How (and When) to Start Building Your Content Team

The Key Roles on a Content Team
When to Start Hiring
How Much to Budget
The First Role You Should Hire
Freelance vs. In-House
Hiring an Agency
Common Mistakes

Founders, marketing execs, and corporate leaders everywhere know that content marketing is an essential tool for building a brand. High-quality content helps you educate your target audience, build brand awareness, and drive sales.

Thinking about building a content team but not sure how?

This article breaks down:

The key roles on a content marketing team
Which roles to hire first
How to build a content team on your budget

Throughout the article, we’ll incorporate some insights from industry experts who’ve built and scaled their own content operations over the years.

The Key Roles on a Content Team

No two content marketing teams look the same.

Some have dozens of writers and editors, while others have a small team with only one writer and one editor/publisher/outreach specialist.

Some include technical SEO specialists, while others consist of a single marketing manager who works with an outside digital marketing agency rather than creating content in-house.

Not every business needs to fill every role, but knowing what each team member does can help you decide who you need now and who you can wait to hire.

The key members of a great content team, from most necessary to most aspirational, are:

Content marketing managers oversee the day-to-day operations, editorial calendar, and workflows of the department, outlining the type of content the team will create and which content creators will handle each project
Content creators, like writers, designers, and video producers, create the assets designed to engage your target audience and increase site traffic.
Content editors review every piece of content to ensure it’s free of technical errors, meets quality standards, and is ready for publishing.
Publishers make your content visible to the public by uploading to WordPress, Shopify, YouTube, and other platforms. They also play a key role in SEO by managing meta tags, alt text, and your site’s internal linking structure.
Content strategists use data to guide the direction of your content marketing efforts. They track performance metrics to determine the types of content that will support your business growth.
Channel-specific specialists bring skill sets in specialized niches like SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and social media.
Technical specialists ensure that all websites and software are running smoothly so that your audience can read/view your content.
Chief Content Officers oversee every step of the content marketing process, including planning, budgeting, strategy, editing, publication, and promotion

At the bare minimum, you need someone who can create an effective content strategy and a writer to create great content for you, based on your direction.

With a two-person content team (you managing strategy), either you or your writer would also have to take on the tasks of editing and publishing.

When to Start Building Your Content Team

For most businesses, a one-person (or even two-person) content team isn’t sustainable in the long term.

If you run into any of these scenarios, it’s time to start building your content team:

You can’t publish as much content as you want to.
Your best content isn’t generating results.
Your best content is generating results – and you have the budget to expand.
You’re out of content ideas.

Writing content is a bit like running a marathon — the more you do it, the faster, better, and more efficient you become. As a founder, leader, or exec, it’s best to focus on the tasks that you do best and leave the writing to professionals who have mastered it. Even if you’re a great writer in your own right, it’s best not to add content creation to your already full plate.

“The obvious time to build a content team was when the stories we wanted to tell became greater than I could handle alone. Our café was growing, our customer base was growing, and there always seemed to be a backlog of stories. That backlog proved content needed to be treated as its own discipline and not something I fit in-between running the shop.” – Riley Westbrook, Co-founder & Creative Director, Valor Coffee

How Much to Budget for Content Marketing?

We asked Intergrowth Managing Partner Pat Ahern to weigh in on how he helps brands think about budgeting for content marketing. Here’s what he shared:

Most businesses allocate approximately 5-10% of their annual revenue to marketing.

This includes content marketing, as well as other marketing efforts like pay-per-click ads and email marketing. Depending on your business goals and revenue stream, it’s a good rule of thumb to devote at least 30% of your total marketing budget to content.

Hiring a content team with a $50k budget

If you’re planning to invest less than $50,000 in content marketing, there are two good approaches to take:

Option 1: Manage SEO content marketing efforts yourself and oversee a team of freelance writers, editors, and publishers. This is a viable option if you have a solid understanding of content marketing and know the ins and outs of your industry like the back of your hand.
Option 2: Hire an agency to handle everything from strategy to writing and editing to implementation. This is a smart option if you want the content creation process to eat up as little of your time as possible.

Hiring a content team with a $100k budget

If you’re budgeting $100k for SEO, options 1 and 2 are still viable, but there’s a third good option to consider:

Option 3: Hire a general marketing manager to oversee a team of freelance writers, editors, and publishers. With a $100k content budget, don’t hire someone to fill the specific content marketing manager role. You’ll get more bang for your buck if you hire someone who can manage multiple components of your marketing strategy, including content, email marketing, and paid ads.

Hiring a content team with a $150k budget

If you’re investing $150k or more in content marketing, hiring an agency is one of your best options, but you might also want to consider bringing in a new employee as well:

Option 4: Hire a content marketing manager and a team of freelancers. A $150k budget justifies hiring for this role, as they can oversee all aspects of content, including hiring and communicating with freelancers, maintaining quality control, creating a great content marketing strategy, and leading the editing and/or publishing processes.

What’s the First Content Role You Should Hire?

