If you understand how content can drive revenue for your business and use it as an asset to promote your brand, you can call yourself a content marketer.
And there are tremendous articles that are pointing out the skills a content marketer should have:
- must be creative
- must be analytical
- must have editorial skills
- must write good
- must understand the industry
- must have a sense of entrepreneurship
- must understand business
- must know some small growth hacking trick
And the list can go on and on, but as you know me, this is the kind of article in which I will approach content marketing from a different perspective.
These are the other skills content marketers should have today, to earn trust and create bridges between the brand and the customer.
You don’t need to have all of these skills right now, but you can work in order to earn them.
These are the kind of skills that many companies are willing to pay you for, if you have them.
1. Be aware of the industry
As a content marketer you really must understand your industry. Being aware of where your industry is heading and which are the biggest players can help you create the type of content and strategy for your brand that will bring you results.
When I started working in the banner ad industry I wasn’t aware of what is this industry, who creates banner ads and to be very honest, I didn’t even know what banner ads are. So I started looking around, asking silly questions and getting in communities like Quora, Inbound or even Twitter hashtags to understand the industry.
That helped me have an overview of the industry.
That made me think about banner ads not only being display advertising on Google but also something we could find on every platform on which you can launch a campaign with visuals. Just think about Facebook Ads. You can call them Facebook Ads, boosted posts and other kinds of ads, but in fact, these ads are acting exactly like banner ads, but only on a different inventory.
Being aware of the industry helped me create the type of content our users and community were interested about. And we can see this not only in traffic but also in our revenue.
So yes, I recommend you to be aware of your industry as a content marketer. Understand the trend. Analyze the content.
2. Be educated
As a content marketer you must be educated. It doesn’t matter if you have a degree in marketing, communication or law.
If you are an educated person, you have a big win in front of others.
But being educated is not only about some diplomas and some MBA’s you just graduated. Being educate is also about reading, going to conferences, experience and staying updated with your industry.
As a content marketer you must educate yourself with each opportunity.
For example, if there is a conference in the tech industry in your town, I recommend you to go over there and listen to all of those speakers. You never know from whom you will get your next idea for your content strategy, or maybe you just will learn some stuff you didn’t know about.
Being educated is about listening podcasts, reading blogs, watching videos and consuming content.
If you want to create content you must also consume content.
But make sure that you are not only consuming content.
Go out and start practicing what you just learned.
Having an educated content marketer in the marketing team is a win for everyone.
3. Be connected
We are living in this world in which you can easily connect with other people, influencers and companions in your industry.
You can connect by just tweeting somebody with a question. You can connect with a blogger by simply commenting to his blog posts. You can connect by sending emails. You can connect by creating content that others can get some good information from.
Being connected is important for your content strategy.
For example, I’m living in a small country in Europe, but I’m working on a global level. This is why I launched my personal blog. So I can connect easier with the ones from my industry. That gave me leverage to email an influencer and tell him about me and talk about him in my blog. So they can see who am I, what are my interests and how I’m crafting my content.
But as far as I can see, the best way to connect with others is to meet them face to face.
Go to conferences, go to events, ask them to grab a coffee. If you want to connect with an influencer in the content marketing industry, just see where he/she is going to a conference, go over there, buy him/her a coffee and talk with him/her. You don’t have to ask something from them.
Connecting doesn’t mean that you have to ask for something.
Think about what kind of value you can bring in their life without asking something in return.
Being connected as a content marketer can get you to places without investing lots of money in the experience.
4. Be consequent
I heard many content marketers saying that they will do something big “in the next few months”.
They shout out that they will create the biggest content platform. Just watch and see.
So I’m sitting here at my office, on my chair, looking at the screen of my Mac and waiting. I’m checking out their blog every day, their YouTube channels or their podcasts. After 3 weeks from the announcement, I still don’t see anything new. It’s the same old content, with big promises but no executions.
If you want to be a great content marketer, start being consequent.
If you say that you will launch your personal blog, make sure that you not only say that you will launch it, but also make sure that you are consistent with your content.
As a content marketer you must be consequent with your work.
For example, let’s say that you plan on starting to guest post on other blogs and websites on which you can feature your company. Start making a plan that will help you create content, even if it’s not for every day, but at least try to make it weekly.
The best content marketer is the one who can keep his/her promises.
5. Build something
As a content marketer you must understand that words can build something. Even if it’s a blog, a podcast episode or a simple e-book.
If you want to be a special content marketer, then start building something. Build anything.
For example, you can talk with your marketing team and tell them that you want to start an email list for your company’s blog. After 1 month you can show them what you did. If you have even 10 emails, it’s a win. Because 10 is better than zero. And even One is better than Zero.
And who worked on that? Who was the one who promised that will build something? You.
I’m sick of all these content marketers who are preaching on how to do stuff, what to do and even come up with ideas on how others should do, but if you look at them, they didn’t accomplished anything.
Why? Because they were too busy giving orders to others on how to do.
I’d rather listen to a content marketer who has created a company blog and is consistent with it, then a so called specialist who just talks but never does anything.
Talking it’s easy. Building something is making you responsible.
How to connect these skills?
Now let’s take all of these skills and see how they connect one another.
When you build something you must be consequent with it. Many big brands start by being consequent with their work. One of the biggest marketing blogs is Seth’s blog.
Why? Because he is consequent with it.
But as matter of fact, you also need to connect with the people around you. When you build something, you must connect with your community, with influencers, with your users, with other content marketers. This will help you not only promote your product but will also give you an opportunity to talk about it and let people know what you do.
Connecting with others is not only about you, it’s also about them.
Educate yourself so you can bring value to everything you do. Learn about your industry, learn about your competitors, read their blogs and educate yourself. So you can connect with them and bring them value.
Now let me know in the comment section below what you think about these skills.
Do you think that they are relevant for you as a content marketer?
Leave a Reply