From Mombasa to Pretoria, Lagos and Delhi, technology has forced brands to adopt digital marketing as a key growth strategy. Thousands of these brands are now in need of qualified content marketers to amplify their presence and many newbies are taking on the call to become a content marketer.
Although this is an opportunity for content creators, there’s a problem. The sweeping takeover of AI mass produced content-in-a-click has made it very difficult for inexperienced content marketers to find a foothold in this industry. And with recent advancements in AI development, it might only get worse.
But, here’s the solution. As consumers continue to push against the overwhelming takeover of AI creators, there’s an increasing demand for human-centered content creators with the experience, expertise and resources to create tailor made and audience focused content that will lead to increased ROI for brands. This is where you come in.
As a digital marketing specialist with over 300 pieces of content across different niches, in this guide, I’ll be sharing with you the steps you can take to begin your journey as a content marketer and the strategies you can use to position yourself for brands.
Choose your Content Marketing Goal
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The first thing you must do in your journey to become a content marketer is to choose a goal that specifically outlines what you want to do, why you’re starting this new career path and the things you can do to achieve this career goal.
The main reason you need a goal is because it allows you to align your strategies with an action plan that can get you to actually evolve the original results you had in mind.
Let’s say you want to become a content marketing practitioner because you have a goal to make a decent income working in digital marketing. What this goal identification does for you is that it allows you to focus your strategy in digital marketing niches that can fetch you the most in terms of income.
If your goal on the other hand is to build a career in content marketing while growing your brand in a specific niche (say legal marketing) for instance, you could then consider building a content marketing career tilted towards thought leadership and visibility.
Your specific goal will not only influence your area of focus as a content creator. It’ll also shape your brand positioning, your target clients including other aspects of your content marketing brand as a whole.
Learn Content Marketing
When I started creating this guide, I wanted to bring in a new perspective into what it takes to build a content marketing career in the era of automated content generation tools and artificial intelligence.
And one thing no one tells you about content marketing in this era is that it needs a human centered approach to content marketing. Long gone are the days of writing for SEO and visibility alone. In today’s human-first content marketing era, you’ll be creating for humans before the machines.
A human centered content marketing draws in on your experiences, skills, expertise to create a real impact and beneficial value to your audience. This is the kind of content marketing learning experience you have to be exposed to.
I want to re-emphasize, to become a content marketer in this present time, you’ll have to compete against high powered content creation tools. And the only advantage you’ll have over these tools is that you have the expertise, experience and skills that can enrich your content. And make it more human focused.
So, you don’t just want to learn and accumulate the certifications, you want to gather the experience, stack up the skills and build up your expertise.
Whether you’re creating a written text, video, audio or visual content, you want to add that human touch advantage you already have to make your content distinct and effortlessly human. And there are a lot of places you can learn this kind of content marketing.
Identify your Content Marketing Niche
Just like there are different industries, niches and areas of specialization, there are specific content marketing niches and new content creators will always go for niches based on specific reasons.
As a new content creator, I was not sure about the niche I needed to go into. I was already creating some pieces of content back then on social media around this niche that did not have a lot of mainstream experts but I didn’t know how to push it forward.
When my first online business folded up, I didn’t have a choice but to go for a different niche altogether – something more in demand and traffic driven. And this single choice, landed me my first freelance content gig in a matter of months.
If there’s any thing you’ll take away from this, I want you to know that here’s so much that your niche can do to your content marketing outcome. And if you want to become a content marketer that creates results successfully, you must keep this in mind.
Like I mentioned earlier, if your goal to start a career in content marketing is to make money fast, go for niches with money. If the goal is to build a career around a specific area of study, go for a niche that will easily position you as a thought leader
If you opt for the latter, you may still make a decent income along the way but you’ll have to be very strategic about it.
Create a Portfolio for Content Marketing
With the number of competition out there, you need a portfolio to land as many gigs as possible. But as a newbie, it might be difficult to get enough gigs to build a decent portfolio before launching out fully.
There are some ways to go about this. When I started out for example, I didn’t have a lot of work in my portfolio as well but I had a solid number of content on my platforms. There were also a well-coordinated storytelling angle to my career journey which also helped in demonstrating my expertise.
For most of my students, I always advise, start building a portfolio even while you’re learning. It makes things a lot easier as you can as well gain some supervision or expert reviews for the portfolio.
In addition to that, consider volunteering and guest posting opportunities. This can serve as a good option to demonstrate your expertise while building up. You can also use this as a part of your portfolio.
