Content creators are an important part of any social media team. They’re the ones who create all the posts for your company’s social media accounts. They might write blog posts or articles, shoot videos, take photos, or even build websites from scratch.
In this guide, we review the aspects of Skills For Content Marketing, social media content creator skills, content creator technical skills, and skills required for content marketing.
Writing
Writing is a critical skill for content creators. You need to be able to write clearly and concisely in order to get your message across, and writing can also help you create content for social media posts.
Writing can be used in many different ways: you may write blogs, articles or other forms of content yourself; or use research skills to find information that will support your writing.
Creating videos
Creating video content is one of the most important things that a social media content creator can do. Video is the most engaging type of content on all platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
A good video content creator will have a keen eye for quality and detail in their work, with attention to lighting, sound and editing techniques. They should also be able to produce compelling narratives using only images or still shots taken from videos.
Some great examples of successful creators include Casey Neistat (who has over 1 million followers on Instagram) and Casey Niestat’s brother Van Neistat (who has over 900k followers). If you want to become like them then read our tips on how you can improve your skills:
Taking photos
- Use a good camera. If you’re using your phone to take photos, make sure it’s a newer model with good image quality.
- Use natural light where you can find it and use artificial lighting when necessary.
- Get close to your subject and use zoom if necessary. This will allow you to capture more detail in the image while also making it easier for people viewing the photo on different devices to see what is happening in the shot.
- Take plenty of photos and delete/reject any bad ones as soon as possible so you aren’t wasting time editing them later on if they don’t meet your quality standards right away!
- Edit your photos if needed (cropping out unwanted parts of the picture, adjusting lighting levels), but try not do too much editing unless absolutely necessary because this will affect image quality.*
Building websites
“Okay, so I’m a content creator. How can I build websites?”
The answer is: with software. There are many different tools that you can use to help you create high-quality websites and manage your site’s traffic. You may need to learn the ins and outs of WordPress or Squarespace, or even consider learning how to code HTML and CSS (the building blocks for all websites).
However, there are also plenty of third-party services that will do most of the heavy lifting for you. These include: * Google Analytics * Google Tag Manager * Yoast SEO
Using software like Photoshop or Illustrator
If you’re interested in creating graphics, logos, and illustrations, Photoshop or Illustrator are great tools to know. You can use them to:
- Edit photos
- Make memes
- Create infographics
Content creators rely on these skills to make exciting social media posts.
If you want to be a social media content creator, you should have the following skills:
- Writing skills. Social media posts need to be written in a way that will make them interesting and entertaining for your audience.
- Video editing skills. You’ll need these skills to cut together videos from different sources, or add graphics and other effects if needed.
- Photo editing skills. You’ll also need to do some photo editing with images that you use in your posts, so it’s good if you know how to do this well beforehand!
- Website building & software development experience (optional). If possible, having at least basic knowledge of HTML & CSS development tools such as WordPress or Joomla could help make it easier for someone like yourself who might not know how exactly how much time each task takes up personally since there are many platforms available online today which can provide those kinds
Skills For Content Marketing
Getting started in the digital content industry can be challenging. Creating digital content is a great way to share your knowledge and connect with others. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
In this article, we will share why content creators are the decisive part of any organization, the must-have skills for becoming successful content creators, and their daily habits and treats.
What Is a Content Creator?
A content creator is a person who creates written or visual content for a website. Content creators are usually responsible for creating and managing blogs, podcasts, video productions, and social media pages.
The purpose of this content is to communicate value to an end-user, and brands are beginning to see the worth of working with content creators.
Content can foster community and loyalty through interaction with the brand, its community, or both. Ultimately, without content, a medium has no value at all.
What Do Content Creators Do?
As a content creator, you are responsible for researching, planning, managing, and crafting digital media assets. It may include blog posts, social media graphics, videos, etc.
They decide when, where, how often, and what type of materials will be published. And also, content makers are the company tone and voice gatekeepers.
What Are Content Creator Types?
Writer
Content writers are individuals who have specific skills in writing content that is relevant to a business or organization’s target audience. Content writers can use their expertise and knowledge to create, deploy and modify content that is used to benefit the company and its customers.
