What Is a Content Marketer and How to Become One
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Content marketers have a crucial role to play in businesses from a hugely diverse range of industries, helping to generate leads and convert potential buyers into loyal customers.
At Embryo, we’re content marketing experts and pride ourselves on creating compelling content that stands out from the rest. We know a thing or two about how to create award-winning digital marketing strategies that keep our clients ahead of the competition.
In this blog, we explore everything you need to know about what a content marketer does and how to become one, including the skills you will need to succeed in the demanding but rewarding role.
What is a Content Marketer?
A content marketer creates engaging written, visual, and/or video content that a business can use to engage with their target audience.
This content serves the purpose of:
- Driving brand awareness
- Attracting leads
- Converting leads into customers
- Turning customers into repeat buyers
To succeed in their role, content marketers must have an excellent understanding of the product or service they’re promoting and their target audience. This is the key to creating content that resonates with their audience and leads to conversions.
What does a content marketer do?
A content marketer’s main responsibilities include planning, creating, and distributing content to connect with their audience, build trust, and sell products or services.
Content marketing is a very broad industry, but some of the most common roles and their responsibilities include:
- Content Strategist: Content Strategists are responsible for developing and implementing the overall content strategy. They come up with content topics based on the latest marketing trends and ensure that content is created for all stages of the customer journey. At smaller companies, the roles of Content Strategist and Content Writer are sometimes merged into one.
- Content Writer: Content Writers do the research and craft the content for blogs and websites, following SEO best practices as they write. At smaller companies, they might also do much of the strategising and implementation.
- Copywriter: Copywriter and Content Writer are often used synonymously – however, while Content Writers typically work more on long-form content, Copywriters usually work more on short-form copy. This can include writing captions for paid social media ads, email campaigns, and more.
What Skills Do I Need to Be a Good Content Marketer?
The skills required to be a content marketer are generally the same no matter which specific role you’re interested in pursuing.
Any good content marketer should be:
- Creative: Creating content that stands out from the competition requires a lot of creativity. Good content marketers are able to uncover different angles, fill content gaps, and turn dull topics into engaging reads.
- Analytical: Tracking content marketing efforts is key to knowing what’s working and what’s not. Good content marketers know how to analyse the data to find out what kind of content their audience needs and determine how effective their existing content is.
- Organised: There are many moving parts involved in executing an effective content strategy. A good content marketer needs to keep on top of scheduling and publishing content consistently, tracking engagement metrics, actively listening for content opportunities, and more.
- A storyteller: It takes great storytelling to create engaging content. Good content marketers use stories to connect emotionally with their audience and convey a message in a way that is relatable.
- Detail-focused: Content riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors is unlikely to be trusted by customers. A good content marketer pays careful attention to their work to ensure that no errors are made.
- Good at research: Thorough research is crucial when it comes to producing exceptional content. Good content marketers need to know their customers, competitors, and products or services inside out to create content that is useful and authoritative.
How Can I Get a Job in Content Marketing?
According to Hubspot, 82% of marketers actively use content marketing, so there is certainly plenty of demand for content marketers who have the necessary skills to succeed in this job.
There are many different routes you can take to get into content marketing:
Get a degree in a relevant field
Education requirements will vary between positions, but many employers prefer to hire content marketers who hold a bachelor’s degree. Marketing, Journalism, and even disciplines as broad as English or History are just a few examples of degrees that will teach the skills you need for a successful career in content marketing.
Develop an impressive content marketing resume
One of the best ways to get a job in content marketing without a degree is to develop the necessary skills and put together a comprehensive resume that will impress potential employers. You can optimise your resume by discussing skills and experiences that are relevant to a content marketer’s duties, even if they were acquired while you were working in a completely different industry. These skills could include things like handling public-facing communications, working to deadlines, or creating pieces of content that have engaged readers.
Grow your professional network
Developing professional relationships with people in the content marketing industry can help you discover job opportunities that might otherwise have been inaccessible to you. Professional networking is easier than ever thanks to websites like LinkedIn that allow you to connect with professionals in the content marketing industry. There are also networking events in every major city that you can attend to meet other professionals in your desired industry, such as Manchester Young Professionals.
Content Marketing at an Award-Winning Digital Marketing Agency
The Embryo team are expert when it comes to creating standout content that yields results. If you’re interested in joining our team of talented content marketers, keep an eye on our careers page for the latest job opportunities.
If you’re a business owner, call us today on 0161 327 2635 or email [email protected] for more information about what our content marketing team can do for you.
