In today’s competitive digital marketing industry, content is the leading factor that influences brand perceptions and user decision-making rates.
Accordingly, content marketing is always a helpful tool and is increasingly in demand for significant, medium, and small businesses.
If you are considering becoming a content strategist, this post is what you need. It includes all the valuable information and a content strategist job description and guides you through preparing for and pursuing the field.
Do not skip this article if you are also excited to plan and develop content for a brand as a professional content strategist.
Job Description
I’ve gathered valuable information to help you understand content strategists’ jobs, duties, roles, and workplaces. Continue reading carefully for details!
What is a Content Strategist?
Content strategists are people who plan, monitor, and manage a content marketing strategy for a business. They develop content strategies based on business goals in the organization, customers, or consumer needs.
Essentially, a content strategist is someone who creates consistent, high-quality content that has a positive impact on users’ thoughts and decisions.
Businesses and organizations rely on these professionals to increase attention and drive loyalty and awareness among potential customers.
For example, they consistently monitor and develop requirements and create content strategies that deliver to the end of the project.
Roles and Responsibilities
Content strategists are responsible for developing top-tier strategies for the organization and business and executing the content production plan. They have to create unique ideas, so their roles and responsibilities include:
- Conduct market research to keep up with current development trends and reach target customers
- Define business goals and create content through teamwork with producers, project managers, writers, editors, and actors.
- Find out more information and analyze product features, pros, and cons.
- Update new content, and research the latest developments, such as client search engine optimization.
- Build consistency across all content
- Create schedules, keep project deadlines, and launch unique content
- Discuss project development progress
- Make statistics and measure related marketing channel growth.
The Workplace of Content Strategists
Content strategists work at business organizations, companies, and enterprises to connect consumers and generate leads. Some collaborate with freelancers, advertisers, designers, and many other content creators.
Content strategists work in corporations and marketing companies to support marketing campaigns and product launches.
They spend most of their time starting with client meetings, researching and brainstorming content marketing strategies. They have the right to choose between offline and online forms or a parallel combination.
Education Requirements
Becoming a content strategist is not complicated but not straightforward because this job requires a lot of knowledge, skills, and tools. First, in the section below, let’s learn about typical education requirements.
Education & Training
According to statistics, a bachelor’s degree is a must and a minimum if you want to start a career in this field. You can further study and start working after earning a master’s degree in journalism, English, marketing, and management.
However, it is impossible to confidently say that you will hold a high position or play a senior role with only your advanced degree and diploma.
In some cases, candidates with high professional skills and experience are often the exception and receive priority.
Employers consider the training time frame before looking at your qualifications. So, ensure you get a bachelor’s degree by the end of your studies.
Work Experience
To advance your career as a content strategist, you need to gain one year or more relevant experience in the field. Remember that employers will not hire a candidate with little or no experience.
You will quickly gain experience working as a marketer or participating in copywriting for organizations or businesses.
This option is the most practical and famous, as an internship will help you discover new content strategies and work on portfolio development projects.
You have the opportunity to start as a content strategist for another company, like a startup or a digital marketing agency. It exposes you to working tactics and sets a solid foundation to practice your skills in big business later on.
In short, I recommend gaining hands-on experience in digital content creation, content editing, and understanding all things SEO. It is the ideal solution that gives you an edge over other candidates.
Certifications
A certificate is an excellent testament to the skills and talents you have acquired, and it is also one of the great additions to your resume.
Looking for online courses from reputable social media managers and famous content strategists will be better for studying and getting certified.
Statistically, candidates with online certificates from academia and organizations have a high rate of building trust and attracting potential employers.
In addition to certifications, testimonials from the company or organization you interned or worked for are essentials you should have on your resume.
Essential Skills
In this section, you’ll learn the skills needed to be a great content strategist to fulfill the job requirements. Let’s read on to discover!
