What are the essential roles and responsibilities of a content strategist?

Spend some time truly getting to know and understand your key audience, and identify what your unique value proposition is. By doing this you will answer most of the questions you need to create a strategic content marketing plan. A good way to get started is joining key representatives of your audience on calls and meetings, attend events, join webinars they are attending or hosting, find out who their suppliers are and what they are talking to them about.

As others here have shared, it's all about understanding your audience and creating content through an audience-first lens. Whether it's a tool your analytics team has to surface data-driven insights or a good old fashioned sit down with Sales, you've got to get a handle on the audience needs and how you/your product/company address them. And don't forget - content isn't just written. Content is experiences, it's podcasts, it's webinars. Create strong anchor content and then repurpose across formats to drive maximum engagement and extend reach.

A Content Strategist's role is crucial in planning and managing content to engage a target audience. Their responsibilities include: High-Level Content Planning: Prioritizing strategy development to drive brand loyalty and profitability. Data Analysis: Using content marketing data to predict consumer needs and identify trends. Content Gap Analysis: Determining missing content and what's needed to meet audience requirements. Editorial Calendar Management: Efficiently creating and overseeing content schedules. Style Guides: Defining writing style and tone for engaging content.

A content strategist should have a firm grip on the ecosystem of channels being used by the organization and understand how they fit into the bigger picture. This includes understanding how to navigate and leverage these tools for maximum impact. They should maintain a publishing calendar for all content and strive to develop not only written materials, but media assets that support them (images, motion graphics, videos, etc.) They should also regularly look for new ways to position their ongoing campaigns as well as A/B test different versions of them and identify KPIs that they are regularly tracking against. Without metrics to strive for, you can’t practice content marketing as the core function of this role is constant refinement.

In planning I think it's helpful to integrate the principles of the "Jobs To Be Done" framework. Originating from Clayton Christensen's theory, this approach focuses on understanding the underlying motivations and needs of users. Apply this by aligning content planning with the specific "jobs" your audience seeks to fulfill. Conduct thorough research to uncover users' intent, ensuring that your content addresses their objectives. By integrating the Jobs To Be Done framework, we not only define the vision and goals but also ensure the content plan is intricately tied to the fundamental needs and motivations of the target audience. This approach adds a user-centric layer, enhancing the effectiveness of content strategy implementation.

When it comes to content creation, choose quality over quantity. High-quality content lends itself to repurposing across a variety of formats, yielding an overall higher ROI than higher volume. For presentations or events, for example, it's possible to pull shorter video and/or audio clips and share on social. You can pull a transcript and provide some or all of it to your audience. There are truly infinite ways to slice and dice great content, which is radically different from creating infinite content pieces from scratch!

A content strategist is like the craftsperson of a brand's online presence. They create content that represents the company, much like an artist painting a canvas. But there's more to it. Content strategists plan when and how to share content to engage the audience effectively, similar to a seasoned chef timing each dish to perfection. They also ensure that every piece of content aligns with the brand's values and goals, just like a skilled mechanic fine-tuning a high-performance engine. Having seen the impact firsthand, I can tell you that content strategists are the architects of a brand's success, shaping how it's perceived and experienced. Their role isn't just important; it's essential for building thriving brands.