A typical day
There are no typical days as a Head of Product, there’s always a new project on the table or a new challenge to solve.
Today, as an example, I had a meeting with Olivia, our Head of Digital PR, and two of our content consultants to build out the training calendar for our teams. Because content and digital PR work really closely together, we’re looking for opportunities to bring in relevant external trainers, whether that’s tool-based or from platforms like Spotify or TikTok, to give our teams a bit of a boost of inspiration for their upcoming content campaigns.
I’ve also been working with our HR consultant on a competency framework which I think is going to transform the way the whole team thinks about and owns their own development and progression. It lays out the required competencies for each role on my team, whether that’s exec level, consultant, senior consultant, even head of product, and it tells you exactly what is expected of you at each stage. The idea is that people can use this as the basis of their own personal development plan, setting and tracking goals which we’ll work on throughout the year.
April is our reviews month, so today I started to collate feedback and plan the 360 review process for my team. This is a vital part of every team member’s experience at Builtvisible – every 6 months we take the time to reflect on their achievements together and to build their goals based on the direction they’re keen for their career to take.
I had a meeting with our Performance Director about a content performance audit project we’re working on for a big ecommerce brand. We’re working together on tying in all of our content recommendations with our SEO recommendations to form an overarching strategy that’s going to be really easy for the client and their content team to implement.
Finally, in the spirit of practicing what we preach, I’ve been working with our marketing department on our own Builtvisible content strategy. Doing this for ourselves reveals some great opportunities to enhance our client work – particularly things like how to present a content strategy to a broad audience and how to move from planning into implementation in-house.
Navigating COVID-19
This time last year we were pivoting a lot of campaigns, helping clients think about their content strategy under the new context and find the most appropriate ways to communicate with their audiences. So, whether it was gym groups or ecommerce websites, COVID posed very different challenges across our group of clients. It felt good to be able to support them and be as helpful as possible through that rollercoaster.
Now we’ve settled into a rhythm, but I think this period has made our content strategy projects more agile for the future too. We had to adapt them quickly so that they could change at the drop of a hat if needed and that approach of being more flexible will continue.
Your Builtvisible journey
I started my Builtvisible journey seven years ago. What first attracted me was literally the word ‘creative’ in the job description, it read something along the lines of ‘be part of a creative minded team.’ From that point on I got a real sense of the energy and forward-thinking nature of the business and I was hooked! I saw that there would be a lot of opportunity to learn and realised I’d be working with lots of different clients so that learning would be nice and varied.
Being able to grow my own expertise through exposure to other experts, a team of people who are clearly at the top of their field, always trying new things and learning every step of the way – that’s what really motivated me.
My background at the time was marketing and I’d actually never considered working in an agency environment. But I was sold on the culture and the idea that it would be a challenge, which is something I personally thrive on. So, I applied for the SEO executive role.
My role and responsibilities have evolved several times since then, starting with a digital PR focus in the early days, then leaning more towards content marketing – starting with on-site and organic focused content and optimisation – and now content strategy specifically. That journey was led by my own interest alongside the recognition of client needs. With the support of my managers, I had the confidence to develop my area of interest into new products. Today, that has developed into a whole department that I lead.
We now cover a range of different client needs and work towards all sorts of KPIs outside of organic, which keeps things really exciting!
Builtvisible culture
The Builtvisible culture as a whole, I generally describe as a family. Everybody is really supportive of each other and we have a lot of fun together. One of the best things for me is the idea of continuously learning from each other which has become a norm for us as a wider team. Everyone’s very generous with their time and their expertise. I’ve learnt so much from so many people across every department during my time here.
I always say in the hiring process now, whether it’s a senior role or more junior – your voice will be heard from day one. You can come in with an idea and you can go straight to the Managing Director and say, “Have you thought about this?” and he’ll listen and take it on board.
I think overall the Builtvisible culture is what keeps so many of us here for so long – it feeds into everything that we do. I’d say we are just a genuinely nice group of people who all want to do better and push ourselves and make each other laugh. If someone’s having a stressful time it’s all-hands-on-deck, others will happily pitch in in various ways. There’s no competition – just a supportive and fun space.
Your role – What is content strategy?
Good content marketing is all about influencing behaviour in a way that adds value to the person consuming and the person providing the content. It’s the art of finding the right way to talk to the right person at the right time.
My job is to support a whole group of people who are trying to do just that. I make sure that they have all the tools, resources and encouragement they need to be able to add value to our clients and their customers.
Another part of my role is to scale the team in the most meaningful and sustainable way while keeping the Builtvisible quality and standard we’re so well known for. A lot of that is rooted in finding ways to structure the team and standardise onboarding and training for example – two key areas we attribute our positive employee retention rates to.
Most people on my team grew into their roles so they come with varied backgrounds such SEO, content or digital PR experience. Now, we’re hiring content strategy specialists who won’t necessarily have that same background, so I’m thinking of ways to include these areas in our specific Builtvisible content strategy training and onboarding programs.
Your team
Our team evolved from a broader content team a few years ago into the content strategy team we have today, and now this is really the first time we are hiring specific content strategy roles, which is hugely exciting.
The team is full of really bright and enthusiastic people, always looking to ask questions, push boundaries and try new things. I think because our discipline in the agency is slightly younger, we are still finding our feet and that gives us loads of room for experimentation and for people to bring new things to the table to try out. Every single new client that we work with we try and make it as bespoke an experience as possible and adapt our processes to suit their particular challenges.
The team is also a little nerdy and crafty which I love. We have Harry Potter fans, pottery and painting enthusiasts, musicians and an individual who built her own loom over lockdown for example. It’s a fun mix of people and a place to make friends for life.
How to become a content marketing consultant:
When adding to the team I look for someone who’s smart, ambitious and ready for a challenge. The main attribute is someone who’s always keen to learn and share their skills. If this sounds like you, apply here, we’d love to hear from you!
The future of content at Builtvisible
My hope for the content team is that we establish ourselves so that Builtvisible becomes better known for more than just SEO. We have a group of really amazing content specialists; we just don’t shout about ourselves enough. I think that, and the aim of building this scalable structure so that we can continue to grow in a way that ensures everyone feels supported. And building on our existing training program so that everyone can continue to benefit and develop. So, ultimately maintaining what we have built while growing – which feels very exciting!
We are currently hiring for a Content Strategy Consultant. If after reading this you’re interested in joining the team, please take a look at the role and apply here.
