6 Skills Every Content Marketer Needs To Be Great

Being a great content marketer requires a good understanding of just how varied the role can be. It’s not a career path that will see you performing the same tasks in precisely the same way every day. Campaigns tend to be tailored to the needs of brands or target demographics.

Your success in the role relies on you developing a dynamic set of skills. Some of these will be creative, while others will be purely technical. The good news is you don’t necessarily have to go to school to gain many of these abilities. Some you can develop through experience, while others can benefit from online tutorials or guidance from mentors. In either case, your commitment to developing your abilities helps your clients, company, and career goals. 

Let’s explore six skills every content marketer needs to be great.

1- SEO

One of the most critical skills every content marketer needs is strong search engine optimization (SEO) knowledge. This is because the way consumers discover businesses is still primarily driven by search engines, notably Google. SEO is a technique that can improve your chances of ensuring brands are visible above the competition in the awareness phase.

SEO isn’t a single task, though. Instead, there is a range of activities to learn about. This includes effectively utilizing localized SEO practices, which raise search rankings in specific geographical areas. It’s also essential to have a good understanding of how to create guest blog posts that provide value to readers. Not to mention that you must have interpersonal and professional abilities that help you to interact with blog owners and editors to place backlinks. The more committed you are to growing your SEO skill set, your campaigns will likely be more effective.

2- Agility

The content marketing landscape is frequently subject to change. Search engines and social media platforms often adjust what is prioritized in their algorithms. You’ll likely already know this from how consumers respond to specific media types, trends, and brand messaging shifts. In a marketplace so sensitive to change, one of your most potent skills as a content marketer is to be agile.

So, how can you cultivate your agility? Start by not specializing too much in a single area of content marketing. Being open to different types of clients and techniques enables you to pivot where needed. Regularly experiment with other ideas and new strategies. Sometimes these pivots won’t work, but it builds your innovative mindset. You should also learn to avoid perfectionism. Yes, you need to produce quality work. But knowing the level at which to accept content quality keeps you from lagging behind swiftly changing trends.

3- Cybersecurity

The digital landscape is an invaluable tool for marketers. However, it’s also important to recognize that it presents significant hazards. The potential for data breaches can make interacting in the online marketplace difficult for both you and your target demographics. As such, it’s important to gain robust cybersecurity skills.

This begins with a better understanding of the security challenges you face, including the risks associated with cloud computing. When utilizing decentralized platforms, content marketers can be vulnerable to data loss, access by unauthorized personnel, and compromised application programming interface (APIs), among others. Alongside cloud issues, your content may be affected by websites infected with malware. There are also phishing schemes that remain prevalent forms of data breach efforts that may infiltrate your email marketing strategy. If a phisher pretends to send an email from you, unsuspecting recipients may click on a link that compromises their information. 

It is, therefore, vital to gain in-depth knowledge about these risks and how to counter them. Learn how to set up protections in your digital tools and respond to issues. Keep your clients aware of any phishing attacks or other cybersecurity issues you come across. This keeps your marketing business safe and protects consumers from harm when interacting with your materials.

4- Self-care

Content marketing can be a fulfilling career path, but it can also see you facing a certain amount of pressure. The tendency to overwork may find you experiencing symptoms of burnout, such as exhaustion, negative feelings, and reduced professional efficacy. Unfortunately, burnout is not likely to be something you can overcome by just taking an extra few days off to recover. You must establish ways to create a solid work-life balance in your day-to-day activities.

As a result, self-care is one of the most important skills you need to gain as a content marketer. Get into the habit of scheduling regular breaks throughout your day. Set clear boundaries between your working hours and home life. Regular exercise in nature is also considered a key way to maintain mental wellness. It’s also always worth working with a therapist to address your concerns and devise effective solutions.

5- Coding

Content marketing is largely a digital career path. Yes, there may be instances in which you utilize some analog methods, but most of your actions will be online. It, therefore, stands to reason that you should seek to cultivate skills that give you a certain amount of control over the digital content you create. Learning to code bolsters your creativity and minimizes the necessity of always relying on external contractors or an information technology (IT) department. 

Your primary focus here should be on the programming skills you need to handle elements of corporate web design. HTML is still the key language to learn for designing front-end aspects of websites and mobile applications. Even if you’re not building a site from scratch, you can still utilize HTML to adjust templates or page elements through your content management system (CMS).

6- Research

Research is a fundamental part of good content marketing. Without solid research, your efforts will be based on guesswork and outdated assumptions. Your ability to search for data and apply it to your campaigns is key to the success of your strategies. 

It’s essential to focus your research skill growth in various areas. As part of your SEO skills development, you need to build abilities in researching relevant keywords. You must also learn to explore what makes for credible sources of evidence to back up claims in your content. It’s also vital for content marketers to gain experience in data analytics. This is because effectively researching and assessing market data empowers you to spot gaps you can fill and build effective consumer personas.

Conclusion

Content marketing is not a single task, reflected by the extensive range of skills required to succeed. It’s essential to get a handle on the strategic side of marketing by developing abilities in SEO and research. As you’ll be focused on digital marketplaces, you should also build cybersecurity and HTML coding skills.

Don’t neglect key soft skills, either. Learning about self-care and agility can help you thrive in a changeable and often stressful environment.

By committing to regularly developing your skills, you can empower yourself to build a content marketing career with longevity and impact.