How to Become a Content Strategist Without Experience
A content strategist is responsible for planning, designing, and publishing content that meets business objectives and customer needs. The job description includes planning and developing content strategies, managing content marketing efforts, and creating and publishing relevant content based on the company’s business objectives and users’ needs.
They work to create cohesive content strategies that align with the company’s brand voice and objectives, ensuring all content is engaging, relevant, and effective.
Their role includes conducting content audits, managing social media accounts, analyzing performance metrics, and managing the organization’s content management system.
Becoming a content strategist isn’t hard if you are a skilled content writer with experience in storytelling, search engine marketing & technical writing, and digital marketing channels. But the skills are not limited to the ones above.
In this article, we will provide a detailed guide on becoming a content strategist and some skills to help you grow your content strategist career.
How to Become a Content Strategist?
The qualifications are the first thing that matters on the journey to becoming a content strategist. However, the content strategist role varies; sometimes, experience and skills match the qualifications. Still, acquiring at least a bachelor’s degree or higher education is necessary.
This article will cover the content strategist job description, including the necessary skills, qualifications, and career path in the content marketing industry. Conducting a content audit is crucial to evaluate and improve content performance.
We have provided a step-by-step guide to help you get a content strategist position. The journey can be easier for some and daunting for others.
Confusing, right? By the end of this article, I hope you’ll have answers to all of your queries. Let’s jump right into the steps to become a content marketing strategist.
1. Acquire Necessary Qualifications
According to Zippia, 78.7% of content strategists have bachelor’s degrees. Although skills and experience usually overcome qualifications, acquiring a bachelor’s degree is still mandatory.
In addition to that, 15.3% of content marketing strategist roles acquired master’s degrees, according to Zippia. This is necessary, especially if you want to rise to the rank of becoming a content marketing manager. From these stats, we can easily see that a minimum bachelor’s degree is a mandatory requirement for a content strategist.
On the other hand, you cannot acquire such a senior role with just your high degree or a diploma. However, there are some exceptions for skillful and experienced candidates.
As far as the majors are concerned, most of the content strategist’s roles have majors in Journalism, English, marketing, and management. Digital content creation is also a significant area of study.
On the other hand, acquiring a degree depends on a time frame. If you are in the early stages of your high school education, we recommend obtaining at least a bachelor’s degree in one of the majors mentioned earlier. Otherwise, only mastering the skills would do.
However, keep in mind that a recruiter from the content marketing industry will always prefer a skillful candidate with a higher degree to a skillful candidate without a higher degree.
2. Develop the Skillset
The second step to becoming a content strategist is to master the required skillset. Although gaining content strategy positions is a skill, various technical skills are required to call yourself a wizard.
One of the most basic skills for a content marketing strategist is the ability to plan and design content. Thus, you should be a creative planner with exceptional market research and marketing skills to prepare content. Designing and planning the content is the skill that sets apart a digital content creator and a content strategist.
Content governance is crucial in maintaining quality and consistency across all content efforts.
Conducting a content audit is essential to evaluate existing content’s performance and identify areas for improvement.
Practice makes perfect; thus, the more you practice, the more skillful you’ll become.
A professional content marketing strategist should be well-versed in keyword research, search analysis skills, and creative writing. In addition, an experienced content strategist should have access to content marketing strategy and SEO.
Scroll down to learn more about the skills to become a content marketing strategist.
3. Get Involved in Content Creation
It is undoubtedly correct that content writing, editing, and the ability to generate high-quality content are key to becoming a content strategist. Good content writing skills require not only written skills but also verbal and communication skills.
An editorial calendar can help you plan and organize your content creation efforts.
Publishing and promoting content on various digital platforms is crucial for effective content marketing and reaching a wider audience.
Thus, mastering content creation is mandatory. You can do so by winning freelance content strategist jobs to gain experience in content creation. It is relatively more straightforward to secure jobs by proposing a lower rate. This way, you can gain knowledge as well as get paid. You can also raise your prices over time as you develop your style.
You can also get experience in content creation voluntarily. So, look around and find opportunities. Work for people voluntarily to strengthen your style and skills. In addition to that, you can also grow your portfolio this way.
