What to brief a strategist so the plan fits your real busy season
Brief a strategist right: share your busy season timeline, team capacity, and what's worked before. Here's what they need to know.
You're three weeks out from your busiest season. A strategist you've been considering has finally gotten back to you, and now you're wondering: what do I actually need to tell them for this to work? The good ones will ask probing questions. The ones worth your time won't just nod and draft a plan in a vacuum. But you also need to know what to bring to the table—not a 50-page document, but the real stuff that shapes whether a content strategy actually lands during the weeks when your phone is loudest.
What your actual busy season looks like
Start by painting a clear picture of *when* it happens and *what changes* then. Is your peak November to January? July school holidays? Budget approval season? Tell them the exact months and, just as important, what your business does differently during that window. Are you fielding more enquiries? Is your team stretched thin? Are clients making faster decisions? A strategist needs to know if you're running a skeleton crew or if you suddenly have double the inquiries and the same three people to handle them.
Describe the behaviours you actually see during peak times. Do people search for you at midnight on Sunday? Do they compare you against five competitors simultaneously? Do they need same-week turnarounds? If your busy season means clients are already decided and just hunting for contact details, your content strategy looks completely different from one where people are still in research mode. A strategist worth their salt will ask which phase your audience is in, and you should know the answer—or at least have a strong hunch.
Share anything that has worked or flopped in the past. If a particular type of post always brought leads in during your peak period, tell them. If a campaign you ran last year fell flat exactly when you needed it most, that's gold for someone who's planning this time around. They're looking for patterns in *your* business, not generic content wisdom.
How your team actually operates
A strategist needs to know whether you have capacity to execute or whether you're outsourcing it. If execution falls to you or a small team, a plan that demands three posts a week across four platforms will crater when you're drowning. Good strategists ask this question directly. Be honest: can you realistically create and publish content twice a week, or is once a week your ceiling even during calm periods?
Tell them how your approval process works and how fast decisions move. Do posts go live after one sign-off, or do they bounce through three people? Can you decide on strategy in a single call, or does it need a board review? If there's friction in how you operate, a strategist needs to build that into the timeline. A plan that assumes you'll brief them Monday and launch Thursday doesn't survive a business that moves slowly—and during your busy season, slow approval becomes a liability.
Share your tools and constraints. What platforms do you actually monitor? Do you have a CMS, or does everything go live ad hoc? Is there a person who manages your website, or is it a free-for-all? Are there brand guidelines, or are you making colour and tone decisions on the fly? These aren't glamorous details, but they determine whether a strategy survives contact with reality.
What to ask them in return
When a strategist has this context, their job is to ask follow-ups that dig into your specific busy season. They should want to know:
- What does a "win" look like during peak? More leads? Faster lead quality? Reduced customer acquisition cost?
- What content formats does your busy-season audience actually consume?
- How many weeks in advance do you need to bank content, given how stretched you'll be?
- Do you need a content calendar that's rigid, or one flexible enough to react to what's happening in real time?
If they're not asking—if they're just listening and nodding—that's a red flag. A strategist who doesn't interrogate your situation is building a generic plan, not one that fits your season.
Bring this context to your next conversation, and watch whether they use it to shape something specific to you or whether they dust off a standard template. Strove's marketplace has strategists who specialise in exactly this kind of detail work. The ones who ask hard questions upfront are the ones who'll deliver a plan your team can actually run when everything gets loud.
Common questions
- How much detail do I need to give a strategist upfront?
- Enough to show them how your business actually runs during your busiest weeks—timelines, team size, approval processes, and what success looked like before. They'll ask follow-up questions to fill gaps. You're not writing a novel; you're being honest about constraints and priorities.
- What if I don't know what my busy season audience wants yet?
- Tell the strategist that—it's part of the brief. A good one will ask questions to uncover it: which enquiries convert fastest? What problems do you solve that peak-season clients mention most? Sometimes the pattern emerges through conversation rather than data.
- Should I prepare a content calendar before hiring a strategist?
- No. That's their job. What you should prepare is clarity on when you need content ready, how many pieces per week you can realistically manage, and which platforms matter most during your peak. They'll build the calendar around your constraints.
- What's a red flag when a strategist doesn't ask enough questions?
- If they're happy to move forward without asking about your team size, approval timeline, or what your goals are during busy season, they're likely recycling a template. Push back and ask them to dig deeper into how your business actually works.
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