Speaker
Speakers are the people who speak publicly regularly in front of an audience. Now brands have channels like Tik-Tok, Facebook, and Instagram, where speakers talk about new features, review products, and decorate the company with the human touch.
Visualizer
These types of content makers specialize in visual content creation. They express words and tell stories through images, infographics, videos, etc.
Their embracing vision helps companies to have a vivid online presence and stand out from the competition with a decent user experience.
What Are the Benefits of Becoming a Digital Content Creator?
Building a Network
Networking is an essential part of any successful career. It enables you to share your skills, learn from others and make valuable connections.
As a content creator, you will have the opportunity to get in touch with team members, their managers, and other colleagues who will be open to collaboration opportunities. So, you will be able to contact upper management in organizations that will help you promote the new idea within the organization.
Networking also inspires content creators to generate content marketing ideas, as working with like-minded people gives them a lot of inspiration.
Gaining Multi-Dimensional Experience to Fuel Career Growth
The duties and responsibilities of digital content creation require a mix of creative and technical skills. After a long-term dedication to this profession, you will know what the modern job market demands. So, it is a role to accelerate your growth and step-up up the career ladder.
Improving Persuasive Skills
Persuasion skill is a crucial factor that can pave the way to one of the most successful careers.
Content creators who create persuasive pieces stand above the crowd and have more potential to succeed in a competitive environment. Also, persuasion is essential in marketing, sales, advertising, negotiations, etc.
The best way to flex your persuasion muscles is by writing engaging content enriched with simplicity and clear sentences.
Becoming a Writing Expert
Writing knowledge is the process of generating information fast and in more detail than before. Knowledge work requires cognitive effort, which can be hard on the writer’s brain. You can use writing knowledge to perform multiple tasks, such as brainstorming, executing projects, and researching.
What Are Habits of Successful Content Creators?
1. Read the News and Updates
Content creators should stay up-to-date with the latest industry news and trends. Every news and update can be turned into a new content piece and gain instant engagement from your audience.
For example, after one of the most recent Facebook shutdowns, at greatcontent, we produced a LinkedIn post and subtly promoted our vision and services.
Also, you will better understand what interests niche-related persons and create a more personalized content experience for your personas.
So, try to develop the top 5 list of websites that provide valuable industry updates. After that, include in your daily tasks to spend 30 – 45 minutes reading the latest trends.
2. Write Every Day
Write every day – if you do it constantly for a year, you will notice the improvements in
It is all about establishing a habit that guarantees constant creative flow. By writing every day, we do not mean that you have to compose specifically blogs or social media posts. Write whatever and whenever you want.
Practice expressing your views and feelings. After watching a movie sit down and construct your thoughts about the scenario. Or it can be the book review, email writing, or pitching the service or product.
The concept is to practice writing multiple tones, voices, content types, etc. So you can be a versatile content creator.
3. Build Your Network
We have already discussed the significance of building a network. The best way to lay the foundation of your network construction is to be active in various channels and seize every opportunity to contribute and express your industry or niche knowledge.
The Internet gives you various opportunities to team up with like-minded individuals even outside your team. There are multiple communities in social media where you can turbocharge your growth and collaborate on different projects.
4. Read Other’s Content
Practice makes perfect! We do not only mean to create the content daily – you also should get acquainted with other works. By reading, visualizing, and analyzing existing content, you will improve your vision and analytical skills and understand what resonates with your potential customers.
Alongside reading the content, go and check comments related to the topic. Engaging in these conversations will help you understand customer reactions, voices, comments, and news within your niche and outside of it.
5. Find Your Unique Voice
There are a lot of content creators in the same industry, so it can be tough to stand out from the competition. However, we can give you a few tips to help you have a unique content eye.
Diversify your content – don’t just create focus on blog posts or articles. Produce images, white papers, memes, videos, etc.
Write uniquely – that’s how you will draw the eyeballs. The beauty of content lies in sharing unique voices, stories, and experiences.
Ensure your writing style is persuasive, engaging, and motivating – it is not only about providing the knowledge and educating them. Express your friendly tone, and give readers a reason to keep coming back for more of your content.