Furthermore, take up internship roles. This can shape up your experience while leading you to build real life working experiences as you level up to become a content marketer successfully.
There are other things you can also do to create a number or content marketing work experience for your portfolio. This can be advising small brands on content marketing either on social media or web platforms, setting up free content marketing strategy for organizations to revamp their visibility or even taking on specific case studies that gets publicized.
At the end of the day. You want to put your feet to the ground as much as possible. Get grounded and gather an avalanche of experiences, expertise and skills while building your portfolio.
Build a Content Marketing Brand
You need a brand but you don’t just need any brand. In today’s highly competitive landscape where you’re competing against human creators and AI driven content platforms, you need an arc that distinguishes your brand as well.
So to become a content marketer that thrives in the midst of competition, go and get your brand together.
As a beginner, you may not have an idea on what your brand should look like but you can start with getting back to your goal. What did you list down as your motivations and what do you want to achieve as a content marketing specialist?
List out your goals clearly and try to create a brand that aligns with that. If you need further clarity, head over to LinkedIn and find out content marketers in the niche you plan to get into. Find out how they’ve positioned their brand and ways you can adapt or use their own strategy to evolve yours.
This will take care of things like your brand name, colours, brand voice etc.
As soon as this is all sorted, use this information to create your about information, your bio for both social media and other platforms and brand messaging.
Now that you’ve done this, head over and create social media profiles across the top social media platforms with the largest number of your target audience.
Use the brand information you created in this sub title across your social media platforms and your website/blog. Be sure that your brand message is consistent across all platforms.
Get a Website for Content Marketing
Whether you’re starting out as a freelance content marketing specialist or you plan to work in a specific niche, a website can give you a very decent visibility and a platform to apply your content marketing expertise.
This came in very handy for me when I wanted to become a content marketer. Unlike you, I was pivoting from a different field to content marketing so it was easy to position my website then as a marketing funnel for new clients.
You can get a website to serve you in many ways while building your content marketing portfolio. For example, you can use it to gain visibility, build a portfolio, gain experience and showcase your skills.
While getting set to get a website for your brand, keep the following things in mind:
Get a domain name that matches your brand name or brand representation. Where such names are not available, try to go for derivatives that do not infringe on any existing copyright.
Build your website on an easy content marketing platform that can help you to navigate content marketing and website update quite easily like WordPress for instance. You can get your website setup guide from our team here.
Use strategic optimization strategies to build your Home Page, About Page, Services Page, Portfolio Page among other pages for optimum visibility, targeted at specific audiences.
Promote your Brand as a Content Marketer
It’s not enough that you want to start a career in content marketing. To achieve your goals successfully, you want to become a content marketer that is clearly visible in the industry.
This is the only way to get the jobs, earn a living and even make some impact. But. Getting the kind of visibility that will set you apart is never a walk in the park. That’s why you have to be strategic and double down on your visibility strategies.
As a beginner, I’ll share just three strategies you can use to get started free:
Content Creation: This is already your forte, use it to work for you. Do not merely go about hoping to create result driven content marketing for other brands, create it for your own brands and share the outcomes with your audience. This is a sure-fire way to demonstrate your expertise and show working.
Get on Social Media: The social media is a great place where you can create and share content, build a community and support group and even gain new leads. Some of my first new leads where from here. With engaging content and strategic storytelling, this can be a goldmine.
Partner with Brands: There are many ways to partner with brands as a content creator. For example, you can work with them to create their strategy for a free in return for a mention, publish your content on their blog, free for a backlink or byline, partner with them for strategic product launch or visibility campaign. Choose what works for you and get your rewards as visibility.
In addition to this, if you want to create an even faster results, you can also consider getting social media ads, search engine ads, strategic website ads or Influencer marketing partnerships.
Final Words
Anyone can become a content marketer. Thousands of people have done that before you. And you can also start and build your content marketing career using the strategies I shared with you in this guide.
But I must warn you. With the current evolution in artificial intelligence, the content marketing landscape is evolving. To stand out in this industry you have to be well solid.
Building a brand that stands out will demand grit, effort, resources and work from you. And you must be willing to take your chances, to iterate and evolve. You must be willing to understudy your strategies, and learn from both your successes and flops.
Like I said, a lot of people are doing it already. And you can do it. And there are communities and platforms that can mentor and hold you by the hand like the content marketing academy here.
Now, it’s your turn. What are your biggest struggles in your journey to become a content marketer? Drop your comments below.
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