It depends how involved you want to be.

To start building a content team, you need two key players: a content marketing manager and a content creator.

If you have the time and expertise to come up with topics and oversee the editorial calendar, you can be your own content manager. In this scenario, hire a content writer first.

If you don’t have the time or desire to do it on your own, you should hire a marketing manager to build your content calendar and a writer to create it.

“Try to find someone who can wear a few hats…

Having someone who can ideate and produce content is SUCH a game changer. They don’t need to be a seasoned [content] manager, but more so someone who has that attention to detail and initiative to contribute to your business’s growth.” – Floss Kelly, Co-Founder and Head of Branding, Yabby

Hiring Freelance Content Marketers vs. In-House Employees

The decision to hire freelance content marketers or in-house employees depends on your content goals and budget.

It doesn’t make sense to hire a full-time in-house employee unless you have a budget of at least $100k. Freelance content marketers are independent contractors, which means you only pay for the work they perform (and you don’t pay employee benefits like healthcare or PTO). This is the most cost-effective approach for businesses looking to keep their marketing budget to a minimum.

“Deciding between a freelancer or full-time content marketer comes down to budget and the role you need. Freelancers are great for short-term projects because they only charge for the work done. But if you need someone to build and execute a long-term strategy, I suggest hiring full-time for consistency since they have a deeper understanding of your brand.” – John Beaver, Founder, Desky

When you decide it’s time for an in-house employee, make your first hire a content marketing manager or a generalist who can manage all the components of your marketing strategy. Then task that person with hiring and overseeing freelance writers and other types of content creators.

For most businesses, it doesn’t make financial sense to hire a full-time writer, but it’s worth considering if you place an extreme amount of value on your brand voice and want that voice to echo across everything you do.

In that scenario, hire a seasoned writer who can handle all your content writing and copywriting tasks, such as writing blog posts, email newsletters, social media posts, product descriptions, etc.

“For us, the decision between freelance and full-time comes down to cadence and reliability. We use freelancers in the early stages or when clients need short-term support. They give us flexibility and bursts of output without adding fixed costs.

Once content becomes central to growth, a full-time hire is essential. Consistency matters, and even small gaps in publishing can weaken brand presence and pipeline.” – Aaron Whittaker, VP of Demand Generation & Marketing, Thrive Internet Marketing Agency

When to Hire a Content Marketing Agency Rather Than an Employee

It makes sense to hire a content marketing agency if you can invest $50k or more and you want limited involvement in the content process.

Agencies have their own teams on board, complete with writers, strategists, editors, publishers, technical experts, and outreach specialists.

Agencies also stay up to date on the ever-changing SEO landscape. As search engine optimization evolves, it’s critical to keep up with the newest, best practices. Principals and founders at top content marketing agencies like Intergrowth devote hours per week to making sure we’re not just meeting but exceeding the current SEO standards.

Relevant: What industries shouldn’t invest in SEO?

Don’t Make These Mistakes When Hiring Your Content Team

When building a content team for the first time, missteps are bound to happen. We’re about to save you some major headaches with these tips. (You’re welcome.)

Don’t Hire from the Top Down

There’s no need to hire a Chief Content Officer if you don’t even have a freelance writer yet. A CCO should be one of your last hires; you should bring in content managers/strategists and content creators first.

“The first person to hire should be a strategist, apart from a writer. A strategist sets the direction and builds the editorial calendar. They ensure that every piece of content connects to your business goals.” – Matthew Tran, Engineer & Founder, Birchbury

Don’t Hire Full-Time Employees Unless Content Generates Revenue

There are so many important players on a content marketing team that you might never need to hire all of them in a full-time capacity.

Until content becomes a significant revenue-generator for your business, don’t hire employees to work in-house. Instead, utilize freelancers or hire a content marketing agency with a full team of their own to execute your content plan.

Don’t Assume You Need Subject Matter Experts

Unless you operate in a very specific niche or technical space, it’s better to hire experienced content marketers over subject matter experts.

Yes, you need marketers who understand your business and target audience, but you can always bring a subject matter expert in to oversee content or to create occasional pieces of content on their own.

“The biggest mistake I’ve seen is hiring based only on industry knowledge and ignoring creativity. It’s helpful if someone understands your niche, but the real magic comes from people who can take complex topics and make them engaging for humans. Too often, companies hire ‘safe’ candidates who know the jargon, but the content ends up dry and forgettable.” – Colleen Barry, Head of Marketing, Ketch

Again, it’s important to remember that every team is different. Some companies have dozens of content writers on staff, and others only need one writer.

When you get to the point of needing a CCO to manage your content department, you’ll know. Until then, it’s okay to handle those tasks yourself or with the help of a digital marketing agency.

If you ever want access to a full content team without having to hire in-house staff to fill all of the roles, we’d love to talk. Intergrowth® helps B2C businesses get more customers through SEO, content marketing, and Meta Ads. We can help you turn your website into a sales machine that consistently brings in new customers.

Expert Advice for Building a Content Team

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