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When I transitioned from a career as a journalist to one as a content marketer, I knew I\u2019d have to refresh and refocus my knowledge base. But it took a minute to grasp how many new skills I would need to master before successfully applying years of editorial experience to the challenges and opportunities digital marketers face.<\/p>\n
Sure, the mechanics of crafting a compelling story to engage an audience are universal, but the purposes and strategies that drive the creative process differ, as do the tools and processes used to govern and execute them.<\/p>\n
Bringing my skill set up to speed is a continual learning experience. It\u2019s one that content marketing teams can relate to, considering the rapid pace of change in digital media technology, let alone ever-shifting consumer trends, behaviors, and preferences.<\/p>\n
Which core competencies should content marketers invest in if they want their teams to bridge today\u2019s marketing realities with the needs of tomorrow\u2019s content consumers? We asked Content Marketing World<\/a> speakers. Here are a few areas they recommend focusing on:<\/p>\n One technological advance that will undoubtedly impact how audiences engage with brands is voice response. As consumers increasingly turn to smart listening devices like Amazon\u2019s Echo and Google\u2019s Home, content teams need to think not only about how to create audio-based messages but how to amplify their reach on a platform where \u201cvisibility\u201d is somewhat of a misnomer.<\/p>\n Perhaps the key to success lies in the art of conversation:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>Optimizing<\/em><\/a> your content for voice search I think will be very important. Essentially, what that looks like is really adopting some of the traditional on-page SEO type of practices. But also, often times when you are listening to text, you want to make sure it\u2019s very conversational, right? So, I think that (your brand\u2019s)<\/em> tone of voice<\/em><\/a> will be very important when you\u2019re optimizing your content for a voice search.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Juntae DeLane<\/strong><\/a>, founder\/CEO, Digital DeLane<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI feel that voice search is sort of the next way for marketers to go \u00ad\u2013 and not even in a sense of just how to do it, but in how we interact with it, the psychology behind it, and just how we treat (content) differently than we do when talking to a human. It\u2019s all very interesting, it\u2019s all very new, and there\u2019s so much that we just haven\u2019t explored or learned from it yet<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna Hrach<\/strong><\/a>, strategist, Convince & Convert<\/strong><\/p>\n Voice search future: Know how you treat #content differently than when you talk to humans, says @annabananahrach.<\/a><\/span> Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other content enhancements that have taken off in the last few years are visual reality and augmented reality \u2013 topics that colored one speaker\u2019s view of the skill set soon essential to content creators:<\/p>\n \u201cTo understand how to tell a better story, to understand how to create content, (learning to use) technology such as AR and VR is going to be critical. I\u2019m not saying you have to be AR or VR producer; but we, collectively as marketers, need to understand that will have an impact on content creation and storytelling. In terms of what that will be, I don\u2019t know, but we should be paying attention to it and learning to better understand this area.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Pam Didner<\/strong><\/a>, author, Global Content Marketing & Effective Sales Enablement<\/strong><\/p>\n Algorithms<\/a> have grown to be a driving force in content marketing, particularly in how and when to distribute content via search and social media. But as media kings like Google and Facebook change the rules of the game, even creatives may need to do the math \u2013\u00a0or, at least, learn to interpret what the numbers are telling them.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we continue to evolve and grow in digital marketing, marketers would be well served to sharpen their skills on being able to analyze. Making sure, even if you\u2019re not a data head, to get into the analytics and to understand<\/em> conversion tracking<\/em><\/a>; to make sure that you can get credit for the great stuff you\u2019re doing and so the organization can see what\u2019s working better than something else.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Leslie Carruthers<\/strong><\/a>, president, The Search Guru<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet, Vishal Khanna feels there may be a need to take this idea even further:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWith the democratization of technology, where a small company like mine can access pretty much the same technology that any of the bigger players have, you also have to become a technologist. You have to be extremely analytical and logically inclined, and you have to understand that, ultimately, what you\u2019re doing outside of the more creative side is building a bunch of if-then statements to run this marketing engine in the background. You have to be an IT person now, there\u2019s no way around it.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Vishal Khanna<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> director of marketing and communications, HealthPrize Technologies<\/strong><\/p>\n With the democratization of tech, #content marketers have to be an IT person now, says @bediscontent. \u200f<\/a><\/span> Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n And, while Michael Brenner may agree with Vishal on the increasing importance of analytical skills, he has a more human view of what it takes to work with advanced technologies:<\/p>\n \u201cI think AIs are actually going to save us from becoming too mathematical and too robotic in our engineering approaches \u2026 I do think that people misunderstand the value and the perception of what AI can be for marketing.