Here’s something you don’t hear often in business today: We’re hiring. And we don’t just have one position open, we have four. Here, we've got a few tips that specifically address the Content Marketing Manager position, a role that’s ideal for content writers with a journalism background and a flare for taking complex topics and turning them into educational or informational prose.
To be frank, I’m not involved in the hiring process. So what qualifies me to talk about the position? While I’m technically an Associate Consultant here at Kuno, I’ve taken on quite a few research and writing responsibilities until we hire that perfect candidate for whom we've been holding out.
To be a successful inbound marketing content writer and to even be considered for an interview and trial run here, you need:
- Passion: As John McTigue pointed out in a blog post in May, to be considered for any position with Kuno Creative, you need to show us you care about the opportunity to work with us. Perhaps when you accepted your journalism degree, you envisioned yourself as a serious investigative multimedia reporter. That’s admirable, but that’s not what we do here. As John says, “You can’t fake passion. You either have it or you don’t.” So if you’re not passionate about being a part of arguably the most important emerging marketing strategy, this job isn’t for you.
- The Patience to Listen and Learn: Whether you’re a soon-to-be college graduate working in student media or a professional who has spent a few years in the business already, you need to have the patience to listen and learn. New hires are expected to have questions, and they’re expected to make mistakes as they’re adapting to how we do things. But it’s unspeakably frustrating for any of Kuno’s team to repeatedly explain how to input client blogs into HubSpot or where to save download copy on the server.
- A Strong Grasp of Grammar and AP Style: If you’re touting journalism experience, we expect you to have a strong grasp of grammar and AP Style. We’ll always run copy by a few editors before sending it to the client, but those versions should be nearly flawless. (That also means we expect you to read through your work a few times and run a spell check before sliding it on to a co-worker’s desk.) Basic grammar and style mistakes may not take long to correct, but that’s time better spent serving clients.
- A Love of Reading: Reading is one of the best and easiest ways to build your vocabulary and writing skills. I believe it doesn’t much matter what you read (I’m a huge fan of Philippa Gregory novels, and I most recently re-read “The Host” by Stephanie Meyer, which a few co-workers gave me grief about) as long as some of that content is current and industry-related.
- An Understanding of SEO: Search engine optimization (like social media) is still a bit of a gray area of inbound marketing, but we still expect you to understand SEO fundamentals and be able to optimize your content for search engines. The good news is, if you’ve spent a few years in digital journalism, you’ve likely got the basics down.
- Interview Skills: If you’re searching for a job, you’ve probably read your fair share of job interview tips. Here, I’m talking about the interview skills you need to conduct a successful interview. We require our content managers to interview industry experts and/or client sources to help with writing blog posts, downloads, testimonials and more, so you have to be a polished interviewer who can gather all needed information the first time around. That means asking follow-up questions and for more detail and asking sources for more explanation if an answer is unclear.
- Quick Turnaround: Inbound marketing is fast moving, and our content writers need to keep up with client demand. One blog post shouldn’t take you all morning to complete, and a client download can’t take all week, either. Our ideal hire writes well quickly, but is adaptable enough to move on to another project if creative block is too debilitating, revisiting the original assignment as soon as possible.
These are just a few characteristics of promising inbound marketing content writers (and potential hires). If you possess these characteristics and more, we’d love for you to apply for our available content marketing manager position.
What characteristics of promising inbound marketing content writers would you add to this list? Sound off in the comment section!
Photo credit: m kasahara
Lisa Gulasy is a young public relations professional highly interested in social media brand management, copywriting and grammar. Lisa works as an Associate Consultant at Kuno Creative where she creates content and assists senior consultants. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