Finally, always follow your brand guidelines when developing content. Try to find a golden balance between your individual and brand characteristics.
What Are Trends Among Content Creators?
AI Content Creators
AI has taken the content industry by storm! Nowadays, companies need to create a large volume of content to rank on Google and increase the likelihood of success.
But we do not mean that bots are about to replace the content writers across the globe and make their knowledge obsolete. Instead, brands successfully collaborate with AI tools with human editors and produce the content in less time.
The software responsible for a content generation has been around for a while. But now, it is getting smarter daily. Thus, the technological innovations facilitate the process of AI content creation
Again, any type of AI content production requires heavy post-editing to avoid the potential lapses and funny fails that may go viral across social channels. Still, the method is a time-saver when you run short on time, and if you integrate the writing magic, no one will notice the AI effect on your pieces.
Freelance Content Creators
Freelance content creators are independent contractors working on a project-by-project basis without the typical benefits of a full-time employee. They might be looking to freelance as a primary job. They may also want the flexibility of being their boss and working from home.
Content Creators for Social Media – Facebook, IG, Tiktok
Every organization that strives to develop a decent online presence should invest in social media content creation. Social media is vital for several reasons. It allows you to connect with customers and therefore, provide insights into the customer journey and how they respond to different messages. Social media also impacts your brand, social status, and customer sentiments.
People choose careers in social media because it is a new and exciting industry that offers challenges, rewards, experiences, and opportunities for growth.
Content Creators for SEO Blog
SEO content creators are individuals who create, write, and publish original work on their website to rank for the targeted keywords.
SEO is a long-term, strategic digital marketing tactic that can help your site rank highly in search results. It also assists you to garner leads and drive traffic to increase sales and revenue.
What Skills and Experiences Are Needed to Be a Successful Digital Content Industry?
Planning Skills
Planning skills are essential because they allow you to handle multiple tasks efficiently and effectively. Planning also helps you stay organized so that your day is less hectic and stay focused.
Great content planners understand
Planning skills help you avoid confusion and wasted effort further down the line.
Research Skills
Research skills are crucial for developing content that is engaging and digestible. Researching the topic can give you a better understanding of what your audience thinks about it and how to cater to them. Research skills are also essential for building a content strategy used to develop the appropriate type of content that will resonate with your audience and produce results.
Content writers need to have research skills. It involves finding the sources and conducting research in a way that results in informative, well-written copy. Online sources include white papers, digital journals, government websites, or other reliable sources. Offline research happens via books, interviews, and more. Once the writer has gathered all the needed information, it’s time to get it all together into a cohesive piece that offers value to the reader. A website becomes a trustworthy, credible source leading to traffic and unique visitors. The more popular site helps brand value. The content writer’s profile may be more attractive with well-researched content. With all this in mind, it’s clear that conducting quality research is essential for any successful content writer.
SEO Knowledge
To be a successful digital content industry professional, you must have SEO knowledge. It includes understanding how to research keywords, use them in titles and descriptions, and track results. You should also be familiar with Google AdWords and other advertising platforms. Additionally, having web design and video marketing skills can help you achieve your goal of making six figures. Revenue growth, sales enablement, and SEO are all skills to reach this goal.
Mastering Diverse Skills
The range of skill sets for a content creator can vary greatly depending on the type of content they create. For example, someone who develops blog posts would have different skills than a video creator. But there are cases in organizations where content makers deal with various types. Their scope of skills include anything from writing to photography, graphic design to digital marketing, and beyond.
Editing Skills
Editing is a must-have ability when you are involved in content marketing.
One of the most important skills for any writer is editing. It means reviewing your work and meeting the standards you set for yourself. Many tools can help with this, such as Hemingway App, Grammarly, and Copyscape.
Editing is a process that should continue even after you think your work is accomplished. Use feedback from others to improve your writing. Take care in how you edit your work – ensure use a process that helps you be consistent in your edits. Many writers find they don’t edit their work as well after finishing writing it. Step away from the project for a while and come back with a fresh set of eyes for the content.