<\/em> Robots<\/em><\/a> are not going to take over the world. I think marketers need to understand the impact of what\u2019s going to happen when the robots tell us what to do. What\u2019s the job of marketers? Are we going to be allowed to run from the insights that say, \u2018Don\u2019t create this. Create this\u2019? What\u2019s the impact of that? I think it\u2019s a bigger, more positive impact than a lot of people think, the impact of AI and marketing coming together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Michael Brenner<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> author; CEO, Marketing Insider Group; chief marketing officer, Concured<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, other experts view the tech issue from both sides:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>There\u2019s an expression that is neurologically incorrect, but it\u2019s still a useful concept: left brain vs. right brain; the analytical versus the creative. In marketing, you can no longer be just creative, or just analytical. You need to be whole brained. You need to use the whole brain of your team in order to be impactful. So, from a human perspective, any hesitations, any doubts you may have in your own abilities \u2013\u00a0\u2018Oh, I\u2019m not a math person,\u2019 for example \u2013 well, you don\u2019t really get to make that choice anymore. You now have to think about how your work impacts and informs the creative \u2026 (and, in turn) creative marketers need to be getting comfortable with math \u2026 with statistics, with algorithms, with<\/em> machine learning<\/em><\/a>, and how these technologies will be used, or are being used now to make their jobs easier.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Penn<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> co-founder and chief innovator, Trust Insights, Inc.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnother thing you need \u2013 and this is a difficult skill, but it\u2019s so valuable \u2013 is the ability to toggle between the 10,000-foot view and being down in the weeds. There are so many moving parts in digital marketing now, and so many tools and third parties that we need to work with well. If you can\u2019t toggle back and forth, you\u2019re really going to be limited in what you can do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Leslie Carruthers<\/strong><\/a>, president, The Search Guru<\/strong><\/p>\n On the other hand, there\u2019s a compelling argument that technology is irrelevant if you don\u2019t have a grasp on the core principles of good storytelling<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, it doesn\u2019t matter what technology you have; it doesn\u2019t matter what platform you\u2019re using, if you don\u2019t understand story. I think, really, the new skill should be how to tell stories in this new world of digital. You can strip away all the technology and still have your core story: beginning, middle, and end. Then, how do you translate that into your strategy, which then tells you which tactics you\u2019re going to use to tell that story.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Michael Weiss<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> vice president consulting services and solutions, Creative Circle<\/strong><\/p>\n Brand journalist Melanie Deziel concurs:<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe this isn\u2019t the sexiest answer or the most technological answer, but I think the skill that content marketers can work on to really help them in the future is actually their writing. And I don\u2019t mean that they\u2019re poor writers, but that they often times lack confidence in their writing. As<\/em> Ann Handley<\/em><\/a> says, \u2018Everybody writes.\u2019 You write emails, you write text messages, you write Facebook posts. If you can work on that and grow more comfortable in it, it could stop holding you back from creating.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Melanie Deziel<\/strong><\/a>, founder, StoryFuel<\/strong><\/p>\n #Writing is the skill content marketers can work on to help in the future, says @mdeziel.<\/a><\/span> Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n One additional skill content marketers can benefit from cultivating, regardless of their job function, level of comfort with tech, or the tactics they work with:<\/p>\n \u201cWe were talking a little earlier about how marketers are falling down on the job about governance. Process management is a big part of that, and making sure that your processes are clear, and well defined, so you can scale quickly is important.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Chris Penn<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> co-founder and chief innovator, Brain+Trust Insights<\/strong><\/p>\n Great content marketing requires strong communication and collaboration. Not only should you be concerned with keeping your skills sharp, consider how your new capabilities complement your colleagues\u2019 strengths and contribute to the collective good of your brand.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a content team leader, how can you put those shiny new skills to work in the tech-enhanced, well-governed, and writing-centric future? Start with these tips:<\/p>\n Of course, the experts don\u2019t have the final word on what it takes for today\u2019s practitioners to stay sharp and become more successful. What new capabilities are you looking to add to your content team\u2019s arsenal \u2013\u00a0or to your skill set \u2013\u00a0in the upcoming year? We\u2019re always looking to learn more about emerging challenges in this dynamic industry. Take us to school by sharing your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n Get expert insight on how content and technology work well together.<\/em> Attend Content<\/em> Marketing World<\/em><\/a> September 3-6 in Cleveland. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski\/Content Marketing Institute<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\nFollow the new sound of search<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nExpand your visual reality<\/strong><\/h2>\n
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Why Brands Need to Take the Plunge Into Virtual Reality Today<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nIt\u2019s critical to be more analytical<\/strong><\/h2>\n
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: New Tech Friends on the Marketing Block<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nUse soft skills to increase your adaptability<\/strong><\/h2>\n
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Why Marketers Need to Think Like Data Scientists (And How to Do It)<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nMake sure you have the \u201cwrite\u201d stuff<\/strong><\/h2>\n
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Content Marketer\u2019s Guide to Story Structure<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nPrioritize the process<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Putting your skills in play for a winning team<\/h2>\n
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What skills are paying your bills?<\/h2>\n