--- title: "Content strategist vs content agency" description: "What a content strategist does, what a content agency does, when a creator, founder or personal brand should pick which, and where Tom Sharman fits, with his prices." canonical: https://tomsharman.com/compare/content-strategist-vs-content-agency/ updated: 2026-10-26 --- # Content strategist vs content agency > A content strategist decides what to make, who it is for and the format it lives in. A content agency makes the content and ships it. The same split holds for a creator, a founder and a personal brand. Start with a strategist when you do not know what to make yet. Hire an agency when the plan is set and you need more output. Last updated 26 October 2026. ## How do they compare? | | Content strategist | Content agency | | --- | --- | --- | | The main job | The plan: positioning, formats, cadence and what to stop making | Production and posting at a set volume | | Who decides what gets made | The strategist, with you | You, through the brief you give them | | For a founder or personal brand | One line: who you are, who you are for and who you are against | Content made to the brief, often about the founder's journey and the business | | Usual shape | A session, a sprint or a senior seat in the team | A monthly retainer for a number of posts or videos | | Best when | Growth has stalled, or you are starting from zero | You know what works and want more of it | | What to watch for | A plan with nobody to run it | Output with no strategy behind it | ## When should you pick a strategist? - Your numbers have stalled and you cannot say why. - Every video starts from zero, because there are no formats. - You cannot say in one sentence who the content is for. - You are a founder and your content tells your story with nothing in it for the audience. - You are about to hire a team or an agency and want the brief right first. ## When should you pick an agency? - You have formats that already work and the bottleneck is volume. - Someone in the business owns the strategy and can brief the agency every week. - You want the editing, posting and reporting off your plate. ## Where does Tom fit? Tom is a content strategist who has also run the production side. He co-founded [New Waves, Who Dis?](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/new-waves-who-dis/), a UK YouTube production company, and he runs [The Content Operators](https://tomsharman.com/the-content-operators/), a consultancy and agency for creators, entrepreneurs and brands. For founders and personal brands the proof is the same work. [Sam Stoffel](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/sam-stoffel/), a founder who sold his first business in 2024, had about 1,500 followers after seven months of posting. Tom rebuilt the team, gave the brand a mission and an enemy, and built a system that posted three times a day. It went from 0 to 500,000 followers in 10 months. His view on where agencies go wrong with founders is its own lesson: [Agencies over-index on the founder's journey](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/agencies-over-index-on-the-founders-journey/). There are three ways to work with him: - **[Power hour session](https://tomsharman.com/consulting/#book), £600.** 60 minute video call. The fundamentals, applied to you. What to make, for whom and in which format. - **[The three month sprint](https://tomsharman.com/consulting/#sprint), by application (2 spots left).** 6 fortnightly 60 minute calls. A seat in your team. The 3 month plan. Fortnightly accountability. - **[Fractional Head of Content](https://tomsharman.com/consulting/#fractional), £3,000 to £7,500 a month, 6 month minimum, then monthly (1 spot left).** Fractional head of content, or fractional COO, for creator and founder-led businesses. I run your content function end to end. Strategy, cadence, team, hiring, tooling and reporting. A senior seat in the business for the cost of a fraction of a full time hire. Worldwide and remote. ## Questions ### Is a content strategist cheaper than an agency? It depends on the shape. Tom's Power hour session is £600 for 60 minutes. The three month sprint is by application. The Fractional Head of Content role is £3,000 to £7,500 a month, with a 6 month minimum, then monthly. An agency retainer pays for production volume, so compare what each one owns. ### Should a founder hire an agency for their personal brand? Once the line and the formats are set, an agency can run the volume. Before that, Tom's view is that most agency founder content leans on the founder's journey and the current business, and leaves out the mission, the enemy and what the audience gets. ### Can one person do strategy and production? At a small scale, yes. Once the volume grows, the person setting the strategy needs a team to make it. Tom has built a content function from zero at Heath Media, Stoffel Media Group, Secret Leaders, Angels Management, and Campus Society and Tyro Magazine. ### What should I bring to a strategist? The account, the business or the brand you want to work on, and the numbers you have: what you post, how often and what has performed. The more the strategist can see beforehand, the more of the time goes on fixing it. ## Read next - [Sam Stoffel](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/sam-stoffel/): 0 to 500,000 followers in 10 months. - [Founder-led content vs a content agency](https://tomsharman.com/compare/founder-led-content-vs-content-agency/): The founder version of this choice. - [Fractional vs full time](https://tomsharman.com/compare/fractional-head-of-content-vs-full-time-hire/): The next decision.