Sales Funnel Knowledge
Sales funnels are also essential to know about. They allow companies to visualize the customer journey and understand where to aim for different products and price points. Each step in the funnel is a micro-conversion that can be optimized. If you see high drop-off rates on certain pages, you can use Google Analytics tools to help visualize the flow of customers across your website and spot potential problems.
Technical Skills
To be successful in the digital content industry, you need to have certain technical skills. You should be familiar with common content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress and Drupal. In addition, you should know how to use tools for managing workflows, such as JIRA and Asana. It is also helpful to be proficient in analytical tools, such as Google Analytics and Mixpanel, so that you can understand metrics and insights into your audience’s behavior.
social media content creator skills
The demand for social media skills and social media marketing pros is growing exponentially, and if a brand doesn’t exist on social media today, it is likely going to fall behind and lose out to competitors.
Over 2.45 billion population is using Facebook, with millions also using social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, and 1 billion users on YouTube, it’s obvious that ignoring social media skills will lead to lost opportunities for revenue and brand building. This makes social media marketing skills critically important. If you’re considering a job in social media marketing, or you need to add social media skills to your repertoire as a digital marketer, a certification is an excellent way to get a solid foundation in the field. In addition to the skills you can learn through a certification program, however, there are other skills you must have to succeed in the marketing arena.
Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing
1. Excellent Communication
The first social media skill you must have is – communication. It goes without saying that if you want to represent an organization and engage with their customers, then you need to have strong communication skills. You also need good communication skills for getting along with colleagues, putting your ideas and campaigns into words, and to be the voice of your brand on a global stage!
2. Creativity
One of the most important attributes of social media marketing skills is creativity. Social media users tend to unfollow a brand if the content shared is repetitive or boring. To keep followers engaged and hooked, social media marketers need to consistently come up with new and engaging ideas, creative initiatives, and campaigns. From interactive content to contests to viral videos, social media marketers will need to think of innovative ways to stand apart from the millions of others on social media.
3. Writing Ability
Although images and videos dominate much of social media skills, writing also plays a critical role. Whether you’re creating a post or crafting a tweet, writing stands as an essential part of a social media marketer’s job profile. If headlines aren’t magnetic or captivating enough, it’s likely people are not going to be motivated enough to click.
Free Course: Instagram Marketing Basics
4. Content Curation
Content curation has always been a major part of social media marketing skills, primarily for those businesses that do not have the time to create a steady flow of content on their own. Content curation is an important social media marketing skill since they will need to know when to share, what to share and how to share, in addition to being familiar with content sources and audience preferences.
5. Project Management
As multi-taskers extraordinaire, social media marketers need good project management skills. They need to create publishing schedules, track contacts, and maintain social media profiles. They will need to run reports, meet with designers and writers, manage ad budgets, and much more. With strong project management skills, the best social media managers will stay on top of all tasks as well as know when content needs to be published, what to plan for, and how to keep track of all the different social media conversations going on.
6. Aptitude to Learn
You already know technology changes constantly and new social media platforms appear while and new features are regularly added to the existing platforms, be it Instagram reels or LinkedIn stories. In addition to that flux, consumer expectations can change on a whim as well. A good social media marketer willingly learns on-the-fly as needed.
7. Marketing
Although you’re using social media as the tool, you’re still marketing, which means a must have social media skill is marketing and you need a solid understanding of basic marketing principles. You don’t need a marketing degree, but you do need good foundational knowledge about how marketing works.
Social Media Foundation – Free Course
8. Flexibility
Change is a constant in social media, and the best social media marketers are those who can quickly adapt to a new situation or respond to something that is happening in the social media environment, whether good or bad. This makes flexibility another must have social media skill!
9. Strategic Thinking
Next in the list of top social media skills comes strategic thinking. Social media might seem like it’s all fun, but successful social media marketing requires strategy. You can learn social media strategy as part of your training, but it helps to have a mind that works that way too, and a natural aptitude for strategic thinking.
10. Relationship Building
Social media marketers also need to reach out to influencers and that makes relationship building a crucial skill to develop.
