What is a content creator exactly?

This sounds like a trivial question. But it isn’t. 

With CMI revealing that a whopping 91% of B2B brands use content marketing to fuel their content marketing strategy, the need for superb content couldn’t be greater. The quality of content you use in the digital world or offline can make or break a business.

Many business owners don’t understand the basics of successful content creation. So, they write lousy content or hire crap content creators because they don’t know what’s involved or required. 

The result?

Their content doesn’t convert. It’s nothing but mere words with no marketing powers or the ability to move prospects to the next stage of the customer journey. Worse, they don’t have a solid content strategy as a powerful driving force. 

Having a good content creator in your corner will give your content marketing the oomph to reach the next level. 

In this post, I’ll define a content creator, describe content creation duties, and give you tips on how to become a superb one. Whether you want to understand the content creation process or become a content creative, this guide will be super helpful.

Let’s dig in.

What Is A Digital Content Creator? 

A content creator is someone who makes a piece of content (text, audio, or video) that engages, educates, and delights the target audience while advancing business goals.

This content is published in print or digital media.

To succeed online, you must create content that delights your target audience.

5 Types Of Content Creators

Here are 5 types of content creators:

1. Video Content Creator

Video content is all the rage right now and it’s not slowing down any time soon.

Studies show 85% of U.S. internet users watch online video content. Social video-based platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram gobble up millions of videos made by video content creators every day. Video is an integral part of modern digital publishing and it needs a skilled content creator to nail it.

Types of videos that work at every stage of the funnel include:

• Testimonial Videos.
• Explainer Videos.
• Product Demonstration Videos.
• Case Study Videos.
• Brand Story Videos.

2. Social Media Content Creator

People spend up to 2 hours 40 minutes on social media platforms on any given day. Social media content engages, delights, and educates them. Who comes up with all that content? Well, you guessed it-social media content creators. All social media posts you see on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube channel, or Snapchat were made by pro content creators.

Creating social media posts is a lucrative gig. Social media content creators help brands with managing social accounts and monitoring social media metrics to produce content that resonates with the target audience.

3. Infographics Content Creative

Not everyone fancies written content. Did you know that 65% of people are visual learners? Yep, the majority of people learn through their eyes. It’s no surprise then that infographic content is popular. Expert content creators masterfully fuse images, charts, data, and a bit of text to come up with infographics. Infographics drive a lot of organic traffic and shares.

4. Digital (Web) Content Creator

Finally, there’s the digital text content creator. A blog post is the most common type of content online users consume. Business blogs drive companies’ social media strategy. Statistics reveal 5+ million blog posts are published per day. Somebody has to write all those posts, right? Companies hire in-house staff or freelance bloggers to produce digital content for them.

5. Graphic Design Content Creator

Business owners and marketers need lots of marketing and promotion materials for blog posts, email campaigns, and social media updates. A graphic design content creator creates all this content. And with visual content growing in leaps and bounds, the need for talented designers will continue to grow.

That’s a quick run-through of the types of professional content creators. 

Quality content lies at the heart of all marketing strategies. That’s why businesses hire content creators to help fuel their campaigns. That’s why businesses hire content creators to help fuel their campaigns with engaging content.

How Much Do Content Creators Make?

According to a Glassdoor survey, content creators in the United States earn shy of $50k per year or $4k+ per month.

Salaries go up to $73k per year.

In high-paying niches like finance, cryptocurrency, technology, marketing, SaaS, and health freelance content creators earn way more than that. This is because they have an in-demand skill set and produce valuable content that meets preset key performance indicators.

These pro content writers earn north of $100k per year.

Because of these splendid earnings, content creator jobs have exploded on freelancer platforms like Upwork, Guru, PeoplePerHour, and more.

3 Benefits Of Content In Digital Marketing Or Why Become A Content Creator?

High-quality content is the currency of online marketing.

Without remarkable content, everything grinds to a halt. Here are four benefits that await businesses that produce remarkable content consistently.

1. Brand Affinity

To do business with your target customers, you must first establish an emotional connection with them. That’s what brand affinity is all about. Magnificent content sparks and strengthens your relationship with customers so they become loyal to your brand.

