The digital marketing industry is rapidly growing and content marketing is a valuable vertical under the digital marketing umbrella. Statistics show that over 88% of B2B marketers in North America apply content marketing strategies. In addition, for companies that used content marketing, over 75% of them plan to increase their budgets for future content marketing campaigns. This shows how effective content marketing is for businesses today.

But what exactly does content marketing mean? What sort of content are we even talking about? And what are the main responsibilities of a content marketer?

If you explore the online realm, there seems to be a never-ending flood of content. From blogs, e-books, audios, podcasts, photos, and videos —  the list goes on, but you get the idea. It is a lot. These contents are the work of content marketers. If you think about it, anyone can create and upload content onto the big web, right? But genius content marketers know that quality always trumps quantity. In order to truly elevate your content marketing strategy, you need a content marketer with experience and talent to boot. 

What is a content marketer?

A content marketer is adept in various fields in the industry. Like the Jack of all trades, content marketers have extensive knowledge and experience with many tasks; they are responsible for researching, strategizing, designing, and distributing useful content. 

The type of content that content marketers create revolves around their market. This means content marketers have to be well acquainted with their products or services, and their target audience. In other words, the value of content is dependent on the marketer’s ability to educate, gain trust, and persevere. 

Like we mentioned, quality beats quantity. This is when the expertise of a content marketer is distinctively revealed. Content is only deemed useful when it is able to attract prospective customers, turn them into buyers, and then into return-buyers. 

Ultimately, a content marketer is an essential piece in the business revenue puzzle. If you want your business to spike and sail smoothly, you should most definitely incorporate content marketing in your digital marketing campaigns.

Why content marketing is important 

Content marketing is important because it helps build brand awareness and entices your audience to take action. Content marketing also provides an opportunity for you to prove how credible and authoritative your business is in comparison to your competitors. 

Unlike traditional marketing efforts, content marketing is pretty effective. As CMI states, content is one of the most powerful methods to promote a business. Investing in content marketing ensures that you actually deliver results. Furthermore, content marketing is usually much more budget-friendly than traditional marketing. 

By providing content that is relevant and engaging, you help address the challenges that your target audience faces. This allows people to resonate with your brand which helps you earn trust and, in turn, gain loyalty from your audience. It strengthens your brand reputation and public relations; proving that your business is reliable. As your level of authenticity grows, more prospects will discover and gain interest in your brand. The entire process of content marketing is critical to putting your brand out there and driving customers through the door. 

However, effective content marketing requires a unique set of skills. Some might say that content marketers are artists because of how creative they are. Others might say that content marketers are educators because they teach people why they need a specific product or service. You can even say that content marketers are problem-solvers because they know how to identify people’s pain-points and deliver a solution. Regardless, a content marketer’s purpose is to determine the best tactics to employ in order to drive sales. 

To get the job done well, content marketers first need to have a robust understanding of what they are marketing. This brings us to the 4Ps of marketing, aka the fundamental pillars of a marketing strategy. Content marketers have to identify what product they are selling, set the price, choose the place to reach their customers, and execute ideas for promotion. A content marketer’s intimacy with the company’s broader marketing goals and business goals is beneficial as well. 

Content marketing has proven its ability to deliver results for businesses. Yet, the position of a content marketer is still rather vague and fresh in the workforce. So what exactly does a content marketer do on a day-to-day basis? 

Key duties of a content marketer 

Writing

Content marketers are usually in charge of writing. This may be in the form of emails, social media posts, and blogs, as well as copy for a company’s website. The OrkDork shows that blog posts are the most shared content online. As such, most content marketers use guest blogging as an essential content marketing tactic.

It is no wonder that content marketers who produce quality content are excellent writers. Not only do they have to integrate an SEO strategy in their writing, but they also have to empathize with their audience. They are able to persuade their audience to take action without seeming too desperate. Content marketers make use of strong writing to connect with their audience and demonstrate validity at the same time. They do that by knowing the specific wants and needs of their target audience based on current trends. 

