The best stories usually start with an uncertain hero receiving their new mission, unsure where to begin, from the Lord of the Rings to The Princess Diaries.

If you've been newly tasked with leading content for your org-in a new role or a reorg-you might feel like Frodo being handed the One Ring or Mia Thermopolis learning she's the princess of Genovia. Whether you're an experienced content pro or a brand leader or product marketer who's diving in the deep end, how do you decide where to spend your time and energy?

The old way of running some keyword research and churning out a few articles to rank won't cut it. The tried-and-true tactic that does hold true is to "talk to your customers." That's great and all, but a new content leader often doesn't have the bandwidth or customer access to talk to 30 end-users in their first few months on the job.

Here's what you can do: Talk to the people who talk to your customers. The customer-facing teams at your company whose job it is to convince customers to buy and solve customers' pressing problems. At Beam, we've built an onboarding process to give content teams customer insights that can drive strategy, build alignment, and inspire resonant content all year long. (As Director of Client Strategy, this is my jam.)

Keep reading to turn conversations with customer-facing teams into a content strategy that clicks.