Dollar Shave is an excellent example of a brand that knows how to delight and connect with its audience through humor.


Source: YouTube

2. Authority Building

When you impress your audience with stellar content, they trust you more.

They see you as an expert and hang on to every word you say. Naturally, when it’s time for them to do business in line with the products/services you sell, they’ll think of you first. So powerful is being an authority in swaying buyer decisions that influencer marketing year over year growth will reach $9,7 billion by the end of 2020.

3. SEO Benefits

Content has many SEO benefits.

First, it makes your brand visible in search engines. This boosts brand awareness because more people will discover you and what you do. Also, when search engine algorithms deem your content as engaging, relevant, and authoritative, your Domain Authority (DA) will improve. With a higher DA, you can rank for competitive keywords and drive warm qualified traffic to your site.

That said, let’s now drill down into a digital writer’s job description.

What Do Successful Content Creators Do? 9 Tasks Pro Web Writers Do Everyday 

A writer just writes, right?

Wrong.

Yes, writers spend hours pounding the keyboard (here’s a handy list of top keyboards for writers). But they do more than that—way more.

Here are the top nine tasks successful content creators do.

1. Keyword Research

Superior, SEO-optimized content that ranks well in SERPs needs a firm foundation.

That bedrock is keyword research.

Before writing a single word, a writer must choose the right keyword to target otherwise, the post won’t produce results.

Writers use their favorite SEO tool to sift through thousands of keywords to uncover the most appropriate one. One that has low competition but with decent traffic potential. Enough to make writing the post a worthwhile business investment.

2. Competitor Research

Today’s content landscape is fiercely competitive. For a piece of content to win and gain visibility online, it takes a herculean effort. Creating content involves reading all competing posts ranking on the first page. 

The goal? 

To determine the strengths and weaknesses of the rival posts.

From studying these posts, writers with a trained eye can pick the user intent and spot gaps to fill.

They’ll know what to include or exclude in their piece for it to be competitive. 

3. Research On The Topic

Besides researching competitors, top-notch writers also dig up other materials on the topic.

Gone are the days when ranking for content only took whipping up a 500-word keyword-stuffed mirage content. Today you must go deeper, further, and be better than anyone else out there.

That means deep research.

The research material includes:

• Reports
• Podcasts
• Webinars
• Videos

Scouring all these sources gives the content creation process a rich backdrop to draw from. Non-researched copy is thin and rehashed. 

4. Search For Images

Great content has visual appeal.

It’s a content creator’s job to hunt for relevant images to support his points. These images are often the difference between a mediocre piece and an exceptional one. These images include:

• Screenshots
• Graphs and charts
• GIFs
• Stock images
• Infographics
• Quote cards
• Featured image

Depending on how a content team is set up, a different staff member not the writer may do image sourcing duties.

5. Supportive Data

The internet has given people a platform to air their views.

Everybody has an opinion.

That’s good news—and bad. Good, because we get to hear from many emerging voices instead of depending on established ones. But there’s a problem. Because the info is unfiltered, there’s a lot of trash floating out there.

Business content is more than giving an opinion. It demands the backing of data from reputable sources. Only then will it carry weight. People will take it seriously.

6. Case Studies And Examples

Examples are to a piece of writing what windows are to a room. 

They bring light in. 

Examples help readers understand concepts faster. A successful piece of content always includes fresh examples.

Drab copy doesn’t include examples at all. Or, has dated ones. 

Top content creators dig up fresh, relevant examples to make their points come alive. 

7. SEO Optimization

On-page optimization skills are a must for savvy writers.

Writing alone isn’t enough anymore.

Your content creator must write for people—and tweak for search engines otherwise the target audience won’t see the post.

On-page optimization includes:

• Crafting a high-converting meta description.
• Writing short, descriptive URLs.
• Writing a convincing title tag.
• Linking to pertinent internal and external resources.
• Working on keyword density.
• Formatting for easy readability.
• Using H2, H3 headings appropriately.

Online digital marketing strategy demands that a freelance content creator crafts SEO-friendly content.