4. Learn the Process of Search Engine Optimization
Experienced content marketing strategists are well-versed in SEO know-how.
SEO allows content marketing strategists to promote their brands, services, and products in search engine results. In addition to that, experience in SEO allows you to generate content that is appealing to readers and search engines.
Mastering on-page SEO techniques is crucial for optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic.
In other words, SEO means ranking the content among its competitors. Furthermore, the better you are at SEO, the better you are at content marketing and designing.
As content strategists are responsible for designing the content for digital marketing platforms, they must know how to rank it in search engines for organic traffic. Because if there’s no traffic, there’s no use of content, no matter how good the content strategy is. Thus, mastering SEO is a mandatory skill for a content marketing strategist.
5. Master Content Editing Techniques
Content editing skills are a basic yet crucial skill set for the success of your content. The more you edit and polish the content, the better its quality. Implementing content governance ensures that all content meets quality standards and aligns with the overall strategy.
If you are on the journey to becoming a content marketing strategist, familiarize yourself with editing and proofreading the content.
Editing means polishing the content to remove typos and grammatical and punctuation errors. Errors can not be tolerated, whether in the content strategy or the content creation. Thus, errors can be removed through editing and proofreading. This way, your output will become productive and fruitful without errors or mistakes.
6. Design a Portfolio
No one will hire you if you don’t have proof of your words. On the journey to becoming a content marketing strategist, you must prepare a well-structured portfolio to exhibit your digital marketing and content samples. This way, the creative professionals showcase their talent to potential clients through portfolios.
Multiple portfolio websites have different minimalistic and professional designs. You can look up those sources and see which one you can use to develop your portfolio.
Include content performance metrics in your portfolio to demonstrate the impact of your work.
Now, you must consider what you should include in your portfolio. Well, no worries. List the work you have done voluntarily for friends and relatives. Include any content strategy plans you have to showcase. Including content performance metrics can further highlight the effectiveness of your strategies.
In addition, list your awards and achievements, too, so the viewer can see the success you can generate for them.
With a portfolio, you can secure more digital marketing jobs based on your solid copywriting skills.
7. Gain Experience
Again, company recruiters, who are creative professionals, do not hire candidates with less or zero experience. You should attain some experience to become a content marketing strategist.
Understanding the content lifecycle is crucial for managing content from creation to publication and beyond.
The first option is to opt for paid or unpaid internships. With internships, you can not only gain more experience but also develop your portfolio. You get to explore more content strategies, thus broadening your thinking.
The next option is to work with startup companies like digital marketing agencies. This way, you can get to know the tactics of working in small businesses, and later, you can practice your skills in bigger organizations when you gain more experience.
If you do not have enough qualifications, know that experience matters the most after content strategist skills. Thus, this is one of the most mandatory requirements to fulfill on the journey of a content marketing strategist.
8. Acquire Certifications and Testimonials
This step is crucial for candidates with less education and experience. But, is not just limited to them. Certifications enable you to upskill your talent. In addition to that, online certifications from globally reputed institutes complement your resume and skills.
Obtaining a content marketing certification can enhance your credibility and demonstrate your expertise.
You can hunt for online courses from social media managers and well-known content strategists. Know that certifications add to your experience and knowledge of your skills. Furthermore, these also build a client’s trust in you.
Apart from that, testimonials from a startup marketing agency and a digital content manager justify your skills. You can request your employers to provide you with testimonials and then later include these in your resume when you apply for a content marketing job.
9. Hunt for the Right Role
Lastly, when you think you are experienced, have a deep understanding of content strategy, and are skillful enough to work as a full-time content marketing strategist successfully, then hunt for the right role.
Use content marketing job boards to find opportunities matching your skills and experience. Search for jobs relevant to your skills on social media platforms, search engines, and online resources.
After carefully reading the job description, submit your content strategist job application along with your portfolio projects as your key performance indicators.
These steps are necessary to follow your dream of becoming a content strategist. Follow the above step-by-step guide to land your dream content strategist job.
