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How to Find the Best Content Strategist for Your Business Needs in New York City
Every business, regardless of the size, industry, or target audience, should have a refined content strategy in order to stand out in a hyper competitive market, such as New York City. Content strategy is the creation and development of a brand’s messaging through various mediums, including text, video, and image. A professional content strategy consultant can help you to connect with your audiences through the refinement of your messaging on your website, your social media profiles, your newsletter, and your videos.
Below is some helpful information to consider when looking for a professional content strategist for your business in New York City:
Web Content Strategists
Web content strategy is a focus on developing your website’s content around your business, respective industry, and what your customers are looking for. Skills that are necessary for developing a content strategy include search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, graphic design, and content writing. Ensure that potential candidates possess these skills and understand your industry in order to create audience personas around your targeted customers.
Professional web content strategists are not like typical advertisers that have to deal with ad campaigns, budgets, and media placement. When meeting with potential candidates for a web content strategist role, discuss how they approach the organic nature of marketing. High quality content strategists can understand the role of organic marketing alongside paid advertising to help maximize coverage of your business.
Content strategists may have many different duties, but below are some typical responsibilities for this role:
- SEO optimization of written content
- Blog writing
- Outreach and communication with third parties
- Creating and updating website content
- Scheduling regularly posted social media content
- Writing long-form pieces, such as whitepapers
- Developing thought leadership in their industry
- Writing press releases and then working with partners to circulate
- Performing keyword research to understand the right phrases to use
- Promoting content on your website, as well as owned social media channels
While these strategies are essential for any type of digital content, it is important to understand what tactics are right for your business depending on a number of factors, including your service area, industry, and target audience. A professional content marketing consultant will help to develop your business’ personalized approach to marketing and can help to identify which strategies are best for you.
Social Media Content Strategy
Popular social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are commonly used by both brands and consumers to develop connections with audiences. A social media content strategist is someone who deals with optimization and development of organic social media content. When fleshing out your brand’s content strategy, be mindful of how your business should position itself with its social media accounts.
Social media posts should be carefully planned ahead of time and are launched to maximize user interaction and visibility. A highly effective social media campaign works closely with the overall content marketing strategy, so ensure that any social media specialists are connected to your other business stakeholders. When looking at candidates for social media content, ensure that they have the right tactics in mind, but also pay attention to their public relations and customer service skills to ensure that they are not posting anything that can negatively reflect on your business.
Everybody wants to stand out in a competitive market like NYC, so it is important to understand the social media strategies of your competitors. Ensure that any potential candidate for your role understands the importance of competitive research in social media content strategy.
Newsletter Content Strategy
Newsletters may be overlooked compared to other digital marketing tactics, but there are times when it is the most effective form of content to get through directly to your customers. Newsletter and email marketing strategies should be developed with the intention of following up with users that are already in your customer database. It is also an area that may require longer than typical written content. When looking into candidates for your content strategist position, determine if the candidates understand how approaching newsletters is different from other types of content.
Users may not always open and read your email newsletters, so ensure that a content marketing professional can help to craft email titles that can capture attention and influence open rates. A newsletter content strategist should have strong experience in creating engaging titles and knows when the user is looking to receive these emails.
Infographic and Video Strategy
Businesses that advertise in Times Square understand the importance of making your brand stand out visually to your audience. For businesses in New York City, it is important to understand how you will visually project your brand in digital content, such as infographics and videos. Visual marketing is an increasingly important element of every digital marketing strategy, especially if your target audience falls within the demographic that's most likely to consume content on YouTube, Pinterest, and other visual media platforms.
Infographics are visually appealing, but also typically have informative and educational content to make the digestion of the content a little bit more enjoyable. If you are considering having infographics as part of your content strategy, understand what type of informative content your audience needs and develop an infographic template that can make that information easier to understand.
Video media, such as YouTube videos, are easily shareable and create high user engagement. New York City is home to a wide variety of film and video professionals, so understand if you need a candidate with strong video skills for your project. Video direction and dialogue are critical components of an effective video, so ensure that your candidates can keep this in mind when developing video content for your business.
Managing Your Content Strategy Project
As a professional within your own respective field, you likely possess skills and knowledge that have set you up for success in your career. However, it is important to understand what your strengths and weaknesses are when approaching a content strategy project in order to determine when you need a content strategy professional to come in and develop your project.
While you may personally have a strong content strategy background, you can set your business up for success by investing in a professional whose entire job is focused on developing your brand’s content strategy. These are the experts when it comes to developing, launching, and updating all of your business’ digital content, including blog posts on your website, your email marketing campaigns, and your social media posts.
When looking at candidates for your content strategist role, look into their project management and team communication skills to see if they have what it takes to set your content project up for success. Determine if your business is looking for a full-time professional or can utilize a freelance content strategist. After determining the structure of the role, outline what their responsibilities will be for this content project.
Content Strategy Marketing Skills to Look for in a Candidate
You may have heard of different tactics, such as search engine optimization (SEO) and blog writing, that a content marketing professional will use when developing a piece of content. However, it is important to understand if the freelance content strategist you're considering has the skills needed to help see your project through its completion. Outside of these tactics, it is important to understand what the potential candidates’ strengths and weaknesses are and if they possess the right skills to ensure your content project is seen through to completion.
