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Getting an Effective and Affordable Product Content Strategist

Ginny Dwyer December 13, 2024 5 min read Share

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A product content strategist plays a unique role in the product development process. They focus on enhancing user experience and ensuring the product communicates effectively with users. Their primary goals are to improve usability and customer satisfaction, making them a crucial part of the team.

Like a content marketing strategist who creates and manages content to attract, engage, and retain customers, they educate existing customers about the product or service’s value. These roles, though similar, cater to different parts of the customer journey—one ensures users love using the product, while the other attracts them in the first place.

For many businesses, hiring an in-house product content strategist is the immediate solution to their content needs. However, before you make that decision, it’s worth considering why a growth-driven agency might be a more suitable choice for your needs. You can leverage an entire team’s expertise without committing to a full-time hire. This approach gives you the knowledge and expertise of a skilled team and reassures you about your investment.

Let’s take a look at the strategist role and costs associated.

Product Content Strategist: Role and Expenses

A Product Content Strategist focuses on creating and managing content that supports a product’s lifecycle, enhances user experience, and drives product adoption and engagement. This role blends content strategy with product development, ensuring the messaging aligns with the product’s purpose and meets user needs. Here’s a breakdown of their key responsibilities:

• Product Messaging and Positioning: Develops clear and compelling messaging that highlights the product’s value propositions for target audiences.
• Content Creation: Produces guides, tutorials, FAQs, and marketing materials to support product adoption.
• Collaboration with Teams: Works closely with product managers, UX designers, and marketing teams to ensure communication across all touchpoints.
• User Experience Optimization: Creates UX writing (e.g., microcopy, CTAs—a short phrase or one word verb that guides visitors to take a desired action) to improve usability and guide users effectively through the product and experience.
• Customer Research and Insights: Uses customer feedback and data to refine content strategies and address user pain points.
• Cross-Channel Integration: Ensures that product messaging is consistent across websites, social media, ads, and customer support channels.
• Analytics and Reporting: Tracks how content impacts user engagement, retention, and satisfaction, using insights to optimize future strategies.

Cost Allocation

According to Glassdoor, a Product Content Strategist’s average salary ranges from $72k–$121k annually depending on location and experience, excluding benefits like health insurance, PTO, and training.

Agencies typically charge project-based or retainer fees, which can range from $5,000–$15,000 per month depending on scope, allowing for greater flexibility without the long-term commitment of a full-time employee.

Whether you have a new business or have been around for awhile, the marketing budget process looks similar:

• Identify your marketing goals
• Develop your marketing strategy
• Allocate a budget to each campaign

Image source: databox, “How to Set a Marketing Budget for a Small Business: 20 Tips”

Cost Comparison:

Benefits of Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency

Digital marketing agencies often have a pool of seasoned professionals, each with a unique skill set in product content strategy, UX writing, and user experience design. This collective expertise is a powerful resource for businesses seeking to enhance their digital presence.

Despite the initial perception of higher agency fees, the long-term cost-effectiveness of their services often surpasses that of hiring full-time staff. When factoring in onboarding, training, and benefits, agencies can be a more affordable option. Additionally, agencies can offer short-term or project-based engagements. This is ideal for businesses that need support for specific products or features.

A digital growth agency is a powerhouse of expertise, combining UX, research, SEO, and design. This comprehensive approach ensures that you receive more than just content-writing services but a complete digital marketing strategy.

Choosing the Right Agency for Your Business

Look for agencies that specialize in crafting product content and user-focused copy.

Tech-savvy marketing agencies will combine content strategy with understanding user behavior and technology. For example, SaaS content strategy differs slightly from marketing in non-SaaS industries as you sell technology and services. It needs to help customers understand the product (through a demo or a trial) and how they can use your products to solve their problems.

For a business with heavy images and product descriptions, it is imperative to have a user-friendly design and user-focused copy. User-focused copy and design can help your business stand out in a crowded digital marketplace, improve user engagement, and ultimately drive more conversions.

It’s not just about the visuals but also about the messaging that resonates with your target audience.

Neil Patel, shares his best tips to choosing the right digital marketing agency for your business:

Collaborate Effectively with the Product Content Strategist and Other Teams

Maximize the value of your partnership by setting clear guidelines. These guidelines, along with establishing your brand voice, tone, and product vision, will provide a solid foundation for your collaboration.

Both teams should be accessible, facilitating communication with UX designers, developers, and product managers.

At Responsify, we’ve developed an app within our agency that’s designed to streamline communication and keep everyone on the same page.

This tool has proven to be a game-changer in our partnerships, ensuring accountability and clarity at every step of a project.

Skills and Expertise to Consider

Understanding your target audience: It’s essential for a product content strategist to have the ability to identify and comprehend your ideal customer’s pain points and needs. This knowledge forms the foundation of all content strategies.

Product description writing: Copywriting skills are a must for a product content strategist, as they should be able to create engaging and informative content that helps influence customers buying decision.

SEO optimization: Having an understanding of keyword research and relevant keywords to a business will improve a product’s visibility in the search engines.

Brand messaging and consistency: Maintaining a consistent tone and style across all product content

Content strategy: Understanding of the content creation process, including research, planning, interviewing, scheduling, and distribution. Product content strategist will become part of the overall strategy. The main goal being to develop and carry out a strategy that effectively communicates a product’s features, benefits, differentiators from its competitors, and value proposition to your audience.

Final Thoughts on Hiring and Affordable Product Content Strategist

A product content strategist is essential for companies looking to develop a compelling content strategy for their products, whether through an agency or as part of an in-house team.

By leveraging their expertise, product content strategists can dramatically enhance the customer experience. With powerful storytelling and engaging content, they can transform how customers perceive and interact with your product.

If you’re short on time and require strategic support for your content, Responsify can help. Partnering with an agency allows you to tap into professional expertise quickly, scale resources according to your needs, and achieve outstanding results—all without the burden of in-house staffing costs.

If you are ready to scale your content production with the help of our app and team of content creators, editors, strategists, and designers, click here to Book your Content Strategy Session.