Content Monetization Skills
As a content strategist, you need content monetization skills to generate revenue from the content you create. You should understand various monetization methods, such as advertising, subscription models, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content. By mastering these techniques, you can ensure that your content not only engages and retains your audience but also contributes to your organization’s financial goals.
You can identify and implement strategies that align with your brand’s objectives, optimize content for profitability, and analyze performance metrics to refine and enhance monetization efforts. Your proficiency in these areas is crucial for maximizing the return on investment in content creation and sustaining the financial health of your digital media initiatives.
Content Strategist’s Job Requirements
We have already provided a step-by-step guide to becoming a content strategist. However, that does not include the required skills. Here are detailed insights into the skills you should master to become a content marketing strategist.
Understanding the content marketing funnel is essential for creating content that guides potential customers through their journey.
1. Search Intent Analysis and Keyword Research
Search intent analysis identifies users’ goals when they type queries into a search engine. It enables digital content strategists to understand each search’s underlying motivations and expectations. This insight is crucial for crafting content that resonates with the intended audience. Therefore, a content strategist must proficiently analyze search intent to align content with user intent.
In tandem with this, conducting a content gap analysis allows strategists to uncover areas where existing content falls short or where new opportunities exist. This approach ensures that all audience needs are met and helps maintain a competitive edge. Content strategists determine these gaps by comparing current offerings with user expectations and competitor content, making those with strong analytical skills highly sought after in the industry.
Likewise, keyword research is closely related to search intent analysis. It involves discovering the exact words and phrases users input into search engines when seeking information. Understanding this process is essential for optimizing content visibility and performance.
In essence, mastering both search intent analysis and keyword research is mandatory if you want to succeed as a content strategist. These foundational skills empower a digital content strategist to produce relevant, discoverable, and impactful content.
2. Content Promotion and Distribution
Content promotion is enhancing online content’s visibility to reach a company’s target audience. This involves leveraging paid and organic strategies, including social media posts, influencer outreach, and advertising campaigns. Content amplification plays a crucial role in this stage, helping to extend the reach of your content across various channels.
Conversely, content distribution focuses on delivering content through different platforms, such as cold emails, social media marketing, and syndication networks. By strategically using these methods, businesses can ensure that their content reaches the right audience at the right time.
An effective content strategy incorporates promotion and distribution to acquire and retain traffic on a content channel. Monitoring social media metrics is essential for evaluating the performance of your content efforts and optimizing future campaigns. Collaboration with social media specialists can also significantly enhance your content’s reach and engagement.
Success in this area hinges on a well-planned strategy. Therefore, developing these skills is critical for anyone aspiring to become a proficient content strategist.
3. Customer Personas
A content strategist must understand the customer experience. If a content strategist is skilled at judging customer personas, then they can draft the content strategy for the brand, services, and products.
Audience segmentation allows you to tailor content to specific groups for more effective marketing.
In addition, a content strategist must know how to support new and existing customers and ultimately improve marketing and sales.
Thus, user research is another important skill.
4. Creative Vision
The creative vision of a content marketing strategist is a mandatory skill. If you are not creative in planning and writing the content, we’re afraid content strategist is not the right role for you.
Content ideation is a crucial part of the creative process, helping to generate new and innovative content ideas.
The more creative a strategist is, the more unique and appealing the content they generate. This does not mean that you should be a prior artist. This means that you should be skillful in envisioning content that will appeal to readers and search engines.
A content strategist decides the writing style and content tone, thus you must be able to think from outside the box.
5. Strategic Planning and Thinking
A content strategist must have a creative strategy when planning the content. After all, this is truly the main duty and at the same time a mandatory skill for a content strategist.
Content pillars are foundational themes that guide your content strategy and ensure consistency.
Thus, when learning the skills to become a content marketer, master these skills to fulfill the criteria to become a content strategist.
6. Analytical and Technical Skills
Content strategist typically spends in interpreting the stats, and numbers. Thus, becoming a content strategist requires good analytical and technical skills to judge the performance of a content strategy. Conducting content performance analysis helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your content and make data-driven decisions.
