Content Strategy Consultants: How to Create a Content Strategy Worth 5 Digits

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As a content consultant or freelancer, leveling up your services without the support of a full-time employer can be tough. 

One of the biggest questions I hear content consultants ask: How do I create a content strategy that is actionable, helpful, and of high value to my clients? 

I get it. I’ve been working independently as a content strategy consultant since early 2017. It can feel intimidating to grow into a new offering, like a content strategy, when you’re working solo. 

Thankfully, I’d built a content strategy framework of my own while working in media (CBS) and high-growth startups (Justworks). Once I jumped into working independently, I could build on those frameworks and grow into offering a content strategy deliverable in projects with clients. 

Now I want to pay it forward and share my learnings with you. Here’s an overview of how to create a content strategy as a content strategy consultant.

BUILDING MY CONTENT STRATEGY FRAMEWORK (AND PRICING ACCURATELY)

Before we get started, I’d like to tell you a little bit more of my story.

I have over a decade of experience in content strategy, the last five of which have been spent happily self employed. A few years ago, soon after beginning to work independently, I began to realize that I was missing a huge opportunity. 

I put so much research and thought into the content strategies I presented. But I was only charging clients for the strategy itself. I wasn’t including the research, insights, and planning I did in the project scope!

That's when it dawned on me: All the research and thought that goes into building a content strategy is part of the deliverable. It's something tangible that can be measured, quantified, and billed.

This realization revolutionized how I offered my services. And not only did it result in happier, more engaged clients and more referrals, it enabled me to level up my offering and what I earned for my work.

I felt like I was finally understanding what it meant to be my own boss.

Content strategy pricing

CONTENT STRATEGY DELIVERABLES TO OFFER

As a content strategy consultant, you may have thought of your finalized content strategy as the only deliverable to price against. 

But remember: Your work goes so far beyond the content strategy. You need to inform your strategy with data, customer insights, and team insights. And you need to give clients the processes, structure, and tools that will ensure they actually put your strategy into use. 

So the next time you’re pitching a freelance content strategy project, include all the work you need to conduct. And price against each deliverable.

You’ll raise your rates (woohoo!) and increase your revenue. But you’ll also increase your clients’ trust in you, by showing them the thought that goes into your work and arming them with the tools they need to succeed. 

Here are the content strategy deliverables I offer.

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Research Deliverables

I usually focus on three core pieces of research in my projects: 

  • Competitive analysis that reviews how your competitors approach content. I select competitors with a similar target audience or product. Pro tip: If a client really loves another player in the space, even if they’re not direct competitors, you could learn something from analyzing their approach to content too. 

  • Team workshops to uncover what your client has to say. My clients absolutely love these workshops — they give everyone a chance to be heard, share ideas in a safe place, and to align with each other. Sometimes, facilitating conversation is half the work.

  • Content audits to look at all your client’s existing content and take notes on what works, what doesn’t, and what has an opportunity to do better. This can feel boring and tedious, so turn on a podcast or Netflix while you work. But it makes you the resident expert on your client’s content — they often have more to work with than they think.

But I also layer in any of the below research, depending on what the client prioritizes and needs to learn: 

  • Content analysis of your existing content’s performance

  • Audience analysis of your audience’s demonstrated interests and pain points on search, in forums, in questions to your customer support team, etc

  • Customer interviews to learn their interests and pain points

  • Persona development of your target audience

Insights Deliverables

It’s not enough to present your clients with the data dump of research you’ve uncovered. Your clients hired a strategic thinker — the insights deliverable shows your clients what you’ve gleaned from your research. 

Added bonus: It also organizes your thoughts and set the stage for your polished content strategy. 

I like to use two templates to document my insights. They include:

  • Insights workbook – Create this an internal document. It helps you consolidate everything you've learned and organize the opportunities your research helped uncover. I use the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) method.

  • Insights presentation – This deliverable shows your clients your 4-8 learnings. I like to present my research process and what that entailed, and then share my learnings with examples and ideas. Again, this shows the thinking that will inform the strategy and get the client on board. 

Strategy Deliverables

This deliverable is the main course: The big reason clients come to you in the first place. 

That’s right! It’s the content strategy deliverable. This deliverable can take the form of a deck or written document. However I format it, I always include: 

  • What success looks like

  • Who the client’s content serves

  • What content looks like

  • How that content is used

I specifically don’t include the how in this deliverable: How we’ll create and market content. In my content strategy framework, the strategy paints a picture of what content marketing looks like for the client’s organization. Once the client has that sketched out, we can then move into the activation details.

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Activation Deliverables

This is one of many elements that will make your project so valuable (and potentially worth 5 figures)!

Once you've laid out the perfect strategy, you basically have the opportunity to pitch an activation period that lasts from 1-3 months.

That's because a client's first thought after seeing a content strategy is, "This is great. Now how exactly do we DO it?"

This is the moment where all of that hard work especially comes to fruition, the time when everything truly takes shape.

Remember, this is also its own deliverable! Having an activation plan will give most clients a big sigh of relief — they’ll know what to expect and when to expect it.

So where to start? I usually pitch the below: 

From there, it’s time to create content. If you’re a writer as well as a content strategist, you can pitch yourself as the ongoing creator. If you’d rather focus on content strategy, you can pull in freelance writers and manage the content creation process yourself.

PRICING YOUR FREELANCE CONTENT STRATEGY

Ok! You’ve identified the deliverables to include in your content strategy projects. 

That’s no small feat. But I know that there is also probably one lingering question in your mind: how do I price this huge freelance project? 

That’s where my surprise comes in for you. In my content strategy email course, I include an unlisted pricing benchmarks guide for free. It shows how you can price all of the deliverables I just walked through, with a low and high range for each. 

Personally, I think it's really important for consultants and freelancers to discuss their rates with each other to understand what other people are going for in the market.

I hope this pricing guide helps you out as you upgrade your offerings and close projects that are worth your time (and pay you well)!