MARKETING
7+ Skills Every Content Marketer Needs To Be Great
Content marketing’s importance rose again in 2022.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of content marketers say content marketing has become more important to their organization in the last year, according to the latest Content Marketing Institute research.
That means companies will need to hire and train content marketers for the foreseeable future.
“There’s a greater emphasis now on people in content roles,” says Nick Lake, senior director of global content marketing at Pega. Nick based his observation on research his company conducted for its Future of Marketing report (registration required). “CMOs are going to have more content creators. The salaries for content creators will increase because they see it as a more strategic role in the organization.”
What skills should those content pros have?
We know which skills frontline content marketers believe are important: SEO, data analytics, working with technologies, audience development, and writing and editing topped the list of desired training in another recent CMI study.
But are these the same skills the people who hire content marketers, lead content programs, and consult with brands care about?
At Content Marketing World this year, we asked several content leaders what skills and backgrounds they think are most important for a content marketer.
Read what they told us (lightly edited for clarity), or watch the video for the highlights.
Get curious
Be curious – I would say that’s one of the skills you should refine. Curiosity is going to fuel you to want to understand your audiences. What matters is what you ought to be creating. – Deanna Ransom, president and executive director of Women in Revenue
Develop a journalistic viewpoint
Ultimately, we’re all telling stories. When you’re in journalism, you’re learning about interviewing skills, writing skills, and really telling people’s stories. I think that’s a great place to start. – Amy Fair, content marketing manager at SpyCloud
The core tenets of journalism are so important for content marketing. Understanding your audience – having a deep desire to answer all their questions, educate them, and be a helpful resource. Those principles are shared by journalism and content marketing. – Monica Norton, head of content marketing at Yelp
#Content marketers need skills similar to journalists – a desire to answer the audience’s questions, says @monicalnorton via @KMoutsos @CMIContent. #CMWorld Click To Tweet
Hone your strategic thinking and data analysis
Not neglecting the strategic point of view is important. Even if you’re in creator mode at a certain part of your career, understand why certain content works and others don’t, and make sure you have access to performance data so that you can dig in and really get that deeper understanding. Eventually, that’s going to be how you level up. It’s getting to a more strategic perspective. Even if you keep the creator hat for a while, get as quickly as you can to understanding the strategic perspective behind what we do. – Andrea Fryrear, CEO and co-founder of AgileSherpas
A broad understanding of marketing is needed. I’m not a data and analytics person. But you still have to understand how the content you create works in this specific digital platform. How is it being measured? How is it being promoted? How is it being promoted organically versus paid? What are the inputs that go into creating this content? Who do you need to work with to do it?
When you think, “Oh, I’m going to go work on creating content. I’m going to be a writer,” that’s what you think it is. That’s only a piece of it. You really have to understand the whole ecosystem of content marketing. – Lukas Treu, content strategist at Swagelok
Learn to love numbers. Data and metrics are very important. What are the results? Make sure you’re spending time on the content that’s producing something that’s getting someone to take the next step, that you’re not just doing something for the sake of doing something. How does it fit in with the overall marketing strategy? How do you make sure you know what you’re doing is moving the needle and helping the business grow?
As content becomes more and more popular and more companies and brands are producing more, the ability to rise above the noise is getting harder. The metrics can show you what’s resonating, what people are engaging with, what they’re responding to, and how you can take them on the journey you want. – Jeremy Bednarski, content strategist at Salesforce
Practice (flexible) organizational skills
Project management – checking off things, staying organized, and planning ahead. Being fluid and flexible and able to change the content calendar if you need to. Being able to switch gears if you need to. – Asia Johnson, content marketing specialist at Express Employment International
Content marketers need to be able to switch gears if needed, says Asia Johnson of @ExpressPros via @KMoutsos @CMIContent. #CMWorld Click To Tweet
Have a heart – and improve your improv game
I think what we’re missing is heart. I think we need people with empathy. I think we need people with improv skills. I’ve met some people in marketing. Y’all need some improv skills.
And I say that with love because “yes, and” is about life. It’s not just a business skill. It’s a way of looking at the world. And when the world throws itself off the script, like with COVID, how do we move forward? – Kathy Klotz-Guest, founder of Keeping It Human, Inc.
