10 Creative Types You Need To Build A Killer Content Marketing Team
Creating content, especially in a lean marketing team, is an all-hands-on-deck endeavor.
Having a dream team in place to create not only the social posts, blog pieces, and video snippets, but the strategy, big picture campaigns and creative long-term vision should be a top priority for marketers.
After all, we’re well past the infancy of content marketing: 78% of CMOs now believe content is the future of marketing.
But where do you find the smart, creative, hard-working people to make your content marketing strategy a success?
In this landscape, experienced “content marketers” are hard to find. All you need is the best content marketing agency in the world (cough-cough) to coordinate efforts with some of the great folks you already have. Here’s who to look for . . .
1. The Visual Artist
Great content marketing can’t thrive on words alone. Powerful images and graphics are at the center of awesome content marketing.
Whether it’s creating a video, putting together a content infographic, or choosing stock photos that engage a blog post’s audience, your content marketing team needs someone who has an eye for choosing and producing visuals that are not only on brand, but also breathtaking and bold in their own right.
via wikiart.org
2. The Language Lover
When you have a killer visual artist and a language lover working together, cohesive and creative content is almost a given.
In a marketing environment where blogs, press pieces, tweets, Instagram posts, and campaigns all fall within the content marketing wheelhouse, you need someone who is a language lover.
Someone who loves writing, can do it quickly, is really scarily good at it.
via telegraph.co.uk
3. The Storyteller
A good brand storyteller on your team means you have the power to harness things like the heroes journey, the Pixar storytelling formula, Shakespeare’s 5-act structure, and characterization into your marketing.
I love to look at shows, songs, and movie directors I like to get inspiration for amazing storytelling.
Seriously, that’s powerful stuff. With one study showing enormous boosts in reader engagement when using brands create characters that can draw your audience in.
via the guardian.com
4. The Reporter
60% of brands see an increase in the effectiveness of their marketing when there’s a real time component, with 77% of organizations ranking live marketing as a high importance area of their overall advertising strategy.
Having someone with a reporting background can make real time marketing much easier: these folks can write, edit, and publish without breaking a sweat.
They know how to check their sources and pull quotes with finesse. Next time a journalism school grad’s resume is on your desk, give it a second look.
5. The Analyst
Hey, these guys are creative, too — just not necessarily in a Photoshop-and-art-school kind of way.
Creating insights and reports into how all that glorious content works is just as essential as putting it together in the first place, especially in an environment where marketing analytics are failing marketers left and right.
Also without tracking your content’s analytics, your more likely to produce content for content’s sake instead of producing compounding content marketing returns.
6. The Big Picture Planner
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, blogs. Visual content, verbal content, video content. With all the options at your fingertips for content creation and distribution, the best teams need someone who can see how all the puzzle pieces fit together.
Whether you’re in a big agency, a small one, or in-house, you’re going to need a person with a plan, especially if you have ambitions of making your content marketing strategy further your overall marketing strategy and business goals.
7. The Details Person
Like the Big Picture Planner, this is a person who can follow the plot — for that reason, you’re likely to see them clamoring to crunch numbers, troubleshooting to see which content types aren’t performing and why, or designing intuitive tweaks and A/B testing your software and websites.
Unlike the Big Picture Planners, these are the people micromanaging the baby steps and making sure the details are just right.
via metro.co.uk
9. The Event Guru
Events (even virtual ones) can have an enormous ROI when executed correctly, both in terms of numbers (Leads and sales), engagement, opportunities to schmooze with potential clients, and good old networking.
But not just anyone can provide the right environment: great event people give live content the right audience and the right ambience to thrive and spread.
via kpbs.com
10. The Editor
As Hemingway once said, “the first draft of anything is shit.”
Having killer storytelling and writing skills without someone to cut the words down to size is a recipe for a content train wreck.
You need someone who can spot a hashtag where it shouldn’t be on Linkedin.
Someone who can make your language come to life.
Someone who instinctively knows if it’s “it’s” or “its” or “affect” or “effect” and can translate the content from across your team into one coherent brand voice.
via copyblogger.com
11. The Big BIG Data Person
Content is published at a break-neck speed these days: There’s more than 2 millions snaps, nearly 500,000 tweets, and 13 million texts (new phone who dis?)
With such large quantities of stuff out there, you’re going to need a brain that can process not just your own data from campaigns, but huge data and demographic trends along with your team’s budget, long-term goals, and technological capabilities.
via Tumblr.com
If your team is anything like ours, one person can wear many of these hats. This is the role we play for many of our clients. Because we truly believe creativity and focused consistency to always be testing is the key to amazing, innovative content.
Are you interested in engaging and converting new customer for your business? Contact me here and let’s talk about how we can help.
7 thoughts on “10 Creative Types You Need To Build A Killer Content Marketing Team”
Get a Free Consultation
for Content Marketing
Great article, especially point #8.
Sincerely,
Details guy
Thanks Nis. I think I’m the big picture planner. I like to put all the pieces together and fine tune the machine. But I see other aspects as well like the details, the analysis, the event, the reporter. I’m sure we’re all some parts all these things.
Good list… Glad to see more than just visual and verbal pros clarified as creative (and, I would add, needing to approach their work creatively, with a sense of openness, wonder and discovery). To the list I would add #12 (or 11, as per the first comment) The Big Idea Person. The one quality that’s missing in content is the one we should import (selectively) from old school brand advertising… The big, breakthrough conceptualizer. The “aha!” person. This, of course, could be a quality assigned to any or all of those you list… But it needs to be there if we are to break out of our me-too, so-what addiction to lists, how-tos, and assorted regurgitations of what’s already been done.
Love #8 too detail guy 😉
Great post Michael but which causes a lot of stress for SMBs who can’t afford such a combination in my opinion (even if yes, I wear multiple hats too). Hence my response on our blog here: https://sco.lt/8RpqWP – Curious to hear your thoughts!
Thanks Chuck, I actually have a post scheduled (still need to write and research) on The Big Idea. I think it aligns with your thinking. The gist of it is that I am not opposed to the big idea. But far too many brands would make huge strides if they just started publishing helpful (vs. promotional) content. I am not saying we don’t need that big idea, just that we should start by shifting away from promotion and worrying all about us. And start helping our customers.
Thanks Guillaume, I just read it and appreciate the thoughful response. I totally agree with you.
For smaller companies, I am a big fan of growth hacker marketing and have written about content marketing growth hacks here.
I also answer the small business question here.
The short answer is that you are absolutely right. I was a marketing head of 1 with no budget at two startups before joining SAP and all I did was content. I wore all these hats. No ads, no events, just inbound content marketing.
And at SAP, I started as a content marketing department of 1, then we started growing. This article is definitely for the larger business and for the content marketing leaders looking to mature their teams. This article is for the companies putting logos on stadiums and creating ads no one wants and content no one uses. Those are the target of this article. Because they can’t afford to continue spending on marketing techniques that not only no longer work, but also that push their audience away.
Makes total sense, Michael. Thanks for the reply and the great additional resources!