8. Editing And Proofreading

Ever heard the saying: all great writing is rewriting.

No truer is this mantra than when talking of writing in professional circles. The best content creators tweak a content piece for flawless structure, flow, and grammar, style, accuracy, and brand voice.

While editing software like ProWritingAid and Grammarly help, there’s no substitute for the human eye. 

Manual editing is time-consuming but unavoidable.

Besides, for a piece to be publish-ready it must go through many editing sweeps, each focusing on a particular aspect.

9. Managing Clients

So, what else does a content creator do?

For freelance content creators, client management is also a big part of their weekly schedule.

Client management tasks include:

• Invoicing and payment collection.
• Onboarding new clients.
• Liaising with clients on revisions and other matters.
• Following up on delayed payments.
• Discussing changes in the project scope.

On top of all this, copywriters liaise with other departments such as web design, social media, and the sales/marketing teams.

That’s a content creator’s job description in brief.

Having seen all these duties maybe you are asking…

Do you need a degree to be a content creator?

No, you don’t need a fancy degree from a renowned University to become a successful content creator.

Later in this post, I’ll give you tips on how to become a master content creator without attending sleep-inducing college lectures from stiff college professors.

What Is Good Content? A Simple Content Creation Template

Good content isn’t what most people think it is. 

It’s not the clever turn of phrase or a bombastic style.

Unlike writing for pleasure where it’s difficult to measure success and people’s tastes differ, pro writing is different.

It’s measurable.

Here’s a quick run-through of the qualities of exceptional digital content:

• Aligns with overall marketing strategy. 
• Has one apparent goal. 
• Gives the target audience actionable takeaways. 
• Focuses on one part of the funnel. 
• Sticks to the brand’s style, tone, and voice
• Has a CTA that moves prospects to the next stage of the customer journey. 

8 Types Of Content (And How To Use Them)

Content comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes. Let’s explore eight different types of content that impact traffic, leads, and sales.

1. Blog Posts

Blog posts are online articles that are ~ 1000 words.

They are the foundation of content marketing and help brands build trust with their audience. 

The best blogs combine education and entertainment. 

Here’s a post to help you launch your business blog: How To Start A Blog In 2022.

2. Long-form Content

Long-form content is blog posts on steroids.

They are more in-depth and give 10x the value of regular posts.

They range from 2000+ words up to 5k+ words. When writing long-form pillar content the goal is to deal definitively with a topic. This content type includes detailed how-to posts, ultimate guides, and reviews.

Brian Dean has built a thriving business on the back of long-form content.

3. Case Studies

Case studies aka customer success stories are another popular content type.

Case studies are around 1500 words long.

In a customer success story, a company features an ideal customer and how the brand’s product or service solved the customer’s problems.

They’re perfect at the middle and bottom of the funnel to show the value of a product/service and sway prospects to buy.

4. White Papers

A white paper is an authoritative 6-8 page educational report that highlights the features of a product or service and how it solves a particular problem on the market.

However, a white paper is not a blatant pitch.

It uses facts, expert knowledge, and data research to show the value of a product.

White papers are perfect for lead generation and establishing thought leadership.

5. E-books

Like white papers, e-books are long-form documents but they are longer and discuss a topic in greater depth.

They can be 20+ pages.

Ebooks are ideal for underlining thought leadership in your industry. Plus, they have a higher perceived value in the eyes of readers.

6. Infographics

An infographic or information graphic in full is a form of visual content made up mostly of images, charts, diagrams, and some text.

Seeing that they’re eye-catching, infographics are excellent for brand awareness. Research shows people share infographics 3x more than other content types. Plus, they are powerful link assets. People love to reference them because of their stunning visual appeal and handiness.

7. Templates and Checklists

Templates and checklists are short, sharp, and sweet content pieces. 

Because they’re snackable, readers love them. They download them in droves.

This makes them perfect for building your list.

Just identify a topic your audience cares about and fire away.

8. Video

Videos mix images and audio to communicate a message.

For engagement and shareability, video content is number one. Other forms of content are a distant second. Videos get shared 3x more than text-based content.

