Sales Driven Marketing Hub

Content is the foundation of all marketing, which is why the role of the content marketer is becoming increasingly important. Just think about it, how could you ever properly execute owned, earned and paid media campaigns without content? 

So what tools does the ideal content marketer need to have on his or her tool belt? There are certainly some essential traits we’ve found incredibly helpful when diving into the content marketing game.

1. Analytical (Metrics & Results)

Being analytical is only becoming more and more important as the access to metrics becomes increasingly crucial. Content marketers must be able to see what content is performing and what isn’t, and then tailor their content strategy to what the data is telling them. 

2. Creative (Approach & Graphic Design)

Today’s content marketers must be creative both in their approach and their skill.

First of all, they must seek different, compelling ways to reach their audience. Secondly, they must have creative skills to develop visuals that will engage that audience. A familiarity with graphic design and the ability to use tools like Adobe Illustrator are becoming coveted in the content marketing world.

3. Eloquent (Writing)

Seeing as their job is to create content, a lot of which is written, content marketers must be excellent writers. Not only must they write in a captivating yet informative way, they need to be excellent copy editors and have the ability to write for different platforms in different forms (i.e. long-form blog posts, eBooks and social media posts). 

4. A Great Listener (Social Listening)

Content marketers must be great communicators—which means they need to be excellent listeners. Social listening is crucial to developing engaging content for one’s target audience. By listening to what your audience is sharing and what they find intriguing, you can develop content that matches their taste.

5. Empathetic (Understanding Buyers)

Going hand-in-hand with listening to one’s target audience is being empathetic to their needs. Knowing your buyer personas, prospects, and customers inside-and-out—from their pain points and problems to the solutions they’ve tried—will allow you to develop and market content perfectly suited for their needs.

6. Technical (SEO, HTML, CSS) 

Having technical web skills is a great trait to have as a content marketer. Understanding SEO is paramount as it allows you to increase organic traffic to your site. Additionally, being familiar with HTML and CSS is incredibly useful, as sometimes it’s necessary to make adjustments to a page’s source code, etc. These skills also help when creating landing pages for downloadable offers like eBooks and tip sheets.

7. Aware (Algorithm Updates, Industry Blogs & Influencers)

Being in tune with the industry can help content marketers stay at the top of their game. For example, staying apprised of upcoming algorithm changes can help them prepare a given site for the effects the update will have (whether it’s a change that will affect ranking factors or mobile traffic). Furthermore, keeping current with leading industry blogs and influencers will keep marketers in the loop of current industry trends, etc.

8. Engaged (Social Interaction) 

It’s important to be constantly engaged with both the content marketing community and your target audience. By socially interacting with others, you’ll be able to provide expert insight and learn from some of the best in the business. If there’s a Twitter chat occurring within your industry, make sure to drop in and answer a few questions to establish your credibility and gain insight from others. 

9. Collaborative (Working with Others) 

Content marketers are constantly collaborating. Whether it be with a client to develop content that’s perfectly tailored to their audience or with another marketing professional to co-author an eBook, they need to be able to successfully collaborate with others. Not only can this lead to happy clients, but to partnerships with and new prospects from like-minded professionals.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking for a content marketer to join your team or simply want to take your skills to the next level, someone with these traits will certainly give your business an edge. Although finding an individual that embodies all of these traits can be difficult, it can ultimately help take your inbound marketing game—and revenue—to the next level.