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What’s one tip you’d give someone looking to accelerate their career in content?
Here is what 12 thought-leaders had to say:
- Speak in Leadership Team Terms
- Understand Your Market Sector
- Build a Brand Outside of Your Day Job
- Write Every Day About Something You Like
- Use Relatable Language
- Don’t Be Afraid to Syndicate Dynamic Content
- Nurture Strong Client Relationships
- Deliver Amazing Work
- Learn from Personal Experiences
- Create a Portfolio from Your Areas of Interest
- Think Outside the Textbox With Different Mediums
- Seek Out Steady Gigs
Speak in Leadership Team Terms
One of the best ways to accelerate your career is to learn to speak in the same words that the leadership team speaks. For example, learn to explain the revenue potential of certain keywords, and what the expected ROI of your efforts will be.
Whether you like it or not, the leadership team thinks of things through revenue, expenses, and profit lenses. If you learn to explain things in those terms, it’ll be a lot easier to get buy-in, get access to certain speakers, and grow your content efforts!
Araminta Robertson, Managing Director, Mint Studios
Understand Your Market Sector
One of the biggest assets as a content person is being well-versed in the key players, concepts, trends, and competitors in the sector you’re working in. Content that performs well usually does so because it’s able to out-compete anything else that exists on the same topic in terms of production quality, information quality, or distribution.
To do that, you have to not only be great at knowing your facts but also be able to quickly triangulate what’s likely to resonate with the target audience and how it compares to existing content already on the market.
Sachin M, Content Lead, Negotium LLC
Build a Brand Outside of Your Day Job
You can’t always control what’s going on inside of the organization you work in, so accelerate your career for the long term by building a brand for yourself outside of work.
For content creators, that’s as simple as starting a blog on your own website or Medium, or it could be mini-blogs/vlogs daily on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Whichever it is, use the channel to find your voice and your personal USP, then build your brand from there. This will put you head and shoulders above others when going for promotions or new jobs and may even provide a source of revenue in itself!
Emma Westley, Marketing Consultant, immerj
Write Every Day About Something You Like
For most people seeking a career in content writing, there are no shortcuts. You have to be persistent and write every day until writing feels natural, like an extension of you. It helps if you’re writing about a subject you’re knowledgeable about, something you’re passionate about. Choosing your area of expertise carefully is important, so you don’t get to ask yourself “What I’m I doing?” a few years down the road.
And, if you’re writing every day, make sure you post on LinkedIn or your own blog. This way people will get to know you and what you’re capable of. Finding writing gigs will definitely be easier if you have easy-to-demonstrate skills and people already know you.
Ionut-Alexandru Popa, Editor in Chief and CEO, JPG MEDIA SRL
Use Relatable Language
When it comes to content creation, you have to make it authentic and conversational. So, as you are writing blogs or video scripts, there is no need to incorporate sophisticated vocabulary. This could cause your content to come off as too pompous or exclusive. Instead, your content should speak directly and empathetically to your audience rather than talking down to them. Then you will create more compelling content, helping you grow your content career.
Miles Beckett, Co-Founder & CEO, Flossy
Don’t Be Afraid to Syndicate Dynamic Content
Content syndication is an excellent strategy to maximize traffic attraction by reusing content with a proven record of performing well. The best part is it is a low-cost strategy since you don’t need to produce new content. The biggest potential issue with content syndication is that your syndicated content might overshadow your original content. However, there is a silver lining here. When your visitors see you have content published in known online publications, their respect and patronage for you increase.
Tristan Buenconsejo, Founder and Managing Director, TriBu LinkBuilding
Nurture Strong Client Relationships
While freelance content creation is common, more often than not, clients will stick with content creators whom they trust. First interactions and first jobs with a new client can dispel or nurture the possibility of a long-term relationship. This is why great communication skills and conscientiousness are paramount in the content industry. Nurturing client relationships also implies being fairly flexible when it comes to making their vision a reality.
If you impress, you’ll likely be thought of again when future projects come up, and this can accelerate your career.
Eric Ang, Director, One Search Pro
Deliver Amazing Work
This tip applies especially to freelancers but it works for in-house content marketers, designers, and writers as well. I’ve found that the more your work demonstrates your skill, the more likely clients and employees will advertise you without your even asking them to.
There is no need to post on Twitter 10 times a day or write up thoughtful posts on LinkedIn if you deliver amazing work that people are happy to show off and tell their networks about. And with each new inquiry you get, you can raise your prices and deepen your tasks.
Sofie Couwenbergh, Content Strategist & Writer, Let Me Write That Down for You
Learn from Personal Experiences
Content creation is a hot topic, and there are tons of blogs and other resources about content available online. I’ve found that many of these resources echo each other. But anyone new to content creation or wants to accelerate in the field is better off learning by doing. If doing isn’t an option, talk to other content creators and learn from their personal experiences.
Find a mentor, read blogs, or take courses made by other content creators who live and breathe content every day. They’re usually more honest and authentic than brands who are trying to dominate search engines and make money from their products. Real advice will always trump fuzzy suggestions made by someone who’s just in it for search rankings and conversions.
Alli Hill, Founder and Director, Fleurish Freelance
Create a Portfolio from Your Areas of Interest
Creating generic content is simple to do, and AI tools can build that content in minutes. Specialists with a tone, point of view, persona, deep knowledge of a topic, and a publicly available portfolio of content are much harder to find and provide a much higher content value to the editors or clients.
First, find an area of interest, that you could talk non-stop about. Then, find gig jobs to provide specific content in that niche. Use those jobs to create a portfolio of work that can help you earn more and build relationships within your niche.
Jonathan Duarte, Founder, CEO, GoHire, Inc
Think Outside the Textbox With Different Mediums
Content is often thought of in the context of blogs and sales materials. Accelerate your career by showing both your content writing skills and your ability to connect better and faster with an audience by using different mediums.
Instead of writing a super long blog that most people don’t read (sorry), educate your audience with an interactive question-and-answer quiz. Or create a quiz that allows your audience to learn more about their own needs and your offering, and ask for their email at the end of the quiz to generate more leads. Show how your content brings value to a company and the customer by exploring different mediums.
Molly Aviva, Owner, Molly Aviva Creative Services
Seek Out Steady Gigs
A good tip for a professional looking to fast-track a budding content career is to prioritize steady work over one-off jobs. You may improve and excel much faster if you land a long-term freelance client or an in-house content job as opposed to spending a significant amount of time and energy hustling to find work.
Assignment stability will allow you to focus on improving your craft rather than chasing down opportunities. Not to mention, you will more quickly build a portfolio and a track record you can leverage to land future work, plus build contacts that can lead to networking opportunities.
Kate Duske, Editor in Chief, Escape Room Data