Content Strategist Job Description: Unlocking Success

What Is a Content Strategist?

The growth of content marketing has exploded in the past decade, and it isn’t showing any sign of stopping. Consumers are responding less and less to traditional “push” marketing techniques, so marketers (if they’re smart) are shifting to digital content. 

Consistent, high-quality, and impactful content influences the decision-making of consumers more than any other strategy. It wins the attention of potential customers, increases brand awareness, and fosters loyalty. Essentially, it is a content strategist who creates this useful, usable content. 

LinkedIn, today, shows about 537,000 people having the job title Content Strategist, and 4,284 content strategist positions in the U.S. are open to aspiring candidates. tegist job description.

According to HubSpot, 82 percent of marketers report actively using content marketing in 2021. This number is up 70 percent from last year, showing that the demand for content strategists is ever-growing. 

What Does a Content Strategist Do?

Content strategists are in such high demand because they are the ones who connect with consumers and generate leads by presenting relevant content through blog posts, tweets, YouTube videos, and more. 

The content strategist job description includes planning and developing content strategies that use content as a way of meeting the needs of both businesses and users.  

Wondering how to get there?

Let's look at the content strategist job description, along with their duties and expectations.

Content Strategist Job Description

A content strategist job description constitutes planning, designing, creating, editing, and publishing relevant content based on the company's business objectives and users' needs. The strategist's main job is to develop a content strategy that conforms to and sets out to achieve business goals. Carefully and strategically developed content aims to inform, entertain, inspire and engage potential customers. 

The main focus of the content strategist job description is content planning, which includes content creation, curation, planning, and research. As a strategist, you will have to brainstorm creative ways of engaging the audience online and produce those engaging content types.

Ultimately, it will be your duty to ensure web content aligns with the brand and adds value to existing and prospective clients. The aim of an effective content strategy is to drive inbound traffic into the brand website and encourage the reader to take a profitable business action.  

The content strategist role requires excellent writing skills, client-facing skills, and significant SEO knowledge. The strategist must work with the organization's content management system, web analytics platform, SEO research software, and other tools that aid the content planning and publication process.

They collect information about the different types of customer personas the business is targeting; perform extensive research and analysis on customer thoughts, and then devise content strategies to convert new and existing customers. 

Content Strategist Roles and Responsibilities

The content strategist role varies across organizations, but certain responsibilities of content strategists remain consistent. These include:

• Performing exhaustive research to gain in-depth knowledge of all customer personas
• Performing extensive research and analysis on consumer thoughts and trends
• Creating specifications and content appropriate for the brand's customer personas
• Strategizing content pillars and sub pillars
• Planning the editorial calendar and content proposition
• Collaborating with content management teams, creative teams, and writers to implement the strategy
• Overseeing writing style and tone for all content
• Developing content governance guidelines for tone, style, and voice of all content, and ensuring they are followed
• Developing editorial strategy, so content is consistent across all delivery platforms
• Conducting periodic content audits
• Tracking and calculating content ROI
• Ensuring that content strategy meets business objectives
• Strategizing and improving content delivery and promotion
• Analyzing content marketing strategy to evaluate whether it's working or not.

A Day in the Life of a Content Strategist

A typical day for a content strategist might begin with a client meeting that formulates strategies for their content marketing program. As a content strategist, you might also have to coordinate with freelancers, creatives, designers and brief them on the client stories that will be told through editorial content, infographics, visuals, etc. 

Some days, you might have to write creative briefs, edit some copy, or create narratives for infographics. An integral part of the content strategist job description is developing concepts for proprietary research, developing surveys, and then analyzing the data to choose the most attractive trends to create a content story about. 

Regular jobs in the content strategist role include:

• Creating target audience profiles
• Learning their priorities and content needs
• Creating and managing social media campaigns
• Managing content marketing campaigns
• Implementing best SEO practices
• Building strategic partnerships

Content Strategist Skills

As you begin your career as a content strategist, there are a few skill sets that you'll need to succeed.

• Excellent copywriting skills – if you can't write great content, it doesn't matter how well you strategize it. You need excellent copywriting skills to be able to plan, direct, design, and edit content that get results. 
• Content presentation skills – you should be able to determine how content should be packaged for new and existing consumers to induce them to take business actions.
• Content delivery skills – you determine the best distribution channel to deliver content to your audience.
• You should have experience in handling and strategizing marketing campaigns.
• Content monetization skills – as a content strategist, you must be able to plan how your content can get customers to buy your product or service and thereby earn revenue. 
• Multitasking and organizational skills – you will have to handle several types of projects and people regularly
• Editorial competency – you will conduct thorough audits to determine what content should be kept, edited, rewritten, and more
• Good analytical abilities to spot patterns and trends in content marketing data
• Team-building skills
• Having a keen interest in organizational goals and targets
• Attention to detail
• Leadership qualities
• Pressure handling capabilities

How to Become a Content Strategist

Typically, a content strategist salary is one that you can be happy with. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary of a content strategist in the USA is $85,859. Once you develop the necessary skills in the content strategist job description, how do you actually go about getting a job as a content strategist?

When applying, most employers look for candidates who have at least three to five years of experience in marketing-related roles like digital content manager, web writer, or content editor. Also, a bachelor's degree is required in a subject like English, journalism, communications, marketing, creative writing, technical writing, information management, or something similar. 

To get an edge over competitors looking to pursue content strategist careers, you should get hands-on experience in digital content creation and content editing; learn the basics of SEO; and develop a content strategist skill set. Finally, you should find an employer and job that maximizes your strengths. If you are on the career path to becoming a content strategist, you can start by developing your skills in roles like content creator, content editor, and SEO specialist. Then, you can begin transitioning into the content strategist job.

In today's quickly evolving modern workforce, there is a constant need to learn new skills to stay on top of trends. To navigate this unpredictable working world, professionals must look beyond the skills of today, or else you risk getting left behind.

Upskilling is crucial for professionals wanting an exciting career. It helps adapt and evolve your domain knowledge, so it is easier for you to get a new job, organization, or a profession altogether. The Advanced Content Marketing Course from Simplilearn is the perfect upskilling platform for aspiring content strategist. In it, you will learn how to create compelling marketing content and master various aspects of effective content marketing strategies.

If you want something more advanced, based on your existing skills, check out our Professional Certificate Program In Digital Marketing. This program, provided in partnership with Purdue University and Meta Blueprint, will help you learn all the facets of digital marketing to help you become a superstar in any industry!