Hire Content Strategy Specialists Before You Add More Writers

Bring the mess, not a vision deck

Content strategy hiring starts with the library you already have, not with a vision deck. Bring the URLs, the owners, the offers, and the pages nobody will defend. The specialist's job is to say what belongs, what should be archived, and who may kill a topic. A future-state poster can wait until that mess is named.

Write the decision you need. Which pages stay, which are merged, which are retired, and which topics are off limits until an owner appears. If you only want more articles produced, you are hiring content marketing. Say that plainly so the search stays on the library and the rules. Write that choice in the hiring note so producers are not invited by mistake.

Do not ask the strategist to invent a brand world before they have read the pile. Meet them on TalentSkape with a short list of real URLs and the argument your team is already having. The brief is the mess. The vision, if you still need one, comes after the rules exist.

Ask what they have unpublished

Ask what they chose not to publish, and who had the right to make that call. Content strategy is full of pieces that should never be written. A candidate who has only shipped more volume has not practised the harder part.

Listen for the reason. Duplicate intent, no owner, a claim the company could not support, or a format that did not serve the reader. You want the archive decision, not a mood. If they describe taste without a rule, they will add pages your team cannot maintain.

Ask what they did with the draft that was already written. Kill it, merge it, or leave it in a queue with an owner and a review date. Unpublished work is part of the library even when it is not live. A strategist who ignores the drawer leaves the next fight unchanged.

You do not need a famous audit. You need one decision they can narrate: a topic that died, the person who was allowed to kill it, and what the site did instead. If the story is only that they wrote the replacement article, they are describing production.

Keep production in another brief

The strategist decides what the library should hold. Someone else writes the piece, edits it, and distributes it. Put production in another brief so this hire does not collapse into a writing retainer. If you need both, meet two people, or sequence the work so the rules exist before the drafting starts.

Say what this person will hand to a producer. A kept URL, a retired URL, a topic that is forbidden, and the owner who may reopen it. They do not owe you a finished article as proof of strategy. A candidate who answers every question with a sample paragraph is auditioning for the other role.

Watch for a blended pitch. Many people can write and also have opinions about a library. Opinions are not the job. The job is a set of decisions another person can execute without asking the strategist to draft the page. TalentSkape can introduce either specialist. The briefs should not share a single vague title.

Trial them on real URLs

Give them a small set of live URLs and one argument you have not resolved. Ask which pages they would keep, which they would merge, and which they would archive, with a reason tied to the reader and the offer. A trial on imaginary pages tells you whether they can talk.

Include one page you are proud of and one you are ashamed of. If they only praise, they are being polite. If they only cut, they may not see what the page is doing for a reader.

Do not ask them to rewrite the pages in the trial. A line edit is production. The sample is a decision note: keep, merge, archive, and the question they still cannot answer from the URL alone. Gaps in the note are useful. They show where the library is missing an owner or a fact.

Have the people who own those URLs read the note. If they cannot see their page in the recommendation, the trial failed, even if the prose is elegant. Cap the set at a handful of addresses. A full-site audit can follow the hire.

Write who can kill a topic

A topic dies only if someone is allowed to kill it. Write that name into the brief before you hire. It may be an editor, a product owner, or a commercial lead.

Ask the candidate how they record a killed topic so it does not return as a fresh idea next quarter. A rule, a list, or a note on the brief is enough. Without a record, the archive decision is a meeting that nobody can cite.

Separate killing a topic from pausing a draft. A pause has an owner and a date. A kill means the library will not hold that subject unless the named person reopens it. Candidates who treat every cut as temporary will leave you with a queue, not a strategy.

Put the appeal path in writing too. If sales can revive any topic by sending a message, you have not assigned the right to kill. The strategist can recommend. The named person decides. Write both roles into the hiring note so the interview tests whether the candidate will respect a no.

Leave rules, not a hero

The engagement should leave rules a colleague can apply when the strategist is gone. What stays in the library, what gets archived, who can kill a topic, and how a new idea earns a place. A hero who must be consulted on every page is a dependency, not a strategy.

The rules should be short enough to sit with the URLs. A principle that needs the author in the room is not finished. Test this in the interview: could an editor refuse a pitch on Tuesday without booking the strategist.

Do not accept a document that only describes the future site. Rules have to touch the current library, including the pages you brought to the trial. A strategy that starts from a blank brand leaves the mess in place. You hired this person to decide about what you have, then to write the decision down.

When the rules and the decision note are accepted, the job ends. Producing the next articles is the other brief. If you need the strategist again, it is because the library or the offer changed, not because every draft needs a blessing.

Conclusion

Hire a content strategist to decide what the library holds, what is archived, and who can kill a topic. Use TalentSkape to meet people who have left work unpublished on purpose, then trial them on real URLs. Keep drafting and distribution in another brief. Leave rules a colleague can apply without the strategist in the room.