Hard Skills
- Researching skill
- Editing skills
- Project management
- Information Architecture
- Consensus building skills
- Proficient in Copywriting
- Present good, scientific content
- Content promotion and distribution skills
- Organizational skills, multitasking
Soft Skills
Here are some essential soft skills that hiring managers are looking for including:
- Leadership
- Good communication
- Campaign experience
- Good pressure resistance
- Effective time management
- Creativity in problem-solving
- Unique ability and sharp thinking
- Ability to work independently and in a team
- Orientation skills between individual and organizational relationships
Essential Tools
- Hotjar
- SEMrush
- HubSpot
- MarketMuse
- SurveyMonkey
- Contentsquare
- Internal style guide
- StoryChief
- Social Blade
- Writer
- Acrolinx
Job Outlook
Content marketing has exploded over the past several decades, which has not cooled down but is likely to increase in the future.
According to LinkedIn results, more than 500,000 people are working as content strategists in companies, organizations, businesses, and enterprises. In the United States, 4,284 content strategy positions are open to aspiring candidates.
According to statistics from HubSpot, about 82% of businesses and business organizations actively use and develop a content marketing department. This number is high and has increased by 70% in recent years.
As such, these real-time metrics show how strong the demand for content strategists is.
Salary
On average, $90,835 is what a content strategist gets. In a year, approximately $44 per hour worked, which equates to $1,746/week and $7,569/month.
The pay range for a candidate is very variable, depending on the position, role, skill level, and experience. Most content strategists’ salaries range between $56,500 – $112,000, and the highest paying is $180,500.
In general, their annual salary is on an upward trend. It makes them among the highest earners across the United States and several other countries.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Understanding the pros and cons is essential before starting your content strategist career. With this in mind, I’ll help you know some critical information.
- Flexible working time
- Easily control the workload.
- Work anywhere and anytime you want
- Require less experience and certifications
- Take advantage of many different ways to earn money.
- Low startup costs, inexpensive, and zero overheads
- Highly competitive
- Require ongoing strategy and content updating
FAQs
Is a content strategist an excellent job?
The short answer is yes. The task that content strategists do is to develop and implement strategies to support decision-making activities that meet the business’s and users’ needs.
Accordingly, the prospects on their career path are promising and excellent. Specifically, the demand for jobs tends to increase sharply, the average salary is high, and many potential employers appear.
What do content strategists do?
Content strategists will focus on planning, delivering, and curating content.
Their mission is to connect users and find potential customers through engaging blog posts and content, tweets, YouTube videos, and more.
What are the 3 components of content strategy?
There are 3 core elements to a successful and effective content strategy, including user experience, focus on brand value, and good content distribution.
What should a content strategy look like?
Content strategy is the ongoing planning, execution, and management of content throughout the project lifecycle to support critical business initiatives.
Simply put, it’s how business organizations and businesses choose to increase customer traffic, visits, and engagement for their brands.
What is a content strategy in social media?
Many users adopt social media content strategies to save time and manage social media well. It’s the narrative for what they post to different social channels and defines how their users interact.
What is an SEO content strategist?
An SEO content strategist is a person primarily responsible for internet marketing activities. These include internet engine optimization, analytics, performance reporting, and the development of free content search capabilities.
What is the goal of a content strategist?
The goal of every content strategist is to capture the best business opportunities for your business, engage your potential customers, and understand what they’re looking for. Then, conduct analysis, make reports, and provide the most relevant content.
What makes content successful?
To be successful, you need to have the best awareness of your potential customers, make them know your product is more than a benefit, and come to the perfect final deal.
On the other hand, you should also have the correct perception of the product. Make sure you get your products to the most relevant customers ready to stick with your brand for the long term.
Do content strategists write?
One of the essential requirements of a content strategist is excellent writing skills. They must work with content management systems, analytics platforms, SEO research software, and other supporting tools to create and publish content.
Who is responsible for content strategy?
The answer is content strategy director (also known as structure director, governance, or business). In an organization, they are the same person as the director of content marketing.
Career Advice
You have the opportunity to hold many important positions when you become a content strategist, such as content vice president and creative strategist.
To gain an edge over your competitors, I recommend prioritizing gaining hands-on experience, understanding SEO, and developing important skills. Also, look for potential employers and work where you can maximize your strengths.
Finally, don’t forget to sharpen your skills and hone your knowledge through globally renowned courses and platforms.
It is the perfect solution to help you understand digital marketing and open up excellent career opportunities in the future.