In a world with so many channels and formats, are businesses demanding too many skills per hire to find the best seasoned specialists?
Too often, content is seen as a bucket to fill rather than a chance to celebrate what you know and love. I keep hearing small business owners expressing exhaustion with the amount of content they believe they must produce. I get it. It’s the norm to feel like you are under the shadow of a cresting tsunami, in what is a massive online marketplace of unrelenting competitors and a gazillion channels.
Since businesses became measured, ranked, assessed, loved or hated on the quality of their content, it has become a metric as scrutinised as sales performance, indeed often lumped into the same bracket. An avalanche of content is funnelled through different formats and in different guises, such as website pages, blogs, press releases, a glut of social media channels and then there’s the whitepapers, eBooks, brochures, video content, adverts, eMarketing and it goes on – like a literal one-man band banging symbols and blowing horns to declare he has arrived in the street.
And of course, that’s why content creators are in demand as an asset. A stat by Review42 says 73% of businesses have a designated employee to monitor content creation and that more than 80% of marketers plan to spend more on content marketing and let’s face it – there is always a new opportunity to invest in marketing.
Little wonder, that the average content creator of today is not expected to just write, it’s necessary to be savvy on delivery in new ways and often be accountable for sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You are required to be highly adaptable to meet the changing briefs for new platforms and software in modern marketing, as standard. Simply put, recruiters and SMEs want more for their buck – why have one content skill, when you can ask for ten?
What’s your main course of media?
We are near obsessed with multi-channel delivery in today’s marketplace. However, when you dive into the analysis, you often see some channels are next to useless whilst one will pull in traffic, comments and interest. Not everyone in marketing would agree, but quality I believe will often trump quantity, whilst also meaning less waste of investment, more consistency and sniper-like, good targeting – especially for small businesses with specialist offers. It’s important to play to strengths, to be targeting well. If you’re selling office supplies, do you really need to be on TikTok?
I would argue from my marketing agency days that it’s important to pick and choose your effective media like a fussy eater, rather than go 100% all in for every supposedly ‘essential’ channel. With a very diverse new set of channels it can often go sideways too, with too much untracked control in one set of hands – it’s the brand’s rep in tatters with one mistake, remember. It was interesting to see in Meta’s new messaging platform Threads, that on launch many marketers had a laugh at their brand’s expense, saying their bosses would not even know they were on there or what they were saying. Choosing the most relevant channel and spending time getting content right on it, will also prevent creative burnout, which can in today’s maelstrom of media become inevitable for some resource-starved and over-zealous SMEs.
The desire for content unicorns
I’ll admit, as a home-based editorial freelancer working on often ad-hoc commissions, I’ve recently had a drifting eye for the jobs columns with that fear that the cash-train may get derailed with a simple late payment or two. Whilst casting an eye, it has been intriguing, to look over the available roles in my field after so long working with my portfolio of clients.
Sure enough, I found the job specs for many content creators these days require a Jack of all trades including video producer, SEO expert, copywriter, pay-per-click expert and social media guru – basically, a rare species of content unicorn.
The list of bolt-on skills keeps on growing because technology doesn’t slow down for anyone. Whilst most freelancers do have that multi-hat approach through necessity, there is that danger for businesses looking for a true Jack of all trades, that they hire a master of none.
I talked to a company solely doing social media and they had teams working flat out to get it nuanced and right. Same with PR people, it’s a well-honed art, it should not always be a bolt-on extra.
One thing I will say is, if you want messages that get heard, ex-journalists are solid hires because they know how to put stories together succinctly and engage with target readers. They are also good at crunching down a message into one line. One thing is for certain, no matter how many platforms you manage, get the message wrong and it will all be a waste of effort.
Cutting through the clutter of how you deliver should start with knowing exactly what you want to say and who you want to say it to. When you have those two things sorted, it should be a lot clearer how the message should be delivered. My advice, be strategic, and focus your resources to engage properly. Find an expert in a field who can prove their specialist skill and deliver effortlessly, every time.
If you want support in finding the best message and most effective approach for your business, please do drop me a line.
Writer for Hire 