So, work on improving your technical and web analytics skills for better performance in planning your content strategies.
7. Content Management System
Experienced content strategists and digital creators are well-versed in using content management systems (CMS) and developing editorial calendars for content creation, governance, and management processes.
A CMS is software or tool that allows you to manage all the content and share it with other teammates for collaboration. It also allows you to put together all the marketing strategies (such as email marketing campaigns) of your content. This way, you can efficiently manage the content. Implementing a content governance framework ensures that all content is managed and maintained consistently.
8. Content Strategy Tools
When it comes to the tool, a content strategist’s role is not just limited to using a CMS tool. There are several tools like analytics tools and research tools for keywords and content optimization tools.
A sound understanding and skills to use these tools are mandatory in the journey to be a content strategist.
Above, we have provided the key skills that are necessary to become a content strategist. Follow the guide and master these skills to call yourself an experienced content marketing strategist.
Is a Content Strategist a Good Career?
Yes, it is indeed content strategist careers are rewarding, but also difficult. A content strategist salary is approximately $64k per year according to Payscale.
Hence, content strategists have a rewarding career in terms of financial figures. However, know that it is not easy to master this field completely. The skills are much technical and carry high expectations, this role can become challenging for some to fulfill the job duties fruitfully. But, for experienced and skillful content marketers, generating good results should not be a challenge.
In short, we would say that, if you have the mandatory skills, and are an experienced candidate, then a content strategist career is a good choice.
Conclusion
A content strategist is responsible for planning the strategy of content creation for the brand’s products and services.
Setting clear content marketing goals is essential for measuring success and guiding your strategy to ensure that it meets business goals.
If you want to become a content marketing strategist, then first work on improving your qualifications. A minimum bachelor’s degree is required for this role.
In addition to that, acquiring the qualifications is not enough. Skills are necessary, too. So, work on improving your skills to become a content strategist. Go through the skills sections to get an insight into what skills are required to become a content strategist.
Furthermore, gain experience through internships, working in digital marketing agencies, and freelance jobs. This way, you can diversify your thinking style and content creation approach. In addition to that, you can also improve your organizational skills. At the same time, you can draft an appealing portfolio to showcase your talent to potential clients.
Moreover, enroll in online courses that provide certificates. Certifications provide more value to your resume. Go through the above-written guide on how to become a content strategist.
When you master the basic skills, you can apply for jobs to pursue your career. In addition to that, being a content strategist is a good career choice. Good luck with your journey to becoming a content strategist.
FAQs
Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about becoming a content strategist:
What educational qualifications are needed to become a content strategist?
To become a content strategist, a minimum of a bachelor’s degree is typically required. Common majors include Journalism, English, Marketing, and Management. While qualifications are important, relevant skills and experience, such as experience with project management, content presentation skills, content delivery skills, or data analysis, can also be very useful.
What are the essential skills for a content strategist?
A content strategist role also includes content planning and design, SEO, creative writing, keyword research, content promotion and distribution, customer persona development, and proficiency in using content management systems (CMS) and content strategy tools. A content strategist should also be familiar with digital marketing campaigns and channels.
Is a career as a content strategist financially rewarding?
Yes, a career as a content strategist can be financially rewarding. On average, content strategists earn approximately $72,600 per year, according to Payscale. However, mastering the necessary skills and following industry trends is necessary.
How do digital tools support content strategists in their daily work?
Digital tools are essential for content strategists to efficiently plan, execute, and analyze content strategies. These tools streamline editorial calendars, manage content workflows, and provide performance analytics to ensure content aligns with broader business objectives. Whether using SEO platforms, CMS systems, or project management software, digital tools help strategists maintain consistency, track KPIs, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
What role do graphic designers and marketing teams play in content strategy?
Content strategists often work with graphic designers and marketing teams (sometimes even a marketing firm) to ensure cohesive messaging and branding. Graphic designers translate content concepts into compelling visuals that enhance user engagement, while marketing teams provide insights into audience behavior and campaign performance. This collaboration ensures that every piece of content is not only visually appealing but also strategically aligned with marketing goals.
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