10 Critical Skills To Become a Successful Content Marketer in 2020
Wouldn’t it be great if this will be the year when you become a successful content marketer in your niche?
In this blog post, you’ll be learning the 10 essential skills to develop and refine to become a successful content marketer in 2020:
- Strategic planning
- Research and data analysis
- Project management
- Video production and editing
- Copywriting skills
- Storytelling
- Editing skills
- Graphic design
- Collaboration skills
- SEO
1. Strategic planning
Successful content marketers take the time to create a content marketing strategy before creating a single piece of content.
That’s because understand each company has its unique branding, which will dictate what type of content they publish and who their target audience will be.
They also understand that each company has its preferred set of marketing channels that they’d want to use because these are where they’re getting most of their customers.
When you learn how to create a content marketing strategy, you can then content that effectively attracts and converts a company’s audience based on the channels it uses.
2. Research and data analysis
It’s now possible for brands and marketers to quantitatively determine what topics and content types are bringing in the best results. That means you’re expected to know which data to collect and where to find it, as well as applying these to your content marketing campaigns.
You’ll also need to know how to present the results of the content marketing campaign you’ve launched to the company’s key decision-makers.
Many successful content marketers take the time to invest in an online marketing course so they can learn how to effectively and efficiently create and launched data-driven content marketing campaigns.
3. Project management
Project management is combining and applying your knowledge and skills with different tools and techniques so that you can complete a project on time and within expected standards.
As a content marketer, you need to develop your own workflow process so that you can properly manage all of the tasks you need to complete on time.
Managing your projects effectively also means knowing which tasks you can delegate or automate to make things more efficient.
You also need to familiarize yourself with using some of the popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, and JIRA.
4. Video production and editing
Video is now the preferred content format marketers use because it’s more convenient for your target audience to consume compared to written content.
In fact, 95% of customers would prefer to watch an explainer video like this one from Dollar Shave Club than read a written guide.
Of those that’ll watch an explainer video, 81% will choose to buy.
You don’t need to be a master in creating and editing videos to become a successful content marketer. However, you’re expected to know the basics.
You can find several tutorials on Youtube to help you get started. There are also several free and low-cost video editing tools like iMovie and Blender that you can use to start practicing and developing your skills.
5. Copywriting skills
With the overwhelming amount of online content published every day, you need to make sure that the content you create can easily attract and convert your target audience.
And that’s where having refined copywriting skills come in, even if you’re not creating written content.
That’s because copywriting is a writing technique used for one specific purpose: to persuade your readers to take action.
To do that, you need to know how to write your content, so it convinces your audience to keep reading and do what you want them to do.
One of the best ways to improve your copywriting skills is by mirroring what other successful content marketers have done.
When consuming a piece of content you find compelling, ask yourself: “What is it about this that makes me want to continue reading or watching?”
Then, apply what you’ve learned to the next copy you’ll create.
Before submitting this, have someone you trust to read through the copy you’ve created, preferably someone that matches your target audience. Get the person’s feedback about what you’ve written, and check if it aligns with your content’s end goal.
6. Storytelling
Storytelling is so compelling because it makes your brand more memorable. One study shows that people remember a brand’s message or content 22x more quickly compared to a piece of content that only focuses on the facts.
An effective way to inject storytelling in your content is by using the Hero’s Journey technique, where the hero is your target audience. In the story that you’ll be crafting, your “hero” is on a quest to defeat the giant (their pain point) wreaking havoc in the village (their business/life/goal).
Your role in the story is that of the sage. You’re the one who’ll teach or show how to conquer the enemy they’re facing. Learn more about video storytelling techniques here.
7. Editing skills
Working on your editing skills is like playing a game of chess: Easy to learn, but it takes a long time to master.
That’s because content marketers have their unique way of creating content. So, if they’re faced with editing a piece of content done by someone else, they’d sometimes end up redoing the entire content so that it matches their style.
If you want to become a successful content marketer, you’ll need to learn the discipline to edit the content submitted to you so that it matches the company’s brand while still keeping the creator’s unique voice.
8. Graphic design
People aren’t only visual learners, but they also remember 65% more details if you combine written content with a relevant image.
Plus, 80% of marketers report that images are the primary type of content they use on social media.
Again, you don’t necessarily have to be an expert graphic designer to become a successful content marketer. Tools like Canva has got several templates you can tweak to create the images you’ll use on your blog, social media accounts, and videos.
9. Collaboration skills
86% of executives and employees report that lack of collaboration and teamwork is the primary cause of failure in the workplace. So, it’s no wonder why this is one of the critical skills that they look for when hiring a content marketer.
But as more companies are building remote teams, you can expect your collaboration skills will be tested to its limit.
That’s because, in addition to dealing with time zone differences, you’ll also need to consider the cultural background and personality of the people you’re working with. Each has a unique set of unspoken rules and standards. What could be perfectly acceptable with one may be considered as rude and offensive by another.
If you want to be a successful and efficient content marketer, you need to take the initiative to learn more about the background and values of the people you’ll work with. This helps you minimize miscommunication and misunderstandings, which can reduce the efficiency and quality of your teamwork.
That starts with being an active listener. As you set expectations with each other, give the people you’re talking to the time and liberty to give their feedback. That way, you can work with each other to come up with a productive working arrangement that would benefit the company you’re working for.
Also, opt to use video chat when discussing matters with your team. After all, 93% of communication is non-verbal. You’ll get much more from the interaction rather than just relying on email and phone calls.
10. SEO
SEO isn’t dead. It just evolved.
And with over 5.6 billion searches done on Google each day, content marketers are expected to know the basics of creating content optimized for search engines.
Successful content marketers, however, don’t stop there. Instead, they take it one step further by staying updated with the latest trends and SEO best practices. This helps them improve their content’s ranking on Google and other search engines.
Developing the skills to become a successful content marketer in 2020 takes time and practice.
Lastly, successful content marketers will be the first to tell you that there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Becoming a successful content marketer is an ongoing process of improving and refining the skills you have while being open to adopting new ones.
So start by focusing on the 10 critical skills you need to become a successful content marketer. Once you’re confident about your skill level and begin to see improvements in your content’s performance, you can work on developing even more advanced capabilities.
