Hiring a Content Manager: 5 tips
Author: Michelle Geerlofs
Content Manager and Web Editor at Crossphase
Published on 3 June 2019
If you’re working on a large website project, you may want to call in the help of an extra Content Manager. You can hire them through an external company to lighten the workload. Content Managers help you with adding the content to your website. Before you call in the help of a Content Manager, though, you need to take several decisions and make a few arrangements. Like to know what? Read more in this article.
The first question you need to answer is what the Content Manager will be doing. You can ask yourself the following question: What will these Content Managers be doing, and what will they not be doing? Do you only want to put them in charge of migrating your news archive, or do you also need help migrating the rest of the website? Have a clear overview of the pages that they will work on. Is your website multilingual? Indicate which languages they will work on.
Once you have delineated your scope, both you and the people working for you will have more clarity.
Collaboration is done on two sides. That’s why it is important to make working agreements with the Content Manager.
What are the deadlines? Do you have a standardised lead time? Can a Content Manager publish on their own, or would you prefer to do yourself? And if you do this yourself, do you have the requisite time and knowledge? Are you the only one in contact with the Content Manager, or can anyone send them a message?
Decide on the way-of-working that you prefer and write it down. Discuss this with the Content Manager. That way, you both know what to expect.
A Content Manager works in a content management system or CMS. If they will work in it, they will need access. There are usually different user rights profiles available, ranging from admin to visitor. Which user rights will your Content Manager have? And will they have enough access to do everything that they need to do?
You can also opt to outsource other tasks to the Content Manager. They can, for example, resize photos, do crawls and conduct an SEO audit. Not every Content Manager is able to perform these tasks. If you expect them to perform additional tasks, let them know in advance and check whether the Content Manager has the skills and tools to perform these duties.
Your Content Manager can access the system; that’s great! But how does your CMS work? Even though you have an experienced Content Manager on your side, there are differences in every system. If you have a manual for your specific CMS, share it. This will ensure that you will not get as many technical questions and that the Content Manager can get acquainted with your system faster. Also provide the Content Manager with the contact information of the IT department and the product owner. If they have questions, they can get in touch directly.
You probably want to make communication with the Content Manager as easy as possible. You may want to use a template. A template will allow you to indicate where the content should go. This way, you’ll provide everyone with clarity.
Ensure that everything is in order when you send the content. Everything should be clear and structured. Send your texts in a Word file so they will be easy to use. Don’t send pdfs, because copying texts from pdfs can be challenging. Ensure that the document is complete. Have you indicated that there should be a link somewhere? Don’t forget to send the link. And finally: send large images. Small images rarely look good on a website. Downsizing an image is always possible, enlarging them rarely leads to great results. If you keep these points in mind when delivering the content, the Content Manager can do their work faster.
And last but not least, don’t forget to send the content! Without content, the Content Manager cannot do anything. So open our backlog, divide the work, and send it off. If you keep these five questions in mind, both you and your new Content Manager will hit the ground running!
You can also find a Dutch version of this article on LinkedIn.