Photography and videography

Photos and videos are a great way to capture people’s attention. Tiger Fitness says video marketing helped them achieve a 60% returning customer rate, which is three times the norm for their industry. Content with visual cues is known to reach a wider audience and spread your message faster. Which is why content marketers have to be savvy in producing quality photos and videos as well.

Almost all social media platforms facilitate the use of multimedia. Whether you want to promote your business on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, making sure that you provide an enriching photo and video content is a priority. 

Content marketers are responsible for developing photos and videos that are relevant to elevate the brand’s image. However, it is very common for content marketers to reach out to professional photographers and videographers for assistance. This is to ensure the finest quality in content production. Most companies invest in corporate video production for this very reason.  

Social media

Most content marketers are social-media-savvy. However, you should not mix them up with a social media manager. Content marketers mainly focus on providing the actual copy for posts for the company's social media channels. The popular few are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat.

To keep up with social media trends, content marketers often partake in social listening and social monitoring. Social listening allows content marketers to understand their audience on a deeper level which helps with remodelling marketing strategies if needed. Social monitoring shows that the brand cares for its customers through consistent interactions led by the content marketer. 

Data analysis

Content marketers must ensure that their content is performing. Therefore, they need to be equipped with analytical skills in order to track their content’s progress. Content marketers often ask themselves questions such as: What content does my audience like? Why is this type of content not working? How can I drive traffic to X’s site? 

Being able to reflect and evaluate the successes and failures of a marketing strategy is crucial for any content marketer. To collect and calculate data in maximum efficiency, content marketers make use of analytical tools like Google Analytics.

Content marketing in a nutshell

At the end of the day, one of the best questions content marketers can ask themselves is: does this content offer value to my audience?

Good marketers always think about who will be receiving their content by putting themselves in their client’s audience’s shoes. Marketing is not about hard-selling. You want to humanize your brand so that people can relate to it and believe in it. Eventually, this will lead them to purchase.

So what type of content is your audience looking for? The best content you can offer is educational, entertaining, inspiring, and encourages your audience to take action. Remember, quality content is not an advertisement. Instead, providing quality content is to bring customer satisfaction; it proves your dedication as a customer-oriented business. 

If you can channel your focus onto content marketing, you are bound to see your business thrive. 

FAQs

How do I know that my content marketing strategy is effective?

Just like anything else, before you can determine the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy, you have to clarify what your standard of success is. You can take some time to specify your KPIs (key performance indicators) to guide you along the way. KPIs help track your progress through quantifiable values which are useful for helping you make better decisions in your marketing campaigns. You may find more information about KPIs in our social media strategy blog. 

Alternatively, you can refer to metrics like your follower count, likes, views, and shares. For example, how many new subscribers have you gained on your YouTube channel over the past month? 

There are many ways to track the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. However, the safest method is to distinguish and align your business goals with your marketing goals first. 

What type of content can I provide? 

Online content comes in various shapes and sizes. Some examples are blog posts, e-books, PDFs, email newsletters, slide-shares, photos, infographics, videos, micro-videos, webinars, and podcasts. Under each of these categories is a whole other spectrum to be discovered. For instance, videos could be in the form of vlogs, recordings of an event, or a “How To” tutorial. The internet is pretty much a free space for you to upload any kind of content you desire. 

Though in order to deliver your content to the right people, you would want to take some time to identify your target audience. Then, explore the type of content that attracts your target audience. By knowing your audience, you would have a better idea of what content you can offer. 

Do I need to constantly create new content? 

The truth is, most content you see nowadays is repurposed. Repurposing content does not necessarily mean that you are not producing new content. Instead, you are effectively utilizing the content that you have once created into an improved form. A simple example is, if you created videos, you can edit snippets from each video and compile them into a new video. This approach definitely helps take away some burden in content creation.

However, moderation is key. You do not want your audience to realize that you are constantly showing them old content. As such, it is important to create new content once in a while to refresh your social media accounts and website. Actively updating your pages is essential when it comes to ranking well. If you’re blogging, try to blog once a week or more so that you don’t keep your audience waiting too long. Though, as we mentioned, you can always diligently repurpose an old blog. That would be sufficient to keep your page fresh. 

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