7 Strategies to Maximize your Ghostwriting Partnership
How to Maximize Your LinkedIn™ Ghostwriting Partnership: 7 Strategies for Founders and Executives
Not all ghostwriting relationships deliver equal results.
Having worked with many founders and executives to build their LinkedIn™ presence, I've identified seven proven strategies that transform good ghostwriting partnerships into exceptional ones.
Find a Strategic Partner, Not Just a Writer
The most valuable ghostwriters go beyond writing skills and provide you with strategic guidance. Look for ghostwriters who understand your business development goals and can align content with these objectives.
Now, let’s get to the strategies on how to best work with your ghostwriter.
1. Establish Clear Strategic Objectives
The most successful ghostwriting partnerships begin with clarity about what you're actually trying to achieve. Are you primarily focused on:
Attracting investor attention during fundraising?
Developing strategic partnerships?
Positioning yourself as an industry thought leader?
Building an employer brand to attract top talent?
Generating leads and sales opportunities?
Each of these objectives requires a different content approach.
Being explicit about your primary goals allows your ghostwriter to craft content specifically designed to support those outcomes rather than creating general "thought leadership" without strategic direction.
2. Create an Efficient Knowledge Transfer Process
The greatest challenge in any ghostwriting relationship is efficiently transferring your knowledge and insights to your writer without consuming too much of your time. The most effective partnerships establish structured processes for this knowledge extraction.
Options like:
Scheduled 30-minute monthly strategy calls to discuss topics
Quick voice notes sent when ideas occur to you
Brief bullet points via email on current industry developments
Feedback templates that require minimal time investment
Short interview sessions focused on specific expertise areas
For all founders I work with, we have scheduled monthly interview sessions and a shared Google Drive for idea collection. Whenever they encounter something interesting or have a perspective to share, they can send me a quick email or add the idea to our shared drive. This takes them less than two minutes but provides rich material I can develop into multiple posts.
3. Develop a Distinctive Voice Guide
Your LinkedIn™ content should sound authentically like you—just a more consistent, polished version. The best ghostwriting partnerships begin with intentional voice development to capture your unique communication style.
Your ghostwriter should be capturing:
Your typical communication patterns and phrases
Topics you're passionate about (and those you avoid)
Examples of writing that resonate with you
Values that should be evident in your content
Boundaries around what you will and won't discuss
This initial investment in voice development and strategy ensures your content builds a cohesive personal brand that accurately represents you.
4. Provide Context, Not Just Content
Your ghostwriter can create significantly more strategic content when they understand the broader context of your business. Share information about:
Current business priorities and challenges
Competitive landscape and differentiators
Customer pain points and objections
Industry trends affecting your sector
Recent or upcoming company developments
This context helps your ghostwriter connect your thought leadership to relevant business topics and target your ideal reader persona. The result is posts that advance specific business objectives rather than just general insights.
5. Create a Streamlined Approval Process
While professional ghostwriting dramatically reduces your time investment, maintaining final approval ensures content accurately represents your perspective.
Consider content approval approaches like:
Scheduled review windows (e.g., Monday mornings for 15 minutes)
Clear revision guidelines (e.g., one round of edits maximum)
Default approval after a specific timeframe unless changes requested
Designated proxy approver for periods when you're unavailable
One founder I work with has a simple system: a quick review, and no news is good news. Posts are good to go unless considerable edits are needed.
6. Leverage Performance Data for Continuous Improvement
The most experienced ghostwriters analyze content performance and continuously refine their approach based on results.
Work with your ghostwriter to:
Review engagement metrics monthly
Identify your highest-performing content themes
Experiment with different content formats
Test various posting times and frequencies
Analyze audience growth and composition
This data-driven approach creates compounding returns on your ghostwriting investment as performance steadily improves rather than plateauing.
7. Connect Content to Business Results
The ultimate measure of your ghostwriting partnership's value isn't likes or comments—it's tangible business outcomes.
Consider tracking:
Direct messages from potential customers mentioning your content
Partnership inquiries referencing specific posts
Inbound leads attributing LinkedIn™ as their source
Speaking or media opportunities resulting from your LinkedIn™ presence
One executive I support adds a simple question to his sales team's discovery calls: "How did you hear about us?" The growing percentage answering "I follow the CEO on LinkedIn™" provides concrete evidence of content ROI.
Moving Beyond Content Creation to Strategic Partnership
The most valuable LinkedIn™ ghostwriting relationships evolve beyond merely creating posts to become true strategic partnerships. Your ghostwriter should function as an extension of your thinking, and in some cases, an extension of your marketing team.
The business leaders seeing the greatest impact from LinkedIn™ aren't just publishing content—they're building strategic narratives that attract their most important audiences and advance specific business goals.
By implementing these seven strategies, you transform your LinkedIn™ ghostwriting relationship from a simple service arrangement into a powerful business development engine.
Looking to build a more strategic LinkedIn™ presence without sacrificing your time? Book a complimentary consultation to learn how professional ghostwriting can help you.
Alexis Rivera Scott is the founder of Heritage Narrative, a LinkedIn™ ghostwriting agency serving company founders and executives. Connect with her on LinkedIn™ to continue the conversation about strategic content for busy leaders.