for companies to rethink their relationship to in-house creators and consider a fractional model and all its benefits, which I’ll explore in a separate article soon.

Not only does a fractional model allow you to hire better talent than you could otherwise afford full-time, it allows you to customize production and talent to better suit your needs and your timeline. 

Some companies need a big content push at launch or at specific times of the year, and then require less after that. In some cases, the content created in Q2, for example, will take them through the rest of the year. The awesomely named C Word Media, co-founded by Danielle Pergament and jane larkworthy , both well-respected former beauty editors capable of vivid, valuable copy, grew organically when scaling beauty brands turned to them for help.

“So when people came to me and asked if they could ‘pick my brain’,” Pergament explains, “I always knew what they needed. `This is your story. That’s not your story. That’s fun. That’s stupid. That’s perfect. That’s garbage. That’s your voice.'”

She understood that she could help them tell their story. “I realized that if I could put my ideas on paper I could really help people create their stories and build their companies. One day I’d be having coffee with someone launching a new brand, then I’d write a few taglines, and a few months later, there’s my tagline on a billboard on the PCH. That’s how the C Word was born.”

That was in 2020. Since then, C Word’s clients — Osea Skin Care, Eva Longoria, @Nexxus to name a few — have come and gone and sometimes come back again, based on their fluctuating needs and timelines. C Word maintain a manageable roster of clients - usually four or five at a time - so that everyone’s needs are met.

Apart from being vastly less expensive than hiring a full-time content team or contracting a huge agency to tease out a tedious, months-long brand assessment, these client companies get what they need and avoid paying for what they don’t. Often times, they know they market as well as any agency ever could; they just need help telling their stories and creating an authentic brand. And that requires someone with excellent taste, the right voice, and the kind of low-key editorial flair Chat-GPT will never be able to produce. 

In the twelve or so years since former journalists/editors Neil Fine and Gary Belsky formed Elland Road Partners they haven’t ever used the term “fractional content lead”, but that’s the essence of what they provide their many clients. “They get two things,” Belsky says. “They get strategy and execution. And that's all they really need. 'What content should we put out in the world and can you please make it for us?'”

I’d suggest that clients of The C Word and Elland Road Partners — which has worked for a wide array of businesses, from SaaS and logistics to non-profits and gravestone makers — get something deeper than strategy and execution: the excellence that comes with hiring journalists and writers with actual editorial experience.

“We give them very good people at below market rates,” says Belsky. “If they're going to spend $120,000 on a content producer plus salary and benefits. We would give them the same amount of content for half that price, and probably a higher quality. The people who work for us are people who worked at some of the best magazines or newspapers or websites in the country.”

As more and more companies are forced to do more with less and be smarter and more discerning about the content they create, the fractional model will become a common practice. It’s more flexible, more cost-effective, and it often produces better work. And companies and organizations have laid off their full-time content leads may not have a choice. The fractional content lead seems inevitable.

But I’m biased, because I know the work my agency delivers on a fractional basis. Flip Turn Creative works for a growing number of clients who need innovative, authentic storytelling, but who don’t need a full-time content lead. One inventive outdoor company, for example, needs landing page copy, product pages, and a slew of product descriptions. They're still in their infancy. And after that, they don’t need much, at least not until they ramp up and build out their social and thought leadership strategy. A non-profit client needs a robust and highly-designed annual report, which will require a couple of months of dedicated work, but then when it’s done, it’s over...at least until next year. 

Who needs a full-time Content Director when you can get what you need — at a higher quality — without hiring a full-time position? Stay tuned for next week when I’ll explain all the various benefits of the fractional content model.