What a content strategist does and why businesses in Kazakhstan need one
Translated from Russian.
In short
A content strategist works out what a particular brand's customers find interesting: what they watch, read and talk about. Then they build a system in which the brand makes that kind of content itself and attracts people organically, instead of chasing them with ads. You need a strategist when content keeps coming out but leads, engagement and growth don't.
What a content strategist does, in plain words
We're all people, and we're all interested in something. My job as a strategist is to understand, on the brand's behalf, what interests the customers of a specific product or service, and to start creating exactly that in the brand's name.
The key is to figure out what people already watch, read and explore, and what they engage with. When a brand starts making that, rather than what it wants to say about itself, the audience comes on its own.
How a strategist differs from a marketer, a creative director and an SMM manager
It's easiest to show as a chain. Each role builds on the decision of the one before:
| Role | Responsible for |
|---|---|
| Business | what the company needs here and now |
| Marketer | solves the business problem and sets marketing goals |
| Content strategist | sets the direction: what content will achieve those goals and why the audience will care |
| Creative director | how it will look: visuals, unusual formats |
| SMM manager | assembles the team and ships what the previous steps came up with |
A strategist overlaps most with a creative director. But I always ask clients to keep creative and meaning apart. They're very different things, even though one keeps becoming part of the other. Meaning answers “what are we saying and why”; creative answers “how do we make it interesting”.
How to tell you need a strategist, not another SMM specialist
Honestly, I'm tempted to say you always need a strategist. But if you're choosing between a strategist and one more person in SMM, the sign is simple: your content isn't working.
- no leads;
- follower numbers aren't growing;
- low engagement, ER, read-through and views;
- a feeling that you're making something dull that doesn't solve business problems.
In that situation, hiring one more person to execute means producing more of what already doesn't work. First you need to understand why it isn't working, and that is exactly the strategist's job.
What a strategist does on a project
I'll use my own example. I don't join every TELLER project as a strategist: sometimes a strategy simply isn't needed. If the task is production to a clear brief, I stay in my role as head of the agency.
When a client comes with a business problem and asks us to think about how to solve it, I work with Ekaterina Leiman, Head of Content at TELLER Kazakhstan. We:
- research the customers and how they look for and consume information;
- identify the key insights;
- form the Big Idea — the central idea all the content is built around.
Then the team steps in. Designers put together a visual direction so the client sees the end result, not just words. The producer prepares the estimate, and the media planner works out the promotion budget and KPIs.
That's why I'm wary of the phrase “the strategist delivered the result”. The result is always delivered by the team; the strategist gives it direction. You can see what that looks like in practice in our .
What skills a content strategist needs
In short — all of them. Strategy, like entrepreneurship, demands a very broad view. And to get one, you have to do a lot of things hands-on before calling yourself a strategist.
I started out writing horoscopes for an app, and then came copywriting, editing, sales, project management, web development and web design, influencer scouting, influencer marketing and media production. Every decision I propose as a strategist I test with one question: how would I do this myself? From a Gantt chart with timelines to the choice of promotion channels.
Why hardly anyone in Kazakhstan talks about content strategists
I don't hear many misconceptions about content strategists from clients, because the term itself is barely used in Kazakhstan yet. In all my time I haven't met anyone on the market who called themselves that.
What I see more often is something else: a person calls themselves a strategist but hasn't done hands-on what they talk about. Then they lack that broad view, and they have nothing to base a promised result on. So when you choose a strategist, ask what they did before they started writing strategies.
Key points
- A content strategist understands what a brand's audience finds interesting and builds a system in which the brand makes that content itself.
- The marketer solves the business problem, the strategist sets the content direction, the creative director owns the form, the SMM manager ships it.
- Creative and meaning are different things and are worth keeping apart.
- You need a strategist when content comes out but leads, engagement and growth don't.
- A good strategist has done hands-on what they propose.
Not sure why your content isn't working? Message me on Telegram at @maximfetisov: we'll work it out in a consultation. The format and price are on the Services page.