11. Community Management
Take a close look at the brands with a big social media presence and you’ll see they all have one thing in common: community, a must-have social media skill! Social media marketing requires building connections and an online community to succeed.
12. Analytical Skills
Finally, at the end of the day, you need to know if your marketing is working. And that’s why analytical skill is one of the most important and advantageous social media skill. You can learn how to check metrics and reporting, but having an analytical mind will help you make sense of all that data—so you can make informed decisions instead of relying on assumptions.
To get your dream job in Social Media Marketing, you need to have a solid resume. Highlighting SMM skills that are used in day-to-today life of a marketer can help you bag the job faster. Glace through these quintessential Social Media Marketing skills for resume –
content creator technical skills
All current digital marketing initiatives are built on the basis of content production — defined as the process of conducting research, coming up with strategic ideas, turning those ideas into high-value collateral and then advertising them to a specific audience. Web pages, blogs, infographics, movies and social media postings are all examples of digital content, the marketing of which generates three times the number of leads versus traditional marketing, while costing 62% less.
All content has one goal: to make a connection with an audience — to bring in new leads and result in the return of earlier consumers. Beginners may believe that creating content begins with your own thoughts and what you wish to communicate. However, knowing an audience (imagining what they value, what they find fascinating and what prior material has appealed to them) is actually the vital first step in the brainstorming process.
And, despite the fact that the digital world is always changing, there is a method to the madness of content creation. If you follow the principles below, you’ll quickly establish yourself as a creation leader, drawing qualified prospects ready to solve their problems.
Search engine optimization
You must make your content appealing to search engines in today’s marketing square. Hone your writing abilities helps, certainly, but also use SEO tools to help you get the most out of material. Web content writers should be well-versed in the fundamentals of SEO and apply them to their work. And it isn’t a skill just for copywriters; properly curated video SEO and imagery optimizations help content rank higher than it would otherwise.
Another great approach in learning how an audience is talking about a topic is to conduct keyword research, which will also assist in identifying fresh content options that you may not have explored otherwise.
Research
Good content curation entails distilling a large amount of information and data into the most useful and relevant presentation for the reader, and research provides you with the authority to talk about topics in a relevant and industry-specific manner. It also helps you develop stronger and more fluid writing abilities by giving you confidence and clarity.
Change happens quickly in just about any business, so research — including tirelessly reading other people’s work — will help you stay up to date. The greatest content developers are inquisitive, and restlessly seek out topics that their target audience is likely to be interested in.
Consistency
The more material you provide, the more visitors your website will receive. If you want to be the best publisher in your field, you must make a commitment to push out content that readers are interested in regularly. It isn’t something you do simply when you have free time. It isn’t a hobby. Treat it like work. In order to achieve visibility, digital content production needs dedication and consistency. Remember, “Out of sight, out of mind”, so publish.
Learn about your audience
If you dig deep enough into an audience’s interests and patterns, you’ll discover new ideas that you might not have happened across otherwise. Basic demographic data like age, interests, education, location and purchasing patterns may go a long way in helping curate the kind of ideation you need. Understanding a consumer is your first obligation as a content creator, so, while brainstorming new concepts, consider what they would find entertaining, intriguing or useful, then consider how those ideas can fit into content strategy.
Brand analysis
A brand’s character and voice, design strategy, strong points, weaknesses, rivals’ tactics and effective content strategies with the highest value should all be included when curating content. It is only successful if it is in sync with a brand’s image and gets the message out properly, so brand analysis is crucial, and will help additionally in anticipating the content’s ROI.
Pay attention to feedback
Request feedback on material from a third party to check whether you’re still thinking about your primary audience and if you’re on track with the content marketing goals set at the onset of a project. Asking consumers for feedback and then reviewing it can help identify unresolved questions about a product or area that you might not have considered. Material created in response to those queries will have a direct and significant impact on the current consumer base.
It’s both difficult and gratifying at the same time to work as a content creator. Most of us have the ability to curate some, but making it reach the masses, and then gaining success through content strategy, is a whole different ball game. When trying to ace in this domain, remember the “C”s – customer, creativity and consistency, and you’re good to go.
skills required for content marketing
“Everyone — and I mean EVERYONE — thinks they’re a writer.” But it takes more than a blog and a dream to be a content marketer. We rounded up the essential skills for the role, according to experts.
