Content Marketing: The Next Step After Content Writing
Are you planning to switch your career from content writing to something else? Maybe you want: –
- A job that complements your current skillset of a content writer
- Brings new challenges with it
- A salary hike, so let’s add that to the list as well
Well, we have the perfect role for you in mind: Content Marketer. That’s right, a step-up from content writing is content marketing. You may have some or no clue about content marketing so you may have these questions bouncing in your head: –
- What’s the meaning of content marketing?
- What will your day-to-day responsibilities look like as a content marketer?
- How is content marketing different from content writing?
- Why choose it as a career?
- What are the skills that a content marketer must-have?
We at Content Starter are here to help you with that, so without wasting any time, let’s dive into the blog.
What’s Content Marketing?
The meaning of content marketing is using content correctly and precisely to promote a product or business. You will be doing the following things as a content marketer: –
- Understanding the client’s problem.
- Setting goals for the campaign.
- Researching what can potentially work to achieve those goals.
- Coming up with a strategy for the campaign.
- Creating the content for the campaign
- Ensuring the distribution of the content is correct
- Assessing the results of the campaign
Usually, content marketing involves SEO, social media management, and PPC. Sometimes you have to deploy all of three or a combination of three. It all depends on what the client wants to achieve from the campaign.
Content Marketing falls under the umbrella of digital marketing. The role of content marketing in digital marketing is ensuring the quality of prospects or potential clients. Without great content and strategy, you may receive tons of interested people, but there are high chances of a poor conversion rate. Thus, as an aspiring content marketer you must understand the importance of content marketing in digital marketing.
How Is Content Marketing Different From Content Writing?
As a content writer, you are used to receiving instructions from your manager or client, writing the content, and sending the content. As a content marketer, you will create the brief for all content pieces, write the content (or assign it to another content writer), assess the distribution channels for each content piece, and analyze whether the campaign is working or not.
As a content writer you have to color within the lines, but as a content marketer you have the freedom to define those lines and find creative solutions.
Why Choose Content Marketing As A Career?
Not everybody understands content marketing. It’s different from digital marketing, with which many are familiar, although there are some parallels between them. So why choose something confusing? Well, here are three compelling reasons: –
High chances of growth
Believe it or not, content marketing is a booming industry. More and more companies have realized that content marketing works. It generates a more significant ROI and is comparatively cheaper since it relies on organic and paid marketing. Moreover, content marketing helps every aspect of their brand; whether its setting tonality, brand image, brand awareness, customer royalty, retention, or trust.
More control
As a content marketer, you have more control over the campaign. Content writers usually follow the brief and write accordingly. But a content marketer can make the necessary changes. Obviously, those changes have to be supported with data and logic. Content marketing challenges you to think creatively and out of the box to come up with a solution. If, as a content writer, you feel trapped inside a box, content marketing will be the opposite of that. You would finally have the control to use content for marketing as per your wishes and creativity.
Money
Since you have more responsibility, it means you will be paid more for it. But why would a company pay you more? Simply because you are directly helping them make money. When you help a business make more money, the business will reward you for it. Your salary depends on the industry and location. Job in the metropolitans pays more. As a freelance content marketer, you can set your rates. The charges will depend on the services you provide the client and the duration of the project. Talk to other content marketers in similar industries to assess how much you should charge.
Skills Required In A Content Marketing Career
- Content Writing: Content marketers use content for marketing the product or services; thus, you need to know content writing. Lucky for you, since you are shifting from content writing, you already have this skill.
- Marketing: Understanding marketing works is a no-brainer for this job. You need to know how usually consumers behave in marketing efforts and how marketers build funnels to influence consumer behavior. You may produce great content without this key skill, but using that content to sell would be tough. Thus, a basic understanding of funnels and retargeting will help you tremendously in your job.
- Copywriting: Different from content writing, copywriting is writing to persuade and influence your audience. You may have the skill to write content. Writing copy will require an understanding of how words affect people. Once you are proficient as a copywriter, you will be on your way to creating effective campaigns.
- SEO: As a content writer, you must be familiar with writing SEO friendly content. But as a content marketer, you need a deeper understanding. You have to familiarize yourself with on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. The first two are a piece of cake for content writers, but the third one requires some hard work from your side. Technical SEO deals with the website development and such. We recommend enrolling in a free online course.
- An eye for data: You are now responsible for analyzing the results of your campaign. Thus, you need some data analysis skills to help you make the proper analysis. Moreover, you will need to understand the nitty-gritty of the campaign, such as CTR, impressions, reach, backlink, etc. and figure how that fits into the bigger picture. Thus, learning what the various metrics mean and how to operate excel will help you.
- Visual Thinking: It’s no longer just about written content; graphics and videos are exploding. Platforms are Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube are witnessing massive audiences. Thus, you need to think about a visual appeal as well as the written content. Figuring out how the two blends together to benefit the client and increase their revenue will be your job. You don’t necessarily need Photoshop or editing videos skills, but understanding how they work will be within your job’s purview.
- Ensuring smooth distribution: You’ve prepared all the content, and it’s perfect. But if your distribution channels are warped up, then you can say bye-bye to a successful campaign. Successful and effective distribution is a massive factor in the campaign’s success. Thus, you need to understand the platforms you will be using and how your content fits onto that platform. For example, you cannot but your 3000-word long blog on Instagram. Instagram prefers bite-size and visual content. Therefore, plan the distribution accordingly.
Conclusion
To sum up everything that has been stated so far, we defined content marketing, and the importance role of content marketing in digital marketing. Additionally, we discussed how content marketing is different from content writing, why it is a great career, and the skills you need to become a content marketer.
As a content writer, you have the golden opportunity to switch your career and become a content marketer We hope you gained some clarity over your future career choice. Content Starter always aims to deliver blogs or articles on content marketing, content writing, and related fields.
Good luck with your journey ahead!
If you want to explore more options as a content writer, you can read our blog on becoming a copywriter or a digital marketer.