Up to 4x more people prefer to watch a video about a product than read about it.

How To A Become Highly Successful Content Creator In Your Niche

Want to be the go-to writer in your space?

Do you desire to be a leading voice and highly sought-after expert content producer in your industry?

Here are proven tips to get you there.

1. Write For Your Audience, Not Yourself

For your content to resonate, let your audience inform your writing.

To write content that scratches your audience’s itch consider:

• Demographics: these are basic surface-level facts about a person like their gender, age, race, income, education, and employment. 
• Psychographics: these are deeper matters about someone. They include values, beliefs, social class, challenges, and dreams. 

Exceptional customer avatars cover both aspects.

When you write content with these factors in mind your content will hit all the right notes. Targeted, personalized content is likely to produce results. 

2. Stay Current With Industry Content Trends

Things change fast these days. 

In such a fluid environment, it’s important to stay up to date with industry news and standards. 

How? 

Attend industry events and conferences. Also, follow and learn from niche leaders. Read top blogs in your industry. A great content creator is always learning and growing by feeding on fresh niche tactics.

3. Write, Write, Write, And Then Write

Writing is like a muscle. 

If you don’t exercise regularly you lose it. The more you write, the better you become. 

Simple. 

Enough said. 

4. Read: Broadly And Regularly

Writers read. 

Not only must you read subjects around your niche, read whatever suits your fancy. 

Reading:

• Expands and enriches your vocabulary. 
• Provides oodles of inspiration and creativity. 
• Enhances your writing style. 
• Imprints the story structure in your brain.
• Makes it easier to generate new content ideas.

5. Research Deeply

Research separates the elite content creators from amateurs. 

Not a cursory investigation, but hours of painstaking exploration. 

Superb research:

• Uncovers uncommon gems of truth. 
• Gives a deeper understanding of the topic. 
• Reveals knowledge gaps to fill.

6. Start Broadly And Then Specialize

To become a renowned content writer start broad and then narrow down. 

Become a T-shaped marketer. 

Know a bit about many things in your industry and go deep into one or two specialized areas. 

Broad knowledge helps you understand the context and the big picture of how everything fits together. 

Your specialty helps you provide greater value than a generalist. 

7. Embrace Modern Writing Tools

From keyword research to competitor analysis, from competitor analysis to editing software, today there’s a tool for every content creation activity. 

AI-driven SEO and writing tools: 

• shave off hours of manual research
• improve efficiency
• empower you to work faster. 

8. Insist On A Content Brief

Early in my writing career, I’d often clash with editors and have unending back-and-forths with them. 

Why? 

I didn’t get clear guidelines from the onset. 

Expert writers know the secret to a focused piece of writing content managers love. 

The content brief. 

They don’t take one-line instructions. They demand a thorough set of instructions that covers everything about the piece, e.g. word count, primary and secondary keywords, angle of the piece, goal, the success criteria of the piece, and more. 

9. Goal Of The Piece Plus Other KPIs

Every piece of content must have a goal. 

One overarching goal. 

Only one. 

This gives the piece focus and also challenges the writer to do everything to reach the goal. 

The goal determines your approach as a writer. For instance, a piece meant to generate engagement, and discussion can be controversial. A product review post zeros in on product features and benefits. Plus, it uses a level-headed tone and style.

So, those are the nine aspects of content creation you need to master if you want to become a content creator of note.

What Is A Content Creator? A Vital Cog In The Content Marketing Engine

Phew.

That was a lot to take in, wasn’t it?

As you can see, the writing itself doesn’t take a lot of a contemporary content designer’s time. The bulk of content production time goes to non-writing-related activities that make the copy more impactful.

Surprising, hey?

But one thing is clear.

A content creator is an integral member of a successful digital marketing team that drives traffic, leads, and sales.

About The Author

Qhubekani Nyathi

Hi, I’m QT aka, the Click Guy.

I’m a pillar content specialist.

I get a kick out of creating authoritative data-heavy long-form pillar content that drives traffic, leads, sign-ups, and sales for B2B brands that get content marketing.

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