“Content is king,” as Bill Gates wrote back in 1996. “No company is too small to participate.”
It was true in 1996, and decades later, it still is. Today, an estimated 79% of B2B businesses have a content marketing strategy, and it’s hard to do business without running into a content-led growth success story like HubSpot, Shopify, Ahrefs, or Zapier.
HubSpot, for instance, grew from three customers in 2006 to a $19 billion-dollar company in 2020 — largely by publishing webinars, blog posts, and tools like their Website Grader. These free offerings solved problems for prospects, buyers and repeat customers alike.
That’s great content marketing in a nutshell.
It’s trickier than it sounds, though. Especially during a global pandemic, when prospects face unprecedented problems.
The majority — 60% — of companies that saw great success with their content marketing during 2020 attributed it to website changes and fresh content.
Or, in other words, to expert content marketers helping them adapt.
So what skills set those pros — who can lead HubSpot-style growth and pandemic pivots — apart from beginners? We talked to the experts to find out.
Meet the experts
What does an expert content marketing manager do?
Content marketers are more than writers.
Yes, they create relevant, consistent, and high-quality content that helps businesses build owned audiences — and nurture them into leads.
But the best content marketers can do more than craft blog posts, pitch decks and website copy. They also know how to track report analytics for different types of content, and think strategically about distribution channels.
“What sets the experts apart from the amateurs is the fact that the expert … will not take a quick look around the site [and say] that we have to do a blog and just start production,” Dossetto told MarketerHire. “The expert thinks strategy.”
Several other titles fall under the umbrella of content marketing too, including:
These titles aren’t all synonyms, though.
“Copywriting for email marketing is a different animal from website copy, which is a different animal from ad copy, which is different from blog writing,” Neumark said.
Copywriters tend to focus on writing paid ads, web page copy, and sales enablement, while content specialists dig into free, informative content. Meanwhile, content marketers — the focus of this article — are responsible for the end-to-end process — from planning to creation to distribution.
While they can write and edit, content marketing managers are also expected to set strategy, manage freelancers, distribute their work and report on performance metrics.
8 mandatory skills for expert content marketers
Content marketers are the secret sauce many businesses use to grow their audiences, nurture leads, and reconnect with customers. Making that happen takes a lot of specialized skills.
Here’s a word cloud based on SEMRush’s analysis of 17,000 content marketing job descriptions:
Neumark, Clark, and Lang let MarketerHire in on the important skills that separate seasoned content marketers from novices.
1. Content strategy.
Your business could create unlimited content. But you don’t have unlimited content resources. So what should you prioritize?
A great content marketer will help you identify your lowest lift, highest impact content opportunities.
“Content marketers should always be strategizing and ideating,” Donati told MarketerHire.
Typically, they’ll start with a thorough discovery process, according to our panel of experts — diving deep into analytics, reading your company’s existing content and interviewing clients.
The type of content they decide to create is ultimately based on a deep understanding of a brand and its audience.
“If you’re trying to get the attention of 15-year-olds, we’re going to need to look at TikTok,” Neumark said. But if you’re a B2B marketer trying to reach top executives, “maybe we’re going to do a white paper.”
Expert content marketers can help you figure out what kind of content is right for your business, so you don’t get overwhelmed by infinite possibilities.
2. Project management.
Great content marketers are systems thinkers who know how to manage content ideation, production and promotion.
The best content marketers use content calendars — built in spreadsheets, or platforms like Trello and Asana — to avoid last-minute scrambles. They use these calendars to keep track of content workflows and due dates, and to store notes and keyword research.
A calendar on its own isn’t enough, though.
“Some brands have cohesive calendars and really inventive ideas,” Clark said. “But maybe they’re starting on copy just a week before [publishing].”
Expert content marketers use content calendars to plan ahead, and ensure that when the time comes to publish, each piece of content has gone through editing and optimization.
They don’t just publish things as soon as they’re finished and then go back in later to catch mistakes. Though a lot of amateurs do.
