Got promoted to head content department but still don’t know my title (or pay)

I’ve been working at this small digital agency (15 employees, about 50 clients) for 8 months. I was hired as a copywriter, but about 2 months ago, I was promoted to “run the content department” (quoting my direct manager). This comes with a lot of new responsibilities:

• Head of the content department. The only other person that deals with content is a writer who reports to me, so any decision involving content strategy (including brand and tone) for all clients is mine.

• Handling clients’ most important content myself (usually writing home page and some service pages)

• Managing one person, the other writer in the agency. This includes assigning each day’s work to her and being her point of contact for questions or issues.

• Choosing, assigning and editing contractors’ copy (I work with 3-4).

I’m pretty sure this position would be ‘content strategist,’ but management has been careful to not use the word “strategist” when discussing the role with me. I asked my COO pointblank a couple of weeks ago and he called my new position a “Content Scheduler.” Is that right?

In addition to these new responsibilities, I’m rewriting our entire company website as part of a major internal marketing campaign. The copy I write is all mine, meaning I don’t report to anyone on my brand or tone. It’s 100% my ideas and strategy - My COO only has to approve them. I finished the home page and about page last week and got them both approved by him.

As you’d expect, this job is completely overwhelming and I take work home 3-4 days a week to get caught up.

I make $37,000 a year in a major metro area in the Pacific Northwest and I know I’m underpaid. I’ll be using all this information as leverage during pay negotiations with the COO that are coming at the end of the month.

This is the first digital agency I’ve worked at (I come from a journalism background) so any insight on how these promotions/negotiations usually go would be much appreciated. And, with all this all this in mind, what job title most closely resembles what I’m doing?

 

Your profile matches the one of Content Strategist as you pointed out.. Other one can be Content Developer or Content Manager. What you're doing is along the lines of managing only and you're technically the Team Lead of your Content Department. When you'll negotiate for your profile and the promotion, share the list of projects you've accomplished and how far you've come.

You can also quote the market standards at your place and get a 30-40% hike on your current pay.

 

From my experience and knowledge, digital agencies often pay less than other companies. This is why the attrition rate is particularly high in digital agencies.
I'd recommend you apply to decent companies either in your region or in metros. But i can certainly say that a salary of $37k for the head of content is ridiculously low.
A good idea would be talking to career counselors (some of them offer free f charge consultation) or headhunters.
Have you checked out jobs on LinkedIn?