Sharpen your writing, but don’t stop there
Writing skills. If you can’t write, you really want to go find a new thing to do. I would argue the essential role of any marketer needs to be extreme communication – the ability to communicate at a higher level. You have to use communication in words or video or whatever. You’re really presenting to your audience to get them to take some kind of action. And if you don’t have that skill set, you’re going to be extremely challenged.
Equally important is the ability to understand technology and utilize technology. Know how to use things like Salesforce and how to hack it in the background. That’s how you’re going to be able to duct tape your own solutions and make things work in your organization. The reality is that your goal as a marketer is to be the world’s best marketer for your company. And to do that means you’re going to have to create a lot of bespoke solutions. – Vish Khanna, chief commercial officer at HealthPrize
A little bit of everything, all at once
Content marketers need to be pretty good at research and looking at the competitive set before creating something – or you’re more likely to make something that’s bland and undifferentiated.
Content marketers need to be highly empathetic and have a good sense of how this piece will land or be consumed when it hits that audience.
Content marketers need to be flexible and adapt to new channels and new trends because stuff is gradually changing all the time. Plus, there are production skills, there are writing skills, there are recording skills, and basic editing.
If you like using both halves of your brain all the time, content marketing is perfect for you. – Andy Crestodina, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Orbit Media Studios
If you like using both halves of your brain all the time, #ContentMarketing is perfect for you, says @crestodina via @CMIContent Click To Tweet
Investing in content skills should pay off
Not every content professional needs to excel in each skill mentioned. But if you’re looking for a job, looking for a new team member, or just want to keep your skills competitive, use this list as a starting point.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
MARKETING
Trends in Content Localization – Moz
Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.
Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.
Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.
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MARKETING
More promotions and more layoffs
For martech professionals salaries are good and promotions are coming faster, unfortunately, layoffs are coming faster, too. That’s according to the just-released 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey. Another very unfortunate finding: The median salary of women below the C-suite level is 35% less than what men earn.
The last year saw many different economic trends, some at odds with each other. Although unemployment remained very low overall and the economy grew, some businesses — especially those in technology and media — cut both jobs and spending. Reasons cited for the cuts include during the early years of the pandemic, higher interest rates and corporate greed.
Dig deeper: How to overcome marketing budget cuts and hiring freezes
Be that as it may, for the employed it remains a good time to be a martech professional. Salaries remain lucrative compared to many other professions, with an overall median salary of $128,643.
Here are the median salaries by role:
- Senior management $199,653
- Director $157,776
- Manager $99,510
- Staff $89,126
Senior managers make more than twice what staff make. Directors and up had a $163,395 median salary compared to manager/staff roles, where the median was $94,818.
One-third of those surveyed said they were promoted in the last 12 months, a finding that was nearly equal among director+ (32%) and managers and staff (30%).
Extend the time frame to two years, and nearly three-quarters of director+ respondents say they received a promotion, while the same can be said for two-thirds of manager and staff respondents.
Dig deeper: Skills-based hiring for modern marketing teams
Employee turnover
In 2023, we asked survey respondents if they noticed an increase in employee churn and whether they would classify that churn as a “moderate” or “significant” increase. For 2024, given the attention on cost reductions and layoffs, we asked if the churn they witnessed was “voluntary” (e.g., people leaving for another role) or “involuntary” (e.g., a layoff or dismissal). More than half of the marketing technology professionals said churn increased in the last year. Nearly one-third classified most of the churn as “involuntary.”
Men and Women
This year, instead of using average salary figures, we used the median figures to lessen the impact of outliers in the salary data. As a result, the gap between salaries for men and women is even more glaring than it was previously.
In last year’s report, men earned an average of 24% more than women. This year the median salary of men is 35% more than the median salary of women. That is until you get to the upper echelons. Women at director and up earned 5% more than men.
Methodology
The 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey is a joint project of MarTech.org and chiefmartec.com. We surveyed 305 marketers between December 2023 and February 2024; 297 of those provided salary information. Nearly 63% (191) of respondents live in North America; 16% (50) live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Other regions were excluded due to the limited number of respondents.
Download your copy of the 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey here. No registration is required.
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