Today, content strategy is king and is why content strategists are so in demand.
A change in emphasis from “hard selling” to providing helpful information to potential consumers and clients has created a lot of want for competent staff who can produce and manage material. Businesses that want strong marketing and public relations strategies need more content strategists now than ever.
A content strategist is in charge of developing a content strategy to meet the needs of a company or client’s business objectives and those of its clients or end users. In other words, they’re in charge of determining what sort of material should be produced, how it should be presented, and where it should be distributed to fulfill specific business objectives.
Content strategists typically handle a combination of duties, such as conducting content audits, creating content calendars and style guides, or managing a team of creators. They might also work with outside vendors to produce content for the organization.
The objective of any content strategist is to ensure that all material produced by a company is of high quality, engaging, and in line with the organization’s broader goals.
Who Needs a Content Strategist?
Any company that relies on content to achieve its business objectives needs a content strategist. That could be a website that sells products, a news site, or a blog. Any website with lots of content that wants to ensure that it’s well-organized, well-written, and effective at achieving its goals – needs someone in this role.
Without a content strategist, companies run the risk of publishing material that is poorly written, badly organized, and not aligned with their business goals. A content strategist ensures that doesn’t happen.
What Does It Take to Be a Content Strategist?
If you’re thinking about becoming a content strategist, you’ll need specific skills and qualities to succeed in this role. First, you should be an excellent writer. Content strategists must be able to produce high-quality content themselves, as well as edit and critique the work of others.
It would help if you also were highly organized and detail-oriented. Content strategists must see the big picture while also paying attention to minor details. They need to understand how all the pieces fit together and be able to create systems that ensure everything runs smoothly.
Finally, you should have a strategic mindset. A content strategist needs to be able to think about a company’s or client’s long-term goals and develop a plan for how content can help achieve those goals.
Primary Skills of a Content Strategy Expert:
There are many skills, both content and people-oriented, necessary to tackle the challenges above. To be successful, content strategists must have exceptional skills in:
- Organization and task management – Excellent organization and task management skills are essential as you’ll be planning and strategizing content to execute over a long period and managing schedules and deadlines.
- Empathy and understanding – Being able to put yourself in the user’s shoes and understand their pain points, goals, and journey – particularly regarding accessibility and usability – is crucial for content strategists. It would be best if you also thought from the perspective of the business and different stakeholders.
- Data-driven mindset – You must enjoy analyzing and interpreting data, which is a crucial part of content strategy. You’ll need to back up your thoughts and ideas with clear data points.
- Storytelling – Connecting the dots between seemingly disparate things is a big part of content strategy. You’ll need to confidently present and tell stories with data to your team and clients. You also need to be able to create content that has an engaging narrative for the audience in a way that resonates with their own story or journey.
- Collaboration – Collaboration is key to executing a unified content strategy. You must be able to communicate your ideas well and understand your audience.
- Leadership – Often, what comes with creating a content strategy is the need for strong leadership, especially in change management. You’ll often need to rally teams and convince people to adopt new ways of aligning with goals and objectives.
- Multitasking – or wearing different ‘hats.’ While multitasking is not necessarily good for focus, you will need to perform multiple, wide-ranging tasks and wear different hats in your role.
Always remember, you can’t use automatically generated content made by robots anymore. It will hurt you more than it helps you, and Google has clearly stated this as well.
If you want to become a content strategist, please visit our job listing. We’re currently hiring a content specialist, though not the same as a strategist. With 1-3 years of experience in this position, we would be open to considering promoting the best performing writers into a strategist role. It would be an excellent opportunity for someone looking to enter the field at the entry-level.
