7 + 7 must-have skills

Is it just a fad? Here today, gone tomorrow? Definitely not! Content marketing is here to stay. Good content marketing is about more than just writing texts. It’s about producing high-quality, interesting and target-group-specific content. Content that Google will love (and rank!), too. 

However, in order to be successful as a content marketer, you have to be willing to venture beyond your own discipline. Ideally, you should know the basics of marketing, social media, SEO and design. You should be creative, strategically minded and interested in the latest digital developments. What else should you know as a successful content marketer? We have compiled seven must-have hard and soft skills for you! 

You think that quality is more important than quantity? Excellent! After all, successful content marketing is about standing out from the crowd and about doing things differently. Start out with questions like “What are my customers actually looking for? What are their needs? Does my content offer added value?”. Otherwise your content is destined to pale into insignificance – and wouldn’t that be a shame? 

You have to be creative to make a company stand out on the world wide web. After all, competition is tough, and the next website is always just one click away. So if you would like to get even closer to your customers, make sure that you produce content that is a) focused on your target group, b) “packaged” in the right media format and c) distributed on the right channel. These basics plus some creative ideas is all it takes to convince your target group! 

Flooding the web with content? Producing heaps and heaps of text without any actual benefit for the customer? That’s when you should put down your foot and say: Certainly not! After all, the best content is useless without a good strategy in the background. As a successful content marketer, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I want to achieve? 
• Who do I want to reach? 
• How and where can I reach my target group(s)? 
• What do I have to do to reach my target group(s)? 
• Which resources can I use to reach my target group(s)? 
• Who is my competition?
• How do I measure my content’s performance?
• How can I improve?

It takes a bespoke strategy for your content to be successful! 

Fast, faster, online! Content marketing is a fast-paced industry. That’s why it’s important for content marketers to stay at the cutting edge and keep up to date on the latest trends and technologies. Whether it’s the latest Google algorithm update or the effects of voice search assistants on web copy. 

Keep in mind: You don’t have to follow every trend! After all, the latest trend might not be relevant for your brand. However, you should always know what’s happening out there. This kind of expert knowledge can come in handy at a later point in time.  

Whether it’s via images, videos, in texts or face to face, with your customers or your team: Content marketing is all about communicating. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. Online and offline. That’s why you should love to communicate. By the way: It doesn’t hurt to show a bit of tenacity and persuasiveness …!

We all know that teamwork is important … but why is it particularly so for content marketers? From experience we can say that: You achieve better results as a team. Whether it’s together with the SEO department, with your fellow designers, project managers, social media managers or campaign managers: It always makes sense to get together with your colleagues. Good teamwork is a vital prerequisite for successful content marketing.

One thing’s for sure: Content marketing almost exclusively happens online. That’s why it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the most common technologies, tools and networks. But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have to be an expert in HTML, CSS, PHP and SQL!

Smartphones, mobile devices – never heard of it? If you aren’t familiar with the basics of mobile devices, it’s time to do your homework! After all, everyone has a smartphone these days. And everyone is constantly online. That’s why it’s vital to align your content marketing with the demands of mobile devices. For instance, make sure that your website is responsive and dynamic. And don’t forget that your images and videos also have to look good on smaller screens!

Cost-efficient, individual and versatile: E-mail marketing should be a part of every successful online strategy. That’s why it makes sense to take a closer look at this important marketing tool. Newsletters may be somewhat ill-reputed, but they’re still effective!  

How can I increase brand awareness? How do I get into my customers’ heads? How can I increase my website views? How do I generate leads? The answer is social media! Any content you produce can easily be distributed via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other networks – provided you do it right. That’s why it’s useful to know the basics of different networks and channels.

Of course, you can’t be an expert in everything. But you should at least know about the different types of content there are, for instance photo and video productions. After all, images and web clips are real attention-grabbers. A user who watches a video or marvels at your captivating images will inevitably spend more time on your platform. Provided that your images and videos are of high quality, that is … 

SEO and content marketing simply are the perfect website combo. SEO needs content – content marketing produces content. SEO comes up with keywords – content marketing is based on these keywords. SEO relies on backlinks – content marketing encourages links. SEO optimises the technological aspects of a website – content marketing benefits from an excellent user experience. And there’s more … However, one thing’s for sure: SEO and content are a match made in heaven!

Did you know that companies with a corporate blog on average have 55 per cent more website visitors? Consequently, this also means more potential customers. By publishing weekly relevant blog posts, you attract attention. What’s more, you’ll be ranked higher by search engines and become more visible. So when it comes to blogging, bring in the experts! 

Design and content are another perfect match in content marketing. Together, they greatly influence your website’s success. After all, we only have a few seconds to captivate our users’ attention – which is a lot easier with an appealing look and feel. Whether it’s copy, images or videos: As part of a thought-out design, your content is about to rock!

And before you ask: Of course, we know that you can’t be good at everything! That’s why the abovementioned skills are only intended as a general guideline for successful content marketing.