Here are the five must-have skills to look for in a professional content strategist for your company’s content strategy project:
1. Effective and Easy-to-Read Writing
A great content strategist knows how to create a story that resonates with readers and can help them to convert with your business. When looking at candidates, aim to find a candidate with at least 2-3 years of full-time experience working as a copywriter, blog writer, search engine optimization (SEO) professional, or content editor.
Content marketing professionals typically have an educational background in journalism, communications, digital marketing, or business management. It is important to ask if your candidate previously studied within these fields, but there are plenty of great potential freelancers that have more experience executing in this field than studying. Determine if you’re more in need of experience or education for your project and its needs.
When looking at candidates’ writing skills, look at their writing style and determine if it fits your brand voice and what your customers want, and if it reads at the appropriate reading level for your ideal audience.
2. Organization and Time Management Skills
A comprehensive content strategy requires a large number of rotating parts and likely has various stakeholders that need to have a say on the piece of content. For a content marketing professional, they may need to write web copy, perform keyword research, receive feedback from stakeholders, and manage project timelines. Organization and time management skills are vital to this role as the right professional can keep the project running smoothly so that it is delivered at the right time.
When interviewing candidates for your content strategist role, look for candidates who have the strong organizational skills needed to be successful. There are various project management tools, such as Wrike, Asana, JIRA, and Basecamp. Ask potential candidates if they have experience using any of these tools and determine if they have direct experience with your tool of choice. It is also worth asking candidates about example situations and how they can prioritize tasks depending on what is going on with the project at that time. Look for strategists who can handle various responsibilities with ease and are capable of adapting to meet time-sensitive deadlines to make sure your project is seen through to completion.
3. Team Communication Skills
Don’t just assume that someone with a communications background knows how to communicate. Get a sense of a candidate’s communication skills during the interview process and aim to find someone that you think can clearly communicate the status and needs of your project.
Email is perhaps one of the most common forms of communication within a work environment. Determine if it is clear that they understand the contents of your email and are promptly and professionally responding to your requests with the necessary information. Was the email just a template that they sent to everybody or did you get a sense that they thoroughly read and understood your email? Did the email read correctly, and is it free of grammatical and spelling errors? These are questions to ask yourself when evaluating your candidates’ email and text communication skills.
Communication isn’t just limited to written communication; in today’s workforce, interpersonal and verbal communication are more important than ever. The ideal candidate should be comfortable speaking via phone call or video conferencing. Determine if they have the skills to clearly present their recommendations and can verbally communicate the value and goal of your content project to those that are interested.
4. Brand and Industry Knowledge
It is not expected that every available content marketing professional that you interview will have full insights into your brand and specific industry. However, it is important to determine if they can understand the fundamental items of your business and can clearly articulate your positioning within your respective industry. When interviewing candidates, ask questions that illustrate what they currently know and understand about your business. The right content marketing professional will have done their homework and researched your brand prior to interviewing.
Additionally, it is important to discuss their understanding of your business’ respective industry and how customers in your industry are looking for content. While content marketers aren’t always expected to be experts in every field, they should be able to clearly write about your industry in order to develop your trustworthiness and credibility with potential customers. If a candidate does not know the ins-and-outs of your industry, see if they are willing to learn more.
5. Collaboration Skills
While a content strategy professional is in charge of a content strategy project, it is highly likely that they are not the only team member that has a say on what the piece of content is. Content strategy requires ongoing consultation with business experts and collaboration with all the stakeholders to see the project through completion. Content marketing consultants often work with roles such as graphic designers, video editors, business intelligence experts, salespeople, and business executives in order to be successful.
When interviewing candidates, ask them to provide you with examples of previous projects that required a significant amount of teamwork and collaboration across an organization. Do they see collaboration as a good thing that allows all stakeholders to have a voice or do they feel that the overall message of a piece of content is watered down when a lot of people have a say in it? This is an extremely important area to delve into as their ability to collaborate with others will be a litmus test for determining if they can see your project through until the end.
Recommended Steps for Hiring a Content Strategist for Your Business
1. Understand What they Know About Your Business and Industry
When trying to determine what candidate is right for your content strategist role, it is important to use the interview period to determine their knowledge of your business and industry. While every candidate is not expected to know the ins-and-outs of your brand, it is extremely important for them to know what differentiates your business from your competition and what your typical customer may need when looking into your industry. Candidates that have a grasp on what your business’ value is and what customers in your industry are looking for may be your best bets for this role.
2. Ask for Samples and Previous References
Creative professionals, such as content strategists, typically have a portfolio of samples of their previous work. When looking for the right candidate for your business, ask to see if they can provide you with samples of previous content that they have worked on. Examining this previous content can help to determine if you think their approach to content is right for your business. Ask them, as part of the interview process, to provide references that can speak to their previous work and be sure to follow-up by contacting those respective references. Work with the candidate to understand how they have worked on previous projects and give them the background on what your business is offering for this role.