3. SEO fundamentals and topic research.
How-to guides, infographics, and checklists create the most value for companies at the top of the funnel, according to a SEMrush study — and even years down the road, customers tend to find those posts via Google search.
It pays to meet customers where they are. (Literally.) Hence the importance of search engine optimization (SEO).
“A lot of companies will provide a list of SEO terms that they’ve already sourced,” Clark said. Novice content marketers take those keywords and stuff them into blog posts indiscriminately.
Experts think critically about the terms and the ideal prospect’s search intent to craft content that actually solves people’s problems.
Especially amidst annual Google core updates and privacy updates that make paid ads harder to manage, SEO expertise is increasingly essential for content marketers.
It helps them navigate Google’s constantly-changing algorithm so their content gets in front of the right audiences — even if they can’t track that audience’s every move the way they once could.
4. Creative asset management.
From video and podcast creation to graphic design, expert content marketers have extensive foldering systems to keep assets straight — and collaborative skills for working with designers, writers, videographers, and more.
They make it easy to share assets and templates across teams.
Without a thorough digital asset management (DAM) system in place, companies can lose track of their assets, which is a waste of time and money.
It often happens when in-house creative teams get stretched thin. “They’re overworked, or they’re juggling a lot of different projects,” Clark explained.
Pros get maximum mileage out of their digital assets, though — without letting them fall through the cracks or overusing them.
5. Copywriting and content creation.
Top marketers agree: copywriting and content creation are different — but related — endeavors.
Both copywriting and web content creation require writing skills, but they serve different purposes. Think promoted social media post vs. blog post, or punchy headline vs. informative body copy.
Copywriting has a measurable objective: conversions. It takes a knack for writing high-conversion CTAs, targeted landing pages, and catchy slogans for digital marketing campaigns.
It helps if they understand the platform they’re writing for, too. “Being able to understand the Facebook ad marketplace, Instagram ads… is super important,” Clark said.
Content writing comes into play higher in the funnel, and its objective is different: providing value to the customer, by entertaining them or solving their problems. T
To do it well, a content marketer needs an ability to empathize with an audience and communicate in a brand voice. In fact, Clark thinks of content as “an extension of the brand.”
The best content marketers can toggle between content creation and copywriting. Often, Lang said, they have experience being “the only writer around” at smaller brands.
“That’s why looking at someone’s portfolio is so important,” she said. “Can you adjust your writing style to the purpose, the context, and what the audience needs? Most good writers should be able to do that.”
6. Editing.
Editing often gets conflated with writing. But as copywriting isn’t content creation, writing and editing skills are slightly different.
“A lot of people have great ideas and can string words together on the page well,” Reynoso told MarketerHire. “But that doesn’t mean they know how to organize their thoughts.”
Top content marketers have experience writing and editing, and can ensure they publish content only when it’s ready for your audience’s eyes.
7. Blog writing.
You need to be able to write to be a content marketer. It’s the baseline skill.
“Everyone — and I mean EVERYONE — thinks they’re a writer,” said Reynoso.
Anyone can take up blogging, but very few of those writers know the ins and outs of good content that will resonate with readers. And content no one reads isn’t helpful in marketing — or anywhere.
The best content marketers are “the select few who care about tone, quality, and creating value-add assets” when they write, Reynoso said.
That should shine through in a content creator’s portfolio. If you want to go the extra mile, give a writing assignment during your interview process, to see what kind of first drafts you’ll be getting.
8. Content analytics and tracking.
What’s the goal of your content and how are you going to measure success? A great content marketer can take their storytelling skills to the spreadsheets.
Once you set target KPIs, expert content marketing should be able to measure them with tools like Google Analytics and goal/tag tracking, and create monthly reports that mix qualitative information and data analysis.
Some content marketers may also be comfortable reporting download numbers, webinar attendees, etc., using CRM and ESP solutions like Hubspot.
“A lot of companies would benefit by realizing how much a content marketer can contribute strategically,” Lang said.
With their understanding of analytics and tracking, they can help set a direction for content and even refine the KPIs you’ve set, so they grow with the business.