What Does a Content Marketer Actually Do?

Anyone who thinks that a content marketer mainly focuses on writing texts is wrong. Content marketing includes all types of content: in addition to text, also images such as photography and video. And while the emphasis in marketing is now on online, as a content marketer you are also responsible for all offline marketing resources. Such as brochures, flyers, posters, and product sheets. As a content marketing specialist, you take care of not only content production, but also content strategy and content promotion. Because all that content must of course yield something. In this article, we tell you more about the work of a content marketer. We also discuss reasons to add a content marketer to your team.

Curious about the content marketing definition? Check out our extensive page about content marketing.

What is a content marketer?

A content marketer (or content marketer, content marketer) uses content for marketing a product or service. With content, the customer is informed, attracted, and seduced. The content marketer maps out the information needs for each step in the customer journey and takes care of the creation and promotion of content. To this end, he understands and knows the language and visual language, masters the use of various channels, and can also analyse the results and adjust accordingly. Content marketing is often used in B2B because processes here are typically lengthy and there is a great need for information.

Content Marketing Goals

The main tasks of a content marketer are:

1. Building brand awareness: In other words: creating awareness around the brand and the associated products or services. Brand awareness means that your target audience knows what you do and what you stand for. So that the next time your target audience is about to make a purchase, your brand is top of mind.
2. Attract new customers: Ultimately, of course, all that content must also generate new leads, revenue and customers. This requires a systematic approach in which you tailor content to the phase of the customer journey and help the customer to the next phase.
3. Promote brand loyalty: Bringing in new customers is a challenge, but keeping your customers with you is much more important. Loyalty comes when you as a brand show that you continuously provide value for your customers. And that requires a good story every time.
4. Customer engagement: Content that makes sense knows how to make a connection with the customer. Not only on the level of providing information necessary to make a purchase, but also on an emotional level. Customers like to be heard. You can use content marketing to collect feedback.

As a marketer you always have too much work and too little time. You therefore have to work efficiently: achieve the maximum effect with your limited time and budget. Your main goal is the promotion of your company, product or service. In the practice of the content marketing specialist, this means that you will be involved in PR, marketing communication, corporate communication and online marketing. Sometimes it’s about creating marketing qualified leads for the sales team, then about downloading the product sheets and other times about creating awareness and branding .

What is the difference between content marketing and online marketing?

The content marketer takes content as a starting point, the online marketer takes online channels as a starting point. Content marketing responds to the information needs of the customer, while online marketing is mainly about being present on the digital channels where the customer is located. There is a certain overlap: the content marketer largely works through digital channels and the online marketer also uses content. Both use the customer journey in their market approach: which content is interesting in which phase and through which channel can you best deliver it? The content marketer is mainly interested in customer psychology, arguments and storytelling. The online marketer pays more attention to numbers, analyses and ROI.

Job description for content marketer

The number of vacancies for content marketers is continuously increasing. Content marketing as a subject is therefore certainly interesting to consider as a student. Have you graduated and are ready for a challenging job in an enthusiastic organisation? Consider the following job requirements:

➣  HBO work and thinking level: Usually people are asked to get a higher professional education degree in marketing, communication or journalism.

➣  Work experience: Unless the vacancy is for a junior, a minimum of 1 year of marketing experience is expected. For a senior role, 2 to 5 years of work experience in a similar experience is expected.

➣ Writer: You usually have to be able to write well, both informatively and commercially. Or at least be able to recognise qualitative content and manage an external copywriter.

➣ Tooling: Depending on the specific content marketing role, you will be able to deal with Photoshop, CMS systems, analysis tools such as Google Analytics, newsletter systems etc.

What will a content marketer earn in 2022?

The salary for a content marketer varies by company, region and market. On average, the salary in 2022 will start from $84,000/yr for a junior to $95,000/yr for a senior. According to Indeed, the average base salary for a content marketer in the India is Rs: 90,008. Glasdoor is slightly below this with an estimated average salary is $80,000/yr and Talent is slightly above that with $ 61,421/yr. These estimates are without bonuses and a possible thirteenth month. In addition, these salaries are based on historical estimates. An employer looking for a content marketer in 2022 must take into account not only the current inflation figures, but also the shortage on the labor market.

Working day of a content marketer

The workday of a content marketer can be different every time. One day the content marketer is looking for fun topics to fill the content calendar, then he discusses the results with the marketing manager and the sales department. Social media often also falls under the domain of the content marketer. Duties include growing followers, monitoring follower reactions and advertising.

This is a typical workday of a content marketer at a content agency with clients, their own blog where guest bloggers appear and an internal team to support:

 

Time of day                      Task
 09.00                                 Handling emails
Answering guest bloggers and helping them on their way. Process feedback from                                                    customers or your team internally.

10.00                                   Small writing assignments
Adjustments to existing pages and blogs for clients, and creating email content for                                                   colleagues.

11.00                                    writing assignment
Writing a new text for a website or blog based on a previous keyword research.

Lunch

13.00                                    Handling emails
Process customer feedback and schedule blogs with images and SEO optimisation.

14.00                                    Customer appointment
Together with the account manager and a social media manager, for example.                                                         Typically by telephone, intended to provide an update and identify and remove                                                        obstacles.

15.00                                    writing assignment
For example, your own monthly newsletter, according to a fixed editorial formula.                                                    Parts can be: changes in the team, customer cases or own blogs. The e-mail                                                            marketer ensures that the e-mail then looks top notch.

16.00                                    Outreach
Here you research which interesting websites are open to guest blogging. That can                                               be for your own agency, or for customers.

17.00                                     Report
The time to keep track of your work for your customers, so that you are properly                                                      invoiced.

To create reach, there is a tension between interaction and advertising. Interaction in the form of comments, shares and likes ensure a greater reach. Not only because the followers of your followers can see that, but also because Facebook, LinkedIn and now also Twitter determine via an algorithm which messages are relevant. For this they mainly look at interaction: a post with many comments and likes will be more interesting for other people. Creating that interaction is a separate skill set, just like the efficient use of advertisements. The content marketer therefore also works together with the online marketer as standard.

Skills you must have as a content marketer

Content marketer skills

A content marketer not only masters the Dutch language, but also has a creative way of thinking and a great empathy. What does the customer want to know before making a purchase? Which questions should you answer first? What will he respond to? How does a customer feel understood?

The four skills of a content marketer

To write : As a content marketer, you don’t have to have a passion for writing. You must be able to do it well and recognise good work, so that you can have quality content written and checked.

Analytical: As a marketer, you must be able to measure and assess the deployment and effect of your content. You have to ‘like’ numbers so that you work every day to achieve results.

Digital savvy: Content marketing focuses on the digital domain. So sending email via MailChimp and checking your blog via Yoast should be easy peasy for you. Typical skills are: efficiently looking up information via Google, quickly getting to grips with tooling and always looking for better tools.

Project management: A content marketer has multiple customers, external and internal, to keep happy. They expect a continuous output of qualitative texts that yield results: content production. That requires management of your time, attention and resources.

In smaller organisations , a content marketer often takes care of the creation of new images, videos and texts. Larger parties have a broader team for this. Part of this team deals with social media, another part with texts and content production, images and videos, and another team is active for Adwords and Facebook ads. In this way, all aspects of content marketing are optimised.