A day in the life of a...Content Strategist
Me
I’ve been a content strategist in the client services team for around a year and a half. Before joining Raconteur I came from an editorial background in book publishing – after studying modern languages at uni I worked as an assistant editor for the publishing house HarperCollins.
When I first applied for the role I loved the sound of the variety of clients and projects that I’d get to work with, but the main thing that really drew me to work here was the people. When I came in for interview I was instantly struck by the knowledge, passion and drive of every person I met.
The team
While Raconteur first became known for our Special Reports in the Times and Sunday Times, we also have an end-to-end content marketing agency, which creates branded content for our clients. It’s a huge part of what Raconteur does, our team has doubled in size since I arrived, and it’s still growing. We work with brands including Deloitte, EY, Thomson Reuters, Visa, Schroders, Facebook, Nespresso and HPE.
The client services team looks after all the branded content that Raconteur produces, from research reports, to online articles, to infographics, to videos, as well as advising them on content strategies. We also work on Raconteur’s new CEO programme, amp, helping CEOs develop their brand identity and messaging. Then there are internal projects, like getting involved in pitches for prospective clients and creating other materials like client welcome packs. We also do pro bono work for charities – most recently we’ve been putting together a new brochure for Media Trust, and last summer we spent a day volunteering at an event for Plastic Oceans. It’s fair to say we keep pretty busy!
The career backgrounds in our team are extremely varied, with some people having started out in different departments within the company, and others coming from PR, SEO, editorial and commercial roles.
We’re a tight-knit team, so although we’ve always got a million things on, we always make time to bounce ideas back and forth for a new piece of content or help dissect a challenge one of us might be having. Aside from our work, we can often be found going for lunch or drinks as a team, and we’re known for having the most snacks on our desk at any given time!
My role
A typical day for me might be meeting with a client to come up with an idea for a campaign, briefing one of our fantastic designers on a new project, writing a creative brief for a journalist, editing some copy or creating a narrative for an infographic and finding data to tell the story. A lot of my projects also involve coming up with concepts for proprietary research, designing the surveys and then analysing the data to pick out the most interesting trends to create a piece of content about.
A big project I’ve finished recently was to create a content publishing style guide for Deloitte, as part of a piece of strategy work for Deloitte’s cyber division. This involved first of all conducting interviews with their stakeholders and clients, to create profiles of their target audience and that audience’s priorities and content needs. We then analysed 75 pieces of content from Deloitte and their competitors to map out where their content, style and tone of voice sat in relation to other brands competing for the attention of their audience. After this, we sat down with several stakeholders to identify the content positioning they aspired to, and recommended steps towards achieving this. Finally, I briefed one of our designers to create a fully designed asset that Deloitte’s cyber division will now use to help inform all their future content. I then talked through the finished product with 30 Deloitte marketers from across the globe.
I get massive job satisfaction from knowing our clients love and get value from what we create for them, so it gives me a real boost every time I get an email that telling me how beautiful their content looks or how they’ve used it to reach their goals.
The company
Raconteur’s culture is extremely focused on great ideas, and we’re always encouraged to put those ideas forward, not just in our roles but in the wider business. One of the best things about being a small-ish company is that we’re very open to new ways of doing things, so if someone has a brilliant idea for a new product or a way to revamp one of our processes, we have the flexibility to make it happen. It’s also completely non-hierarchical – everyone’s opinions and ideas are valued.
In addition to the support we get from our direct line managers, we have a formal mentoring scheme that pairs us up with a senior person outside our team, who we meet with once a month to talk about our career progression and how we can work towards our ambitions. Due to the size of the company it’s really easy to get to know the senior leadership team and strike up great relationships with people you don’t always come across in your immediate role.
Beyond the work aspect, there’s always lots to get involved in at Raconteur, from book club and wine club to office yoga – we also have a ping pong table in the office! The company places a real emphasis on mental health and we have a team of mental health champions who run training and events like our monthly coffee mornings. We also have speakers come in regularly to talk to us about issues like mental health and diversity and inclusion.
We’re big on celebrating success, which is why every Friday afternoon the whole company gathers to hear about the achievements from that week and celebrate with a drink. I think it’s pretty rare to find a group of people so dedicated to what they do, who bring genuine energy and inspiration every day, and who also care immensely for one another.