In January 2024, I joined Preply Business‘ marketing team as a fractional content manager. From January to September, I managed the production of their blog content while the B2B content manager was out on parental leave.
This was my first fractional role and I’ve learned so much about content operations, fractional collaborations, and myself throughout this process.
Before I share those lessons with you, let me first tell you about my role and responsibilities.
A bit of background on fractional content managers in general and my role at Preply
Fractional content managers are usually hired to do one or a mix of these things:
- Execute: Put your existing content strategy into action
- Strategize: Help you improve existing or carve out a new content strategy
- Build processes: Create SOPs and an efficient content workflow
- Hire: Assist you in the hiring process to find the right content folks (in-house and freelance)
Initially, my role at Preply was mostly focused on executing. But mid-way through our collaboration, we needed to bring on more freelancers as content needs grew. So I ended up hiring, as well.
Here’s a rough overview of my responsibilities:
- Managing a predetermined content calendar
- Assigning work to four (later seven) freelance content writers
- Hiring freelance writers
- Reviewing content before and after publication
- Managing freelancers’ contracts and invoices
- Working closely with in-house team members to make all of this happen (SEO managers and localization specialists)
Now that you understand what my role was, let me share some learnings with you!
1. Good documentation and processes are super-duper important
When you’re hired to cover parental leave, there isn’t too much time to do a thorough 30-60-90 day onboarding. The team member you’re covering for is leaving fairly soon and you need to learn how to do their job quickly.
At Preply, I had a two-week overlap with their B2B manager. And I took over a large portion of their workload.
It would be impossible for me to be successful in this role without having a good handover plan, thorough documentation, and content processes set up.
My onboarding experience was great and included:
- Handover sessions: Going through the scope of work, content production budget, software tools, freelancer database, invoicing, questions, and more.
- Meeting the key collaborators: Hopping on several calls to meet a few people I’ll be working the most with
- Well-documented processes: Documents with processes explained in great detail I could always refer to
- Defined role and scope of work: Clearly defined expectations that help me focus on what matters the most. And helps protect boundaries on both ends.
Two weeks before I wrote this article, I joined Preply’s B2C team for another maternity leave cover and had the same experience over there.
So if I were to do another project in the future where the client expects me to execute fairly soon after I start working with their team, I would insist on a good handover plan and documentation.
2. There’s no need to turn the house upside down
I have almost 7 years of experience in SEO and content marketing, both in-house and freelance. That means I have a lot of insights into different team setups, processes, and content workflows. And I can easily spot improvement opportunities.
But just because I know how to improve something doesn’t mean I should, especially when covering parental leave.
Just imagine that person coming back to work from one of the most stressful times in their lives and finding their entire workflow turned upside down. Plus, you may not have the full picture of why something is being done in a specific way.
Instead of changing a bunch of things, I created a thorough feedback document and noted down everything that came to mind. At the end of our collaboration, I shared it with a few key team members.
That way, I’m still providing them with valuable insights, which they can implement as they see fit.
Inevitably, some things will change. For example, in my case, the freelancers’ availabilities changed, so I needed to bring on a few more new collaborators. But I still tried my best to keep everything the same way I found it.
Hopefully, that’s also the client’s impression!
3. Boundaries are important. So is recognizing when to loosen them up a bit.
Before this project started, the client and I defined the scope of work. I took over some of the content manager’s responsibilities and some projects were put on hold.
Preply Business has large sales and marketing teams and many team members occasionally need assistance from B2B content.
When I joined, I was terrified that people wouldn’t realize I hadn’t taken over all of the projects and would send a ton of work and meeting invites my way.
During the first few months, my boundaries were very rigid. I said “no” to everything that was an inch outside of my scope.
Learning to say “no” is a vital part of being a freelancer. Because every time you add extra workload for one client, you take away from something else—other clients, your free time, or the time you could spend building your business.
BUT. And that’s a very important BUT.
That doesn’t mean you should always be rigid. Especially in long-term collaborations where doing something extra can make the relationship better and bring you more business in the long run.
At some point, I realized that doing something extra that doesn’t take me too long to do can make a huge difference to the team member who reached out.
Doing quick favors here and there will also make your collaborators more keen to help you out when you need it (and you probably will, at some point).
The biggest task I did that was outside of my initial scope was hiring freelancers. I volunteered to do it because I knew it would help me hone my hiring skills and help me understand the freelance writing market better.
It also kept the content production (which was definitely my scope!) running smoothly without any major hiccups and indirectly landed me another 8-month contract with Preply.
4. Proactive communication and reporting help you build trust and gain autonomy
I reported to the B2B Marketing Manager, who’s super busy! We had bi-weekly syncs in which I’d share the content plan progress, challenges, and all relevant updates. Without sending a report before the meeting, It felt like a 30-minute reporting session in which we didn’t have time to discuss some important topics in more detail.
During our first few calls, I noted down all the questions she asked me and created a report template. The goal was to answer all of the questions up front to free up space to go into details on specific content assets/goals.
One month in, I started sending a detailed report one day before our meeting. It included information on the content plan progress, important updates and challenges, and questions I had for her.
Here’s a sneak peek:
These reports helped me earn her trust that I’ll get the job done — enough to gain complete autonomy in my work.
5. A thorough handover is the cherry on top of your collaboration cake
The last segment of my fractional content manager role was handing the torch back after the parental leave was over.
Even though I did my best to keep things running similarly to before, many things have changed over those 8 months.
Some team members left and new ones joined, which impacted the content production dynamic. Similarly, a few old freelancers became unavailable, so we brought in new collaborators to work with the team.
During my engagement, I kept a diary of all the important things that have happened. And later turned those into a handover plan, which includes:
- Team dynamics session: Going over important team changes and how they impacted the content manager role
- Feedback on freelancers: Sharing feedback on the collaboration with old and new freelancers
- Content ops process changes: Going over details of small process changes, eg. new payment process
- Handing over all communication: Letting old collaborators know that the parental leave is over and sending out introductory emails to new freelancers
- Sharing feedback: Creating a feedback document about areas for improvement, so that the team has something to go back to and implement as they see fit
- Tying up loose ends: Making sure all micro-tasks are done, like old invoices being fully processed, all content I’ve managed is QAd and live on the blog, etc.
A thorough handover plan ensures everything is handed back to the content manager, reduces the number of questions that may come my way in the future, and helps end the collaboration on a nice, professional note.
My next steps
Until ~May 2025, I’ll be covering another leave at Preply (this time, in their B2C content team). You can follow my thoughts, observations, and ideas as a part of the “Fractional Content Manager Diaries” on my LinkedIn profile.
Working on these two projects at Preply opened my eyes to a new set of opportunities. And I realized that I’d like to do more similar projects. So if you’re interested in hiring me as your fractional CM, don’t be afraid to drop me a line to get the conversation started.
Have questions? Leave them below! ⬇️
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